Zephaniah 3

Why did the prophets consistently close their books with messages of hope? For at least three reasons. To begin with, hope is a great motivation for obedience, and the prophets wanted to encourage God’s people to submit to God’s will and do what He commanded. God’s covenant blessings come to His people only when they obey His covenant conditions.

A second reason is the prophets’ emphasis on the faithfulness of God. The Lord will keep His promises and one day establish the kingdom; and since God is faithful to keep His promises, we ought to be faithful obeying His Word. If we obey, God will be faithful to chasten; if we confess, He will be faithful to forgive.

Finally, the closing message of hope was an encouragement to the faithful remnant in the land who were true to God and suffered because of their devotion to Him. It’s difficult to belong to that “company of the committed” who stand true to the Lord and His Word no matter what others may do or say. Knowing that God would one day defeat their enemies and reign in righteousness would encourage the believers remnant to persist in their faithful walk with the Lord.

In this last chapter, God reveals His plans for Jerusalem, the Gentile nations, and the faithful remnant. At the same time, the Lord reveals Himself and His gracious working on behalf of His people in every age and in every place.

Jerusalem is commonly called “the Holy City,” but in Zephaniah’s day, the city didn’t manifest much holiness! Isaiah (1:21ff.), Jeremiah (29:12ff.), and Ezekiel (4—6, 9) gave the same assessment in their day. Even the Gentiles called Jerusalem “the rebellious and wicked city” (Ezra 4:12, 15), and they could cite proof for their statement.

A sinning people (vv. 1–2). Instead of being holy, the city was filthy and polluted because of shameful sin; and instead of bringing peace (“Jerusalem” means “city of peace”), the city was guilty of rebellion and oppression. God gave His people the revelation of Himself in His Word and His mighty acts, yet they didn’t believe Him or seek Him. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4: nkjv).

A godless leadership (vv. 3–4). God expected the civil and religious leaders of the land to take His Word seriously and lead the people in the way of righteousness. Instead, the leaders acted like ravenous beasts in the way they oppressed the people and took what they wanted from them. The prophets were unfaithful to the Lord and His Word and dealt treacherously with the people. They didn’t proclaim God’s truth; they only preached what the people wanted to hear.

As for the priests, their very ministry was toxic and polluted the sanctuary! (Matt. 23:25–28 relates what Jesus said about the Pharisees in His day.) Instead of serving God for His glory, the priests twisted the law to please themselves and gain what they wanted.

The tragedy is that God had spoken to His people and corrected them in discipline, and yet they wouldn’t listen or obey (Zeph. 3:2). “If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over” (Lev. 26:23–24 niv). This was the message of Jeremiah to the city of Jerusalem even while Babylon was poised to attack (Jer. 2:30; 5:3; 7:8; 17:23; 32:33).

A righteous God (vv. 5–8). God’s name was identified with the city and the temple (2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Kings 5:5; Neh. 1:9), and yet both were cesspools of iniquity. Therefore, He would have to act in judgment for His own name’s sake. The wicked officials met at the city gate morning after morning to transact their evil business, and the Lord was there to behold their deeds. How patiently He waited, and yet they would not repent and turn to Him for cleansing!

Since the Lord reminded His people that He had judged the Gentiles and cut off nations (Zeph. 3:6), He was able to cut Judah off as well. In fact, the Jews were more guilty than were the Gentiles because the Lord had given Israel more truth and more blessing. The people were sinning against a flood of light. Surely God’s judgment of the other nations should have awakened the Jews to their peril, but they paid no attention. After all, they were God’s covenant people, and He would protect them from their enemies. They forgot that covenant privileges also involved covenant responsibilities.

The Lord concludes this message to Jerusalem by describing a courtroom scene in which He stands to testify against His people (v. 8). While the impending Babylonian captivity is involved here, there is also an

The Day of the Lord and the kingdom end-times application in the Battle of Armageddon, when the nations of the world converge against Jerusalem. God will pour out His wrath upon these nations, deliver His people, and establish His kingdom (Zech. 14:1–9). His jealous anger will burn like fire against all who resist His truth and disobey His Word. The terrible day of the Lord will dawn, and there will be no escape (see Zeph. 1:2ff.).

