Zephaniah
The Day of the Lord
Text: Zephaniah 1:1-7
Introduction: I would dare say that not one person in a thousand has heard a message from the book of Zephaniah. This little prophecy just three chapters long is one of the most overlooked passages of Scripture in all God’s Word. Unquoted from in the New Testament, Zephaniah is perhaps the least known book of the Old Testament. And yet this book has much to offer us.
In the opening verse Zephaniah identifies himself for us, tracking his lineage back four generations to king Hezekiah. He is of the royal line. We know not only where he came from, but also when he ministered. His prophecy came during the reign of king Josiah. King Josiah you may recall was the king credited with bringing about spiritual reform in Judah. He overturned much of the idolatry implanted by his grandfather Manasseh, and father Amon. But the changes that he made in Israel whilst sincere on his part produced only a superficial form of religion. There was no real heart change among the people. There was reformation, but little regeneration. This was the day in which Zephaniah ministered. His ministry coincided with that of Jeremiah, and his message is clear, he spoke of the coming Day of the Lord.
The phrase “Day of he Lord” appears some 30 times throughout Scripture, and it refers to any time that God intervenes in the affairs of man with judgment, but ultimately it refers to the last great move of God in human affairs when Christ Himself shall appear to judge the world in righteousness. In a "general" sense the term refers to the period of time after the Rapture and lasting for one thousand and seven years to the time just before the Great White Throne. But the "specific" usage of the word is in reference to the day that the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth.
It speaks of a time of retribution, which is followed by a period of restoration. And when Zephaniah speaks of the day of the Lord, which he refers to 19 times in all, he is speaking the first place of the Babylonian captivity, followed by the return of the captives seventy years later, but in the second place of a much greater event which encapsulated the whole earth, in which God would judge the Gentile nations and save Israel unto Himself. So this is a prophecy that impacts upon our time. It speaks to us of the imminence of Jesus’ return, the reality of God’s judgment and the promise of Christ’s kingdom on earth.
Let’s take a look then at Zephaniah’s prophecy and see exactly how this prophet portrayed the Day of the Lord.
I. The Conditions Before the Day of the Lord
A. What will the world be like before Jesus’ return?
1. It will be how it was in the days of Zephaniah the prophet and Josiah the king.
B. Understand Josiah was a good king.
1. His intentions were honourable. He rid Israel of idolatry and he restored the worship of Jehovah.
2. He brought about great spiritual reform. Some even speak of revival, but if it was a revival it was a very shallow revival.
3. That is why when you read Zephaniah you read no mention of revival or reformation. You see God sees beyond the surface. God doesn’t read man’s publicity, he reads the human hearts, and the hearts of men, even in good king Josiah’s day, were very far from God.
C. Those were days marked by an appetite for sensuality – vs 4
1. Although outwardly people were giving their allegiance to Jehovah, inwardly they were still worshiping Baal.
2. The Old Testament abounds with warnings against Baal worship.
3. According to the Apostle Paul those warnings "are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1Cor 10:11)
4. But who is Baal? and what is Baal worship?
5. Why God so incensed when His people worship Baal? Are we wrong in assuming that Baal was some ancient god that has nothing to do with us? Or could it be that Baal worship is something of which our society is guilty?
6. Baal was the pagan god of nature and fertility.
a. "...Baal worship apparently had its origin in the belief that every tract of ground owed its productivity to a supernatural being, or Baal, that dwelt there.
b. The farmers probably thought that from the Baalim, or fertility gods, came the increase of crops, fruit and cattle ...
c. The worship of Baal was accompanied with:
(i) Lascivious rites (1 Kings 14:24),
(ii) The sacrifice of children in the fire by parents (Jeremiah 19:5).
(iii) Baal was also associated with the goddess Ashtaroth (Judges 2:13), and in the vicinity of his altar there was often an Asherah, a phallic symbol which was central to the worship.
7. Ashtaroth was the goddess of sexual love, maternity and fertility.
a. Prostitution as a religious rite in the service of this goddess under various names is widely attested.
8. So, Baal and Ashtaroth worship incorporated immoral sexual activity including
9. How does that have any bearing upon us? We live in a sex-obsessed world.
a. Sex is the most talked about, sung about and written about subject in the modern age.
b. The news and advertising media, not to mention the entertainment world, are all obsessed with sex.
c. Sex is big business! Few will doubt this assessment.
d. But if you don’t believe sit down for about half-an-hour and watch some of the popular music channels on TV. Just watch it. e. Let me tell you something, when you allow your kids and even your teens alone with that stuff you might as well have them baby-sat in a strip club. That’s a fact. Listen to the lyrics, see for yourselves the suggestive dancing, the emphasis on the sexual and the sensual and ask yourself how this differs from Baal worship. We are sacrificing this generation to Baalim.
f. Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying sex (within marriage) is wrong, but that man’s preoccupation with sex and perversion of it is wrong.
g. Even the church is caught up in this.
