← Back to sermon library

Zephaniah chapter 1, several 
of the prophets spoke of the day of the Lord. In the 9th century 
BC, Joel and Obadiah. In the 8th century, Isaiah. In the 7th century, we have Zephaniah 
here. And then in the 6th century, 
Ezekiel. And what the day of the Lord 
denotes is an important prophetic concept. The day of the Lord 
denotes any time when God intervenes in the human arena to affect 
His will. And in this particular instance, 
the prophet Zephaniah is announcing the judgment to come upon the 
southern kingdom of Judah. We'll just begin reading in chapter 
1. We'll read through chapter 2 
at verse 3. The word of the Lord which came 
to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son 
of Amoriah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son 
of Ammon, king of Judah. I will utterly consume everything 
from the face of the land, says the Lord. I will consume man 
and beast. I will consume the birds of the 
heavens, the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along 
with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face 
of the land, says the Lord. I will stretch out my hand against 
Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off 
every trace of Baal from this place. the names of the idolatrous 
priests with the pagan priests, those who worship the host of 
heaven on the housetops, those who worship and swear oaths by 
the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom, those who have turned 
back from following the Lord and have not sought the Lord 
nor inquired of Him. Be silent in the presence of 
the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the 
Lord has prepared a sacrifice he has invited his guests. And 
it shall be in the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will 
punish the princes and the king's children, and all such as are 
clothed with foreign apparel. In the same day I will punish 
all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their masters' houses 
with violence and deceit. And there shall be on that day, 
says the Lord, the sound of a mournful cry from the fish gate, a wailing 
from the second quarter, and allowed crashing from the hills. 
Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are 
cut down. All those who handle money are 
cut off. And it shall come to pass at 
that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish 
the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, the Lord 
will not do good, nor will He do evil. Therefore, their good 
shall become booty. and their houses a desolation. 
They shall build houses, but not inhabit them. They shall 
plant vineyards, but not drink their wine. The great day of 
the Lord is near. It is near and hastens quickly. 
The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter. There the mighty men 
shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a 
day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, 
a day of darkness and gloominess. a day of clouds and thick darkness, 
a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against 
the high towers. I will bring distress upon men, 
and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned 
against the Lord. Their blood shall be poured out 
like dust, and their flesh like refuse. Neither their silver 
nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of 
the Lord's wrath. that the whole land shall be 
devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make speedy riddance 
of all those who dwell in the land. Gather yourselves together. Yes, gather together, O undesirable 
nation, before the decree is issued, or the day passes like 
chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you. before 
the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you. Seek the Lord, all 
you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that 
you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, this 
is a very sober passage of Holy Writ, and we pray now for the 
mind of Christ as we study Your Word. God, I just pray again 
for the ministry of Your Spirit. I pray that You'd help us to 
learn the lessons from the Southern Kingdom. Help us not to duplicate 
their sins in the church. Help us, Lord God, to repent, 
truly to seek You and to seek righteousness and to seek humility. 
