Zephaniah 1:4-18

JUDGEMENT OF JUDAH. Zephaniah 1:4 to Zephaniah 2:3)

RV. And I will stretch our my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarim with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship, that sweat to Jehovah and swear by Malcam; and them that are turned back from following Jehovah; and those that have not sought Jehovah, nor inquired after him. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord Jehovah; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; for Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath consecrated his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the King's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. And in that day I will punish all those that leap over the threshold, that fill their master's house with violence and deceit. And in that day, saith Jehovah, there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills, Wail, ye inhabitants of Maktesh; for all the people of Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut off. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps; and I will punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good, neither will he do evil. And their wealth shall become a spoil and their houses a desolation: yea, they shall build houses, but they shall not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink the wine thereof. The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of Jehovah; the mighty man crieth there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealously; for he will make an end, yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation that hath no shame; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of Jehovah's anger come upon you. Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek ye righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah's anger.
LXX. And I will stretch out mine hand upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will remove the names of Baal out of this place, and the names of the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and swear by the Lord, and them that swear by their king; and them that turn aside from the Lord, and them that seek not the Lord, and them that cleave not to the Lord. Fear ye before the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is near; for the Lord has prepared his sacrifice, and has sanctified his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will take vengeance on the princes, and on the king's house, and upon all that wear strange apparel. And I will openly take vengeance on the porches in that day, on the men that fill the house of the Lord their God with ungodliness and deceit. And there shall be in that day, saith the Lord, the sound of a cry from the gate of men slaying, and a howling from the second gate, and a great crashing from the hills. Lament, ye that inhabit the city that has been broken down, for all the people has become like Chanaan; and all that were exalted by silver have been utterly destroyed. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will search Jerusalem with a candle, and will take vengeance on the men that despise the things committed to them; but they say in their hearts, The Lord will not do any good, neither will he do any evil. And their power shall be for a spoil, and their houses for utter desolation; and they shall build houses, but shall not dwell in them; and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink the wine of them. For the great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and very speedy; the sound of the day of the Lord is made bitter and harsh. A mighty day of wrath is that day, a day of affliction and distress, a day of desolation and destruction, a day of gloominess and darkness, a day of cloud and vapour, a day of the trumpet and cry against the strong cities, and against the high towers. And I will greatly afflict the men, and they shall walk as blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; therefore he shall pour out their blood as dust, and their flesh as dung And their silver and their gold shall in nowise be able to rescue them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealously; for he will bring a speedy destruction on all them that inhabit the land Be ye gathered and closely joined together, O unchastened nation; before ye become as the flower that passes away, before the anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the wrath of the Lord come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth; do judgement, and seek justice, and answer accordingly; that ye may be hid in the day of the wrath of the Lord.

MY HAND UPON JUDAH. Zephaniah 1:4

Unlike some others (Amos) whose pronouncements of judgement begin: with Judah's neighbors and then focus on her, Zephaniah begins at home. All the world is wicked. The sin of God's people is worst of all, precisely because they are God's people. As Peter has it, Judgment must begin at the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17)

The prophet immediately turns to listing those specifics which have brought God's judgement against Judah. At the top of the list is Baal worship. (See introductory chapter on Baal worship.)
The last vestige, or remnant, of Baal worship is going to be obliterated from this place i.e. Jerusalem.

If this prophecy is indeed related to Josiah's reform, the obliteration of Baalism proceeded a pace before the Babylonian scourge actually executed judgement against Judah. However, thorough though the reform was, it did not remove all the remnants of Baal worship. This was accomplished only by the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

CHEMARIM WITH THE PRIESTS.

Chemarim in Aramaic means priests. Its literal meaning is black. It applied to the priests because of their black robes.
Probably both the priests of Baal and the apostate priests of Jehovah are meant here. Just as Zephaniah begins his pronouncement of universal judgement by focusing on Judah, within Judah the focus is on Jerusalem, within Jerusalem this place or the temple, within the temple the priesthood. The prophet obviously believes in coming directly to the source of Baalism among God's people.

THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN ON THE HOUSETOPS. Zephaniah 1:5

In addition to Baal, the perennial blight on Judah's faith, the Assyrian worship of the planets, has also infected the people of God. This despicable practice, enjoying an American revival in modern preoccupation with horoscopes, was imported from Nineveh in the days of the wicked Manasseh. (cf. 2 Kings 21:3) It continued to the last in Judah. (cf. Jeremiah 32:29)

The housetops mentioned here are the flat roofs of Palestinian homes which were the ideal vantage point from which to worship the hosts of heaven.

SWEAR TO JEHOVAH. SWEAR. BY MALCOM.

Malcom (Milcom) here means literally their king. It is entomologically related to Moloch, the Phoenician name for Baal. As sun god, Baal was king of all the heavenly hosts!
Those who swear to Jehovah and swear by Malcom are practicing a religious syncretism similar to that advocated in our day. In Zephaniah's day religious syncretism was a mixture of Jehovah worship and Baal worship. Both Baal and Jehovah mean Lord. The worshippers, by appealing (swearing) to the authority of both, were attempting to serve two masters.
This same approach is advocated today as Christianity searches for some peaceful co-existence with Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc. W. A, Visser-Hooft, in his book No Other Name, 1963, makes an heroic effort to call attention to this influence. His efforts seem to have been in vain, possibly because of his stance as a former general secretary of the World Council of Churches, which is itself a form of religious syncretism.

Colin W. Williams, dean of Yale Divinity School, is quoted as saying, ... I hold open that what is true for the Buddhist in his situation may be as valid for him as mine is for me.
Max Therian, speaking before the World Council in New Delhi, echoed this same approach to Islam on the ground that truth and charity were taught by both Mohammed and Jesus and that both are recognized as Master and Prophet.
In both Zephaniah's day and ours the problem of syncretism is a problem of authority. In Judah there was a willing compromise of Jehovah's authority with that of Baal. In our time the premise is situationalism in which the presupposition of absolute authority is summarily dismissed. In either case, the Biblical answer is thus saith the Lord!

THEM THAT. TURN BACK. HAVE NOT SOUGHT. NOR INQUIRED. Zephaniah 1:6

Indifference to and unconcern for Jehovah are described here. Then as now, there were those who, surrounded by evil heinous enough to merit the judgement of God, were simply satisfied to live out their lives without considering God at all.

To inquire of God is to attend formal worship, particularly the hours of prayer. (cf. Psalms 10:4)

In pronouncing punishment against such indifference (Zephaniah 1:12) the prophet describes it as men that are settled on their lees that say in their heart Jehovah will not do good, neither will He do evil. This amounts to spiritual stagnation just as fermented wine was left for a time on the lees to allow solid matter suspended in it to settle, so the unfeeling indifference of some in Judah has left them with a congealing of the soul. Perhaps God's judgement will surprise none so much as these.

HOLD THY PEACE. Zephaniah 1:7

As the indifferent have had nothing meaningful to say for, to, or about God, they are to be dumb in the presence of His judgement.

The Lord has prepared these evil backsliders as a sacrifice. (cp. Isaiah 34:6, Jeremiah 46:10, Ezekiel 39:17) The despised Chaldeans are called to be His guests. They will feast on the remains of Judah as the priests feasted on the remains of sacrifices on feast days. Nebuchadnezzar was invited to come to take vengeance on Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 25:9)

SUCH AS ARE CLOTHED IN FOREIGN APPAREL. Zephaniah 1:8

Jehovah had regulated the attire of His people in a measure. (Numbers 15:38 -f, Deuteronomy 22:11 -f, cp. Matthew 23:5) Special dress was designed to remind them they were in a special relationship to God.

Beyond the mere copying of foreign dress is the implied aping of foreign customs which inevitably accompanies it. The adopting of foreign dress and customs led to the acceptance of foreign religions. There was a gradual blending of Judah with her neighbors until there was little to distinguish the one from the other.

ALL THOSE THAT LEAP OVER THE THRESHOLD. Zephaniah 1:9

Several possible implications are suggested here. The priests of the Philistine god, Dagon, avoided stepping on the threshold of their temple because their god had fallen across it (1 Samuel 5:5). When the Judeans emulated this practice, they were yielding to idolatry.

Household deities may have entered into this leaping over the threshold. Sacrifices of food were left on the threshold for such gods so that the threshold constituted an altar: As such, it was not to be desecrated by stepping directly on it.

