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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
ZEPHANIAH 1:1-6
(Scripture: Revelation 15; 2 Kings 22:1-20)
The Final Cut!
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
The prophetic books of the Bible are those books it seems we hear the least about.
In addition to the five major prophetic books, there are some twelve minor prophetic books, making up just under one third of the Old Testament, and altogether about one quarter of the complete Bible.
Actually, all the prophetic books add up to the whole New Testament itself!
Now, some of these prophetic books we would have heard about more than the others.
There’s Isaiah and Jeremiah, and Daniel and Jonah are quite well-known too.
But how many of you have ever heard a sermon from Zephaniah?
And why would any one of us be really interested in this rather obscure gentleman from the 7th Century before Christ?
Well, the fact that he was a prophet before Christ should give us a clue as to how important he is.
All Old Testament prophets in some way or another foretold of what Jesus would do in the future.
There is a rhyme that goes, ‘Isaiah is full of the Messiah,’ but that’s not only true of that prophet - we could equally apply that to every other prophet as well.
You see, while the prophets largely applied the meaning of the God’s law for his people in their day and age, there was always an element of looking forward to when God would fulfil his plan for his people through the coming great King in David’s line.
While 90% of their preaching and teaching concerned bringing the Word of God to the Church then, there was yet the 10% that spoke of when and what the Lord of the Church would do in the future.
He was the One who would be the true Son of David – the Messiah.
But this is where what they said and what they understood would be happening is different than what we have seen today.
Those prophets spoke of all that would happen in the future – whether good or bad – and they understood it as happening altogether.
And yet that’s not what happened.
A way we can illustrate this is when any one would look at a range of mountains from the angle where they are all straight in a row.
That’s the angle where it seems all those peaks are part of the same mountain.
And, yet, when you look from the side you see that those peaks actually belong to different mountains.
That describes the different views between then and now.
We can see this especially with a subject which many of those prophets prophesied about.
That subject was ‘The Day of the Lord.’
I’m sure many of us have an idea about ‘The Day of the Lord.’
This would be an idea which would probably involve the Lord Jesus Christ’s second coming and the judgment of all mankind.
But to the Old Testament prophet there was no clear distinction between the Lord’s first coming and his second coming.
And, in a way, they were quite right.
Because isn’t the time between Christ’s first coming and second coming called ‘The Last Days’?
The great battle has been won, and soon the Lord will come again – completely victorious and glorious!
Zephaniah of all the Old Testament prophets especially focuses upon ‘The Day of the Lord.’
This is what Martin Bucer affirmed in 1528.
He declared, “If anyone wishes all the secret oracles of the prophets to be given in a brief compendium, let him read this brief Zephaniah.”
We will come to Zephaniah’s major theme in a moment.
But first let us meet this man.
In the words of our first consideration to the text this morning, let’s see … WHO THIS PROPHET OF THE LORD IS.
And who is he?
Well, here verse 1 gives us somewhat more detail than the introduction we have of other Old Testament prophets.
There we read, “The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amaraiah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah.”
By way of comparison there is the superscription to Habakkuk, the previous prophetic book.
The first verse there simply says: “The oracle that Habakkuk received.”
And in the others the most you get is the place the prophet came from and his father’s name.
But Zephaniah begins by going right back to his great, great grandfather!
There have been several reasons proposed for this.
One is that because Zephaniah’s father’s name is Cushi, the other names are needed to show that he isn’t of a different ethnic origin.
Cush, of course, is the name for the ancient empire of Ethiopia.
So it’s been suggested that this established Zephaniah’s connection to the covenant community.
He is one of them, just in case they got confused.
And in case his father was thought to have had Ethiopian blood, the law of Deuteronomy 23:8 was fulfilled by going back through three previous generations to prove his genealogy.
Then there is the suggestion that not only do these names show Zephaniah is related to Judah but also that he has a godly heritage in Judah.
If what you are called by your parents shows something about what kind of people they are, then Zephaniah stood in a good line.
His name, for example, means ‘He whom the Lord hides or shelters.’
His grandfather’s name, Gedaliah, means ‘He whom the Lord made great.’
His great grandfather’s name, Amariah, means ‘He whom the Lord promised.’
And his great, great grandfather’s name, Hezekiah, means ‘He whom the Lord strengthened.’
In each of these names the Lord is specifically mentioned.
And that would generally have been because those parents were dedicated to worshipping and serving the Lord.
The name showed what they wanted their child to be.
The strongest reason why we have this list of names, however, lies in the name right at the end of the list.
Whenever a long list was used in the Old Testament it often meant some epic achievement or an ancestor of note.
