Zephaniah 1:1 - Meaning and Application

This is the title page of the book, and it tells us the book’s authority and its messenger. It is the word of the Lord, so it comes from heaven, not from human thought.

The prophet’s name was Zephaniah, which means “the servant of the Lord.” God has always revealed his secrets to his servants, the prophets. Some prophets are traced only to their father, but Zephaniah’s family line is given back four generations. The highest name mentioned is Hizkiah, likely the same as King Hezekiah of Judah (2 Kings 18:1). If that is so, Zephaniah was a descendant of a godly king, and that may help explain why he could boldly rebuke the king’s children in Zephaniah 1:8.

Zephaniah prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, who ruled well and later began a serious reform. Josiah removed idols and worked to turn the nation back to God. We do not know whether Zephaniah preached early in Josiah’s reign or later. If it was early, his message likely helped the reform move forward, because when God’s messenger rebuked idolatry, Josiah, as God’s ruler in the land, removed it. Reformation usually prospers when both rulers and ministers do their part.

If Zephaniah spoke later in Josiah’s reign, then we see how quickly a corrupt people can fall back into old sins. The idols Josiah had removed seem to have returned while the heat of reform cooled. What good can even the best reformers do with a people who hate reform, almost as if they wanted ruin?

The main message of the book is plain: total destruction is coming quickly on Judah and Jerusalem because of sin. Zephaniah begins without warning or apology: “I will make a complete end of everything on the face of the land,” says the Lord (Zephaniah 1:2). This is ruin, complete ruin, destruction from the Almighty. He has spoken, and he will certainly carry it out.

That judgment will sweep away even the lower creatures: “I will consume the beasts, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea” (Zephaniah 1:3). As in the flood, all living things on the earth will be destroyed (Genesis 7:23). These creatures were made for human use, and when people misuse God’s gifts and turn them to vanity, God shows his anger against human sin by involving the creatures in the punishment. The language is figurative, but it means widespread desolation.

Even those who seem safe, high above the ground or hidden below it, will not escape. The birds of the sky, which seem beyond the enemy’s reach, and the fish of the sea, which seem beyond the enemy’s eye, will still become prey. God’s judgment will find them. He will also consume people: “I will cut off mankind from the face of the land.” The land will be emptied and left uninhabited. This is not only against Israel, but against mankind in general, though the center of the charge is Judah and Jerusalem.

God says he will stretch out his hand against Judah and Jerusalem, both the city and the countryside, and who can stand before the power of his anger (Zephaniah 1:4)? Those who will not humble themselves under God’s mighty hand will be brought low by it. Even Judah, where God was known, and Jerusalem, where his dwelling was, will not escape if they rebel against him.

God will also consume the wicked and the things tied to their wickedness (Zephaniah 1:3). He will remove the stumbling blocks with the wicked, the idols with the idolaters, and the sins with the sinners. Josiah had taken away the stumbling blocks and, as far as he could, cleared the land of idolatry. But if people will not stop sinning, then the sinners themselves must be removed, even with the things that helped their sin (Ezekiel 14:3). If it is not done by the sword of justice, it will be done by the sword of war.

Among those who will be cut off are the open idolaters, those who were openly devoted to false worship. The remnant of Baal will be destroyed, both the images of Baal and the people who worshiped them. Josiah removed much of Baal’s worship, but whatever escaped his efforts God would cut off completely. The Chemarim, the idolatrous priests, will also be cut off (2 Kings 23:5). The name may mean “black-robed men,” perhaps because of their clothing, their appearance around the altars, or the blackened faces of those who served in the fires of Molech. They will be cut off with the priests, and even their name will disappear, so that the order itself is forgotten or remembered with shame.

Among the idolaters, God also names those who worshiped the host of heaven on their rooftops (Zephaniah 1:5). They may have thought their worship was cleaner and more refined than image worship, since they did not bow to carved statues. But they gave divine honor to the sun, moon, and stars, and that too is rebellion against God. The Lord is jealous for his honor and will not share it with any rival. To worship a star is as great an offense as to worship a stone or a piece of wood. The worshipers of the host of heaven will be consumed just as surely as the worshipers of beasts on earth or evil spirits. The sin of adultery is no less sinful because the adulterer looks attractive.

Those also will be destroyed who try to make peace between God and idols, and keep a foot in both camps. They try to serve both the Lord and Baal, worship both Jehovah and Moloch, and swear by both. The text may even mean, “swear to the Lord and to Malcham.” In other words, they bind themselves by oath and promise to serve both God and idols.

They may think well of the worship of the God of Israel. It is their nation’s religion, and it has long been that way, so they do not want to give it up. But they also think worship of Moloch will improve and enrich it, because that worship is admired in other countries. They are attracted by its show and excitement. Since they cannot stay faithful to a God they cannot see in any image, they want an idol, and what image seems better than Moloch, a king?

They even think they can make up for one sin with another. They swear to Moloch and then, according to that oath, burn their children as sacrifices to that idol. Yet they still hope they can make things right by worshiping the God of Israel too. But anyone who tries to divide love and worship between God and idols will not be accepted by God. In the end, they will be judged with the worst idolaters. What fellowship can there be between light and darkness, Christ and Belial, or God and mammon?

A child’s mother will not agree to divide the child, because if Satan gets half, he will end up with all of it. But the true mother says, “Do not divide it,” because if God has only half, he has none at all. Water will not stay sweet for long if it comes from a spring that also sends out bitter water. So what right do those have to swear by the Lord if they also swear by Malcham?

Those also will be destroyed who have turned away from God, along with those who never claimed to belong to him. God says, “I will cut off” them too. First are those who turned back from the Lord. They were well taught, began well, and once gave their names to him. They started out worshiping him, but then drifted away, joined idolaters, and abandoned the good ways of God in which they had been raised.

God will surely deal with such people. They are traitors to his service, people who began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh, meaning they started by God’s power and then fell into mere human sinfulness. They will be treated like deserters, and deserters do not receive mercy. Second are those who have not sought the Lord and never asked for him. They never made any profession of religion, and they may think that excuses them. But it will not. In fact, that is part of the charge against them.

These are careless, godless people who live without God in the world. And those who live that way are surely unworthy to live on God’s earth.