Zephaniah 1:1-2:3. The “Intro to Zephaniah” pretty much covers verse one and if you haven’t read it you should.  In verse 2 Zephaniah jumps right in with god wiping the face of the earth clean.  Pretty scary picture.  If you have ever read the book of Revelation in the New Testament it describes the same events in history and it is very serious.  An interesting thing I observe though is the description in verses 4-6.  I mean why the detailed description when “I will completely remove all things” pretty much covers it?  One commentator mentioned that Zechariah wrote almost entirely in poetic language.  If that is the case we need to be careful hw we interpret the word.  Although normally ‘every thing” means “every thing” when it comes to poetry there can be exaggeration, sometimes called hyperbole meaning that the language is a magnification for emphasis.  I think that may be what is going on here.  So the description in verses 3-6 is the more precise description.  Also notice that the verses go from bigger (every thing) to smaller those who have turned away in verse 6 for example).  It goes from everything to the ruins and the wicked (evil people and the things they have spoiled) to Judah to Jerusalem to the followers of false gods and others who are not following the one true God, Yahweh.  I think this part is focusing on the wrath of God, The picture is still big and involves people all over the world, ultimately, but the kinds of people become the focus.

Verses 5 and 6 are particularly interesting to me since they seem to include three groups of people.  Fist we find people worshipping what ever they want to worship wherever they want to worship it.  People are on their housetops bowing down to the host (a word meaning a crowd) of heaven.  This could be a reference to parts of nature, angles and demons, made up gods, aliens, whatever they decide to honor in the created universe (or imagine to be out there).  Next we find people who do the same thing but include the one true God, Yahweh (Remember when you see LORD or once in a while GOD in some English translations it is a substitute for the personal name of God, Yahweh.  Jews would never pronounce the personal name of God and would substitute the word for Lord so some English translations do the same thing and use all capitals so we know that is what they have done).  And finally we find people who have abandon Yahweh and do not look to him any longer.  For me this part of Zephaniah seems to set the stage for who will suffer the destruction described:  People who do not worship the true God, who try to share their lives with Him and other gods, or people who turned their back on Him and just ignore Him (and perhaps all gods.  Atheists or secular people maybe).

The next section of today’s reading (verses 7-13) Continue to describe the kinds of actions that God is going to deal with.  It’s interesting how this section starts out though.  Verse 7 tells us that God is preparing a sacrifice and he has “consecrated” his guests.  That word mans to “dedicate or purify”.  So in a description of the wrath or judgment we see that there are some people who are not a part of the destruction, they have been cleaned up by God.  In ancient Israel they had many feast days.  Special days when they would remember things that God had done for them or would do for them or both.  These days often involved sacrifices of animals, a way of reminding people of the cost god had or would pay to fix their problems (ultimately it was all about the main problem between mankind and God; our defection).  There is a hint here of God’s ultimate purpose, for people to have a fixed relationship with him.  But it must be on his terms, he will not share us with whatever we want to worship.  In these verses we see several types of defection from God.  We see political rulers who were making alliances with foreign nations.  Israel was set up to be an example to the nations around them of the power of God, when they mixed their politics, religion, and day to day lives with those nations they were watering down the example they could be for God to the world.  We also see people who don’t take god seriously; they are violent or disrespectful in the temple.  But dishonoring God doesn’t just happen in the temple it can happen anywhere that people who are supposed to love God live and dishonor him.  The Second Quarter and the Mortar are districts in Jerusalem and the Fish Gate was an entrance into the city.  We see God active in them and even into the hills surrounding the city.  The idea of a lamp shows God actively searching out and finding people who are not serious about him.  According to verse 12 God will punish those who doubt his seriousness about disobedience, rebellion or even apathy (“God will never…”).  God will deal with these people so that they and the people around them (the Canaanites) will take notice.

Verse 14-18 take God’s seriousness about disobedience, rebellion and apathy toward him (sin) and projects it into a time in the future when God will ultimately deal with sin once and for all.  The earlier verses may have been about and probably were about things that were going to happen in the closer future of Judah.  We know that between 602 BC and 586 BC that Judah and Jerusalem were systematically invaded and eventually carried away into exile for the kinds of actions Zechariah talks about in these verses.  This last section (verses 14-18) though seems to be about the future time that we know is described in the Revelation.  Notice that the language in this section is more general and eventually returns to talk about the whole world and all the inhabitants of it.

The first four verses of chapter 2 continue this “whole world” language.  In these verse the prophet encourages the people of the world to get together before the “Day of the Lord” and to seek God.  Bowing was a sign of humility; a way to show that you though that the person or thing you are bowing to is more important or stronger than you.  Remember in chapter one the people on their housetops bowing to what ever.  Here Zephaniah asks people to come back to God and be humble; to bow to the true God instead.  He encourages them to be people who want to do right before God and follow his rules.  Zechariah then tells them that maybe God will “hide” them (Read “Intro to Zephaniah”) on that day when Yahweh displays his anger against sin.

It is interesting to me that in the book that describes these event in detail, the Revelation, that God the harsh actions of God are designed to encourage people to recognize his power and existence.  In the book of Revelation two or three times the action stops and someone comments that the people “still would not turn back to God”.  I see that same type of desire here in Zephaniah.  God will deal with sin but he wants us to come to him.  Sin is serious but so is God’s love for us and we need to get serious about both too. we need to seek being right with God with the recognition that God is so great; we need to respond to his loving forgiveness.  The New Testament tells us that the death of Jesus dealt with the penalty of our sin and opened the door for God to enter our lives and help us live for him (Mark 10:45, John 3:16, John 14:6, 16-17).  Jesus is the way to be consecrated and be hidden from the wrath that is to come (see Colossians 3:2-4).

God thank you that Jesus protects me from the wrath that I deserve.  Help me live for you better today.  Thank you for your life.  And thank you for warning me, I know you will deal with sin, again I thank you that it is though Jesus that my sin has been dealt with, help me share the good news of Jesus with others.  And let me never be half hearted or share my heart with any other god besides you.