Zephaniah 1:1-6 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

I. MEANING OF HIS NAME . Zephaniah, "One whom Jehovah hides." Hiding in the day of calamity a blessing promised to them that fear Go( Psalms 31:19 , Psalms 31:20 ), who are therefore styled God's hidden ones ( Psalms 83:4 ), and may confidently reckon upon God's extending to them his protecting care in the midst of peril ( Psalms 27:5 ), yea, may even boldly flee unto him to hide them ( Psalms 143:9 ).

II. THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON . The scion of a kingly house, "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah." Mentioned here, not because they had been prophets, but probably because they had been celebrated persons, perhaps good men, these ancestors of Zephaniah — three of them, like himself, with Jehovah in his name — may have been introduced to show that the prophet, while descended from the good King Hezekiah, belonged to a different branch of the family from Manasseh and Amon; proceeded from the line in which Hezekiah's goodness was transmitted, and thus had more than royal blood in his veins (not always an advantage) — hereditary piety in his soul.

III. THE TIME OF HIS APPEARING .

1 . The age fixed.

2 . Its character declared.

IV. THE SOURCE OF HIS INSPIRATION . "The word of Jehovah." Whether this came to him by direct revelation through voice ( Jeremiah 1:4 ) or vision ( Isaiah 1:1 ; Isaiah 2:1 ), or indirectly by meditation on the moral and political condition of his countrymen as well as on the character of Jehovah and the laws of righteousness by which he governs the universe, is not said and need not be inquired into. It suffices to know that the prophet claimed for his message that it had been expressly given him — put into his heart and mouth — by Jehovah; while his predictions certainly were such as could not have been announced without the aid of Divine inspiration.

V. THE BURDEN OF HIS PROPHECY . Judgment.

1 . Divine. The instrument is not mentioned; the first cause alone is placed in the foreground — "I will utterly consume;" "I will cut off;" "I will stretch out mine hand." The present day tendency is to set God in the background, if not to deny his agency altogether, alike in the production of material phenomena and in the superintendence of the social, moral, and political worlds, and to concentrate attention principally, if not exclusively, upon what are merely God's instruments. The prophet's way of looking at men and things accorded more with sound philosophy and true science, not to say sincere religion, than the practice prevailing in many so called enlightened circles today.

2 . Universal. The judgment should embrace the wide earth. "All" — "man and beast, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, the stumbling blocks and the wicked" — should be arraigned at Jehovah's bar. If the language pointed not to a general judgment of men and nations at the end of the world, it at least emphasized the thought that no part of the world, no age or nation, could escape the ordeal of appearing before Heaven's tribunal or elude the grasp of Divine retribution. The terms in which Jehovah declares his purpose to visit the wicked with destruction are such as to show that the complete fulfilment of the prophecy can only be reached in the great and terrible day of the Lord at the close of time (cf. Isaiah 24:1-23 ).

3 . Particular. While enclosing the whole world in its sweep, the threatened judgment should fall with a special stroke upon Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem — as it were beginning with the house of God ( 1 Peter 4:17 ). That the instruments of judgment would be the Scythians of whom Herodotus speaks as having invaded Upper and Higher Asia (Hitzig, Ewald, Bertheau), is not supported by sufficient evidence, whilst the fact that neither Herodotus nor the Old Testament reports any conquest of Jerusalem by them seems decisive against their being considered the executors of Jehovah's wrath. The agents actually employed were the Chaldeans ( 2 Kings 25:9 ), though it was not Zephaniah's purpose to indicate by whom the judgments should be carried out.

4 . Complete. Thorough going; upon both the world in general and Judah in particular. "I will utterly consume all from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah."

(a) First, the idolatrous priests of both kinds should be swept away — the Chemarim, or "the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem" ( 2 Kings 23:5 ; Hosea 10:5 ); and the priests, not "the idolatrous priests in the stricter sense" (Keil), but the unworthy priests of Jehovah who had either secretly or openly favoured the prevailing Baal worship (Fausset, Farrar).

(b) Next, the idol worshippers of both kinds should be cut off — the thorough paced devotees of the heathen cultus, who worshipped the host of heaven upon the house tops, and the temporizers who tried to combine the worship of Jehovah with that of Baal, offering oaths of allegiance partly to Jehovah and partly to their king, i.e. Baal.

(c) And finally, apostates and open despisers of the Jehovah religion should be punished — those who had turned back from serving Jehovah, and those who had never served him at all (ver. 6).

Learn:

1 . The value of an honoured and pious ancestry.
2 . The light the Word of God (contained in Scripture) can cast upon the
future.
3 . The certainty of a day of judgment fur men and nations.
4 . The impossibility of eluding the just judgment of God.
5 . The inevitable ruin of them who will not serve God.
6 . The impossibility of trying to serve God and idols.
7 . The danger of neglecting religion hardly less than that of apostatizing from it. — T.W.