(i) Illus: I recently read of a church in Tennessee where the pastor and his wife lie in a bed at the front of the church, acting out a bedroom scene in their home. At one point the pastor’s wife appears before the congregation in “a sexy, red robe”. All in the interest of creating, “ a new, positive and beautiful outlook on marital sexuality.”
(ii) I believe in intimacy in marriage, but you know what? The very notion of intimacy carries with it the idea of privacy. This isn’t ministry its voyeurism, and its not good, but rather it is indicative of spirit of the age in which we live.
10. But what does God think about modern man’s preoccupation with sex?
a. Matt 5:28; Romans 1:24-27; 1Cor 13b-20.
D. Those were days marked by an aptitude for superstition – vs 5a
1. These people were stargazers, astrologers, sun and moon worshippers.
2. Are people today superstitious? Do they also look to the stars to guide their path and lead the way?
3. Of course men have always been superstitious. A recent GMTV poll showed people still practice the ancient superstitions of touching wood to avoid tempting fate (40%); never opening an umbrella indoors (20%); never walking under a ladder (17%) and believing horoscopes will reveal the truth about your love life, career and money matters (15%).
4. But even more interesting is the fact that people have now created modern superstitions such as: wearing a lucky item of clothing to ensure success (24%). Picking numbers that mean something personally when playing the lottery (22%); looking a person in the eye when saying cheers and clinking glasses to avoid seven years of bad luck (21%) and responding to, or forwarding on the email equivalent of chain letters to avoid some kind of bad luck (14%)!
5. For all our crowing about human advancement man it would seem has not changed one iota.
E. Those were days marked by the approval for syncretism – vs 5b
1. Syncretism = fusion of differing systems of belief, here the worship of Malcham or Molech with the worship of Jehovah, as though they were equals or peers.
2. We have a name for that, we call it pluralism, where one faith system is as good as another, where it doesn’t matter what you believe, or what god you believe in because each belief system is valid and after all we all worship the one god don’t we, whether his name is Jesus, Allah or Vishnu.
3. A few years ago, 2002 to be precise, the then Pope, John Paul II led 200 other religious leaders in a day of prayers for peace in Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis. Roman Catholic cardinals, Muslim clerics, Jewish rabbis, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahais, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and members of African traditional religions were among those assembled for prayer each praying to his god as an equal with all others, as though there is no difference. The Roman Church of course professes to be Christian, but we know it is less Christian today, and embodies more error today than it did in Martin Luther’s day and at the outset of the reformation!
4. Yet, how man loves this notion of all religions coming together, worshiping and praying together, joining hand in hand in a false form of unity.
5. Interestingly, whilst the world applauded this quasi-Christian/pagan love in, the only sensible commentary came from two members of Italy’s governing coalition who said, "To pray with heretics, schismatics, rabbis, mullahs, witch doctors and various idolaters creates confusion among Catholic believers." (Federico Bricolo and Massimo Polledri)
6.These Roman Catholic politicians were right about this, modern syncretism like its ancient counterpart involves an admixture of truth with error, and leads only to confusion.
7. This was the state of the nation in Zephaniah’s day.
F. Those were days marked by an attitude of secularism – vs 6
1. Here were people totally indifferent to all matters of religion, and unconcerned about the truth of God.
2. Have you noticed how fashionable it is to say one is an atheist today? Or to dismiss religious matters as irrelevant and outdated?
3. There is a push on to make Britain a secular society. Of course some would say it already is a secular society, but that isn’t so –you see we still have the established church sitting in the House of Lords, acting as the conscience of the nation.
4. Of course some would say that secularism simply wants to separate church from state (I believe in separation of church and state), but in truth it is more than that.
5. What they really want is to substitute Anglicanism with atheism, after all isn’t that what secularism really is? Isn’t it, like humanism, just a cover a polite term for atheism?
6. You see we are moving toward a society where God and the truth God is being squeezed out both in practice and in principle but wait…
II. The Condemnation By the Day of the Lord – vs 7
A. Grammatically this verse stresses the phrase “at hand”
1. In fact in the original language the word for at hand comes first, “At hand is the day of the Lord.”
2. It is near – see verse 14. Linguistically this is the same, the word near comes first in the sentence… “Near is the great day of the LORD.”
3. Within just 17 years of Zephaniah’s prophecy Judah was made subject to Babylon and many of her young men carried off.
4. Seven years after that the city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and 10 000 Jews were deported, and then just 11 years later the city was destroyed.
5. That was Zephaniah’s primary message, and it was literally fulfilled.
B. But Zephaniah had a prophetic message – he saw a day coming when not just Judah, but the Gentile nations also would face God’s wrath.