Lord, we pray that You would have mercy upon each and every 
one of us now and give us grace to receive Your Word. to apply 
it in our lives. And we ask through Christ our 
Lord. Amen. Now he's the only prophet that 
lists four generations of his heritage or four generations 
of his lineage. He mentions that he is the son 
of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of 
Hezekiah, more than likely the godly king Hezekiah. So he descended from royal blood 
and this was in fact a godly king in Judah. Now, Zephaniah 
prophesied, as he tells us here, in the days of Josiah the king. Josiah reigned from 640 B.C. to 609 B.C. Now, based on, or prior to, rather, 
Josiah's reign, there was Amon, who reigned for just two years, 
but before him was Manasseh. Manasseh had about a 53 year 
reign of abject wickedness. You think we've got problems, 
Manasseh was an entire wretch and even though at the end of 
his life he expressed a degree of repentance that could not 
undo the amount of disrepair and sin that he brought upon 
the nation. He established himself, Manasseh, 
as a benchmark of wickedness. So, more than likely, Zephaniah 
prophesied early in Josiah's reign. Josiah initiated a lot 
of religious reforms. In fact, there was revival that 
broke out in about 621 B.C. That was when Hilkiah the high 
priest found the book of the law and Josiah the godly king 
submitted to it and continued with subsequent reform in Judah. But the scenario that Zephaniah 
describes here speaks more to the influence of Manasseh and 
Ammon than the rather godly influence that Josiah would later on exercise. In fact, one commentator says, 
the reference to Baal-ism, diastral cults, and the worship of Moloch 
sounds like an evil inheritance from Manasseh and Amon. And the 
reference to the compromising behavior of princes and priests 
suggests a time in the king's earlier days before he began 
to implement reform. So probably in the early part 
of Josiah's reign, we might even say around 630, somewhere around 
there, B.C., one man has even thought or hypothesized that 
Zephaniah was a prophet with godly influence upon young Josiah. From an early age, Josiah sought 
the things of the Lord. Whether that's the case or not, 
it's kind of neat to think about that Zephaniah played some sort 
of formative role in the life and pedigree of Josiah. means the Lord hides or the Lord 
has hidden. There seems to be a reference 
to that name in chapter 2, verse 3. After he bids the people or 
exhorts the people to seek the Lord, to seek righteousness, 
to seek humility, though he uses a bit of a different word, the 
idea remains the same. It may be that you will be hidden 
in the day of the Lord's anger. Now, just to make sure we understand 
something about Manasseh's Judah. I don't think we always can wrap 
our minds around just how wicked it was. The high places were 
reinstalled. Hezekiah had pulled them down. But Manasseh, when he is reigning, 
puts the high places back up. Those are the places for pagan 
worship and for idolatry. He set up altars to Ashtoreth, 
or Asherah, the Canaanite goddess, Chemosh, the Moabite god, and 
Milcom, or Molech. Numerous altars to local Baals 
were built all over Judah. And he also carried the abomination 
of heathen altars into the temple of God. He installed altars to 
worship the sun, the moon, and the stars. Witchcraft and immorality 
were rampant And he also renewed the horrible right of child sacrifice. Child or children rather being 
offered up to Moloch. Moloch was a big statue with 
arms outstretched. They would light the fire around 
him and they would throw their babies into the arm of this idol. While having arms that do not 
grasp, the children would bounce off and into the fire and this 
would be a form of worship, child sacrifice. Though he professed 
a life-changing repentance after he was arrested by Assyrians, 
it was too late. Judah was messed up. Judah was 
in a very sorry state. Ammon was much like his father 
Manasseh, and he engaged in wickedness and evil as well. So, praise 
the Lord that even in the midst of all that, He would continue 
to send godly prophets and He ultimately sent King Josiah to 
call the nation back to some measure of faithfulness to the 
Lord Most High. Now, this particular section 
that I read breaks down into three major categories. First 
of all, there is the announcement of the day of the Lord. Chapter 
1, verses 2 to 13. In verses 14 to 18, we see the 
day of the Lord described. And then in chapter 2, verses 
1 to 3, there is an exhortation to seek the Lord. The remainder 
of chapter 2 deals with nations surrounding Israel. If you remember, 
Amos started his prophecy by calling out the particular nations 
And then he focused upon Israel and Judah. Well, it's a bit different 
here. Zephaniah begins with Judah and then highlights nations to 
the north, the south, the east, and the west of Israel. I think 
the thought being that Judah, or God's people, would oftentimes 
think that they were beyond judgment because they were God's favorite 
people. But we see here that judgment 
does begin at the house of the Lord. Well, we're just going 
to consider the announcement of the Day of the Lord this evening. I want to look at verses 1 to 
13, because I think the reasons for the judgment need to be understood 
so that we can avoid them insofar as we're able, and so that we 
can pray to God for the churches that we would not mimic the very 
things that are condemned here. and thus hopefully find solace 
in our God and find hiding in His hand. Well, he breaks down 
this announcement of the Day of the Lord into two major categories. 
He speaks of the world, and secondly, He speaks of Judah. Verses 2 
and 3, I will utterly consume everything from the face of the 
land, says the Lord. I will consume man and beast. 