Zephaniah 1:7-13 . - The day of the Lord's sacrifice.

I. THE INTENDED VICTIMS .

1 . Their persons catalogued.

2 . Their sins specified.

3 . Their punishments proclaimed.

II. THE OFFICIATING PRIESTS .

1 . Jehovah himself. "I will punish;" "I will punish; "I will search;" and "I will punish," saith the Lord. Whatever subordinate agents or secondary causes may be employed to inflict Divine vengeance upon rebellious nations and wicked men, the hand that directs these agents and wields these causes is God's. He is "the Judge of all the earth" ( Genesis 18:25 ), and "shall judge the people righteously" ( Psalms 67:4 ), rendering to every man "according to his work" ( Psalms 62:11 ). He "shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil" ( Ecclesiastes 12:14 ). "He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world" ( Acts 17:31 ).

2 . Jehovah ' s ministers. Described as his called and sanctified ones; i.e. not personally holy, but specially consecrated for the work to which they were appointed.

III. THE ENCOMPASSING SPECTATORS . The faithful remnant of Israel, those who still adhered to Jehovah and mourned as did Josiah, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah, Huldah the prophetess, Hilkiah the priest, and others, over the degenerate condition of the nation. So in the world still are God's believing people called to witness, and often actually do witness, the execution of God's judgments upon the ungodly. So in the last day, when the vials of Divine indignation will be outpoured upon the finally impenitent, the saints who have been counted worthy to attain Christ's kingdom and glory will behold the appalling scene, as Abraham beheld the burning of the cities of the plain, and will say, "Hallelujah I salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments" ( Revelation 19:1 , Revelation 19:2 ).

IV. THE RESULTING IMPRESSIONS . Pointed to in the solemn "Hush! be still" (ver. 7), with which the prophet opened his roll of woe. When he summoned the spectators to be silent before the face of Jehovah, he signified that silence was to be the effect produced upon their spirits by the spectacle they were about to witness. And this silence would be one:

1 . Of awe; as they contemplated the overpowering revelation of the majesty of God, of his holiness and justice, of his power and fidelity, which would be afforded by his judgments upon the wicked.

2 . Of submission; as they recognized the equity of those judgments by which sin was punished, the Divine Law vindicated, and God's glory proclaimed.

3 . Of amazement; as they marvelled how ever they who had once themselves been sinful, had through grace escaped those calamities which they saw overtaking the wicked.

Learn:

1 . That God deals with men and nations upon the principle of moral retribution.

2 . That neither national nor individual wickedness, if unrepented of, can evade its just recompense of reward.

3 . That God's judgments upon both will ultimately be approved by all. — T.W.

Zephaniah 1:7 . - The soul's silences before the presence of the Lord.

I. A SILENCE OF ADORATION . As becomes a creature in the presence of his Creator ( Zechariah 2:13 ; Habakkuk 2:20 ), and a sinner in the presence of the Holy One ( Job 40:4 ).

II. A SILENCE OF CONTEMPLATION . AS befits the soul in those moments in which God reveals himself in nature ( Job 37:14 ) or in grace ( Genesis 17:3 ; Exodus 14:13 ).

III. A SILENCE OF EXPECTATION . As a praying soul maintains when looking out for a response to his supplications, or a perplexed spirit when waiting for God to clear up the mystery of his providence.

IV. A SILENCE OF SUBMISSION . As they preserve who recognize the ills of life to proceed from the hand of God ( Psalms 39:2 ; Lamentations 3:28 , Lamentations 3:29 ).

V. A SILENCE OF APPROBATION . As God's judgments will enforce upon all who behold them ( Psalms 46:10 ). — T.W.

Zephaniah 1:8 . - Foreign clothes.

I. A BOND OF INTERNATIONAL UNION . The interchange of commodities among the different peoples of the earth one of the surest means of promoting peace and causing wars to cease.

II. A SIGN OF ADVANCING CIVILIZATION . When a nation's wants multiply beyond its own power directly to meet them, it naturally draws upon the resources of lands and peoples beyond itself. Thus while the existence of these wants marks the upward progress of the nation itself, the effort needed to supply them acts as a stimulus to other peoples to join in the onward march.

III. A SYMPTOM OF DECLINING PATRIOTISM . No truer indication that the national sentiment amongst a people is becoming feeble than the slavish imitation of the manners and customs, speech and dress, of a stronger neighbour.