1. This is the hour of Christ’s return – notice how the prophet describes it from the earth’s point of view – 1:15-18.
2. Matthew Henry said, that this description was not given to, “frighten men out of their wits, but to frighten them out of their sins!”
C. In that day Christ coming will be bad news for a world caught up in unbelief and rebellion.
1. See 2Thess 7ff
2. Among those who will be punished in that hour will be:
a. The disobedient – Zephaniah 1:8
(i) Notice how these people are identified by their clothing – they are seen as wearing “strange apparel”.
• Josiah’s sons were wearing the latest fashions from the Ninevite & Babylonian catwalks.
• The implication is that by adopting foreign dress these people also adopted foreign values and practices.
(ii) You know something, the way we dress says a lot about who we are and what we believe.
(iii) The Christian is called upon to dress modestly – that doesn’t mean that we should dress like the Amish, but it does mean we should not follow every worldly fashion trend, that we should not identify ourselves in any way with a world that is in rebellion towards God.
b. The deplorable – Zephaniah 1:9
(i) This is a condemnation upon those who would oppress and pillage people in their own homes.
c. The dealers – Zephaniah 1:10-11
(i) Maktesh was the commercial district of Jerusalem, the market place.
(ii) This is no condemnation on men making a living, rather this as a swipe at greed and materialism
(iii) See James 4:13-5:8
(iv) Do you ever feel sometimes like every one is out to get money off you. That many items are overpriced, that we are often taken advantage of, treated like a mug.
(v) That’s no new thing – but mark this down the Lord has seen it, and He will require it of those who care about mammon more than God.
d. The detached – Zephaniah 1:12.
(i) Here God is portrayed as wandering through the streets of Jerusalem searching out those who have been indifferent to and disregarding of His Name.
(ii) He is going to punish those who are “settled on their lees”
(ii) What does that mean? It’s a word picture playing on the effect of wine left on its dregs. Having been left to ferment a long time it eventually forms a hard crust, and the liquid beneath becomes bitter and unpalatable.
(iv) That was Judah’s condition before God – a hard on the outside, bitter on the inside – is that not also a reflection of men in these days? Do you not detect in men and indifference to the gospel and an inexplicable bitterness toward God?
3. Then, “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… The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.”
III. The Comfort In the Day of the Lord
A. Chapter 2 and the early part of chapter 3 continue detailing God’s judgment of Judah and the Gentile nations,
1. Chapter 3:8 ends with, “for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.”
2. But when we arrive at 3:9 and are greeted with a new tone… “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.”
a. Now before we move on let me there are those who say this verse teaches restorationism, that is that through the common experience of a new language (i.e. tongues) that God will enable believers to leave aside doctrinal differences and worship Him as one.
b. But it is not a “new language” as they would have it, but a PURE language, that is unclean lips and unclean tongues are cleansed. To suggest this book is teaching restorationism in this verse is to wrest the verse out of its context. Zephaniah does nor present world conditions that are inevitably improving as the Day of the Lord dawns, but conveys that spiritually and morally there is a decline before Christ appears.
c. Remember out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, and as idolatrous Israel, and later blasphemous Gentiles are brought into the kingdom, the filthy tongue becomes a thing of the past.
e. What did Zephaniah’s contemporary Jeremiah predict? – Jer 31:31-34
3. Verse 9 is a turning point, a new day, the darkness of the day before has given way to dawn. From verse 9 onward we read not of retribution, but restoration.
4. Here Zephaniah looks forward not only to the return of Israel’s exiles, but the establishment of Christ’s millennial kingdom.
5. This is ever God’s way, first he permits, then He punishes, but ultimately He perfects.
a. In the end Israel is redeemed, cleansed and restored.
B. Now Zephaniah paints an altogether different picture of the Lord – see vs 17
1. Did you see that?
2. Here God is rejoicing over the redeemed, resting in His love for us, and resonating with song.
a. I don’t know what the Lord is going to sing, but what a marvelous truth that He shall serenade His people as history has run its course and He prepares to make all things new.
Conclusion: Now where does that leave us? Living in an age totally given to sensuality, among men who are as superstitious as ever, desirous of syncretistic religion and sold on secularism? We fix no date, nor do we set any limit upon God, but surely we are in that period which just precedes the coming of the Lord.
“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… The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.”
I wonder, if the Lord should come today, are you ready? If the trumpet should sound will He call you to Himself or leave you behind? Are you saved, this morning?
What if you are? Are you living in the light of His soon appearing? Is your life surrendered to Christ? You know someday, and I am speaking to Christians now we will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and everyone of us shall give an account of Himself to God. Is your life going to stand up to that test. What will it be reward, or reproach. The indications are all around us. “The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly
