The Great and Terrible Day of the LORD

Zephaniah 1:1-18  (cf. Amos 5:18–20)

1 The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

2 "I will utterly consume everything
From the face of the land,"
Says the LORD;
3 "I will consume man and beast;
I will consume the birds of the heavens,
The fish of the sea,
And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.
I will cut off man from the face of the land,"
Says the LORD.

4 "I will stretch out My hand against Judah,
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,
The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—

5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;
Those who worship and swear oaths by the LORD,
But who also swear by Milcom;
6 Those who have turned back from following the LORD,
And have not sought the LORD, nor inquired of Him."

7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD;
For the day of the LORD is at hand,
For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice;
He has invited His guests.

8 "And it shall be,
In the day of the LORD's sacrifice,
That I will punish the princes and the king's children,
And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
9 In the same day I will punish
All those who leap over the threshold,
Who fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.

10 "And there shall be on that day," says the LORD,
"The sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate,
A wailing from the Second Quarter,
And a loud crashing from the hills.

11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh!
For all the merchant people are cut down;
All those who handle money are cut off.

12 "And it shall come to pass at that time
That I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
And punish the men
Who are settled in complacency,
Who say in their heart,
'The LORD will not do good,
Nor will He do evil.'

13 Therefore their goods shall become booty,
And their houses a desolation;
They shall build houses, but not inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine."

14 The great day of the LORD is near;
It is near and hastens quickly.
The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter;
There the mighty men shall cry out.

15 That day is a day of wrath,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of devastation and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,

16 A day of trumpet and alarm
Against the fortified cities
And against the high towers.

17 "I will bring distress upon men,
And they shall walk like blind men,
Because they have sinned against the LORD;
Their blood shall be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like refuse."

18 Neither their silver nor their gold
Shall be able to deliver them
In the day of the LORD's wrath;
But the whole land shall be devoured
By the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make speedy riddance
Of all those who dwell in the land.

Zephaniah’s prophecy likely influenced the reform that occurred during Josiah’s reign—a “revival” that produced outward change but did not fully remove the inward corruption of the heart of the nation. Zephaniah forcefully preached repeatedly that the day of the Lord, the Judgment Day, is coming when sin would be dealt with.  The book recounted how the people had said that the LORD would not do good nor evil, that He was either unable or unwilling to do anything.  This was the God they wanted so they could do what was right in their own eyes.  God in return would consume those stumbling blocks along with all the wicked and cut  off all the idols and idol worshippers from His people.  They mixed an outward form of worship to the LORD with false gods as they turned away from following the one true God, no longer seeking to hear from Him or seek His face because of their shame and rejection as they lived contrary to His word.  They were told that the Day of the LORD had come before their faces to confront their sin and call them to turn from it to Him.  They were told to be silent in His presence so they could listen and hear what He had to tell them concerning the wrath to come as Jesus did in Luke 3:7 and which we are reminded of in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and Revelation 6:17.  He would punish those who had continued in sin, lies, complacency, and violence who said in their heart, 'The LORD will not do good, nor will He do evil' (Psalm 94:7).  Yes, all they had would be lost (Matthew 25:29) because it was not honoring to God not of any eternally lasting value.  The great Day of the LORD’s judgement was racing closer to their doorstep.  It is described as a day of trouble and distress, of devastation and desolation, of darkness and gloominess, and of clouds and thick darkness.  It would trumpet alarm to warn the cities about to be destroyed and blind the sinners with distress and deaf ears unable to hear the call to repentance anymore.  Their riches were unable to buy them salvation, as ineffective as Roman indulgences in the time of the Reformation as judgment removed the unrepentant ones set to continue rejecting Him and His word.  The Day of Judgment then pales in comparison to the Day of Final and eternal Judgment which it pointed to for all God’s people to hear, the great and terrible Day of the LORD as Joel 2:11 says.  This is the bad news answered by the good news of Jesus the Christ who has paid the price for our sin and calls us to faith and repentance in Him who is our only righteousness.  May all who read these things hear and turn as those then in Josiah’s reign (2 Chronicles 34:21) to always hear and heed the scriptures, keeping to the path which His word has laid out for us to continue to follow.