It’s important to keep in mind that God’s call of Abraham involved bringing God’s blessing to the whole world (Gen. 12:1–3). God accomplished this by giving the Jews the knowledge of the true God, the written Word of God, and the Savior, Jesus Christ (Rom. 9:1–5). Therefore, they were to share these blessings with the Gentiles.

The Jews were supposed to magnify the Lord’s name before the Gentiles. Instead, they imitated the pagan nations and disgraced God’s name (Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24). The court of the Gentiles in the Jewish temple was supposed to be the place where Gentiles could talk with Jews about the true God and even pray to Him, but the religious leaders made that area into a market for selling sacrifices and exchanging money. What kind of testimony was that to the outsiders who were earnestly seeking the truth?

What blessings does God promise for the Gentiles in the last days? First, He promises that the Gentiles shall be converted (Zeph. 3:9). Instead of calling on their false gods, the Gentiles will call upon the true and living God and have their lips purified. Since what we say with our lips comes from the heart (Matt. 12:34–35), cleansed lips indicate forgiven sin and a cleansed heart (Isa. 6:1–8).

But the Gentiles will do much more than call on the Lord and receive His cleansing; they will also serve the Lord as one people and no longer be divided (“serve Him shoulder to shoulder,” Zeph. 3: niv). The prophets teach that during the Kingdom Age the Gentiles will go to Jerusalem to worship and serve the Lord (Isa. 2:1–5; 4:1–6; Ezek. 40—48; Zech. 14:9ff.). The God of Israel will be the Lord of all the earth, and the Gentile nations will honor and serve Him. Along with the scattered Israelites who return to their land, the Gentiles will bring the Lord offerings and be called His “worshippers.”

Before our Lord’s death on the cross, there was a vast difference between the relationship of Jews and Gentiles to each other and to the Lord. But the middle wall that separated them has now been taken down (Eph. 2:11ff.), and both can share in the spiritual blessings that come through faith in Christ. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Rom. 10:12–13 nkjv, italics mine). This miracle of God’s grace will be demonstrated in the Kingdom Age as the Gentile nations trust and worship the God of Israel.

When the terrible day of the Lord is over, Israel will be a new nation. The Jews will look by faith upon the Messiah whom they crucified, believe in Him, and enter into a new life in the promised kingdom.

Sin will be removed (vv. 11–13). The Jews won’t have to be “put to shame” because, when they see Christ, they will be ashamed of what they did to the Lord and will mourn over their transgressions (Zech. 12:10—13:1). It will be a time of deep repentance and confession that will lead to salvation. God will especially deal with the pride of Israel that for centuries had kept them from submitting humbly to the righteousness of God that comes only by faith in Christ (Rom. 9:30—10:13; Phil. 3:1–12). There will be no place on God’s holy hill for proud sinners who think they can earn God’s salvation by their good works. In contrast to the proud sinners will be the believing remnant, the “meek and humble, who trust in the name of the Lord” (Zeph. 3: niv).

Faith in Christ will make everything new so that the people will no longer disobey God or practice deception. This suggests that all love of idolatry will be taken from their hearts, for idols are lies and to worship them is to practice deception. For the first time in centuries, the Jews will be able to enjoy their meals and their sleep, for all their enemies will have been defeated. During the years of their worldwide dispersion, in many places the Jews have been subjected to threats and intimidation, even fearing for their lives (Deut. 28:63–68), but that will end when God establishes the kingdom and Christ reigns over the nations.

God’s people will rejoice (vv. 14–17). This is one of the most poignant passages in Scripture. It depicts the Lord as a loving mother, singing over her children and finding joy in their presence. The people of God sing and shout because of all that God has done for them. He has taken away their punishment, defeated their enemies, and come to dwell with them. Furthermore, He has guaranteed that the people of Israel will never again be afraid. Because the Lord is the King of Israel, His people have nothing to fear.

