Zephaniah 1:1-7

Series: God’s Judgment and Grace

Do not abandon the pursuit of God!

Introduction:

“The book of Zephaniah is the story of God’s powerful judgment and His equally astonishing grace.”

A short Background:

Who is Zephaniah?

Translations for the name Zephaniah include “the Lord hides” or “the person hidden or sheltered by the Lord”

Zephaniah prophesied in the southern kingdom of Judah when Josiah (640–609 b.c.) was king.

Zephaniah is the last of the Minor Prophets to be written before the exile.

What is his ministry about?

God’s Judgment and Grace

The judgment of God will be poured out against the whole earth because of people’s persistent disobedience, and his grace in forgiving them and restoring them to Himself

Despite the testimony given to God’s judgment on the sin of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 b.c., Judah refused to learn, moving God to intervene in judgment.

God’s judgment and love goes together. God will not compromise his holiness and justice. So He gives love and justice at the same time as showed by their exile and return at exactly 70 years as promised by the Lord.

The faithless would be purged through judgment and the faith of the godly strengthened.

The Day of the Lord Is Coming because of Their Idol Worship (vv. 1:2-18)

Main Idea: The judgment of God will be poured out against the whole earth because of people’s persistent disobedience.”

I. The Whole Earth Will Be Destroyed (1:2-3)

Zephaniah 1:2–3 NASB95

2 “I will completely remove all things From the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. 3 “I will remove man and beast; I will remove the birds of the sky And the fish of the sea, And the ruins along with the wicked; And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

The prophet begins with an announcement of universal judgment (vv. 2, 3),

Zephaniah attempts to awaken the people to their disobedience. In an attempt to convey the seriousness of this charge, God, speaking through Zephaniah, threatens not only to judge them, but to wipe them off the face of the earth.

While we often do not like to speak of God’s anger, we cannot study Zephaniah with integrity and not recognize that God is not just a little displeased; no, He is very angry, and His anger has very real and dangerous implications. At the conclusion of the book we will see one of the most beautiful and majestic offers of grace that can be found in Scriptures

We can sense God’s holy anger and judgement towards Judah (specifically Jerusalem v4) because of their idolatry.

II. God’s Own People Will Be Destroyed because of Their Rebellion and Idolatry (1:4-6).

Zephaniah 1:4–6 NASB95

4 “So I will stretch out My hand against Judah And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, And the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests. 5 “And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, And those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, 6 And those who have turned back from following the Lord, And those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of Him.”

Judgment against Judah and Jerusalem

Three specific sins are denounced:

idolatry (v. 4),

syncretism (v. 5), and

religious indifference (v. 6).

Who is Baal? (God of fertility, wealth, abundance)

Baal was worshiped on high places in Moab in the time of Balaam and Balak (Num 22:41). In the period of the judges there were altars to Baal in Palestine (Judg 2:13; 6:28–32);

The struggle between Baalism and the worship of the true God came to a head on Mount Carmel when the prophet Elijah met the priests of Baal and had 450 of them killed (1 Kings 16:32; 18:17)

Incense and sacrifice were offered to Baal (Jer 7:9)—even human sacrifice (19:5), but the worship of Baal was chiefly marked by fertility rites.

The main function of Baal was thought to be to make land, animals, and people fertile. To prompt the god to perform these functions, worshipers themselves performed human sexual acts of fertility,

Who is Milcom?

Milcom is the idol of the Ammonites, known for child sacrifices (1 Kings 11:5)

They have rejected the Lord (turned their back (v6)

They have turned their backs on God and pursued false gods to fit their selfish desires. In the face of this rebellion and rejection, God is prepared to act.

While we claim allegiance to Jesus, we often attempt to divide our allegiance and chase other things rather than pursue Christ.

In these times Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 are a reminder to us of the futility of worshipping at the feet of multiple gods: “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money” (Matt 6:24)”

Matthew 6:24 NASB95

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.

Like every culture and people who have been introduced to God, there is a temptation to diminish God in our minds and to live as if there are no consequences for our behavior.

The people of Judah, like many of us today, found themselves tempted by a host of good things, as we will see later in the passage. The temptation to chase after the good things, though, had caused them to abandon the best thing, namely their pursuit of God. This is not altogether different from our temptations today.

In his book Counterfeit Gods Dr. Tim Keller speaks about this temptation:

“The human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.” - Tim Keller

III. The Day of the Lord Is Near (1:7)

Zephaniah 1:7 NASB95

7 Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near, For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests.

Be Silent! - The command to “be silent” is often linked to being in the presence of the holy God.

the day of the Lord. This term occurs frequently in the OT prophets. It can refer to any specific time when the Divine Warrior, the Lord of Hosts, is glorious in victory: It is also the day of Final Judgement.

There are no direct messianic prophecies in Zephaniah, but his focus on the day of the Lord sets out clearly the need for salvation that will only be achieved through the intervention of the Savior who loves Zion and acts on her behalf (3:15–20).

This deliverance is not confined to ethnic Israel. The prophet envisions a time when Jew and Gentile will be united in enjoying the blessings of the covenant and worshiping God (3:9, 10). This occurred through the ministry of Christ.

prepared a sacrifice - As opposed to them sacrificing their children to Baal and Milcom, now God is making a sacrifice of the Judahites—not to please or appease himself, but to punish them for their willful and persistent disobedience (vv. 7ff.).

While they sacrificed their children for their selfish desires to gain temporal joy, Jesus sacrificed himself for us, so that we can gain eternal joy and salvation.

In contrast to the Sacrifice of Jesus, it saved us from the wrath of God! That is the gospel! Jesus is the ultimate and acceptable sacrifice!

Jesus pursued us when we were still pursuing the things of this world.

Jesus endured the punishment for us!

Proper Response:

Don’t be tempted to think that you can avoid the penalty for your sin.

Is it possible to avoid the consequence of sin? (NOOOOO)

Do not believe the lies of the enemy.

Are there any things in my life that I love and desire more than God?

In Zephaniah God removes the things that the people love more than Him. Are you guilty of loving those things more than you love God?

Stop hardening your heart!

Ask God to give you the heart to love Him over everything in this world!

Live each day with the mindset that the Day of the Lord is near.

In Zephaniah the Lord’s judgment was imminent. In the New Testament we are taught that the Lord’s return is imminent.

Stop wasting time and resources that God has given you, doing things that will not glorify God.

Stop wasting time harboring bitterness and grudges, start forgiving people.

Start reaching out people and share the gospel of Christ.

Illustration:

There was a person I know, a person close to me.

Kung wala pa putla sa Ginoo ang iyang tiil, dili sila makaluhod sa tiilan sa Ginoo. (and he became a believer)

Tinoug gyud, daghan ang dili maka-adto sa Gingharian sa Langit tungod kay daghan sila ug gihambin ug gihigugma nga mga butang niining kalibutana…ang sala, ang kahilayan, ang kwarta, ang pride, ug daghan pa..

Kinahanglan kanang tangtangon sa Ginoo tanan....

Sama sa barko nga nalunod tungod sa overloading, you have to unload so that you may float...

bulahan kadtong ang mga kamot sa Ginoo nag panglihok aron ma matangtang ang mga idolatry sa atong kasinkasing…

Ug gamiton gayud sa Ginoo ang kasakit ug pagsulay aron makita nato atong mga sayop…ug aron mopaubos kita sa atong mga kaugalingon

Ug makita nato nga si Kristo mao lamang ang atong paglaom ug kaluwasan!