Study inZepheniah

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Impending Judgment

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Of all the Minor Prophets, Zephaniah has suffered most from "bad press" from modern scholarship. He has been dismissed as dull or second rate. One writer comments:

"Zephaniah can hardly be considered great as a poet. He does not rank with Isaiah, nor even with Hosea in this particular. He has no great imaginative powers; no deep insight into the human heart is reflected in his utterances; nor any keen sensitiveness to the beauties of nature. His harp is not attuned to the finer harmonies of life like that of Jeremiah."

Introduction

BORINGJudean prophet fails to impress with his literary style.Zephaniah can hardly be considered great as a poet. He does not rank with Isaiah, nor even with Hosea in this particular. He has no great imaginative powers; no deep insight into the human heart is reflected in his utterances; nor any keen sensitiveness to the beauties of nature. His harp is not attuned to the finer harmonies of life like that of Jeremiah7

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True, Zephaniah depends on and alludes to a number of the earlier writings. The call for silence before the sovereign Lord in 1v7 resonates with Habakkuk 2v20. That the Lord had prepared a sacrifice to be made up of his own people, mirrors Isaiah 13v3 and 34v6. While the coming day of the Lord 1v14-18 echo the language of Joel and Amos. The opening verses are suggestive of the account of the Flood.

However, all this does not indicate that Zephaniah was an inferior prophet. Rather, it is a deliberate device used to recap and summarise pre-exile prophecy.

Introduction

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The key to understanding Zephaniah is to see his writing as a summary of the pre-exilic prophets who have preceded him. You may know that the Minor Prophets fall into two divisions:

1. The first nine, ending with Zephaniah, prophesied before the exile to Babylon.

2. The last three, prophesied after the return of the Jews to Judah. Habakkuk, the latest of the first group, actually wrote later than Zephaniah.

The fact that Zephaniah is put last in the first group may indicate that he is to be understood to be summarising them.

Introduction

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Of Zephaniah himself we know virtually nothing, except what he tells us in v1. He was the son of Cushi who was the son of Gedaliah who was the son of Amariah who was the son of Hezekiah. This is a rare instance of an introductory genealogy being pushed back four generations. Some think this is Zephaniah's way of identifying himself as a member of the royal family. Hezekiah had been king in Judah, But Hezekiah was a common name, and it seems likely that if King Hezekiah was in the prophet’s mind, then he would have made that clear. He prophesied "during the reign of Josiah," who assumed the throne in 639 B.C. at the age of eight and who died in battle against Pharaoh Neco of Egypt after a 30 year reign.

Background

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The great revival which took place during Josiah's reign. It began when the king was eighteen, which was the year 629 B.C. Idolatrous practices were overthrown. Since nothing in Zephaniah indicates an awareness of this revival, it is reasonable to assume that this book, may have been a factor its development. It would be good if it could have that effect today also. The Day of the Lord is coming, and the message, "Seek the LORD, . . . seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD'S anger," is one we also need to take to heart.

Background

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The significant thing about this opening announcement of God's wrath is that its extreme and exaggerated language seems to go beyond any mere reference to the coming Babylonian invasion. E.g. "I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth" v2.

And again, "I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth" v3.

Cf. God's warnings to Noah of the coming world flood Gen. 6v7; 7v4, 17-23.

Warning Of Judgment

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Does this mean that Zephaniah is not thinking of the Babylonian invasion? No but the extreme language of these opening verses surely indicates that the impending Babylonian judgement was but a precursor of God’s final judgment.

This is where Zephaniah speaks into our day and generation. God remains the righteous Judge of the universe. He will no more tolerate sin in us today than in his people in O.T. times. Certainly those who do not become new creatures through faith in Jesus Christ, we will be swept away with all the ungodly at the final judgment.

Warning Of Judgment

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The second part of this prophecy explains why the wrath of God is coming against the nations. It is perhaps the most important part of what the prophet has to say - for people readily protest their innocence believing that any judgment of God, however mild, is unjust. Al Capone, one of the most vicious gangsters in the U.S.A. once said, "I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man." The situation was no different in Zephaniah's time. People were quick to proclaim their innocence whenever any mention was made of God's judgment.

Behind The Judgment

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Zephaniah addresses four classes of people: priests, princes, merchants, and the masses who are involved in different aspects of the nations life.

Behind The Judgment

1. Religion. Zephaniah denounces the religious practices of the day by referring to "idolatrous priests" v4. It is soon evident that he has both priests and people in mind:“I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests- those who bow down on the housetops to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech, those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him” v4-6.

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Religious corruption was rife. The idolatrous priests were actually worshiping false gods and were in fact "pagan" priests. Many mixed the worship of Jehovah with worship of Molech and other false gods, others had nothing to do with Jehovah.

The following words are taken from a folk song , "There was an old woman in Wexford, in Wexford town did dwell; she loved her husband dearly, but another man twice as well."

