The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. - Zephaniah 1:14–16 (ESV)
Zephaniah was a prophet who ministered during the reign of Josiah, King of Judah. Historically speaking, there is little time before the Babylonians will wipe out Judah and deport many of the people to Babylon.
The Big Idea of Zephaniah
I have taught the big idea of Zephaniah as the following: the Day of Yahweh should be dreaded by the wicked and longed for by the humble.
An Outline of Zephaniah
Chapter 1: The Day of the LORD Is Coming and Will Be Awful
In chapter one, Yahweh speaks through Zephaniah to warn Israel and the rest of the world that the day of Yahweh is coming. Not only is it coming, but it will be awesome. By “awful,” I mean awe-inspiring, fearful, and terrifying in the greatest sense of the word. Indeed, the first words of Yahweh’s message is that he will sweep away everything from the face of the earth (Zephaniah 1:2). Yahweh commands silence everywhere in awe and attention at what he is doing. Yahweh will punish wrongdoers. It is a day of wrath and distress; no one and nothing will be able to save people from it.
Chapter 2: The Day of the LORD is Against the Wicked and Proud
Chapter two rebukes and condemns various nations, such as the Philistines, Cherethites, Cushites, Moabites, Ammonites, and the Assyrians. Yahweh rebukes these nations for their taunts against Israel and their exaggerated self-confidence. Yahweh assures them that they will be destroyed, made desolate, or given over to Judah.
Chapter 3: The Day of the LORD removes evil and restores blessing to the earth
Chapter three is a declaration from Yahweh that he will gather and judge the whole earth, leaving a people in Jerusalem who are humble and seek Yahweh. Yahweh will restore Jerusalem’s fortunes, but only after bringing a people into it who are humble and seek him. He will remove any need to fear evil and will cause them to live securely forever. The nations will see and be amazed.
Benefits of Zephaniah
Zephaniah is one of those books in the Bible that has less cachet or respect than it should. Along with other minor prophets, it is unfortunate that Zephaniah's designation as “minor” often reflects a view of its importance rather than its size. Zephaniah offers numerous threads of thought that reward meditation and application.
Zephaniah motivates us to consider Yahweh’s judgment. This world is not all there is, nor will this world always be the way it is. History is moving toward an endpoint that Yahweh has fixed, and there will be judgment along the way. We are not the final arbiters of right and wrong. Yahweh is. The only sensible way to understand right and wrong is to seek to understand the way that Yahweh talks about it.
To that end, Zephaniah also promotes humility in the reader. As chapter two demonstrates, we should not be proud and arrogant. The Day of Yahweh shows the foolishness of pride. We tend to think far too much of ourselves and far too little of God. We tend to be great in our own eyes while Yahweh tends to be small. We tend to lean more on our own understanding than on the wisdom Yahweh has revealed in his word.
Zephaniah reminds us that the Day of Yahweh is real and that Yahweh has not been silent about it. All the proud in heart, those of us who ultimately look to and depend upon ourselves or anything else other than Yahweh should dread that day. But the humble, those in whose hearts God has shone to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, may long for that day instead (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6).
Why is this? It is because the day of Yahweh, while casting down and condemning the wicked, exalts and glorifies the humble. And how do we make sure we are in the latter category rather than the former? In the past, the people needed to look to the Law of Moses, which demonstrates Yahweh’s holiness, man’s sinfulness, and the means that Yahweh outlines there by which men may seek Yahweh. In the present, we must look to Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith, who fulfilled the Law of Moses, and by whose sacrifice all who trust in him may be made righteous.
A book like Zephaniah helps us to understand what we mean when we use a phrase such as “look to Christ.” It is nothing less than a total dependence upon Christ for all that we need to be able to enjoy the presence of God forever. Christ is our righteousness; we are not our own. Christ is our mediator; we are not our own. Christ is our savior; we are not our own. Christ is our redeemer; we are not our own. Through Christ, we are adopted by the Father; apart from him, we are spiritual orphans, hopeless, and without God in the world.
The Day of Yahweh should be dreaded by the wicked and longed for by the humble. But we must recognize that, in order to be humble, we do not look to ourselves but to Christ. Humility is marked far less by a low view of ourselves than it is by a high view of Christ. The higher we see him and exalt him in our hearts, the proportionally lower we will be in our own estimation. Biblical humility is not the same as demeaning ourselves. Rather, humility moves us to rightly value ourselves and God. It just happens that we cannot do one without the other, and that the relative value of the one against the other is divided by an infinite distance. This is good for us to recognize, and Zephaniah is helpful to that end.