The Call to Repentance

Zephaniah 2:1-15 

1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,
O undesirable nation,
2 Before the decree is issued,
Or the day passes like chaff,
Before the LORD's fierce anger comes upon you,
Before the day of the LORD's anger comes upon you!

3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth,
Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden
In the day of the LORD's anger.

Judgment on Nations

4 For Gaza shall be forsaken,
And Ashkelon desolate;
They shall drive out Ashdod at noonday,
And Ekron shall be uprooted.

5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
The nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the LORD is against you,
O Canaan, land of the Philistines:
"I will destroy you;
So there shall be no inhabitant."

6 The seacoast shall be pastures,
With shelters for shepherds and folds for flocks.

7 The coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah;
They shall feed their flocks there;
In the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening.
For the LORD their God will intervene for them,
And return their captives.

8 "I have heard the reproach of Moab,
And the insults of the people of Ammon,
With which they have reproached My people,
And made arrogant threats against their borders.

9 Therefore, as I live,"
Says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
"Surely Moab shall be like Sodom,
And the people of Ammon like Gomorrah—
Overrun with weeds and saltpits,
And a perpetual desolation.
The residue of My people shall plunder them,
And the remnant of My people shall possess them."

10 This they shall have for their pride,
Because they have reproached and made arrogant threats
Against the people of the LORD of hosts.

11 The LORD will be awesome to them,
For He will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth;
People shall worship Him,
Each one from his place,
Indeed all the shores of the nations.

12 "You Ethiopians also,
You shall be slain by My sword."

13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north,
Destroy Assyria,
And make Nineveh a desolation,
As dry as the wilderness.

14 The herds shall lie down in her midst,
Every beast of the nation.
Both the pelican and the bittern
Shall lodge on the capitals of her pillars;
Their voice shall sing in the windows;
Desolation shall be at the threshold;
For He will lay bare the cedar work.

15 This is the rejoicing city
That dwelt securely,
That said in her heart,
"I am it, and there is none besides me."
How has she become a desolation,
A place for beasts to lie down!
Everyone who passes by her
Shall hiss and shake his fist.

The call to repentance and obedience of faith is nothing new.  The gospel was hidden in the scriptures from the beginning in the Garden (Genesis 3:15) and that call all along was made clearly manifest in Christ who opened our eyes to the eternal work of God from our fall into the consummation of grace after the final judgment.  The scriptures record all these things along the way to the one who has always been God’s only way, absolute truth, and eternal life.  The mystery hidden was Christ (Ephesians 3:9-10) in us as the everlasting hope of God’s glory revealed to and through us who He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light (Colossians 1:27, 1 Peter 2:9)!  The call from Zephaniah began with a warning of the impending wrath of God on the sin of the nation of His people who would be sifted he burned as useless chaff (Psalm 1:4, Luke 3:17) sifted from the few remnants of good grain.  That is pointing to the Day of the LORD’s wrath in judgment, both in Israel’s immediate time as a nation and at the end of all time to come for every individual of all times.  Judgment on the ungodly nations is pronounced by Zephaniah as a pattern here as it will be (Psalm 1:5, 2 Peter 3:7, Jude 1:5) on all in the end who continue in unrighteousness apart from true repentance through faith in His deliverer, Christ Jesus, who has crushed the enemy’s heel once for all His called.  All the persecution of God’s people will find avenged in God’s set time (Revelation 6:10) just as those of Moab and Ammon named here would be held accountable for being adversaries of God’s chosen people.  These will be plundered by God’s wrath and power to comfort His children and the remnant will inherit the kingdom.  This alludes to those who find the narrow path through the Messiah to the eternal forgiving grace of God.  He alone is awesome to and for us, making nothing of the lifeless gods of the nations and bringing people out of every nation to worship Him (Acts 17:26-27, 1 Peter 2:9-10, Revelation 5:9).  All against the LORD and His Anointed will suffer the full weight of His wrath against sin.  The call to repentance by faith in Christ is the only salvation from our just due (Romans 6:23) and so we preach the same hope given by the prophets and Moses and the Psalms (Luke 24:44-45, 46-47) of deliverance in Jesus Christ who is found throughout scripture.  The eternal good news of the gospel is understood through understanding the bad news of our dire straits apart from His grace as we find in the channel of redemption through Israel until we are all called together as one people in Him (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11, Romans 11:25).  Jesus told us as recorded in Mark 1:15 that the answer is to turn from sin to Him in believing with full assurance of salvation from God’s wrath by the forgiveness of His immeasurable grace.  This is the call to repentance.  It describes The Call to Repentance as the eternal gospel from the beginning to answer our plight of the bad news of our sin with good news of salvation.