Zephaniah and the Destruction of Mankind

As a Christian, the Old Testament is often difficult to read.  Probably the hardest stuff to comprehend are the prophets.  Yet, as followers of the Lord we are called to read his whole Word.  To that end, let’s start looking at the words of Zephaniah and hope the Holy Spirit is ready to teach us more.

Alright, let’s start off with introductions.  Hello Zephaniah, I’m the Layman; how do you do?

The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:

“I will sweep away everything
From the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
“I will sweep away both men and animals;
I will sweep away the birds of the air
And the fish of the sea.
The wicked will have only heaps of rubble
When I cut of man from the face of the earth,”

Declares the Lord (Zephaniah 1:1-3).

Oh…I see.  This is gonna be one of those articles again isn’t it?  It’s always amazing to me just how much the prophets talk about wanton destruction.  Zephaniah was writing during the reign of Josiah, the last good king.  But even during his reign the prophets were coming on hard.  Zephaniah’s prophecy is very extreme; the whole world will be wiped away.  For Christians though this should be nothing new; even Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35).  And obviously we’re looking forward to the end because it feels closer than ever and heaven doesn’t sound bad at all.

But God wiping the slate clean is not without reason.  A passage in Jeremiah caught my eye; he wrote,

Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
Look around and consider,
Search through her squares.
If you can find but one person
Who deals honestly and seeks the truth,
I will forgive this city.
Although they say, “As surely as the Lord lives,”
Still they are swearing falsely (Jeremiah 5:1-2).

Even in the days of Jeremiah, evil had permeated the people to such a degree that nobody could be trusted.  Jeremiah tried to come up with a justification for it:

I thought, “These are only the poor;
They are foolish,
For they do not know the way of the Lord
The requirements of their God (Jeremiah 5:4).

“Well of course people are sinning” he reasoned, “They don’t read the Bible and so they don’t understand God.”  Therefore Jeremiah sought those who should know better:

So I will go to the leaders
And speak to them;
Surely they know the way of the Lord,
The requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
And torn off the bonds (Jeremiah 5:5).

Oh…that is less encouraging.  For unbelievers and non-devout Christians sin is sort of expected.  But, like Jeremiah, we see that sin permeates even our leaders and we hear it in the news and are horrified.  And so, the Lord must keep sending his warnings:

And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention.  They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave you and your fathers for ever and ever.  Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made.  Then I will not harm you.”

     “But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have provoked me with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves” (Jeremiah 25:4-7).

We may not be in the business of designing golden gods anymore, but our sin as a people still continually provokes our creator.

But isn’t the destruction of everything a bit…extreme?  It might seem that way, but look at how it is described in Zephaniah 1:4-6,

I will stretch out my hand against Judah
And against all who live in Jerusalem.
I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal,
The names of the pagans and the idolatrous priests-
Those who bow down on the roofs
To worship the starry host,
Those who bow down and swear by the Lord
And who also swear by Molech,
Those who turn back from following the Lord
And neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him.

Now in my Bible this section is separated from verses 1-3 by a heading, so it seems like there are different focuses.  But in the original writing, the verses wouldn’t have been so clearly split.  I bring this up, because when you put the two sections together you get “I will destroy the world” (verses 1-3) and “I will purge my land of sin” (verses 4-6); you just need to put “because” in between those to get the message.  This is how messed up our world is- or at least will be when the end finally does come.  Sin is such a part of everything that when the cleansing fires come across the earth, there won’t be anything pure to survive it.  Look at your own life and how you live.  Are you pure?  Would you survive the fire?

But those who believe in Jesus and his salvation will survive the fires- even if they aren’t as pure as they should be.  We are told,

Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

     Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city (Revelation 22:12-14).

Those of us who have been washed clean through Jesus’ blood of atonement will see life after death and glory after destruction.

No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever (Revelation 22:3-5).

From the fiery end of the world and the purging of sin from mankind and the whole of creation will come a new world, free from sins and entanglement.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

     He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”  Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:1-5).

Unfortunately, the world as it stands is so messed up that it will take a massive reset (as prophesied) to get to the glory that awaits us.

When reading through the prophets and their constant warnings of destruction, remember how it will all end for those of us who seek the Lord.  Although the time of trials will suck: “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22)- the result will be an existence with no more evil, no more sin, and no more pain as we commune with God.

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

     Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20).

Related articles

• Zephaniah in Focus (laymansbible.wordpress.com)