I will consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, 
and the stumbling blocks, along with the wicked. We need to understand 
that. God's judgment is provoked not 
because He is capricious, not because He wakes up in a bad 
mood, but because there is wickedness. Sin is so contrary to the holy 
character of God that He must punish it. He must judge it. We ought never to be surprised 
in reading our Bibles that God judges sin, that God sends wrath, 
that God deals harshly and severely with those who have perverted 
their ways in things that God has commanded us not to. And 
very often in the Bible, God's wrath, God's judgment is seen 
almost as a decreation. or an undoing of creation. In fact, the very categories 
here are reversed. In the Genesis account, the fish 
are first, and then the birds, and then the beasts, and then 
man. Well, here in the judgment passage, 
with reference to the wrath of God, I will consume man and beast, 
birds and fish, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. 
I will cut off man from the face of the land, says the Lord." 
Judgment is seen as a de-creation or a reversal of creation. Creation is a good thing. God's 
judgment upon it is to de-create or to reverse it. So that's a 
general overarching statement of God's judgment of the world. 
Now notice, secondly, he focuses in on Judah. This takes up the 
prophet's concern more than anything else. Verse 4, I will stretch 
out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem. In 1 Peter 4, verse 17, the apostle 
says, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house 
of God. In the book of Amos, we saw where 
God's privileged people were held to a more strict standard. They were, because they had been 
given much, required of much. Their responsibility was even 
magnified by the fact that God had chosen them from among all 
of the nations. privilege translates into responsibility. And we see the very same thing 
here. Now, there are several reasons 
given for why God judges the nation. I want to consider four 
general reasons and then we'll look at two particular sins of 
the leaders. The first is idolatry. That shouldn't 
surprise us that God judges us. It should surprise us that His 
covenant people were worshiping Baal. It should surprise us that 
temples and altars erected to Baal were in the city or in the 
nation of Judah. I will cut off, God says, every 
trace of Baal from this place. The names of the idolatrous priests 
with the pagan priests. Baal worship. We see that throughout 
the Old Testament. And probably as New Covenant 
Christians, we wonder, what relevance does this have for us? Well, I think Alec Montier is 
right on when he defines Baal worship. Baal was the god of 
productivity. Baal was the god of productivity. His function in Canaanite religion 
was to make land, animals, and humans fertile. Baal was another 
name, I love this, for the gross national product. He goes on 
to say, and wherever people see bank balances, prosperity, a 
sound economy, productivity, and mounting exports as the essence 
of their security, Baal is still worshipped. We may not have erected 
small altars, we may not have a temple to Baal, But if, as 
we understand Baal in the Old Testament, if as he is describing 
it is correct, we have Baal worship literally saturating North American 
culture. The idea that productivity, that 
bank balances, that prosperity, a sound economy, and mounting 
exports as the essence of our security. He goes on to say, 
Bale was also the god of religious excitement and sexual free-for-all. Human sexual acts were publicly 
offered to him to prompt him to perform his work of fertilization. No wonder his officiants were 
called the frenzied ones. Listen, wherever excitement in 
religion becomes an end in itself, and wherever the cult of what 
helps replaces joy in what's true, Baal is worshipped. May God indeed have mercy on 
our generation if these things are true. We are driven, driven 
as a people, not by what is true, but what helps, what benefits, 
what makes me happy. What adds to my peace? What benefits 
me? And while we don't have temples 
erected to Baal, there is certainly Baalism present in the church 
and in this world today. But idolatry was not confined 
to Baalism. There were astral cults. That 
means worshipping the sun and the moon and the stars. Now you 
might think, there's nobody that worships sun and moon and stars 
today. There's people every day who check the astrology section, 
looking to the stars to guide their day, looking to the stars 
to define for them what sort of a mate they ought to look 
for. It is prohibited in the book of Deuteronomy. Chapter 
4, verse 19. Chapter 17, verse 3. was prevalent 
during the reigns of Manasseh and Ammon and into the reign 
of Josiah. So, it wasn't all gone by the 
time Josiah took the throne. And so God here, through the 
prophet, is saying, I am going to judge you for idolatry. Well, 
we don't worship Baal. Yeah, but you're on your rooftop 
worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars. We are not to 
worship and serve the creature. We are to worship and serve the 
Creator. The pagans look to the sun as 
the source of life. The Christian looks to God as 
the source of life. The pagan looked to the rivers 
and the created things around them to sustain life. We as God's 
people are to look to Him. We are to trust in Him. We are 
to put our souls upon Him and Him alone. And it is interesting 
that they did this on the housetops. Verse 5, those who worship the 
host of heaven on the housetops. Now, I don't want to make too 
much of this, but that does seem to speak of a rampant individualism. What do I mean by a rampant individualism? I mean individual religion. There was a no-no in Israel. Deuteronomy 12 prescribed a central 
place of worship. The Scriptures are all too clear. 
