Zephaniah: An Inconvenient Truth
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Zephaniah 1 The Day of the LORD and Judah
Wow! Zephaniah opens on a dark note and with a BANG! There is no getting around it, this is judgment. From God. On Judah.
In v 1-6 God declares His intention
1)
2 I will utterly consume all [things] from off the land, saith the LORD.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
4a I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
This is a serious word that affects all of Judah.
2)
4b I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, [and] the name of the Chemarim with the priests;
5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship [and] that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham
Baal – lord; master; the supreme male divinity of the Canaanites, as Ashtoreth was their supreme female divinity. There can be no doubt of the very high antiquity of the worship of Baal. It prevailed in the time of Moses among the Moabites and Midianites (Numbers 22:41); through them it spread to the Israelites (Numbers 25:3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor) and appears never to have been permanently abolished among them. The attractiveness of this worship to the Jews undoubtedly grew out of its licentious character. We find this worship also in Phoenician colonies. The religion of the ancient British islands much resembled this ancient worship of Baal, and may have been derived from it. The plural, Baalim, is found frequently, showing that he was probably worshipped under different compound names. (Smith Bible Dictionary)
A Canaanite god! And all these years later the Jews are still worshipping him, even though Moses had instructed them in Exodus 23:23-25:
For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the LORD your God…
Chemarim – see Malcham below
them that worship the host of heaven – the stars, planets, and constellations named after gods; we call it astrology and the horoscope.
them that worship [and] that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham – How soiled the Jews were! How degraded! How utterly compromised! On the Sabbath they declared their devotion to YHWH, on Monday they declared their devotion to Malcham. They had forgotten and cast off the word of the LORD:
Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
Malcham - Another form of Molech. The fire-god Molech was the god of the children of Ammon, and essentially identical with the Moabitish Chemosh. Fire-gods appear to have been common to all the Canaanite, Syrian and Arab tribes, who worshipped the destructive element under an outward symbol, with the most inhuman rites. According to Jewish tradition, the image of Molech was of brass, hollow within, and was situated outside of Jerusalem. "His face was (that) of a calf, and his hands stretched forth like a man who opens his hands to receive (something) of his neighbor. And they kindled it with fire, and the priests took the baby and put it into the hands of Molech, and the baby gave up the ghost." Molech was the lord and master of the Ammonites; their country was his possession, as Moab was the heritage of Chemosh. The priests of Molech were called Chemarim. (Smith Bible Dictionary)
The Jews were deeply involved in and addicted to this degrading idol worship.
3)
6 And [I will cut off] them that are turned back from the LORD; and [those] that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
Those who have abandoned YHWH are in the same boat with the idolators.
7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD [is] at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, [that there shall be] the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, [that] I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
The day of the LORD is at hand – this is a phrase used in the Old Testament to speak of a day when God will rise up in holy and righteous judgment. The prophets use it to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon as well as the end times.
And it shall come to pass – a common phrase in the prophets to describe and list events that will happen at a just declared event. I highlighted them so you could see the repetition.
Here in Zephaniah 1 it has been just declared, The LORD hath prepared his sacrifice, he hath bid his guests, and at that time four things will happen:
(1) I will punish the princes and the king’s children
(2) I will punish those who leap on the threshold (worship the Philistine god Dagon)
(3) all the merchant people will be cut down. (Maktesh - The place in Jerusalem for the merchants)
(4) “I will punish the men that are settled on their lees” - Those who are careless, satisfied with the goods of this life; who trust in their riches, and are completely irreligious.
hold thy peace at the presence of the LORD – this part begins with this ominous phrase, “Hold thy peace”, “Hush”. These are frightening words. Normally, when God declares a judgment, there is the possibility of repentance staying His hand, as in the case of Josiah himself. But not now. The people have gone too far for too long. There is no turning back.
14 The great day of the LORD near,
near, and hasteth greatly,
the voice of the day of the LORD:
the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day 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,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities,
and against the high towers.
The day of the LORD is the day when God alone is magnified and righteousness prevails. In the prophets it is a dark day. As Amos cried, Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD!
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Sin is serious. Persisting in sin and rebellion is a very serious thing. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31)
The day of the LORD. This is the inconvenient truth of Zephaniah.
How dare I speak of wrath and judgment in this gospel age? Didn’t Jesus remove all that? No. The Lord Jesus spoke of the day of the LORD and coming judgment. In Matthew 25 he said,
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
As did the Apostle Paul: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)
The book of The Revelation describes the coming tribulation period and the rebellion of them that dwell on the earth, how they repeatedly refuse to turn to the Lord: And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21; also 16:9,11)
Sin is a deceitful and deadly enemy! We cannot afford to cozy up to it and embrace it. If we would preach the whole counsel of God we must also speak of the righteousness and holiness of God. There is a day of judgment coming. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17-18)
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev 6:17)
Who indeed shall be able to stand in that day? It is here and now that the love, mercy, and grace of God come into focus. We are lost. We are undone. The day of the Lord will swallow us up. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us (Eph 2:4), sent his only begotten Son to die for us, then raised him from the dead, that we might be saved!
And [he, the jailor] brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spoke unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. (Acts 16:30-32)
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
The Lord is Holy is a wonderful song to end on. If you would like to sing go here
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