Today we read the prophet Zephaniah.
We’re covering the WHOLE book in one sitting so top off your drink and grab a snack. And maybe a tent. ⛺️
WHO WAS HE?
“The Lord gave this message to Zephaniah when Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah. Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah.”
Zephaniah 1:1 NLT
We can’t say with 100% certainty if his great-great-grandfather was Hezekiah, the king of Judah, but it is very possible. Perhaps that’s why out of ALL the prophets, Zephaniah has the longest and most detailed genealogy.
In chapters 1 and 3 he takes the government leadership to task. If he was a descendant of Hezekiah, then Zephaniah would likely be very familiar with the inner workings of Jerusalem’s leadership and what went on behind royal doors.
“And it shall be that on the day of the sacrifice of Yahweh, I will punish the officials and the sons of the king and those who dress in foreign clothing.”
Zephaniah 1:8 LEB
“Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men; her priests profane what is holy; they do violence to the law.”
Zephaniah 3:3-4 ESV
Zephaniah 1:1 tells us that this word came during the reign of King Josiah. It may have been given early on when Josiah was a child. Perhaps it helped motivate the king to seek Yahweh. Or, it may have come later after the prophetess Huldah informs Josiah that the destruction is still coming, though not in his lifetime. Jerusalem fell 25 years after the death of Josiah.
WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT?
Zephaniah’s prophecy is all about “The Day of the LORD.”
😬 THAT day?
Yup. THAT Day. Judgment Day. Both of them.
😧 What?! What do you mean BOTH of them? How can there be TWO Judgement Days?
Jerusalem and Judah had a “Day of the LORD.” It was when God used Babylon to overthrow the land and take the inhabitants captive as punishment for their sins. From their perspective it was the end of the world. And it wasn’t just them. The bordering nations got decimated too.
Here’s the basic profile of Judah’s historic “Day of the LORD.”
- The people persist in idolatry and witchcraft, violence and immorality even though they have God’s Word and have been repeatedly warned.
- The LORD brings judgment (death and destruction) on the wicked in a big dramatic day of overthrow. This includes those who are religious but unrepentant in their hearts.
- After the land is purged, the LORD gathers His people and restores them to the land.
🤔 Sounds kinda like Revelation.
Exactly.
Zephaniah wrote to the people of his day, and that’s how we should understand this book. But what happened in Judah was a microcosm of the coming global day of judgment. So we should pay close attention.
CHAPTER 1
The LORD lets us know right off the bat that this word to Judah and Jerusalem also has a broader application. The verses below hardly sound like they are limited to Judah:
“I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.”
Zephaniah 1:2-3 ESV
Yet, further verses make it clear that Zephaniah’s message is primarily concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.
“On that day,” says the Lord, “a cry of alarm will come from the Fish Gate and echo throughout the New Quarter of the city. And a great crash will sound from the hills. Wail in sorrow, all you who live in the market area, for all the merchants and traders will be destroyed. “I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad.”
Zephaniah 1:10-12 NLT
By the way – the Hebrew word is niyr for lamps, not lanterns (NLT) or candles (KJV); neither of which had been invented yet.
If we want to be good prophecy students we need to be very particular with how we speak about texts like Zephaniah 1. (The late Dr. Chuck Missler coined the term “Hermeneutical Hygiene” to describe how persnickety we should be when interpreting any text.) Zephaniah 1 isn’t “about” the end-of-days Judgement. It’s “about” the coming judgment on Judah and Jerusalem which serves as a pattern of the future one. That is a subtle but important distinction.
“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.”
Zephaniah 1:18 ESV
The Hebrew word translated “earth” is erets. While it can mean the whole planet and its population, more often it means a whole region; as in “the whole land.”
It’s a brilliant word for this prophecy. In the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah it means that whole land; the whole country of Judah. But it also equally suggests a future day of destruction for the whole world.
And the passage actually continues over into 2:1-3 with a message of last-minute salvation; like getting on board the Ark of Noah just before God shuts the door.
CHAPTER 2
God turns His attention to the neighboring nations:
- Philistia (2:4-7)
- Moab & Ammon (2:8-11)
- Ethiopians (Egyptian Empire, 2:12)
- Assyria (2:13-15)
Something interesting about Philistia, Moab, and Ammon… They are Judah’s closest neighbors and what’s left of them will be destroyed by Babylon too. There will be a few people of Judah who escape the exile. They will leave Judah to go live in the ghost towns left behind in those places. (See 2:7, 9)
I suspect that after the future judgment day, basically every city and town on earth will be like a ghost town (see Is. 13:9-12); perhaps with one or two survivors hiding out. Again, what happened in the past is the miniature picture of the future.
