The prophecy from Zephaniah is only three chapters long, but it is a panoramic view of what happens to a nation that abandons the Lord. Though their days were dark and foreboding because of their disobedience, with God, there would be hope for their future if they chose to repent and follow Him.
The people came to this sad place because they had dismissed God as irrelevant. They had become prosperous and saw no need to repent of their sins. They had descended to the darkest depths of rebellion. “They claim to follow the Lord, but then they worship Molech” (Zephaniah 1:5). This kind of evil worship of the false God Molech had parents tossing their living children into a sacrificial fire of that demon. The Lord said what led them into the depths of such depravity, “They no longer ask for the Lord’s guidance or seek my blessings” (1:6).
The Lord had to judge that kind of sin and its depravity because “They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad” (1:12). They had become spiritually insensitive to right and wrong. There is only one way to survive the coming judgments of God: “Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly” (2:3).
A flippant attitude was present in the nation that stood in opposition to the Lord and His truth: “No one can tell it anything; it refuses all correction. It does not trust in the Lord or draw near to God” (3:2).
When the consequence of their sins began to manifest, the Lord said, “Surely, they will have reverence for me now! Surely, they will listen to my warnings” (3:7). But they refused to do so even as judgments were falling on a nation. Deception is so powerful that it will cause people to proudly resist the call to repent, even as they are being judged for their sin. The remnant who continued to believe in the Lord and follow His instructions will set the future course of the nation.
The final words of Zephaniah’s prophecy were words of hope spoken by the Lord, for those who had chosen to follow the Lord while evil filled the nation, “On that day I will gather you together and bring you home again. I will give you a good name, a name of distinction, among all the nations of the earth, as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (3:20).
God’s words of hope were the ending words of Zephaniah’s panoramic prophecy. It only takes a believing remnant to bring a nation to that hope-filled end.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash
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