Route 66: Zephaniah - The Day of Judgment and Grace

All right.

So if you have a Bible you can turn to.

The book is Zephaniah, and if you don't know where Zephaniah is, you can turn to page 835 in the pew Bible in front of you.

Pedro, do you want a pew Bible?

There we go.

There we go.

Welcome back to Route 66.

We've traveled quite a ways down this road.

Already we are in the ninth of 12 minor prophets and it won't be very long that we'll be in very familiar territory in the New Testament.

So congratulations to all of you who have worked your way all the way through all of these books of the Old Testament.

So when you get to heaven and you meet Haggai or Zephaniah, you'll go.

I know who you are, right.

So this evening we're in the book of Zephaniah.

So this evening we're in the book of Zephaniah.

How many of you have read Zephaniah?

Most of you, right.

How many of you heard a sermon on Zephaniah?

One You're about?

Well, I don't think a sermon series ever, but I've heard sermons from Zephaniah.

Okay, all right.

Well, tonight I want to give you just three points and we're going to weight it on the last point.

We're going to talk about the person of Zephaniah, the place of Zephaniah and then the prophecy of Zephaniah, and the first two we're going to cover fairly, fairly quickly, and we can get an introduction to the person of Zephaniah.

Basically all we know about Zephaniah from the first verse, the word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, son of Cushai, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah in the days of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah.

That's literally all we know about him.

But as we look at this, we notice there's something unusual here.

A four-stage genealogy and an introduction to someone is actually a pretty rare thing.

I think this might even be the only time it's mentioned.

So there's something unique about this introduction and there's some discussion about who these forefathers are, of Zechariah or Zephaniah.

I say Zechariah a couple times here, but I mean Zephaniah.

So if I end up just slipping, you just put in the right word.

For me, zephaniah's name means Yahweh is hidden right and he grew up during the time of Manasseh.

Now Manasseh, as you may know, was the son of Hezekiah.

We'll be talking about Hezekiah when we get to the chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39 of Isaiah.

Hezekiah was a reformer, he was one of those good kings of Judah, but his son, manasseh, was not, and Manasseh had the longest reign of all the kings, the longest reign of all the kings, and Zephaniah grew up during that dark days of Manasseh's kingship.

There's a little bit of supposition about this, but look at the last one.

The last one's name is Hezekiah.

It's possible, and I think many people would say that it is likely, that this was Hezekiah the king.

And so Zephaniah here quite possibly has some royal lineage, right?

He kind of traces back.

His great-grandfather is the king Hezekiah, right?

But also notice something else here he's called the son of Cushai.

Cushai, that's an interesting word, because in these three chapters there's two mentions of the people of Cush.

So if you take a look at chapter two, in verse 12, you notice there you Cushites will also be slain by my sword.

So there's a statement of judgment on them.

But if you go to chapter 3 and verses 9 and 10, there's also a statement that speaks of restoration.

So verse 9, for then I will restore pure speech to the peoples so that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with a single purpose From beyond the rivers of Cush, my supplicants and my dispersed people will bring an offering to me.

So there's some debate as to whether this name, this mention of Cushai, is talking about a proper name or if it's actually talking about a name about a person who represents the people they come from.

Okay, on my mother's side we're called Smiths.

My mother's surname was a Smith.

Why was she called Smith?

Because somewhere back in there one of my ancestors on my mother's side was a blacksmith right, so an iron worker.

It's possible that this person was called Cushi because he came from the land of Cush, right?

It's quite possible.

So what is Cush?

Cush is the sub-Sahara area of the continent of Africa, so this would not be sort of the Mediterranean Africa, but the sub-Sahara Africa.

So it's possible that Zephaniah was a black Judean who had a mixed racial background, coming from African ancestry on one side of his family.

So if we think about him possibly being biracial and possibly being of royal lineage, we can see that it kind of melds together a couple ideas that are threaded in Scripture a lot the hope of the Davidic line, particularly the king that will come, jesus.

And here's a believing man, zephaniah, who is part of that lineage possibly, but also representing the nations as part of his family line, comes from Africa itself.

Little is really known about him, like I said, other than that.