A TALE of 3 CITIES…
One final note about Nineveh. The LORD quotes “the city” as saying something about itself that ties it to ancient Babylon and the mysterious Babylon of Revelation…
“This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.”
Zephaniah 2:15 ESV
Compare Nineveh’s claim to what Yahweh said to ancient Babylon:
“Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”: These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.”
Isaiah 47:8-9 ESV
Compare the above to this about “Mystery Babylon” in Revelation:
“As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’ For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”
Revelation 18:7-8 ESV
These 3 cities are separated by miles and millennia but there is a common mind and heart self-identification about them. They all use the divine identifier, “I Am.”
In the Gospels (especially John), when Jesus says “I Am” it is the Greek ego eimi. I looked up the Isaiah and Zephaniah passages in the Greek Septuagint. Both Nineveh and Babylon say in their heart “I am.”
We live in a self-love, I-am culture in the first-world West. Morality is self-determined and woe-betide anyone who calls a behavior “sinful” or a class of people “sinners.” It’s very popular to say in your heart (which is a way of describing what one believes) “I am” this or that or the other thing. From morning mirror affirmations of “I am successful” and “I am beautiful” to full-on New Age declarations of “I am divine light,” there already exists on earth a polis (that’s Greek for city), a population of people who say “I am…”
We need to be VERY careful when this mindset puts on a tie and goes to church.
It IS most certainly true that God’s Word prevails over man’s word. It is most certainly true that God demonstrated His love for us in the cross of Christ whether we feel it or not. But based on how you interpret scripture, you can make your Bible say a lot of things contrary to the Gospel once delivered to the saints.
There’s obvious deception, and then there is subtle deception. A LOT of New Age ideas are infiltrating the Church right now. And every one of them has a chapter and verse to “back it up.”
Let me give you some recent survey results. And these are based primarily on testing for only 4 New Age beliefs:
That last bullet point ought to get our attention. It wouldn’t hurt to ask like the disciples did, “Lord, is it I?”
What is a biblical worldview and how do we get one?
A ”biblical worldview” means observing and processing and understanding the world around us through a lens of scripture. Our assumptions and basis for judgment and conclusions all come from and filter through the written word of God.
For example…
A storm destroys homes in a town.
A person with a biblical world view observes this with some key ideas in mind:
- God is in control. He can choose to allow bad things to happen to bring about His end purpose of salvation and sanctification.
- Creation is “groaning” under the effects of sin and the Fall. Destructive storms are not the original pattern nor the future destiny. Natural disasters are part of this temporary world that is passing away.
- God is good. His character is eternal. His goodness does not rise and fall based on what I like or find convenient. I am not His Judge. He is mine.
- Our hope and joy and peace are not in the things of this world. Our true treasures are stored in heaven where no storm can ever damage or destroy them.
People without a fully biblical worldview might respond with some of these ideas:
- Karma
- Climate Crisis! We’re all gonna die!
- We have hurt Mother Earth and she is angry. Humans are garbage. We are a parasite on the planet.
- Life is pretty lame, then we die. It’s all pointless.
- We can help our neighbors and show that we are good people.
World view is how we think about things, and it needs to be shaped by what God says about the nature of reality.
Here’s one more critical example:
God’s Word says humans are made in the image of God, fallen from innocence, sinful and need a Savior.
Anything other than that is an unbiblical worldview. Humans are not “basically good.” But neither are we “just animals.” The biblical worldview is what God says about things.
So how do we build a biblical worldview?
We have to be MORE influenced by what God says in His written word than any other thing in life.
More than tv and movies and music.
More than the news.
More than what people in my life say or think or what “the experts” or famous people say or think.
More than any political party, economic theory, or popular trend.
More than any church group, religious authority, theological argument of philosophical position.
More than my own feelings, desires, or fears.
The idea is to get to the point where nothing in this world is influencing my thinking or responses to events more than the written Word of God, rightly divided.
Decrease your input from the world and increase your input from the Bible. Here are a few more of my “hot tips.”
- Turn off the tv, put down the phone, say “No” to entertainment, self-help, teaching, and personalities that come from an unbiblical worldview.
- Anything with a “Christian” label (music, books, teaching, etc)- start with a healthy skepticism. Don’t just swallow stuff. It could be poison. Search the scriptures for yourself to find out if what is said is true. People are fallible. Just because someone is a famous singer, author, or preacher DOES NOT mean they have good doctrine! If anything, fame and the praise of men is more likely to be a red flag.
- Learn solid biblical interpretation skills (called “hermeneutics”). Here are a couple good Hermeneutics textbooks:
- Grasping God’s Word, by Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays.
- Reading the Bible for a Change, 2nd Edition, by Ray Lubek
- Study the Bible like a student, not someone looking for secret messages or fortune cookie inspiration.
