A Call To Silence

A CALL TO SILENCE.

Zephaniah 1:7; Zephaniah 1:12-18.

Speaking during the reign of king Josiah of Judah, Zephaniah spends a lot of energy outlining a universal judgment against the whole earth (Zephaniah 1:1-3), INCLUDING Judah and Jerusalem (Zephaniah 1:4-6). “Hold thy peace,” he cries, “for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD has prepared a feast, and summoned his guests” (ZEPHANIAH 1:7). But little did they know that - like the bewildered Isaac in mount Moriah (Genesis 22:7) - THEY are the intended sacrifice (Zephaniah 1:8-11)!

ZEPHANIAH 1:12. The picture of the LORD “searching Jerusalem with candles” gives us the impression of the spiritual darkness of the city. Like the woman searching for her coin (Luke 15:8), the light of a candle shines into all the dark corners and recesses. It is amazing what shady dealings are exposed by the light of the word of God!

Wine is wasted when it rests too long in its sediment. The LORD will punish those who are thus “settled on their lees.” Wallowing in the dregs of sinful disobedience, they complacently imagine that “the LORD will do neither good nor evil.”

ZEPHANIAH 1:13. “Their goods shall become a booty,” because they have put their trust in things of this earth (cf. Luke 12:19). The affluence of the complacent causes even the settlement of the land (Joshua 24:13) to be reversed, in terms of Deuteronomy 28:30.

ZEPHANIAH 1:14. Yes, “the great day of the LORD is near, and hastens greatly.” It shall be bitter, causing the mighty to weep. Whether we are talking about “the day of the LORD” as fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., or in the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. as prophesied by Jesus (Mark 13:2), both point forward to the ULTIMATE day of the LORD, when He shall return, and history will be finally wound up.

ZEPHANIAH 1:15. Even Creation seems to be being dismantled. “Wrath, trouble, distress, wasteness and desolation, darkness and gloominess, a day of thick clouds and darkness.” We read in Amos 5:20 that ‘the day of the LORD’ shall be ‘darkness and not light - even very dark, and no brightness (not a glimmer) in it’ to those who are not right with God.

ZEPHANIAH 1:16. The sound of the shofar is not here a call to worship, or a call to battle, but is actually the rallying of the LORD Himself to the great work of judgment “against the fenced cities, and against the high towers of Judah and Jerusalem.” Judgment begins at the house of God - and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17-18).

ZEPHANIAH 1:17. The imagery of darkness is intensified as the victims of the “distress” (self-imposed as it is, cf. Deuteronomy 28:15) “walk like blind men” (cf. Deuteronomy 28:29). The image of sacrifice is intensified as ‘their blood is poured out like dust.’ Such are the dire, ultimate, consequences of sin.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18. All the affluence of the affluent will not be sufficient to spare them in that great and awful day. Zephaniah again emphasises the universality of the judgment (cf. Zephaniah 1:2). Our God is a “jealous” God (Deuteronomy 6:15).

What are we to do when faced with such a chapter of doom and gloom as Zephaniah 1?

Well, when Jonah preached in Nineveh, he had but one message: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ Their reaction: ‘So the people of Nineveh believed God’ (Jonah 3:4-5), and, significantly, ‘TURNED FROM THEIR EVIL WAY’ (Jonah 3:10). Now that is repentance: a change not only of mind, but of lifestyle. Result: God “repented” of the “evil” that he had said that He would do unto them; and did it not’ (Jonah 3:10).

However, Zephaniah DOES leave room for repentance in the beginning of the next chapter (Zephaniah 2:1-3). By the end of the book we see the LORD, anew, in the midst of His people (Zephaniah 3:17), turning back their captivity (Zephaniah 3:20).

We leave the last word with the king of Nineveh in Jonah 3:9: ‘Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?’

The answer, for those who will believe it, lies in the Cross of Jesus.