And that’s where the name at the end comes in, doesn’t it?
This is a name that needs no introduction.
And it is certainly a name that needs no title or inscription!
Because apart from the fact that it was in itself a rare enough name in Judah, it is very clear who it is.
Hezekiah is none other than the godly King Hezekiah.
He was the one who had ruled faithfully for thirty years some 80 years before.
So Zephaniah was one of the extended royal family itself.
The accusation that a prophet defends his own segment of society couldn’t be used against Zephaniah.
Indeed, Zephaniah’s calling was all the more difficult because of who he was.
Just as Jeremiah who, as a son of a priest, had to attack the men serving in the sanctuary, so Zephaniah, as the son of the royal family, was attacking the corruption at the court.
But now we come to the question about the time when Zephaniah prophesied.
For verse 1 clearly places his ministry within the reign of Josiah.
And I’m sure we all know Josiah!
Wasn’t he, of all the kings of Judah, one of the most godly?
Isn’t it under him that the most comprehensive reformation of all took place?
Indeed, it was a reformation that extended all the way to the borders of the original Promised Land.
For it was Josiah who was able to capture all that land back from the gentile forces.
And as he did that he razed to the ground all the altars and high places of Baal and Asherah.
2nd Kings 23 also records that he got rid of all the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem.
That was something not even Hezekiah had done.
Now, with such a clean up you would have to assume that Zephaniah spoke these words of the Lord earlier on in Josiah’s reign.
Surely he would have declared all this before the Book of the Law was recovered in the Temple?
Because after that wasn’t Josiah struck to the heart with those words?
And then we have the reformation itself take place.
A number of commentators take this view.
But others differ here.
They make the valid point that a number of the comments made about temple worship in this prophecy could only have come about because the Book of the Law had been rediscovered and made known to many.
There is also reference made to the remnant of Baal that still remains, thereby indicating reforming had already began.
Verse 4 of this first chapter alludes to that, and so gives the idea that much cleansing had already been done.
As well as this, we know that Jeremiah also prophesied during the time of Josiah’s reformation.
He and Zephaniah were contemporaries and had similar themes in what they declared.
And if we might still wonder why there is this strong warning about judgment at such a time of obvious revival, we need go no further than looking upon Josiah’s sons.
For how complete was this reformation if immediately following their father’s death they fell into the old ways again?
Then the word the Lord spoke to Josiah about the nation of Judah having passed the point of no return was tellingly accurate.
Then while the Lord has mercy upon Josiah, it could not avert what was to happen.
Congregation, we have seen WHO THIS PROPHET OF THE LORD IS.
We have noted his background and the time in which he ministered.
Next we come to what the verses 2 till 6 are all about.
For now we consider … WHAT THIS PROPHET DECLARES TO ALL MANKIND.
This is certainly what the verses 2 and 3 tell us.
When the LORD declares, “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” he’s not mincing his words.
And when he details that as meaning all men and animals, no one hearing this can be unmoved.
There is the most complete judgment coming.
And let’s note that it is a judgment.
It would be all too easy to see this as an announcement of impending doom.
But by cataloguing all the forms of life we must see how thorough this will be.
Then we must not miss either the reference to “the wicked” in verse 3.
That brings our focus where it has to be.
Because that is pointing directly upon sin and its inevitable reward.
You see, the way to salvation leads through judgment.
Mercy is only found when men’s hearts are exposed for what they truly are.
But that can only be by God’s grace.
For judgment is universal while grace is selective.
We can get an idea that this is directed more at judgment than a great and sudden upheaval because of the language here.
There is no apocalyptic cataclysm.
But there is a total destruction.
How else can you understand, “I will utterly sweep away everything,” and “I will sweep away man and beast.”
Just think of when that had happened before.
Ah, that was the flood – and now this will be worse!
The skies will be stripped of all bird life and the seas of all aquatic life.
All living creatures will be gone!
I mean, then, at the flood, it was bad but not this bad.
But in the same way that no one repented through the preaching of Noah, bar his own family, so now even a great reformation wouldn’t be enough to save them.
If anything, that reformation only served to reinforce the judgment that was already set in place against the people.
The judgment another prophet had told Josiah after he had been read the Book of the Law.
At that time the very things the wicked had been worshipping will be swept away with them.
And that brings these verses directly home to those Judeans.
If this is what’s going to happen to the whole world what can they expect – they who should have been a witness of the Lord to the world!
They had become so much caught up with the world.
Indeed, so immersed had they become with those false religions they chased after them more than their neighbouring countries did!
We know that today too, don’t we?
There’s no one who despises God more than the one who was brought up in the ways of the Lord and who has gone another way!