IV. A SYMBOL OF RELIGIOUS DECLENSION . In this light regarded by the Egyptian or Chaldean raiment worn by Judaean princes and peasants meant that their hearts were hankering after Egyptian or Chaldean idolatry. So when Christians conform to the world's ways, adopting its maxims and principles, manners and customs, thoughts and feelings, sentiments and practices — all of which should be to them what foreign clothes were to Israel — there is reason to suspect that a backward movement in religion has begun. — T.W.

Zephaniah 1:12 . - Settled on one's lees.

I. A PICTURE OF PROSPEROUS EASE . The image — that of wine which has been allowed to settle in its cask, without having ever been drawn off or emptied from vessel to vessel — naturally suggests the condition of one who has become prosperous and affluent, who has never been visited by misfortune, agitated by calamity, or disturbed by affliction, but who through long years has been left to feast and fatten, like an ox in his stall, or (adhering to the metaphor) to fill and settle like a cask of wine.

II. A SYMBOL OF RELIGIOUS ( OR , RATHER , IRRELIGIOUS ) DEGENERATION . As wine, left upon its lees, retains its flavour — good or bad, as the case may be — so does the soul acquire a moral flavour from the things in which it delights, and on which, as it were, it rests. Nay, as good wine becomes better and bad wine worse from being allowed to settle on its lees, so do pious souls become stronger and more fixed in goodness, but ungodly souls more confirmed and rooted in wickedness, by being suffered to rest, the one on the holy inclinations and the other on the sinful lusts which form the lowest strata respectively of their beings.

III. A PRECURSOR OF APPROACHING DOOM . As bad wine allowed to settle on its lees rapidly deteriorates and reaches such a state of badness as to be unfit for use, so wicked men that settle on their lees, gratifying their sensual desires and venting their atheistical opinions, ultimately sink to such a point of moral degeneration as not to admit of recovery, and as allows nothing to be anticipated for them but swift and sudden destruction.

LESSONS .

1 . The danger of prosperity.
2 . The value of adversity. — T.W.

Zephaniah 1:14-18 . - The great day of the Lord.

I. RAPIDLY APPROACHING . "The great day of the Lord is near, it is Dear, and hasteth greatly" (ver. 14). This was true of the Chaldean invasion, then little more than one generation distant — so near, in fact, that the prophet could hear the bitter cry of the mighty man who saw himself confronted by its terrors; and is true of that other and greater day of the Lord, the day of judgment ( 2 Peter 2:9 ; 1 John 4:17 ; Revelation 6:17 ), which the Christian is directed always to consider as at hand ( Philippians 4:5 ; James 5:8 , James 5:9 ; 1 Peter 4:7 ; Revelation 22:12 ), because the exact moment of its coming no one can tell ( Matthew 24:36 ; Matthew 25:13 , Matthew 25:42 ).

II. TERRIBLY ALARMING . What the Chaldean invasion should prove to the guilty city of Jerusalem and nation of Judah the prophet depicts by heaping together all the images of horror that his mind can conceive or his language express, calling the time of that visitation a day of wrath and fury, in which Jehovah should pour out his indignation upon the land and its inhabitants, letting loose upon them the ferocious warriors of Babylon; a day of trouble and distress, in which men should be hemmed in on every side by calamity and pressed down by anguish, walking like blind men and falling like wounded and dying soldiers; a day of wasteness and desolation, in which fields should be devastated, houses overthrown, and men and women put to the edge of the sword; a day of darkness and gloominess, of clouds and thick darkness, in which not so much as a single star of hope should appear in the political firmament; a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high battlements, in which their fortified towns and cities should experience the shock of pitiless assailants. But even more appropriately will these images apply to the day of judgment, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire and with his holy angels ( 2 Thessalonians 1:8 ).

III. FIERCELY DESTROYING .

1 . Absolutely unavoidable. "The mighty man crieth bitterly there, .... because he cannot save himself, and must succumb to the power of the foe" (Keil). So would it be in the hour of Babylon's descent upon Judah and Jerusalem; so will it be in the day of the revelation of the wrath of the Almighty ( Revelation 6:15-17 ).

2 . Utterly consuming. "Their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. 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 an end, yea; a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land" (comp. Ezekiel 7:19 ). The same doom of utter extermination will overtake the finally impenitent in the day when God awakes in terrible majesty to execute judgment on the ungodly. Of these "God shall make an utter, terrific, speedy destruction, a living death, so that they shall at once be and not be; be, as continued in being; not be, as having no life in God, but only a continued death in misery" (Pusey).

Lessons.

1 . Gratitude to God, who hath made provision through the gospel of his Son from delivering men from the wrath to come.

2 . The duty of all to whom that gospel is made known to embrace its provisions and escape from impending peril, while yet the day of mercy lasts.

3 . The wisdom of living in constant anticipation of that day, and of perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.

4 . The urgency of making known to men the gospel, that they may flee from the wrath to come. — T.W.