But when we read these three chapters we realize he's familiar with the culture of the times.

He's very, very understanding about that.

He knows about the royal palaces.

He's got a good understanding of those things.

Chapter 1, verses 8 and 9 talk about that.

He's familiar with the city of Jerusalem and his prophecies speak about his familiarity with the nations he talks about Judea, nineveh, ammon, moab, Egypt, cush All of those are mentioned here.

So he obviously seems to be a very learned man.

Verse 1 tells us not only his personage but also about his place, and his place is in the ministry of Josiah.

Josiah, if you might recall, is one of the ones who came across the book of the law.

For a long time God's word was hidden to the people of God.

It's surprising for us to think that way, but it was.

There was a mandate written in the book of Deuteronomy for the kings to write out their own copy of the book of the law right and to be able to be careful about leading the people by God's revelation.

But all of the kings, up until the time of Josiah, had not done that.

And then Josiah is reading this and he's like terror stricken.

What have we been doing?

And he starts to bring reform into the life of the people.

It's about that time that Zephaniah's ministry is happening.

A lot of people think sometime after the discovery of the book of the law, but sometime before all of the reforms had taken strong hold in the life of the people.

So Zephaniah would have been a wonderful partner to the King Josiah to proclaim the message of covenant, faith and obedience.

You know what it's like when you're working hard and working alone on something difficult and yet important, and then to find there's someone with the same heart and the same voice next to you.

It's a heartening thing.

And I'm sure that Zephaniah was that kind of partner to Josiah as he sought to bring God's word into the life of the people, as he sought to bring God's word into the life of the people.

So let's move on to the prophecy of Zephaniah.

When people read the book of Zephaniah, when they preach on the book of Zephaniah, they normally break it down into three sections.

They'll break it down into something like this Chapter 1, verses 1 to 18, destruction.

And there's a word that shows up there that we heard this morning the day of the Lord.

That gets mentioned.

So obviously, judgment is a big theme in the first chapter.

Then in chapter 2, running into chapter 3, they would talk about repentance and, as we'll see, that's also a theme that's there.

And then, thirdly, in chapter 3, in the latter part, from verses 8 to the end, would be restoration, restoration.

So you've got a declaration of judgment, a declaration of repentance and a declaration of restoration.

Some people divide it up a little differently.

They'll talk about threats to Israel in the first part, threats to the nations in the second part, and then promises to both the nations and to the people.

So threats and promises, kind of a twofold.

But tonight I want to give you a different framework.

I want you to think about this somewhat like we thought when we looked at the book of Habakkuk.

When we looked at the book of Habakkuk, what was the major structure there?

Do you guys recall For those of you that are going to the Simeon Trust workshop, you can answer this question what's the structure of Habakkuk?

Yeah, so it's a dialogue between God and the prophet, right?

So Habakkuk starts off with these questions.

God answers, habakkuk reacts to that, demands an answer.

God gives him an answer.

Habakkuk replies let the whole earth, including myself be silent before God.

Let him be seen as holy in his temple, all of those things.

So it's a dialogue.

This is somewhat similar in the sense that there's two speakers but they're not talking to each other like Habakkuk is.

There's two speakers and there's rounds of dialogue that happen here that go back and forth, and these two speakers are speaking the same thing, sometimes sort of bolstering what one says and sometimes adding to what the other says.

And these two speakers are God and the prophet.

God and the prophet.

When you look at Zephaniah, by noticing the first person singular I or me or the third person singular he, right.

So the speeches are evident by this movement from first person to third person, back and forth, the first person being God speaking of what he is going to do, and then the third person aspect of the prophet, zephaniah, speaking about what God will do or what the people need to do in response to what God's doing.

So in this I'm going to take you through seven sets of speeches.

Seven sets of speeches.

So if you want to write this down or if you want to mark in your Bible, you can feel free to do that.

And I want to take you through these seven sets, because in these seven sets the plot moves, the themes are opened up and expanded, we find attention building and at the end we find a resolution.

Set one, verses two to six of chapter one, is God speaking, god speaking, and God establishes the tone of the early part of Zephaniah by speaking about judgment.