When we separate ourselves, when we seek to do things on our own, 
God is not pleased with that. They were on the housetops engaging 
in individualized worship. There is an instance in the book 
of Joshua where the tribes east of the river Jordan constructed 
an altar. And when the tribes on the west 
of the Jordan heard about that, they were going to go kill them. 
They were going to bring the heat. They were going to judge 
them. And so they go to those tribes. It was Gad, half-tribe of Manasseh, 
and Reuben. They were on the east side of 
the River Jordan. So when they went to investigate, 
those on the east side of the River Jordan said, it's not that 
we want to abandon the worship of Jehovah. It's just that being 
on the east side of the River Jordan, we're afraid you all 
are going to forget about us. So we put up this altar, not 
to offer up sacrifice, but simply as a witness to us, simply as 
a reminder, simply for us to be able to tell our children 
that we worship Jehovah, the Lord. And so that helped the 
people from the West, okay, we understand what you're doing. 
Davis comments why they were concerned. He says the restriction 
of sacrifice to one sanctuary was preventative theology. Now, I realize we don't have 
one central sanctuary today, but the obvious application is 
the church is where we ought to worship. We ought not to get 
up on our rooftops. That doesn't forbid you to worship 
God and praise God in private, but that cannot take the place 
of corporate worship with the people of God. So, Davis says, 
the restriction of sacrifice to one sanctuary was preventative 
theology intended to preserve the purity of worship. To oversimplify, 
it meant one altar, one faith, one people. But allow such worship 
wherever folks anchored to experience God, and it would soon take on 
a Canaanite color, soak up Canaanite belief, sport Canaanite practices, 
adore Canaanite gods. In short, it would at one blow 
kill both fidelity to Yahweh and the unity of Israel. So to 
the Western tribes, wind of another altar suggested man-chosen worship 
and sacrifice and wreaked of the first step toward apostasy. So when they heard that, they 
didn't say, well, that's good, you have your own place. No, 
they went to investigate. What are you doing? Well, we're 
not doing it for sacrifice. We're doing it to remember. We're 
doing it as a witness. Okay. But you see, they perceived 
the threat. When the sheep wanders from the 
flock, he is in danger. When we individualize our experience 
to the neglect of God-ordained means, the church of Jesus Christ, 
with all of her flaws, with all of her foibles, with all of her 
problems, with all of her imperfections. When we forsake that and we worship 
on the rooftops, we're opening ourselves up to all manner of 
danger. You need to love the church. 
You need to love the people of God. You need to love corporate 
worship. God didn't make us to stand on 
our rooftop and experience Him. Now, again, we can experience 
him on our rooftop provided we are operating from the context 
of faithfulness to the means that God has ordained. The second 
reason why God would judge Judah is what's called syncretism. 