Perhaps Zephaniah intends rather to single out by this phrase those who in their haste to intrude on the privacy of their neighbors or to rob and ransack their houses, leaped across the threshold.
In any of these cases, the offense is worthy of punishment.

THAT FILL. WITH DECEIT.

The house of the master refers to the household in which one was employed. Those who are disloyal to their employers, who enrich themselves at their employer's expense are to suffer God's judgment.

THERE SHALL BE THE NOISE OF A CRY. Zephaniah 1:10-13

The fish gate was located in the north wall of Jerusalem. When the invading Babylonians came against Jerusalem they would come from the north. From that direction the alarm would sound throughout the city.
The second quarter was a northern suburb of Jerusalem, new in Josiah's day. It also would be in the line of Babylonian march.
The hills likely refers to the hills immediately north of Jerusalem. Scopus, northeast of the city has long been inhabited as a section of Jerusalem, but without the city walls. Invading armies captured this hill and, because of its commanding view of the city, made it their field headquarters.

YE INHABITANTS OF MAKTESH. Zephaniah 1:11

Between the eastern and western hills on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem is the valley of Maktesh. The name means hollow place. (Judges 15:19) Those who dwelt there would be directly in the path of any invader from the north.

People of Canaan here probably means merchants. Not only those who lived in the northern outskirts of the city, but those who came there to trade would be caught in the judgemental onslaught.

Zephaniah describes the sudden anguished cry of all who stood in the path of the Babylonians.

I WILL SEARCH. WITH LAMPS. Zephaniah 1:12

God's judgement will be exhaustive; none will escape. This searching is directed against those whose sin was indifference. (See above on Zephaniah 1:6) By their non-commitment they have sought to escape from responsibility for the sins against which God's wrath is directed. They have remained obscure. the silent majority will not be held unaccountable for the evil all about them. God will search them out for their own punishment.

THEIR WEALTH SHALL BECOME. SPOIL. Zephaniah 1:13

Indifference not only is no assurance of lack of moral responsibility. It actually becomes a danger in itself. Non-commitment cannot protect property from an invading army.

Because these have remained indifferent to God and to conditions about them, they will not be allowed to reap what they produced by their labor. Others will lay waste their vineyards. (Cp. Deuteronomy 28:30, Amos 5:11, Micah 6:15)

The indifferent are self-content in their suburban homes. They have escaped the immediate consequence of the evil of the city. But in. God's judgement against the city all they have secured by their indolence will be lost. Modern suburbia take heed!

THE GREAT DAY OF JEHOVAH IS NEAR. Zephaniah 1:14

Here again is the prophetic Day of the Lord, the day in which Jehovah would directly intervene in the affairs of man's history in such a way as to reveal His judgement and redemption. The Jews, smug in their racial identity, were prone to view the day as one of extreme gladness for themselves and of extreme discomfiture for the Gentiles.
Zephaniah's warning is that the day will be one of anguish for the unfaithful among God's people.
Perhaps the most important idea just here is the nearness of the day. This same urgency was evident in the first century church. Both in regard to the prophets and to the New Testament church, modern theologians have insinuated that those who felt such a nearness of the Day of Jehovah were mistaken. The passage of time, it is said, proves that mistake.
No so! In every age of history, God works in human affairs on the basis of the same principles. Hence there is evidence in every age of the impending judgements of God. One need only visit the lands of the Bible and walk among the ruins of twenty-two fallen civilizations to realize that urgency concerning God's judgement is well-founded. When the final curtain is about to fall on the history of humanity, and the last Day of the Lord is indeed imminent, the signs of the times will be the same.
We live in a time when these signs are all about us. Whether they portent the declining days of our culture and the beginning of another era, or the soon coming of the final last Day is irrelevant. In either case, we would be fools not to share with the prophets and the New Testament church the sense of urgent need for repentant preparation. We, as Zephaniah, need desperately to know the day is so near that the voice of it can already be heard.