When Pilate presented a suffering Jesus to the Jewish leaders, they rejected Him and shouted, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). But now the Jewish people will joyfully acknowledge that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Phil. 2:9–11). Instead of standing dejectedly like defeated prisoners of war, the Jews will enthusiastically shout God’s praises.

What do they have to sing about? To begin with, they have God’s presence with them and God’s power working for them (Zeph. 3:17). Even more, their God holds them next to His heart like a loving mother holds a baby; He quiets them with His love, and He even sings to them! This image of “the motherhood of God” assures forgiven sinners that God is with them, that He loves them, and that they have nothing to fear.

Our God is a “singing” God. God the Father sings to the Jewish remnant entering the kingdom (v. 17). God the Son sang at the close of the Passover Feast, and then went to the garden to pray (Matt. 26:30). He also sang after His triumphant resurrection from the dead (Ps. 22:22; Heb. 2:12). God the Spirit sings today through the hearts and lips of Christians who praise God in the Spirit (Eph. 5:18–21).

The nation will be restored (vv. 18–20). During the seventy years of captivity in Babylon, and then during their worldwide dispersion among the Gentiles after AD 70, devout Jews were not able to celebrate their appointed feasts (Lev. 23). Since the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the Jewish people have had no temple, altar, priesthood, or sacrifice (Hos. 3:4–5). Of course, the types and symbols of the Old Testament law have all been fulfilled in Christ, including the feasts and sacrifices (Heb. 10), but Zephaniah intimates that these feasts will be restored in the Kingdom Age, and Zechariah 14:16–21 seems to support this interpretation.

Why would the Lord restore religious practices that have now been fulfilled? Possibly as a means of teaching Israel the meaning of the doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ. The feasts described in Leviticus 23 picture “salvation history,” from the slaying of the Passover lamb (John 1:29) to the day of Atonement (the cleansing of Israel) and the Feast of Tabernacles (the Kingdom Age). The prophet Ezekiel describes in great detail the structure and services of a great temple in Israel (Ezek. 40—48), and this includes the offering of the Levitical sacrifices. Just as the Old Testament types looked forward to the coming of the Savior, perhaps during the Kingdom Age these rituals will look back to His finished work.

God’s promise is that His scattered people will be gathered, His lame people will be rescued, and His sinful people will be forgiven and no longer bear the shame of their wicked deeds. “I will bring you home” (Zeph. 3: niv) is God’s gracious promise, and He will keep it. Where once the Jewish nation brought shame and disgrace to God’s name and were poor witnesses to the Gentiles, now Israel will bring honor and praise to the Lord their God and reveal to the Gentile nations the glory of His name. Israel will receive honor from the Gentiles and give the glory to the Lord.

The state of Israel was “born” on May 14, 1948, but that event, significant as it is, was not the fulfillment of God’s promise to regather His people and restore their fortunes. That promise will be fulfilled in the end times, after the Jews have experienced the day of the Lord and been prepared to see their Messiah. But God’s promises will be fulfilled, and God’s people Israel will be restored and bring worldwide glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But there is a present-day practical lesson here for any of God’s people who have strayed from His will and have experienced His chastening. When you come to Him with a broken heart, confessing your sins, He will receive you the way a loving mother receives a disobedient child. He will love you and even sing to you! He will bring peace to your heart and “quiet you in His love.” Yes, we suffer for our disobedience; and sometimes we carry the scars of that disobedience for the rest of our lives. But the Lord will forgive us (1 John 1:9), forget our sins, and restore us into His loving fellowship.

Dr. William Culbertson, late president of Moody Bible Institute, sometimes ended his public prayers with, “And Lord, help us bear the consequence of forgiven sin and to end well.” There are consequences to forgiven sin; for though God in His grace cleanses us, God in His government says, “You will reap what you have sown.” After King David confessed his sin, the prophet Nathan assured him that the Lord had put away his sin, but the rest of his days, David suffered the tragic consequences of what he had done (2 Sam. 12:1–15).

But when God establishes His kingdom on earth, He will restore His people, renew the land, and give His people a new beginning that will cause them to forget their past disobedience and focus on praising the Lord and glorifying His name.