Many today profess to love Jesus but they love others or other things more. They love their sexual sins more than they love Jesus. They love their money more than they love Jesus etc. God views this as spiritual adultery!

Behind The Judgment

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2. Social customs. God’s wrath is vented against Judah's social customs v4-13. What is the significance of the reference to being "clad in foreign clothes"? Were they vestments worn by the idolaters at worship? The key word here seems to be "foreign."

Was the problem then the imitation of other nations’ dress? Were the Jews unwilling to be recognised by their manner of dress as the people of God… Could it be that as the people of Judah had adopted the idols of the surrounding nations, largely in the hope of gaining political or business advantages, so they also adopted their dress and fashion?

Behind The Judgment

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3. Commerce. The third reason for God's coming judgment concerns the merchants, and this probably refers to the injustices and corruptions in the business world [ cf. Amos 5v11, 8v3-6; Micah 2v1, 2, 8, 9; 6v10-12]. The rich stripped the poor of possessions, and were helped by a corrupt political system and corrupt courts.

Behind The JudgmentThe second phrase, "avoid stepping on [or leaping over] the threshold," is also problematic. Had they adopted foreign superstitions? Could it be similar to Westerners “touching wood” or Middle Easterners wearing the hand of Fatima to avoid ‘bad luck’. At best their practice was an indication of immaturity, at worst spiritually treasonous.

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4. The indifferent population. When hearing a list of rebukes like this it is easy to say, “I don’t do those things, I just keep my head down and do my own thing.” Zephaniah says, such people are not without guilt; for they have buried their head in the sand.

Zephaniah's reference to the complacent echoes Amos’ concern in Amos 6v1. According to Amos, some were presumptuous and argued that they are God's people, that Jerusalem is God's city, and that God would preserve them at all costs. Some were procrastinators who recognised evil, but put off doing anything about it. Some are self-indulgent; they may not be personally responsible for the corruption, but they profit from it all the same and do not want anything to disturb their creature comforts.

Behind The Judgment

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Zephaniah also refers to spiritual complacency which discounts God, saying, "The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad" v12. This, the worst complacency of all, is widespread in Western society. The modernist says, “Live for today, there is no day of reckoning!”After World War II the English historian Herbert Butterfield wrote of the judgments of God in his day, concluding that there is a moral order in the universe and that there is a day of reckoning.

He said, "There is a judgment embedded in the fabric of history." The Bible says that too, though it goes on to argue from historical to individual judgments. People who scoff at such things do so because they are wilfully ignorant of them.

Behind The Judgment

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Having shown that the wrath of God is justified, Zephaniah next prophesies of the day of the outpouring of that wrath v14ff. Here, in just two verses, Zephaniah crowds together a host of powerful words designed to impress upon his readers the sheer horror of that judgment. It will be a day of overflowing, crushing “wrath” v18. It will be a day of "distress and anguish," of "trouble and ruin.“

It is an interesting feature of this description that Zephaniah mingles words that seem to refer to an immediate historical catastrophe.

The Outpouring Of Wrath

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He mixes the "shouting of the warrior . . . a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers" with words that seem to refer to a final world judgment "the whole world will be consumed … a sudden end of all who live in the earth". Think back to the opening verses where "the wicked" will remain to enjoy their "heaps of rubble." Yet the Lord is going to "cut off man from the face of the earth" v3.And so there was to be an immediate outpouring of wrath in the coming Babylonian invasion and later a final judgment of all men and women of which the earlier judgment was to be merely a type and warning. As Judah was judged, so will we be judged.

The Outpouring Of Wrath

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Zephaniah now appeals to the humble to seek God. A century earlier, when Amos preached repentance he said, "Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire" Amos 5v6. If the people would seek God, then the fire of judgment would not come and they would live. One hundred years later, the promise is not so unqualified. The people are to "seek the Lord, …righteousness, …humility." But the promise is only, "Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger" Zeph. 2v3.

In the case of God's destruction of Judah through the instrumentality of the Babylonians there was no guarantee that even the righteous would be kept from the calamity.

Seek God And Live

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How much greater is the promise to those of us who seek God's face today! The salvation extended to men and women in the gospel contains an ironclad guarantee, bearing God’s seal.

We may have difficulties in life, but we are assured of God's favour in the day of wrath - if we have truly sought him and do what he commands. Have you sought God and his righteousness. Are you among the humble of the land?

Seek God And Live

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What does it mean to seek God? It means to seek him where alone he can be found, namely, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified for your sin, buried, and raised again from the dead. You ask, "What does it mean to do what God commands?" When the people of Jesus’ day asked, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" He replied, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent" Jn. 6v28-29.

The person who does that has not merely sought the Lord. He has found him, and he is already on the way to living that life of practical obedience, righteousness, and humility, which is pleasing both to others and God.

Seek God And Live

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