THAT DAY IS A DAY OF WRATH. Zephaniah 1:15-18

In his powerful book, Death In The City (Inter-Varsity Press, 1969). Francis Schaeffer says ... anyone who is unwilling to speak of-' the wrath of God does not understand the Christian faith. If we allow the Christian faith to include those covenant people who looked forward to His coming as well as those who look to it as a fait accompli, Mr. Schaeffer's statement could have been directed to Zephaniah's readers. It is precisely because they, and we, are under God's wrath that the judgement must come. It is because we stand guilty and unfit for His presence that He must come to us. As Dr. Schaeffer points out ... there is a moral law of the universe and that basic law is the character of God Himself. So then, whether it is Zephaniah or Paul (e.g. Roman Zephaniah 1:18 -f) or a twentieth century preacher who speaks of judgement day and God's wrath, he is discussing the inevitable, Whether the syncretistic denial of this truth comes from a Baal worshipper or a modern existentialist, it is false prophecy and needs to be denounced as such.

Zephaniah's description of the day of wrath in these verses pictures the physical destruction occasioned by God's wrath implemented by Nebuchadnezzar. It may describe what lies in our own future. Figuratively, it certainly depicts the spiritual suffering in the last judgement day by those who know not God.

CALL TO REPENTANCE. Zephaniah 2:1-3

God's threatenings are always designed to call men back to Him, Even though He knows few will repent, He is not willing that any should perish. (2 Peter 3:9)

Probably these three verses belong to chapter one. They form the usual high note upon which the prophets close a section of threatenings.
The purpose of such denunciations as we have just considered is always to bring about repentance and cleansing. Therefore the prophet concludes with a note of hope.
The meek, i.e. the humble before God, those with the moral courage to see the truth of the prophet's preaching are called to act in concert, to gather together. Here is the remnant on the eve of judgement, drawn together in a common repentance which bespeaks the truth that even the faithful have not always acted according to their faith.

The word gather describes a stooping such as is done in the gleaning of fields. It is to be done before the day pass as the chaff. The day of judgement is a time of harvest. Not only are the unfaithful punished but the faithful are rewarded.
The nation, per se, has no shame, Judah's submission to the wooing of Baal marks her as no different from other nations. However, the meek within her still may find hope in gleaning themselves from the whole.

Verse three is a bridge between the pronouncements against Judah in chapter one and the following declaration of judgement against Judah's neighbors. All the meek of the earth are called upon to seek Jehovah. Peter's discovery that ... in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him, (Acts 10:35) is the discovery of eternal truth.

The meek of the earth are presented by Zephaniah as they that have kept His ordinances. This same concept is found in Paul's Roman letter. Romans 2:14-15 states, When Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, are a law unto themselves; in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them.

The Jews-' own Bible was indeed the answer to the Jews-' narrowness. Micah 6:8 (b-c) has been lived by others. In all the prophets, escape from God's wrath, and conversely the receiving of His mercy are matters of ethics and morality rather than nationality. The admonition is to seek meekness.

Meekness, we repeat, is the moral courage to be humble before God. Jesus-' statement is that the meek shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5) The achievements of those who are haughty before God are always temporary because they will not stand in the day of Jehovah.

Chapter XXQuestions

Judgement of God

1.

Discuss Zephaniah's claim to inspiration.

2.

Trace the idea of judgement by fire.

3.

What are the stumbling blocks which cause man to sin? (Zephaniah 1:3)

4.

Who are the hosts of heaven on the housetops?

5.

Discuss the religious syncretism of Zephaniah's day as seen in Judah's compromise with strange gods as it typlifies modern religious syncretism.

6.

Who will likely be most surprised by God's judgement? (Zephaniah 1:6)

7.

Discuss Zephaniah's pronouncement of judgement against Judah in light of the principle set down in 1 Peter 4:17.

8.

Who are those clothed in foreign apparel? (Zephaniah 1:8)

9.

Who are those that leap over the threshold? (Zephaniah 1:9)

10.

When the invading Babylonians came against Jerusalem they came from the ___________________.

11.

Discuss I will search with lamps. (Zephaniah 1:12)

12.

Were the apostles and the prophets mistaken as to the soon coming of the final Day of the Lord? Explain,

13.

How do you reconcile the wrath of God and the love of God?

14.

God's threatenings are always a call to ___________________.

15.

Who are the meek?

16.

Meekness is _______________ ___________________.