Jehovah is “the God of hope.” Therefore, He can fill us with “all joy and peace in believing” so that we can “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15: nkjv).

Is that your experience today? t does us little good to learn about the times of the Minor Prophets if we don’t do something in our own times.

Situations vary from nation to nation, but the statistics for my own country aren’t too encouraging. • Since 1960, the rate of births to unmarried teenagers has increased 200 percent. • Since 1960, violent crime has increased by 560 percent. • The fastest growing segment of the criminal population is children. Between 1982 and 1991, the arrest rate for juvenile murder increased 93 percent. • The average child will watch up to 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on TV by the time he or she leaves grade school. • Eight out of ten Americans can expect to be the victim of violent crime at least once in their lives. • Since 1960, teen suicides have more than tripled. It is now the second leading cause of death among teens. • The top problems in high schools are alcohol and drug abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, and robbery.

As go the homes, churches, and schools, so goes the nation. It’s time to be concerned.

One of the key truths found in the Minor Prophets is the presence of a godly remnant in times of moral and spiritual decay. This remnant is a small group of people whose devotion to the Lord can make a difference in the nation. After all, if God had found as many as ten righteous people in Sodom, He would have spared the whole city (Gen. 18:32)!

Israel was at its lowest ebb during the period of the Judges. Yet God could always find a dedicated man or woman to lead His armies to deliver His people. Elijah thought he was the only faithful person left in the land, but God informed him that He had seven thousand who hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah” (Isa. 1: nkjv).

I like to call this godly remnant “the company of the concerned.” They are people who are truly concerned about the will of the Lord and the character of their country, people who are distressed by evil and want to do something about it. The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the remnant in his day: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezek. 9:4). The NIV translates “sigh” and “cry” as “grieve” and “lament.”

Whoever wrote Psalm 119 belonged to the “sighers and criers” of his day. “Indignation grips me,” he wrote, “because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law” (v. 53 niv); and he confessed, “I am a companion of all those who fear you, and of those who keep Your precepts” (v. 63 nkjv). He was an encouragement to others who belonged to the “company of the concerned,” for he said, “Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your word” (v. 74 nkjv). And he told the careless sinners in the land, “Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God!” (v. 115 nkjv).

But I need to make one thing clear from the beginning: I’m not talking about people motivated by anger so much as by anguish. Certainly there’s a place for righteous anger in the Christian life (Eph. 4:26), but anger alone may do more harm than good. “For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1: nkjv). When righteous anger is mingled with compassion, you have anguish; and anguish is what the “company of the concerned” feel as they behold the moral and spiritual decline of the nation. “Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your law” (Ps. 119:136 nkjv). “Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delights” (v. 143 nkjv).

Each of the prophets whose writings we have studied belonged to the “company of the concerned,” and they are good examples for us to follow.

First, they were totally committed to the Lord. Amos was an ordinary farmer and shepherd, untrained in the schools of the prophets; yet God called him to deliver His message at a strategic time in history. As I travel in ministry, I’m more and more impressed by the “laypeople” God has called to serve Him in significant places, people who have no professional ministerial training, yet who are doing great things for the glory of the Lord. Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote, “It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”

The “company of the concerned” is made up of people who are separated from sin (Rom. 12:1–2; 2 Cor. 6:14—7:1), but who are not isolated from the real world. They aren’t “holier than thou” in their attitude toward sinners. They have the courage to be different (but not odd) and to walk the narrow road no matter what it may cost them. They are people who pray consistently for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1–4). It does no good to write letters and protest if we aren’t praying for those leading our nation.

Second, the “company of the concerned” is composed of people who have a proper fear of God in their hearts. The prophets certainly teach the love of God toward His people and toward lost sinners, but they also remind us that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). They believed the Word of God and knew that judgment was coming to the land.

The only nation on earth that is in a special covenant relationship with God is the nation of Israel. While many of the founding fathers of the United States of America were God-fearing men, the people of the United States can’t claim special privileges from God because of their citizenship. It’s true that the Puritan forefathers felt called to build God’s kingdom on American soil, but we have no biblical basis for their vision.