Judgment is announced very, very clearly, comes quickly out of the gate.

Look at verse 2.

Right after we've been introduced to Zephaniah these first words, I will completely sweep away everything from the face of the earth.

Why, we don't know, to whom we don't know.

But it's cataclysmic already.

It kind of going back to our Isaiah theme of creation.

As we look at these first verses two to six, men and birds and fish, everything is ruined.

Everything, all of it's going to share in destruction.

At the very end of it we start to hear why Take a look at verse six.

At the very end of it, we start to hear why Take a look at verse 6.

Those who turn back from following the Lord, who do not seek the Lord, are in choir of him.

These are the people of Israel who have claimed to have followed the Lord but aren't, who have rebelled against him by turning away from him.

And then, in verse 5, we see what they've done.

Instead, in verses 4 and 5, I'll stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the residents of Jerusalem.

I will cut off every vestige of Baal from this place.

The names of the pagan priest, along with the priest, those who bow and worship on the rooftops to the stars in the sky, who bow and pledge loyalty to the Lord.

So it's a synchronistic worship.

They still say Yahweh, but they also say Baal at the same time, and in so doing they've denied Yahweh.

So here we have, in this first round, the introduction of judgment being pronounced.

It comes swiftly, it comes strongly, it comes powerfully, with indictments.

Then we hear from the prophet, verse 7.

What does Zephaniah have to say?

Be silent in the presence of the Lord.

God, for the day of the Lord is near.

Indeed, the Lord is prepared to sacrifice.

He has consecrated his guests.

Zephaniah is now speaking to the people and he's saying Amen.

Don't try to give an excuse, don't try to give an answer.

You've got nothing to say in your defense.

The best thing you can do is be quiet and just listen.

I've had to say that to my children sometimes, right.

I've had to say that to my children sometimes, right, you know, when they get in trouble and they've got four or five different reasons why they disobeyed what you told them to do, and you're like, just be quiet, I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear any of it.

And this is exactly what Zephaniah is telling the people.

You know you're guilty, you have nothing to say, so don't say anything.

And in this he announces something.

He opens up these words in verse 7.

Be silent in the presence of the Lord.

God, for the day of the Lord is near.

Does that sound familiar?

We looked at it this morning, didn't we?

The day of the Lord is near.

Just to sort of bring what we said this morning, there are aspects of the day of the Lord that are historical, and there are aspects of the day of the Lord that are historical and there are aspects of the day of the Lord that are ultimate right.

There's God acting in a significant way in history, and then there's God acting in a significant way of bringing history to an end in which he will usher in the new heavens and the new earth, in which he will usher in the new heavens and the new earth.

And this is one of those points where God is going to act to reestablish order and reestablish the correct way of honoring him.

The prophet makes an enigmatic statement here at the end of verse 7 about the Lord preparing a sacrifice and consecrating his guests, and we don't know if that's sort of going to go the direction of judgment or propitiation.

There's just a little teaser there, a little inkling that there might be something beyond judgment introduced, but we can't really even put our weight on it yet.

And that leads us to set two, set two of seven.

Again, the Lord begins the speech in the second set.

Take a look at verses eight to 13.

In the second set, take a look at verses 8 to 13.

And in this section we have an amplification of what was introduced in the first set.

God's anger is still raging and he seems to interrupt the prophet in verse 7 and begin his second speech in verse 8.

On the day of the Lord's sacrifice, I will punish the officials.

Oh, so maybe that wasn't a hope of propitiatory sacrifice after all, maybe it was the people themselves who would be sacrificed.

I will punish the officials, the king's sons, those who dress in foreign clothes, and on he goes to talk about people from the princes and the king's sons, in verses 8 all the way down to verse 12, where he says he will punish those who settle down comfortably, who seem indifferent about God at all.

The Lord will do nothing, good or bad.

The Lord will do nothing.

Good or bad, life really doesn't matter if God is here or not.

We'll just do our business and act as if he didn't exist, because he doesn't hold sway over anything that happens here.

Does that sound like your neighbor?

Sounds like my neighbor?

Live my life as if God didn't really even exist.

These are the Israelites acting that exact same way, this general apathy about God and the land.

And here the Lord seems to know everybody's thoughts.

He knows everybody, from the highest of society to the laziest in society, to society to the laziest in society.

The prophet begins to talk in the second part of set two, in verses 14 to 16.

The great day of the Lord is near, near and rapidly approaching.

Listen, the day of the Lord when the warriors cry as bitter, that day is a day of wrath.

The day of the Lord, when the warriors cry as bitter, that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and total darkness.

It's dark, and so Zephaniah, who introduced the term day of the Lord, is now giving us a deeper understanding of what it is, and he talks about its imminent nature.

It's near.

He talks about its terrifying aspects, he talks about how it's going to disrupt everything and he warns the people of their fate.

Day of judgment's coming.

And that leads us into set three, set three.

Yahweh speaks again, starting the round, in verse 17,.

He only speaks a little bit.

I will bring distress on mankind and they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.

It doesn't seem quite so strong.

It doesn't seem quite so strong, doesn't seem quite so forceful, but it seems all the more determined in its brevity.

You know those points in your conversations when you just say look, I'm done talking, this is what I'm doing, you don't need to say anymore, you've said everything that needs to be said and you're just summing it up.

This is that kind of talk here.

But what he does by this short statement is he opens the doorway for the prophet to give his first long speech.

Everything that Zephaniah has said so far has been sort of a support or amplification of what God has said, kind of a listen to him, if you will, kind of statement or a this is how bad it's going to be.

But now Zephaniah talks more than God does, and in this section that runs from chapter one in verse 18, all the way to chapter two in verse seven, so it skips over into the second chapter is a development of something that's important for the rest of the book.

There are two things that get inserted into the conversation here.

Up till now all we've had are statements of judgment to the people of God in Judah.

Two more things are going to be added to that.

One is the possibility of escaping judgment, and the second one is the condemnation or judgment will not only fall on the Israelites, it will come to the nations as well.

So take a look first of all at the possibility of escaping judgment.

Look at chapter 2 in verse 3.

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who carry out what he commands.

Seek righteousness, seek humility.

Perhaps you will be concealed on the day of the Lord's anger.

Now remember, god came right out of the gate saying he was going to wipe away creation.

Right, I'm taking everything away Humanity, things on the earth, things in the seas, everything's gone.

For the first time, there's this possibility that maybe that won't happen to everybody Right, everybody right.

It's possible that there is some hope in the midst of this judgment, but it's only a possibility at the moment.

It isn't expanded on much, but it is there.

And the second new aspect to this is the condemnation of the nations.

The nations, the enemies of the people of God, will be also judged on the day of the Lord.

Take a look at verse four.

Gaza will be abandoned, ascalon will be ruined, ashdod will be driven out at noon, ekron will be uprooted, and it just keeps going on and on and on and on.

As it mentions all of the peoples, they too are going to be facing judgment.

So there is an interesting movement here to the plot judgment to the people of god for ignoring their lord, for acting as if he didn't really even exist, syncretistically worshiping baal, and now moves into possibly hope or everybody's ruined.

And that brings us into set four, chapter two and verses eight to 10.

Yahweh speaks again.

This is one of those unusual movements, because in set three, zephaniah introduced those aspects of the possibility of release from judgment and of condemnation to the nations.

Now, in set four, the Lord is the one buttressing the prophet's words by speaking about the possibility of release from judgment and the condemnation to the nations in these three verses 8 to 10.

Take a look at verse 10.

This is why they get for their pride, because they have taunted and acted arrogantly against the people of the Lord of armies.

The nations are going to be judged.

But he also speaks of hope.

Take a look at verse 9.

Near the end of verse 9, it says the remnant of my people will plunder them.

The remainder of my nation will dispossess them.

So there is some hope.

So there is a remnant, not just the possibility of release from judgment for the people of God, but for the Israelites.

There are going to be some people escaping judgment.

And that leads the prophet in verse 11 to give a one verse answer.

The Lord will be terrifying to those when he stars all the gods of the earth.

Then all the distant coast and isles of the nations will bow and worship to him, each in its own place.

This section doesn't add anything new.

