Meditations on Zephaniah

Zephaniah 1

Few months ago, many of us watched with horror and awe live images of the tsunami devastating the northern parts of Japan. We saw how buildings, cars, boats and almost everything else that stood in the way of the tsunami being swept away like those Hollywood movies. But this was not a movie. It was real.

Now perhaps we can appreciate the opening words of the prophecy of Zephaniah where the Lord declares that He ‘will utterly sweep away everything on the face of the earth’ (v.2). Perhaps it will be many times worst than the tsunami in Japan. Man and beast will be swept away. So will birds of the heavens and fish of the sea (v.3), reversing the order of creation as pointed out by some commentators.

Although in the subsequent chapter, other nations will be judged, the focus here in this chapter is judgment is going to fall on God’s own covenant people. Some of them have become outright idolatrous, some practices syncretism whereas others just could not even be bothered with God or have become what one commentator terms as ‘practical atheists’. They were caught up chasing after material things and spirituality is the last thing on their mind. In their hearts, God is as good as dead (v.12).

What is amazing is the above happened during the time of King Josiah’s reform. It is evident that the rot that started with Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh has become irreversible. Josiah’s reform was only able to postpone the inevitable. The judgment that Zephaniah prophesied against Judah and Jerusalem came to pass a mere twenty two years after Josiah’s death when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians and most of its inhabitants were exiled.

God’s wrath and judgment is a topic which most preachers would avoid nowadays. What we often hear is about the love of God and therapeutic sermons which are meant to massage our egos. And we wonder why there is no revival. We forget that Jonathan Edwards’ vivid image of an angry God holding sinners over the pit of hell like a spider or some loathsome insect was instrumental in leading people to repentance and ushered in the Great Awakening in America.

For Richard Niebuhr, the god of liberal Protestantism is “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without cross.” A God without wrath will make Christ’s death meaningless (1 John 4:10).

Let us now be silent before the Lord. Let us examine our hearts. Let us repent and ask for forgiveness.