Syncretism, there's another, the word con-substantiation we 
looked at this morning in Sunday school. Con means with. Well, 
the preposition soon in Greek means with also. So, syncretism 
means worshipping the true God with something else. And in this 
particular instance, notice at the end of verse 5, those who 
worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Molech. You see, that's syncretism. We 
want to hedge our bet. We're faithful to the Lord. There 
might be something in this mollack. We're faithful to the Lord, but 
I'm not going to throw out my horseshoes. We're faithful to 
the Lord, but I want to make sure, just in case, I've got 
all of my religious angles covered. That's syncretism. That's an 
affront to God. When we try to bring something 
along with us to worship God, that is satanic. In fact, O. Palmer Robertson says, what could 
be more satanic than a religion that took to itself the name 
of the true God while at the same time professing devotion 
to his chief rival? You don't walk the aisle, ladies, 
to marry a man when you've got your boyfriend on your arm. Your husband-to-be is going to 
say, get out of here. I don't want you. I'm not going 
to share you. This isn't like we all have, 
you know, equal say in this. There's got to be fidelity. We 
don't worship Jehovah and Molech. We don't swear to the Lord by 
Molech. Deaver, a preacher in Washington, 
D.C., said, in Zephaniah's prophecy, of course, the Lord was addressing 
the people of Jerusalem, all of whom were supposed to be his 
true worshipers. Had we asked them, some of them 
might have said they were simply worshiping both the Lord and 
other gods, being inclusive. It's a big thing today. We need 
to be inclusive. You Christians are too exclusive. 
We need to include more. We need to increase our vocabulary. We need to speak of the Eucharist 
so that we don't offend our Roman Catholic brethren. We need to 
be exclusive. We're not to be inclusive. I 
mean, we include believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes 
on to say, being inclusive, being respectful, getting the best 
from all the different traditions, doing a little hedging of the 
religious bets, just in case there was some truth here or 
some power there. But the true God has no co-regents. Worshipping the true God and 
some other God is not worshipping the true God at all. So God says, 
I will judge Judah. Notice, for idolatry and for 
syncretism. This is a scary passage of scripture. 
The third is for practical atheism. What do I mean by practical atheists? Atheism. This is not a confession. These are not dogmatic confessors 
saying, there is no God. A practical atheist who may affirm 
God, but he doesn't live like there's a God. Notice verse 6, 
those who have turned back from following the Lord and have not 
sought the Lord nor inquired of Him. It should not surprise 
us that in such a religious climate, people would backslide, apostatize, 
and ultimately engage in practical atheism. That is exactly what 
is going on here. Those who have turned back from 
following the Lord. That happens. Brethren, idolatry 
and syncretism so affects the professing people of God that 
the next step is to throw Him off. They marginalize God. They treat 
Him as if He was just a confession. And the fourth reason is for 
complacency. We see that in verse 12. It shall 
come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with 
lamps and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who 
say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, nor will he 
do evil." Settled in complacency. It's literally who is settled 
on their leaves. When you make wine. Wine settles 
on the leaves. You have to pour it out into 
another container so that it doesn't get contaminated, so 
that it gets rid of all the muck, so that it gets rid of all the 
dregs, all the leaves. The Bible uses that imagery in 
terms of complacency. You're just sitting there. You're 
not doing anything. You're not living as if there 
is a God. Again, Mottyer, this is not atheism 
as a dogma, but practical atheism. It does not say God is not there, 
but God is not here. It wasn't a confession on the 
part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. There is no God. It's a practical 
confession. There is no God in my life. Why 
should I pray? Why should I read my Bible? You 
know, we can go over here and pray to Baal, and then it'll 
rain. We can go over here and pray to Baal, and then we get 
good jobs. We can go over here and pray 
to Baal, and then women are interested in us. What good is it to serve 
Jehovah? We don't get anything out of 
it. That's the essence of their confession. The Lord will not 
do good, nor will He do evil. He's marginalized. He's not the 
sovereign of the universe, controlling everything, governing all His 
creatures and all their actions. He hasn't taken any notice of 
us. This is a sin I fear we can all too easily fall prey to. 
It's complacency. Religious complacency. It's not 
that God does not exist, but that God does not matter. That's what was going on in Judah. 
How is it in our lives? Do we live as if God does not 
matter? When something happens, what 
could our children say? They witness. They see a father 
and a mother seek the Lord or seek some other means. You children, 
is this true of you? God doesn't do good. He doesn't 
do evil. You know, I know He's there, 
but He's not really here. I know He's out there, but He's 
not really concerned with what's going on right now. He's not 
really involved in the moment. He's not really here with us. 
You see what God is saying? He will not be marginalized. 