- Study humbly (you’re not trying to win a debate or have the last word)
- Study prayerfully (we NEED the Holy Spirit to help us understand and apply)
- Study obediently (it’s not just a mental exercise- we learn so we can live it out)
Here are 4 people who used to be in the New Age (or “New Thought”) but were saved and are now actively helping Christians recognize the wolf teachings wrapped in wool and saying “baaaaaa.”
Friends, I believe we are hurtling into the final generation (or so) of the 6th Millennial Day on the creation calendar. Watch out for Babylon. It’s (probably) not going to be as obvious as a super futuristic city with a sign that says,
WELCOME TO BABYLON, QUEEN OF EARTH, POPULATION 666 BILLION
The way we’re all getting networked, cities are almost barely a thing anymore. We shop in virtual stores. We go to online schools. Many of us are “closer” to people who physically live far away than we are to our next door neighbors.
Watch out for the global utopian “city” where everyone has the divine spark and we all participate in our own queenly, regal reign and it looks like we’ve beaten Death at last, (no widowhood or loss of children).
I can only point to what John heard proclaimed in Heaven concerning this mysterious population:
“Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
Revelation 18:4-5 ESV
Make your choice now while it’s relatively easy:
- Popular but doomed Babylon
- The reproach of Christ that leads to glory
CHAPTER 3
Here’s a key verse:
“Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord, “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.”
Zephaniah 3:8 ESV
It sounds like it’s right out of Revelation 19.
Some people have suggested some pretty interesting things based on these verses:
“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.”
Zephaniah 3:9-10 ESV
One speculation I’ve heard is that when Jesus comes back we’ll all be speaking Hebrew. And hey – I’d vote yes on that.
Also, Hebrew was a dead language before the late 19th century. Is that what it’s talking about? I have no idea.
Our anchor HAS to be the context of Zephaniah’s immediate audience. The Hebrew literally says He will give them a “purged lip.” The years of exile truly did have an effect on the language of the Judeans, but it may have more to do with what they are saying and less about what language they are using to say it. No more names of idols on their lips. No more magical incantations or cursing or lies.
Some suggest that verse 10 hints at the Ethiopians bringing back the Ark of the Covenant from hiding when Christ returns. Again, I think we get on thin interpretive ice when we look at the global end-of-days as the first context instead of second. (And anything to do with the ark here is complete speculation) This is “about” Judah. Think like a person there. Then. Or maybe during the exile. You’re doomed. It’s all over. The temple is destroyed. The nation is no more.
What does that verse say?
🤓 It says that the dispersed worshipers are going to come back and worship.
Yes! Where?! How?! It doesn’t say, but God says “They’re comin’ back!”
How tightly would you hold on to that promise if you were a Jewish exile living down in southern Egypt (the land of Cush)? Or maybe over in Babylon? Or even in one of the Philistine ghost towns?
The final verses, 3:12-20, are all about a promised return and restoration:
“At that time I will bring you in, Even at the time when I gather you together; Indeed, I will make you famous and praiseworthy Among all the peoples of the earth, When I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” Says the Lord.”
Zephaniah 3:20 NASB2020
For 70 years it will look impossible. But there it is in God’s Word. It WILL happen. And it did.
And when the future Day of the LORD happens and the whole earth is laid waste, it will seem equally impossible that it could be inhabited again. But God will do it.
And God Himself will be “in the midst” of His people. Dancing and singing.
😲 Wait – what? God? Dancing? Singing?
Eeeeeee! Yes!!! I LOVE this verse:
“On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, “Fear not, O Zion; your hands shall not hang limp. Yahweh your God is in your midst; a mighty warrior who saves. He shall rejoice over you with joy; he renews you in his love; he will exult over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:16-17 LEB
The Hebrew word giyl [gheel] is translated as “rejoice,” “joy,” and “exult.” And that’s fine as long as you understand that this is not a quiet, reserved rejoicing. Look:
This word makes me think of this…
Personally, I do not express excitement or delight by spinning in circles. When I was an infant I had an incident that put me off of spinning forever.
Mom had one of those devices that parents hang in doorways that lets babies bounce. I was in it. My brother, (who is only a couple years older than me), very quietly wound me up tight while mom’s back was turned then let me go… 😵💫
I don’t do spinning.
God is so happy over His people that apparently He spins around like a kid who just got His dream present.
Or, maybe it hints at something like this…
However He spins, He is SINGING.
We generally don’t think of God as a singer, but He did invent music and vocal cords and birds and whales…
I for one can hardly wait to hear Him sing! I expect the effects of spin-the-baby will be undone in the resurrection and I’ll be able to join in God’s circle dance with everyone else.
See you tomorrow. We start on Jeremiah.
To The Reader 