Zephaniah 1:1-13

What sins were so burdensome to the LORD that He determined to bring great judgment on Judah and Jerusalem?  The language is strong in 1:2-3: utterly consume everything and cut off man from the face of the land.  One wonders if the prophet has already taken us to the end time day of the LORD, except that v4 puts it in the context of God’s judgment on Judah and Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s time.  So again, what sins were they committing?  Here are the answers.

·        1:4-6: idolatry.  Here is an issue that might tell us why God was so filled with wrath.  You may remember that under King Josiah there was a removal from the temple of articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, articles that were burned and their ashes carried to Bethel, one of the two sites established by Jeroboam for idolatrous worship in the Northern Kingdom (2 Ki. 23:4).  Then he burned the altar at Bethel and, in fulfillment of a prophecy, burned the bones of the idolatrous priests that served Jeroboam’s altar (2 Ki. 23:15-16; cf. 1 Ki. 13:2).  You may think that because of Josiah’s revival the LORD would relent from His punishment; but He only agreed to delay it, promising to remove the temple as well as the people of Judah and Jerusalem (2 Ki. 23:26-27).  This helps to explain the LORD’s fury, but it is not all of which His people were guilty.

o   In v5 those who worship the stars and planets would do so from their flat housetops where the view was better.

o   Also in v5, Milcom was the god of the Ammonites.

·        1:7-9: arrogant oppression.  Zephaniah calls for silence as the day of the LORD is at hand.  Here the reason is the oppression of the princes and the king’s children.  It is doubtful that this refers to Josiah at the time as his children would not have been old enough to take such authority.  Rather, it may refer to those princes in the time of the judgment, which does involve Josiah’s descendents. 

o   In v9 those who leap over the threshold are those who, with great violence, enter the homes of the people and take their belongings as the rest of the verse indicates.

·        1:10-11: materialism.  These verses refer to every part of the city where the results of covetousness were seen.  The Fish Gate is similar to the Damascus Gate today, towards the north.  The Second Quarter is roughly equivalent to the Jewish Quarter today in the SW part of the city.  Maktesh may refer to the Tyropean Valley where, as today, merchants sold their wares.  (Cf. Feinberg, p224).  The point is that judgment will strike these commercial centers, bringing grief to those who live for the profit.

·        1:12-13: complacency.  There were those who denied that God was in any way going to intervene in Judah.  They lived as if there was no such thing as judgment or accountability for one’s actions.  But in the coming day of the LORD they would experience how wrong they were.

Before we continue let us consider these sins and ask how we would have fared if we had been in Judah in the days of Zephaniah.  What is described is so much like what we see today.  First, in people’s hearts today, so often they do not seek the LORD but have turned back from following Christ (v6).  Then, their lives are characterized by a win-at-all-costs mentality towards things, money.