He will not be voted out. He will not be argued away. He will not leave your world. God says, I will search Jerusalem. I mean, the contrast here is 
keen. God is searching out the city 
with lamps while the human responses, he won't do good, he won't do 
evil. All the while, God in his sovereignty 
is scrutinizing what his professing people are doing and he is going 
to bring judgment upon them. And he uses as one of his reasons, 
they say in their heart, God is not among us. Well, notice 
the sins of the leaders. It wasn't just the people, though 
it was the people, but it was also the leaders. There's two 
things mentioned here. The first is verse 8, the assimilation 
of foreign customs. Kind of an interesting statement. 
It shall be in the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will 
punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are 
clothed with foreign apparel. Now, there's a great difference 
on what that means. Were the kings or were the priests 
or the princes wearing clothing from other lands and somehow 
strutting their stuff? I mean, is it wrong for us to 
wear something made in China? Is it wrong for us to wear something 
that a person in India wears? I mean, is that really what God 
is highlighting here? O. Palmer Robertson says it has 
reference to do with those who dressed as priests of other gods. So instead of putting on the 
garb that the Lord had prescribed in their service to him, they 
mimicked the pagans around them. and wore their garb when they 
went about supposedly worshipping the Lord. And then the second 
thing is mentioned in verse 9, the adoption of pagan religious 
practices. In the same day I will punish 
all those who leap over the threshold. Again, something very interesting. 
something that probably we can't visualize. You can later refer 
to 1 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 5 to see an illustration where 
the Philistines wouldn't step on the threshold, they'd leap 
over it. Perhaps some sort of a superstition, some sort of 
an idea that it was bad luck or a bad omen. Well, the people 
in Israel, the priests in Israel adopted these religious practices. But note the irony. I mean, this 
is an amazing thing. They are fastidious in observing 
a pagan superstition. We've got to jump over the threshold. 
But they fill their master's houses with violence and deceit. I mean, isn't that legalism? 
We'll jump over the threshold, but we'll fill the house with 
violence and deceit. The irony associated with the 
importation of such a pagan superstition is found in the next phrase. While gingerly leaping over their 
temple threshold, the people of Judah nonetheless fill the 
house of their lords with violence and deceit. They observe the 
minutiae of a senseless pagan law, but then run rampant over 
the basic ordinances of God in his own house. Once the earth 
was filled with violence that led to its destruction in the 
days of Noah. Now it's the temple that's filled 
with violence in the days of Zephaniah. And God is going to 
bring judgment upon Judah. Those are the reasons. So I thought 
it was important for us to take a few minutes and to look at 
those very vividly. And hopefully it will fill our 
prayer closets and our family altars because we live in a day 
when idolatry and syncretism and practical atheism and complacency 
and sins of religious leaders are rampant. I mean, brethren, 
as we read this, we ought to be agreeing that there is every 
reason in the world that God should send judgment upon us. 
Judgment must begin in the house of the Lord. I don't see a whole 
lot difference between Josiah's days, or the early part of Josiah's 
reign, and what we are witnessing in our own day and age. God says, 
with reference to the city and the judgment that would be inflicted 
upon it, it would affect the entirety of the city. Verses 
10 and 11. There would be wailing in the city. Verse 10. There 
shall be on that day, says the Lord, the sound of a mournful 
cry from the fish gate. a wailing from the second quarter 
and a loud crashing from the hills. Wail, you inhabitants 
of Makdash, for all the merchant people are cut down. All those 
who handle money are cut off." There would be economic ruin. 
Economic ruin upon the city. It's fearful. It's scary. You hear a lot about the economy 
in our own day and age. That's exactly what Zephaniah 
was prophesying about. God, through the prophet, said, 
there will be economic failure. There will be economic ruin. This does not come in a vacuum. This is the book of the covenant. 
This is the vengeance of the covenant being executed by God. The Lord had said that if they 
turned to idols, if they were engaged in syncretism, if they 
renounced the commitment they had to the Lord, they would suffer 
as a result. They would be punished in kind. 
