Zephaniah 1.5-The Lord Will Violently Execute As Criminals Those Worshipping the Celestial Bodies (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday June 14, 2026

Zephaniah Series: Zephaniah 1:5-The Lord Will Violently Execute As Criminals Those Worshipping the Celestial Bodies

Lesson # 11

Zephaniah 1:5 Also, those who repeatedly prostrate themselves on their rooftops before the multitude of celestial bodies belonging to the stellar universe. Likewise, those who bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord while at the same they bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the king. (Pastor’s translation)

Zephaniah 1:5 contains two more prophetic statements which are an addition to the previous prophetic statements recorded in Zephaniah 1:4 and Zephaniah 1:3.

Zephaniah 1:5 presents another group of individuals who will be violently removed from the city of Jerusalem by the Lord in addition to those who worship Baal and their well-known pagan priests.

The first prophetic statement in Zephaniah 1:5 predicts that the Lord will violently remove from the city of Jerusalem those who repeatedly prostrate themselves on their rooftops before the multitude of celestial bodies belonging to the stellar universe.

In other words, the Lord will violently execute those in the city of Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day who worship the various celestial bodies in the stellar universe on their rooftops of their homes.

So this prophecy indicates that many Jews in Judah and in the city of Jerusalem climbed onto the flat roofs of their homes to worship the sun, moon, and the stars.

This practice is as old as Babylon where it originated and it is also as modern as the horoscope in your newspaper.

This worship of the various luminescent bodies in the stellar universe took place at night since the heavenly bodies could only be seen at night (cf. Jer. 19:13; 32:29).

This type of worship was also called “Sabeanism” and it was quite prevalent early in the Middle East and it was widely practiced in Israel, both northern and southern kingdoms (see 2 Kings 21:3, 5; 23:5-6; Jeremiah 7:17-18; 44:17-19, 25).

King Josiah of Judah outlawed the practice in Judah (2 Kings 23:5).

These individuals were thus practicing idolatry in that they were worshipping the creation of God rather than God Himself.

Thus they were worthy of death because they disobeyed the first and second of the Ten Commandments.

God warned Israel about this practice but Manasseh led Israel into this perversion according to 2 Kings 21:3, 5 (cf. 2 Kings 23:4-5).

Instead of letting God guide in making decisions in their lives by listening and reading His Word and asking for advice in prayer, these individuals turn to astrology to give them answers.

Astrology and the worship of the stars is prohibited in the Mosaic Law (Deut. 4:19; 17:3-7).

Zephaniah 1:5 contains a second prophecy in that it predicts that the Lord will also violently remove from the city of Jerusalem all those who bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord while at the same time binding themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the king.

In this prophecy, the masculine singular noun melek does not mean “Milcom” or “Molech” but rather “king.”

Some English translations such as the NEB, NASB, and NRSV prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” which was the name of an Ammonite god and this follows some LXX MSS, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Some like the NIV and NLT render the word “Molech,” which was a god to whom the Israelites offered their children.

Despite the fact that many of the English translations render this word “Milcom” here in Zephaniah 1:5 seems unlikely that this is the meaning of melek.

Although Milcom was one of many gods who the Israelites worshipped (Judg. 10:6), this god’s popularity does not seem to have continued after the days of Solomon according to 1 Kings 11:5, 33, which possibly could have been due to the hostility between Ammonites and Israelites (cf. 2 Chron. 20:1-26; 27:5; Isa. 11:14; Jer. 49:1-6; Amos 1:13-15).

It could have been the result of the overshadowing presence of Baalism and the fertility religion of Canaan (cf. 2 Kings 17:16-17).

Furthermore, the context and specifically Zephaniah 1:4 strongly suggests this rendering since it pits the worship of Yahweh against Baal and the false rites associated with him, including the syncretistic blending of Baalism with the worship of Israel’s God.

So the noun melek here in Zephaniah 1:5 refers sarcastically to Baal who was worshipped in the city of Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day according to Zephaniah 1:4.

In Zephaniah 1:5, the term yhwh, “Lord” emphasizes that God has a covenant relationship with these individuals living in the city of Jerusalem who were attempting to worship Him and Baal at the same time.

This word thus indicates that the Lord through Zephaniah is speaking of those who have trusted in Him and are believers since in Old Testament Israel non-believers did not have a covenant relationship with Him but only believers.

Therefore, this second prophecy which appears in Zephaniah 1:5 speaks of those who have trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel and are a part of the covenant people Israel and refers to those have been declared justified through their faith.

If they lived during the church age, we would say that they are regenerated.

However, this prophecy declares that they are in apostasy because they are not remaining faithful to Him because they are attempting to worship the Lord while at the same time they are practicing idolatry by worshipping Baal.

During the church age, when we use the term “apostasy” we are using it exclusively of the Christian who is living in habitual disobedience to the will of the Father which is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.

This in turn results in God the Father disciplining this type of Christian.

During the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, when we use this term we are using it exclusively of those Jews who have been declared justified through faith in Yahweh and are in a covenant relationship with Him.

This term means that they are living in habitual disobedience to the will of Yahweh, i.e. the Father which is revealed by the Spirit through the Old Testament Scriptures.

Whether during the Old Testament dispensations or during the church age, the term “apostasy” refers to a believer justified by faith in the Lord initially habitually obeying the Word of God but then doing a 180 and are now going in the opposite direction by living in habitual disobedience to God’s Word.

Believers in apostasy undergo divine discipline whether they lived during Old Testament dispensations or during the church age or during the eschatological dispensations.

The second prophecy which appears in Zephaniah 1:5 makes clear that these believers in the city of Jerusalem will be disciplined by Him.

In fact, they will suffer dying discipline because they fail to repent from the first two stages of discipline.

There are two categories of divine discipline that are an expression of God’s love:

(1) Negative: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense that He “punishes” them when they are disobedient to His will.

(2) Positive: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense of “training” them when they are obedient to His will and in fellowship.

Both categories of divine discipline are designed to keep the believer on track in executing the Father’s will by becoming like Christ.

God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting adversity, trials, and irritations to come into their lives that are beyond their capacity to handle in order to get their attention and to focus upon their number one priority in life as children of God, which is to conformity to the Father’s will.

There are three categories of divine discipline (punishment) for the disobedient child of God: (1) Warning (Rev. 3:20; James 5:9) (2) Intense (Ps. 38:1; 2 Th. 2:11). (3) Dying (Jer. 9:16; 44:12; Phlp. 3:18-19; Re. 3:16; Ps. 118:17-18; 1 Jo. 5:16).

God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to build the believer’s confidence in his relationship with God and to get him to depend on God for his security and protection rather than money and human relationships.

The Lord Jesus Christ disciplines the believer in the sense that He rebukes, punishes and trains the believer because He personally and affectionately loves the believer (Revelation 3:14-19).

The second prophecy which appears in Zephaniah 1:5 indicates that these apostate Jews living in Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day had developed a syncretistic form of religion, blending the worship of Yahweh with the worship of Baal.

Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (NASB95)

James warned Jewish Christians in James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (NASB95)

The Lord Jesus taught His disciples to be totally and completely devoted to Him otherwise they were not really His disciples.

This does not mean that they were not really saved but only that they were not totally and completely devoted and dedicated to Him as they should and were obligated to do so (Luke 9:23-25; 14:25-27).