Those Judeans have to realise they are standing in the way of God.
That’s why they’ll get swept away.
They and all those man-made religious paraphernalia with them!
Let them be under no misapprehension!
This is about mankind.
He is the one about to be cut off from the face of the earth.
And it’s especially about a particular people – those chosen from across the face of the earth to be his own.
The apostle Peter described this well in chapter 4 of his first letter.
There in verse 17 he wrote, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
And so it is that we move on to the verses 4 till 6.
Here it is clear who is in view.
Even though much of Baal worship had been eradicated in Judah this will take that annihilation of it to the furtherest possible degree.
How far does this go?
Well, let’s understand first of all that this is about all idolatry.
That’s what “the remnant of Baal” refers to.
This is about worshipping and serving anything or anyone instead of the One True God.
Here we see the jealous covenant God carrying out his punishment upon the children he has loved for so long and with so much.
So, congregation, let’s see exactly how bad it was as Zephaniah names those ones and what they’re doing.
Here we move further on into verse 4.
Here there are those specifically named – “the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests…”
There are actually two different groups mentioned here.
While at first we might think it’s the one group, those pagan priests who are naturally idolatrous, it’s really differentiating between those priests involved in the Baal worship and the priests in the temple of the LORD God who were idolatrous.
Yes, they were those consecrated to the special service of Yahweh!
And look at them now!
The Lord is the last person they’re serving!
Then there are two classes of worshippers denoted in verse 5.
The first of these are those who bow down on their roofs and worship the starry hosts.
It’s a religion called ‘Sabaism’ and was introduced by none less than the evil king himself – Manasseh.
Manasseh was the one during whose reign the physical people of Israel reached the point of no return.
His was the reign during which the Lord finally had had enough with his people because of their constant disobedience.
And with such worship to creation instead of the Creator are we at all surprised?
Manasseh even went so far with this religion as to set up altars to astral deities in the temple of the Lord itself!
It was a worship which while cleaned up under Josiah was yet still rampant in Jerusalem, as Jeremiah 19:13 tell us.
Then there was another class of worshippers.
They were those who bowed down and swore by the LORD and who also swore by Milcom, or Molech – as he is also called.
This is, of course, down-right hypocrisy!
So, as well as those literally worshipping on their roof tops we have those syncretisticly worshipping.
They were having the best of both worlds.
But in fact they were limping on both sides – they were crippled spiritually and no good to anyone!
Notice the pagan deity they swear by.
We have heard of Molech before in the Old Testament.
In fact, he is the god Manasseh sacrificed his oldest son to in the fire.
This is absolutely terrible!
But if you thought those in these groups were bad enough, there are also those who just simply ignore God.
Verse 6 details these ones.
By picturing them as those who turn their backs and who don’t seek the Lord and who don’t inquire of him, makes them just as bad as any of the others.
While it seems they are doing nothing they have actually purposely done a very wrong thing!
For they know they should be doing something – and that thing is worshipping and serving the Lord their God!
So in the verses 5 and 6 we have a variety of religious responses.
But none of them is the right response.
From the mix of Yahwistic and pagan worship, to complete paganism and practical atheism, there’s every possible angle covered that is against the Lord.
They have done everything they were told not to do.
So what can God do?
Well, he can only do what he has told them constantly he would do – he will cut them off!
The Lord will clean this up.
He’ll wipe the table of them!
But is it any different for those who are his people today?
Can we honestly say that there isn’t a mix of Yahwistic and pagan worship within Christendom?
In some cases don’t we find complete paganism or practical atheism?
We only need to think of the so-called Toronto Blessing, the World Council of Churches and the liberalism in mainline churches.
Congregation, isn’t the catch-cry today the one of ‘tolerance’?
Don’t you hear time and again how we just have to accept each other?
As long as you’re sincere about what you believe.
And if there isn’t all those false gods around there are the other ones we’ve made as well.
How many haven’t been seduced by power and money?
Some of us have personally experienced that.
And how many of us aren’t also caught up in it?
The God who has shown amazing grace and mercy won’t always delay.
While physical ruin was about to come upon the nation of Judah soon enough there will be that complete destruction Zephaniah foretold of the whole earth.
Don’t forget which side of the mountain range he was looking at.
And then realise that where we look from now shows we are up to that last peak.
Judgment cannot be much longer postponed.
Would you want it to be?
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Lord Jesus, with the early Church may our prayer also be, ‘Marantha, Come quickly, Lord Jesus!’
For we are those looking to you, those seeking your will in all we do.
May we so be found by you when you return.
In your Saving and Ruling Name alone, we pray.
Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2019, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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