It reinforces what was introduced in the second and third rounds.

But what it does is it gives us a little bit of time for the plot tension to build, for it to sort of lay out this sort of conflict between judgment and hope.

That hasn't been until we get to the next sections, set five, verse 12 of chapter two Yahweh speaks, but again it's only a short statement.

You Cushites will also be slain by my sword, don't think you guys will escape.

The prophet speaks in another long speech.

So again, this is the second long speech by Zephaniah, verses 13 of chapter two, all the way to verse five of chapter three.

And what does he talk about?

He takes Israel's greatest enemy and compares them to Israel.

He takes the Assyrians and the Israelites and says you guys are just like each other.

It's not something you'd enjoy hearing, right, that your worst enemy and you are exactly like each other.

This is what he does.

He tells that Nineveh is going to be as devastated as Moab and as Ammon, in chapter 2 and verse 9 and verses 13 and 14.

And then Israel also is seen.

And in chapter 3, verses 3 to 5, he just goes all the way down through society.

The princes are roaring lions, her judges are wolves in the night, her prophets are reckless.

Her priests profane the sanctuary.

Everybody is wicked.

You may think the Assyrians are bad Israelites, you're just as bad.

And so here we have the conflict fully presented.

This is not just a judgment on Israel for their slackened worship.

This is the world, all of them standing before a holy God, with the danger of judgment coming.

And the Lord is going to send his judgment on all offenders, every single one.

And, and we have to ask ourselves as we get to this point, what about those whispers of hope?

Did they just go away?

Was it just a fleeting moment of wishfulness, or is it ever going to be a reality?

And that leads us to the sixth set.

Again, the Lord speaks.

First, verses six to 13.

And in the first couple of verses it just seems to drill down more on judgment, in verses six and seven and eight.

But then, when you get to verse nine, right after it says my indignation will be poured out of them all.

My burning anger for the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of my jealousy.

Then you get to verse 9 and everything changes, for I will then restore pure speech to the peoples, so that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with a single purpose.

You see, the day of the Lord not only is a day of judgment, the day of the Lord is also a day of grace.

And what's interesting about this?

Just as there was in Isaiah, chapter 11, the first people that get spoken about when grace is interjected into the conversation are not the Israelites.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

It's the peoples that are first mentioned here.

Did you see that, verse 9.

I will restore pure speech to the peoples, that's us.

The day of Yahweh will conclude with grace for the peoples, and they will call on him and serve him with a single purpose.

And then, in verses 10 to 13, israel gets spoken about From beyond the rivers of Cush.

My supplicants, my dispersed people will bring an offering to me.

On that day, you will not be put to shame because of everything you've done in rebelling against me, for then I will remove from among you your jubilant, arrogant people.

The people that once were like the Lord's not going to do anything, good or bad, we'll just live our lives is now taking refuge in God.

He takes away their shame, he forgives their sin, he purges their wickedness and he leaves what was once an old, proud people into a new, humble, holy remnant.

No longer do we have whispers of possible escape from judgment.

Now we have declarations of God actively bringing about restoration.

Did you see all of that?

He's doing it.

He's doing it.

He's doing it.

The prophet speaks in verses 14 to 17.

And what does he talk about?

He talks about the presence of God and his plan for restoration.

He joins his voice with Yahweh's and speaks about the same thing.

And here we have a unified voice.

As they were once singing, perhaps in harmony, now they're speaking in unison with one another and they're saying exactly the same thing.

And they're saying exactly the same thing.

God's gracious activity is coming, and so we find the prophet speaking the word of God, clearly speaking about judgment to the unrepentant, but also clearly speaking about reconciliation for those that God will bring to humility.

And that's a good sign to look for when you're looking for someone who's going to be a declarer of God's word, one who would clearly speak the truth about God's holiness and just wrath against sin, but also about God's glorious grace to forgive.

The prophet stops now.

The prophet's done everything the prophet could do.

He started his ministry by giving warnings Let everybody just be quiet, you have nothing to say.

But he ends with exhortation Sing, sing about this, god of grace, lift up your voice with joy.

Judgment and salvation are the two prongs of his message.

