Zephaniah: Hope remains!
Return: the Minor Prophets – Zephaniah – Hope Remains!
Revd. Emma Racklyeft - Vicar
Today we turn to the minor prophet Zephaniah…
Zephaniah’s great, great, grandfather was King Hezekiah – an outstanding leader from the southern territory of Judah. However, as we’ve seen already, things had gone seriously adrift in the land.
As Zephaniah speaks out it is during a time where the current King, King Josiah has sought to bring about real change in the land by removing idols, and in restoring the temple to worship Israel’s God alone…
However, Israel (God’s people) were just too far gone.
Worshipping other God’s was too entrenched in the lives of the people and it ended up that Josiah’s pride led him to a tragic death on the battlefield as he set Jerusalem on a collision course with Babylon.
For years Zephaniah had seen all of this coming… and so this book is a collection of all his prophecies and poetry summarising his message.
The book of Zephaniah has three main parts.
- The first part, chapters 1 – 2:3 focus on the day of the Lord’s judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem.
- The second part, from chapter 2:4 through to chapter 3:8 is about the day of God’s judgment on the nations, and Jerusalem, again.
- The third part, chapter 3:9 to the end explores the hope that remains for the nations, and Jerusalem, on the other side of God’s judgment.
So, let’s look at each section in a little more detail.
The first part begins with a shocking reversal of Genesis 1. So, God’s good, ordered, wonderful world is going to descend back into disorder, darkness and chaos. It will become uninhabitable once again.
Our first reading today, and as you read through all this first section, Zephaniah is using some powerful poetic images, to describe how Jerusalem’s world is going to end.
All of the city’s institutions for worshipping the gods of the Canaanites will be destroyed, all the leaders who perpetrated injustice, all the economic centres with crooked lending and borrowing took place, all of it will be gone, along with the cities walls.
And Zephaniah develops these almost apocalyptic images to show the significance of what’s going to happen. It all refers to a great army that is coming to take out Jerusalem.
Now it’s interesting to note, Zephaniah doesn’t state whose army God’s going to use to bring this judgement. Now we know form the other prophets, Micah and Habakkuk that this army is Babylon – but Zephaniah doesn’t mention this - because Zephaniah wants to emphasise, highlight the God’s role in orchestrating the rise and fall of the city.
And actually, that’s what gives Zephaniah hope. Very briefly in the last part of this first section Zephaniah speaks of hope, not that Jerusalem as a whole can avoid its fate, but in a closing poem (2:1-3) Zephaniah calls on anyone in Jerusalem who would seek the Lord, these people will make up a faithful remnant who could be spared if they repentant.
In the second section, Zephaniah widens his focus to include the nations around Judah, so the Philistines, Moabites and the Ammonites, even the Assyrians, he accuses all of them of corruption and violence and arrogance and he predicts that all of them will fall before Babylon too.
And what’s shocking in this section, the final people group targeted in this section are the Israelite’s in Jerusalem, it’s like the leaders, and prophets and priests of Israel are so corrupt and violent, so estranged from their God, that he doesn’t even recognise them as his people anymore…
And so, this section ends with God’s final decision.
He is going to gather up all the nations, including Jerusalem, and pour out his burning indignation 3:8. God’s justice becomes a consuming fire that will devour all evil form the land.
Which is really intense…scary and powerful…and so as we move into the final section, there is a total surprise.
We discover that this burning fire of divine judgement, is not aimed at destroying people, rather its purpose is to purify the nations, including Jerusalem.
And so, verses 9-10 of chapter 3, begins with God saying he is going to heal and transform the rebellious nations, into one unified family.
And that after being purified there going to turn from their evil and call upon the name of the Lord.
These images point to the fulfilment of the promise that God made to Abraham – all the way back in Genesis 12, where God would find a way to bless the nations, and Jerusalem as well.
The conclusion of the book focuses on the restoration of the city at the centre of the nations, God’s presence is there, in the restored city, along with that faithful remnant that have been humbled and transformed by God’s mercy.
And they are called to sing and rejoice, and then in a striking image we are told that God is poet, who wants to sing too – that God will live among his people, and he will rejoice over them with songs of joy. (3:17)
The closing poem of the book ends with some powerful images of God gathering up into his family the outcast, and the poor and the broken, where is exalts them into a place of honour - and that is how the book ends.
This book of Zephaniah contains some of the most intense images of Justice and Love that you find anywhere in the prophets.
God’s justice is about God’s passion and desire to protect and recuse his world from the horror of human evil and violence. God won’t tolerate the horrible things that humans do to each other, and to his world, and so he brings justice in order to restore – to create a world where everyone can flourish in safety and peace because of his great love.
And so, Zephaniah forces us to hold together these two aspects of God’s character – his Justice and His Love – and he wants us to discover that together, these contain the future hope of our world.
And, like all the other bible writers proclaimed, our hope remains. Our hope, our certainty is in Christ Jesus… God himself, who came to redeem and save us, who will return once more with justice and mercy.
God is coming to make life good again, to call His people home.
That God’s love will win.
Until then, in a topsy-turvy world,
we are to live in God’s strength,
with hope, with blessing and with disappointment and pain.
With joy in knowing God,
with faith and patience in the face of imperfection,
by prayer and action making a difference.
Zephaniah, who was greatly disturbed by all he saw around him, trusted that God’s salvation plan would come about….
That God jealously loves His people, you and me included, and longs to rejoice over each of us as we return to Him in repentance and holy reverence.
The realism of the book is disturbing, but the hope Zephaniah’s prophecy brings is life changing.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!