Christ in Zephaniah

Zephaniah 1 is one of Scripture’s great announcements of the day of the LORD - a phrase that runs like a deep current through the prophets and out into the New Testament. The chapter opens with a decree of total judgment - I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD (v. 2) - and the reason is Judah’s idolatry: the worshippers of Baal and of the host of heaven (vv. 4-5), and those that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the…

After the storm-warning of chapter 1, Zephaniah 2 opens a door. Before the decree falls, a call goes out to the lowly: Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger (v. 3). The refuge held out to the meek is the very note on which the Sermon on the Mount begins - Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), Blessed are they which…

Zephaniah closes a book that began in the dark, and the last word is not wrath but song. The chapter does not soften the indictment - Jerusalem is filthy and rebellious, her princes roaring lions , her prophets light and treacherous , her priests have polluted the sanctuary (vv. 1-4) - yet over the wreckage one fact stands: The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not (v. 5). Then the grea…