And that leaves us with set seven.

And in set seven only God speaks.

God has the final word In verses 18 through 20, at the end of the chapter, and here he kind of summarizes his acts of grace.

He's going to deal with Israel's oppressors, he's going to save their weak ones, he's going to bring the scattered ones home.

For a book that started off pretty strong, it ends just as strongly, in a completely different way.

It seemed to be absolute annihilation of all creation because of the sin of God's people, but now God is a God of grace and restoration and hope.

These movements, these seven movements of two speeches until you get to the seventh, one in one, carry along the themes and they move the plot and they build up the tension and conflict and give a glorious resolution of God's grace.

Zephaniah is meant to be a message of hope in the midst of a despairing reality of God's people, and in the last chapter he talks about these people that will be in a place of reconciliation, be in a place of restoration, that will be in a place of rejoicing over God's salvation, and I just want to leave us with a question Are you one of them?

Are you one of those ones that God's going to rescue instead of ruin?

And how do you know?

Well, let's take a look at the last chapter, in verse 9,.

The first way you can know whether or not you're one of those is that you call on the name of the Lord.

I will restore pure speech to the people so that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with a single purpose.

So now we see that the first evidence is someone who calls on God's name, and this is not some just perfunctory thing.

This is wholehearted worship.

This is trusting God to the exclusion of all others.

Baal, not going to worship him, living my life as though he didn't exist, not doing that anymore.

I'm trusting in the living God and I'm calling on him.

My life is his.

My life is worship to him.

Why?

Because God has given me something different.

My lips that once profaned his name are now purely speaking his name, are now purely speaking his name.

You see, the priests claim to be the Lord's servants, but they're also Baal's servants.

The people claim to swear upon the name of the Lord, but they also swore on other gods.

But now this is calling on the name of the Lord with a sincere heart.

The second test is found in verses 11 and 12.

On that day you will not be put to shame Hmm, paul says that in Romans.

Might want to take a look there, because of everything you've done in rebelling against me, for then I will remove from among you your jubilant, arrogant people and you will never again be haughty on my holy mountain.

So the second test is has God taken away my pride and has he interjected in my heart humility?

I was talking to a friend this week about Israel who was once named Jacob.

Jacob wrestled with the angel all night and in wrestling with the angel, the angel touched his leg and from that point forward the man limped.

He couldn't run like he used to run.

He couldn't be the fastest like he was.

Perhaps he was no longer the supplanter Jacob, he was a limping prince of God named Israel.

Has God caused you to limp?

Has he caused you to say I am not the proud, boisterous person I was.

God has humbled me, but he's also changed me and given me a new name.

That's the second test.

And then the third test comes in verse 13.

The remnant of Israel will no longer do wrong or tell lies.

A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths.

They will pasture and lie down with nothing.

To make them afraid Doesn't mean you're a perfect person, but your aspirations of your heart are to follow God and to do His will.

And, at the end of the day, the thing that upsets you the most is not that you had to follow God, but that you didn't follow Him as well as you wanted to when you woke up that day.

That the things that bother you are the ways that you didn't honor him or speak about him clearly, because your heart's been changed, because the things that God wants are written here now, not just out there.

Here now, not just out there.

These are the people that God says can rejoice.

These are the remnant from the peoples and the Israelites.

And if that's you, well, let's do exactly what verse 14 says Sing for joy, daughter of Zion.

Shout loudly, israel, be glad and celebrate with all your heart.

The Lord has removed your punishment.

That's something to sing about, right?

All right, let's pray, father.

Thank you for, zephaniah, these three chapters that give us so much understanding about you, so much about what you said you would do.

And as we read these verses, we see all of it coming through the work of Christ, our Savior, to make us born again, to transform us, to make us new.

The things that we did not love we now love.

The things that we once loved, we now abhor, and we thank you that you've caused us to want to worship you with our whole heart.

We find ourselves humbled because we're sinners saved by grace, cause us to be obedient, to want to walk with you in sincerity and true love.

Lord, receive from us now our song of praise as we rejoice together in this salvation that you've brought so undeservedly to those who really ought to have been judged, and we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.