There would be wailing in the city. There would be economic 
ruin. There would be destruction of 
resources or, very specifically, real estate. Notice in verse 
13, Therefore, their goods shall become booty, and their houses 
a desolation. They shall build houses, but 
not inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards, but 
not drink their wine." The Lord God Most High had said through 
the prophet that everything they held near and dear, everything 
they valued, everything they prized would be stripped away. You see, God is not mocked. He 
cannot be wished away. He cannot be theologized away. He is the God of absolute sovereignty. From the marketplace to the fish 
gate, the second quarter, down to the houses of the people in 
the city of Jerusalem, the Lord God would visit judgment and 
justice upon them. As Mottyer says in the Bible, 
wealth is not a vice any more than poverty is a virtue. But 
the Bible asks three questions concerning wealth. How was it 
acquired? How is it being used? And what 
is the attitude of the possessor to the possessions? I think that's 
a great summary statement about a biblical doctrine of money 
and wealth. It doesn't condemn it, doesn't 
say it's a vice any more than poverty is a virtue. But the 
Bible asks these questions concerning it. How was it acquired? How 
is it being used? And what is the attitude of the 
possessor to the possessions? Those who handle money are cut 
off. The entirety of the nation would indeed be ruined. They 
would be deported. They would go off to Babylon. 
They would be told to stay in Babylon. They would be told to 
pray for the city that they were captive in, that God's peace 
would be upon it. And in time, the Lord would bring 
them out of that Babylonian captivity, and he would return them to Jerusalem. 
That's what the remainder of the Old Testament is all about. 
We are still pre-exile. We will see in the books of Haggai, 
Zechariah, and Malachi, the post-exilic, the after-exile prophets, when 
they came out of Babylon, when they returned to their homeland, 
when they built the temple, and when they resumed worship. Well, 
oh, we can't miss the divine initiative in all this. God searches 
Jerusalem. That's a very scary statement 
in verse 12. It shall come to pass at that 
time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps. Not as if God needs 
to acquire knowledge. He doesn't need to go out looking 
in order to be informed. I think the idea is that He's 
active. He's sovereign. Well, you may 
say in your heart, He's not going to do good or evil. He's there. 
He's watching. The Proverbs are true. Behold, 
the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the good and 
the evil. And it's also the Lord who is 
prepared to sacrifice. Notice in verse 7, be silent 
in the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at 
hand. For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. He has invited his 
guests. In this particular instance, 
the nation that he made to be a kingdom of priests would be 
the very sacrifice itself. He would invite the pagans to 
participate. He would invite the pagans around 
to watch, to witness, to see the Lord's hand in judging His 
people. Well, I don't want to take us 
too far. We'll pick up, God willing, the 
next section next week. Just a couple of lessons and 
then we close. First, the persistence of sin. Sin is a nasty thing. It doesn't go away. You would 
think that after God sent the Assyrians to judge the northern 
tribes, after God sent the Babylonians to judge the southern tribes, 
and after 21 centuries of church history, we would stop being 
idolaters. We would stop being syncretists. That we would stop engaging in 
practical atheism and complacency. Sin is a very persistent thing. 
We need to recognize that. We need to pray to God against 
it. We need to pray to God to fill 
us with His Spirit so that we may walk in holiness and in righteousness, 
resisting the temptation to become an idolater. Well, it may not 
be Baal, and it may not be the Temple of Baal, but it may be 
a whole host of other things. Whatever we give our full devotion, 
our attention, our worship to, for kids it may be the video 
game. It may be music. For adults, it may be the sports. 