What do we have? The promises of God for those of His people who will obey 2 Chronicles 7: and intercede for their country. God works in response to believing prayer, and believing prayer must be based on the Word of God.

The fear of the Lord is the fear that conquers every fear. John Wesley said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of God on earth.” He was describing the “company of the concerned.”

Third, the “company of the concerned” is indeed a company, composed of believers who realize that God wants His people to “flock together” and not try to do everything alone. The most dangerous believers are those who aren’t accountable to anybody but do whatever they please and think they’re serving God. They write angry letters to government officials, media people, and even local pastors, and often they don’t sign their names. God has called them to set everything right in the world, even though they often don’t really understand the problems they’re trying to solve. Instead of belonging to the “company of the concerned,” they’re charter members of the “company of the confused.”

Malachi 3: is a good description of the kind of “company” God is looking for: “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate in His name” (nkjv). “The more the truths by which we believe are contradicted,” said Alexander Maclaren, “the more should we commune with fellow-believers.” When you study the “one another” statements of the New Testament, you discover how much Christians need one another and need to minister to one another. It has well been said that you can’t raise one Christian any more than you can raise one bee.

To be sure, every local church has its weaknesses and faults, but it’s the family of God, and that’s where we belong. Nobody was born into a perfect family. Yet we love our brothers and sisters and try to ignore the things that irritate us. When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles, He sent them out two by two, because “two are better than one” (Eccl. 4:9). People who are a part of the “company of the concerned” don’t try to go it alone. They love one another, pray for one another, and seek to encourage one another.

Something else is true: They realize the importance of righteousness and justice in the “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14: nkjv). The believers in the “company of the concerned” seek to be salt and light in the land (Matt. 5:13–16) and do all they can to prevent decay and dispel darkness. The influence of their character, conduct, and witness promotes righteousness, whether it’s in their daily work, the way they vote or pay their taxes, their example, the way they raise their children, or how they invest their time and money.

Nehemiah is a person who exemplifies what it means to be in the “company of the concerned.” When he heard about the tragic condition of Jerusalem, he sat down and wept, knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked to change things (Neh. 1—2). He could have excused himself by arguing, “It’s not my fault that Jerusalem is in ruins,” or “I have a job to do right here in the palace.” Nehemiah never read the words of Edmund Burke, but he lived by them: “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.”

When you read the book of Nehemiah, you meet a man who enlisted the help of the Jewish leaders and rallied the common people to rebuild the wall of the city. He didn’t try to do it alone. He was a man of prayer who trusted God to supply the needs and defeat the enemies around Jerusalem. In fifty-two days, the job was done, and the song of praise from Jerusalem could be heard for miles.

H A G G A IMuch more can be said about the “company of the concerned,” but let me close with this observation: these people know the importance of good leadership in the nation. “Everything rises and falls with leadership,” claims Dr. Lee Roberson, and he’s right. However, during the times of the prophets, the leaders of Israel and Judah were too often selfish, disobedient to God’s law, and unwilling to trust Him for the wisdom and help that they needed. The prophets warned the kings, princes, and priests that their sins would ruin the nation, but the men refused to listen. After Judah was ravaged and Jerusalem and the temple ruined, Jeremiah wrote that it had been caused by “the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests” (Lam. 4:13). A democracy is not a theocracy, where the king is God’s representative on earth; nor is a pluralistic society the same as the homogeneous society of the Jewish people, who were all governed by the same moral code. But leaders in a democracy should still be expected to be men and women of character, who practice honesty and integrity and who genuinely care for their people. Someone has said that a politician is concerned about his party and asks, “Is it popular?” The diplomat is concerned with policy and asks, “Is it safe?” But the statesman is concerned about the good of the nation and asks, “Is it right?” Edward Everett Hale, author of The Man without a Country, wrote, land. I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. That’s a good motto for the “company of the concerned.” But add to it the great words of Paul: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me … for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 4:13; 2: nkjv). It’s time to be concerned.