ZEPHANIAH: THE DAY OF THE LORD'S WRATH
It was Zephaniah's lot to speak on the most unpleasant subject in the Bible -- the judgment of God. This is not the only place where this theme occurs, of course, but it is the most concentrated treatment of the judgment of God as the whole book is devoted to this one theme.
There are many people who would like to rule this subject of judgment out of the Bible entirely. There are those who tell us that the God of the New Testament, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the kind of a God who can never move in judgment. His heart is so tender, his love is so gracious, his patience is so infinite that there never will be a time when God will move in vengeance. It should be noted though, that in the New Testament the Lord Jesus spoke very frequently about the judgment of God. In the fourth chapter of Luke we are told that the Lord came back to his home town after preaching in Judea for many months. He had done many miracles and the word of his miracles had preceded him, so all the folks in Nazareth were very anxious to see him. He had not behaved like this when he was a boy growing up, and they were keen to see if he was going to do some mighty work when he came home.
Luke tells us that Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he was given the book of the prophecy of Isaiah to read. Opening the scroll he found the place in Isaiah 61:1-2a;
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. Luke 4:10 Then he stopped right in the middle of a sentence, right at a comma, and his last word was that
he had come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. But Isaiah goes on to say,
and the day of vengeance of our God. Isaiah 61:2b Jesus did not read that because it was not the time for the Day of vengeance of God. It is this day particularly, that Zephaniah is talking about.
Zephaniah means "hidden of the Lord" and the prophet is speaking as if he were a representative of the remnant of faith -- those relatively few people who will remain true to God and be faithful to Him, through this disaster that is to come upon the earth. They will be hidden, as it were, by God himself among the nations of the earth and God will watch over them to keep them in faith during this time. And it is about these people that the book of Zephaniah is written, and especially of that coming day, the Day of the Lord’s vengeance and wrath, which is vividly described by the prophet.
In chapter 1, Zephaniah gives us the character of God's vengeance. It is not a pleasant passage.
"I will utterly sweep away everything
from the face of the land, says the Lord.
I will sweep away man and beast;
I will sweep away the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea.
I will overthrow the wicked;
I will cut off mankind
from the face of the earth," says the Lord.
"I will stretch out my hand against Judah,
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal [the false god of the peoples around Israel]
and the name of the idolatrous priests;
those who bow down on the roofs to the host of heavens; [the star worshipers]
those who bow down and swear to the Lord
and yet swear by Milcom; [one of the other gods the surrounding nations]
those who have turned back from following the Lord,
who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.
Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is at hand.
The day of the Lord is the day of the manifestation of God's hand directly in human affairs. Notice the personal pronoun all through that passage: "I will sweep away everything." I will sweep away man and beast." "I will cut off mankind." God is working through events in history, working through nations and armies and calamities of various sorts. But as He did in Noah’s day, He will use His creation to once again reset civilization, this time with fire, as over 70 prophesies tell us.
The Apostle Paul also uses the term "the Day of the Lord." In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 he says:
But as to the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. [Why not? Well, because they already had it in the Old Testament.]
For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
There are many other passages that also refer to the Day of the Lord and they all agree that in the time when men are proclaiming peace, but preparing for war; in a time when they are holding to a form of godliness but denying the powers thereof; in a time when they are declaring that the problems of life are being solved. but when actually they are in greater danger than they have ever been before, then the Day of the Lord will come.
Now let us return to Zephaniah and see what he has to say about this (chapter 1. verses 7-9):
Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is at hand;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice --
"I will punish the officials and the king's sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire ...
every one who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master's house
with violence and fraud.
How can this be? How can the God of love -- the God of the New Testament -- do a thing like this? How can God, who loves mercy and is slow to anger, ever come to this place?
It is this kind of reasoning that suggests we should go through our Bibles and tear out every part that does not agree with our concepts of God. But what we have left, of course, is nothing more than what we like, what we think God ought to be like.
You can see how such an argument defeats itself. The very book that tells us that God is a God of love also says he is a God of vengeance. And anyone who thinks carefully about himself and about love will understand why a God of love has to be a God of vengeance. For if we love someone, we hate everything that injures that person. We are against whatever threatens or destroys what we love. And the very love that moves the heart of God to pour himself out over the centuries in an unceasing effort to awaken man to his need and to hear the call of grace, is the same love that at last prompts him to eliminate those who refuse all the province of his grace, and identify themselves with that which is opposed to his will and to his work among men. Then he has nothing left to do but to destroy them. And that is why the prophet speaks so plainly about this.
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