It may be a whole host of things. It may be our families. More 
often than not, it's ourselves. Now, we may not look at a mirror 
and say, I worship you, but the way that we devote ourselves 
to ourselves, this speaks of our idolatry. We need to realize 
the persistence of these sins. We need to think about complacency. Complacency, that attitude that 
isn't fired up about the service of Christ. Zeal for the Lord. Remember, Phineas was commended 
by God because he had zeal for the Lord. God had just judged 
severely the nation of Israel. They had committed harlotry with 
Moab. God tells Moses to take the leaders out and publicly 
execute them. While everybody's crying, a man 
comes with a Midianite woman and he goes into the tent to 
have relations with her. Phineas says, uh-uh, not on my 
watch. He takes his javelin, he goes 
into the tent, and he drives it through both of them. We think, 
oh, that's heinous, that's hardcore, that's severe, Phineas. God says, 
I am going to bless him because he was zealous with my zeal. I am not advocating you take 
a physical javelin and pierce people through. That is not the 
take-home application. The take-home application is 
we need to be zealous for Jesus. I love what Mark Devers says 
here. He says, people who are unaffected 
by God implicitly tell the world that God himself is unaffecting 
and apathetic. In other words, the way we live 
with reference to God says something to the world about God. Bonar 
said it a couple of hundred years ago. He said, men know that if 
religion means anything, it means everything. Devers says their 
complacency lies about him. In other words, when we live 
like practical atheists and when we conduct ourselves in an attitude 
of religious complacency, we are sending a message to the 
world about our God. He's not worth getting excited 
over. He's not that good after all. He doesn't really bear upon our 
lives. We don't really take that stuff 
seriously. We don't really do those things 
He calls us to do. That sends a message. And we 
need to remember that. And when we are settled on our 
lease, and when we are saying in our hearts, He will not do 
good, nor will He do evil, we are publishing to those around 
us that God really doesn't matter after all. We need to repent 
of that. We need to be fired up. How that 
manifests itself in your life doesn't mean you're going to 
go get a javelin like Phineas and start cutting down the Midianites. But it may mean once in a while 
at work you speak up for Christ. It may mean once in a while in 
the home you tell the person who's visiting, look, I don't 
want to hear gossip. I'd rather tell you about Christ. It may 
flesh itself out in our lives other than Sunday. We may pick 
up our Bibles, we may pray, we may act as if there really is 
a God, and we love Him, and we want to serve Him, and we want 
to glorify Him, and we want to do all things in praise of His 
name. Notice something interesting 
about the judgment of God or the day of the Lord's wrath. 
It ought to promote worship. You get that in verse 7? Be silent 
in the presence of the Lord God. Remember we saw that in Habakkuk 
chapter 2, the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth 
remain silent. You need to say anything, you 
need to worship, you need to revere Him, you need to fear 
Him, you need to honor Him, you need to glorify Him. If in the 
midst of a coming judgment through Babylon, how about a coming judgment 
when Jesus returns from the glory of His Father with all of His 
holy angels? Let that sink in and let it promote silence in 
His presence. Let it promote worship and fear 
and adoration. And then the third observation 
we need to make, because I don't want to leave us with all wrath 
and judgment, because the prophet doesn't. Notice, there is an 
exhortation here in chapter 2, verses 1 to 3. While there is 
time, seek the Lord. That's what you need to be doing. 
That's what's most important. Seek the Lord. Seek righteousness. 
Seek humility. Should all the bad things that 
are written here in the book of Zephaniah come upon us? You 
know what the answer is? Seek the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. We need God. We need the one who is sending 
the wrath. We need the one who is sending 
the judgment. These things ought not to keep 
us from him. They ought not to make us run 
from him. They ought to make us run to him. That's the biblical 
fear of God, not to run from him, but to run to him. Gather 
yourselves together. Yes, gather together, O undesirable 
nation, before the decree is issued or the day passes like 
chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before 
the day of the Lord's anger. comes upon you. Seek the Lord, 
all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek 
righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that 
you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger." The prophet 
here uses the language, it may be. Not because he doesn't believe 
in God's power, but because he also believes in God's freedom. 
He believes in God's freedom. It may be. There is something very holy 
about the men of God in the scriptures who say, perhaps, or it may be, 
acknowledge the power of God, but they acknowledge his sovereignty 
as well. Faith is not arrogance. Faith 
is reverent toward our God. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, 
we thank you for the Holy Scripture. And while we see in the first 
part of this chapter, they would be judged for not seeking you, 
they are given the remedy, the antidote, and that is to seek 
the Lord, to seek righteousness and to seek humility. And God, 
certainly we have need for these things as well. And I pray that 
you would forgive us, cleanse us, Lord God, from any idolatry 
or syncretism or practical atheism or just a complacent spirit that 
would actually think in our own hearts and in our own minds, 
the Lord will not do good. nor will He do evil. God, I pray 
that You would keep us from such wickedness and cause us to not 
only confess the sovereignty of God, but to live in light 
of it as well. And we ask through Christ our 
Lord. Amen.