Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi

Micah Fries, Stephen Rummage, Robby Gallaty, David Platt, Dr. Daniel L. Akin, Tony Merida

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780805499476
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi is part of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series. This series affirms that the Bible is a Christ-centered book, containing a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero. It's presented as sermons, divided into chapters that conclude with a "Reflect & Discuss" section, making this series ideal for small group study, personal devotion, and even sermon preparation. It's not academic but rather presents an easy-reading, practical and friendly commentary. The series is projected to be 48 volumes.

Zephaniah

Introduction

Zephaniah 1:1

Main Idea: The book of Zephaniah is the story of God’s powerful judgment and His equally astonishing grace.

Remember “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”? One of the more well known of Aesop’s Fables, the story describes the boy who repeatedly called out about impending danger when no danger was present, only to find that when actual danger was present, no one was willing to come to his aid because they no longer believed him when he called. In a small sense Israel, and more specifically, the city of Jerusalem, was guilty of treating the prophet Zephaniah with the same disregard, though Zephaniah was not guilty of deceptively crying out when danger was not present. No, instead the people of Judah had disregarded God for many, many years and found themselves now being called to repentance, only they seem to have had little interest in turning from their sin.

The people of God were in the midst of a long period of rebellion. Zephaniah helps us understand when this occurs by providing for us his lineage. He is the great-great grandson of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah, of course, is known for his illness and request of the Lord for longer life, which God answered by extending his life 15 years. During this time he fathered Manasseh, who would follow him as the next king of Israel. Unfortunately, Manasseh was an evil king who did great spiritual damage in Israel. Following Manasseh was King Amon, who continued Manasseh’s legacy and did not honor God with his leadership. As a result Israel continued to be mired in spiritual decline. Manasseh and Amon ruled for a total of 57 years, and Josiah came to power after Amon. Josiah was a different ruler than his two predecessors; he desired to rule in a way that honored God and that called the people to repentance. Zephaniah was a contemporary of Josiah, and it was in the midst of this environment that Zephaniah began to prophesy.

Zephaniah was almost certainly a person of some influence, mostly due to his family heritage. As a direct descendant of Hezekiah, he was probably a man of affluence, some renown, and influence. A contemporary of Jeremiah, Zephaniah would have been one of a few prophetic voices who lent their support to the king’s desire for reform. His position in the community would almost certainly have given strength to his voice and granted him a certain audience. However, his position in the community would also have likely exacerbated the opposition when the community realized the content of his call for repentance.

Zephaniah’s lineage also helps us to get an idea of when the book was written. His prophecy was written during the reign of Josiah, but before the fall of Nineveh. Helping us pinpoint it a bit more is the fact that it was written before Josiah’s reforms, which would have occurred around 621 BC. So, taking into account each of these features, we can be fairly confident that the book was written between 641 and 622 BC.

The dominant themes of the book are pretty clear. This is a book of judgment, a call to repentance, and a declaration of God’s gracious work on behalf of His people.

The Day of the Lord Is Coming because of Their Idol Worship

Zephaniah 1:2-18

Main Idea: The judgment of God will be poured out against the whole earth because of people’s persistent disobedience.

I. The Whole Earth Will Be Destroyed (1:2-3).

II. God’s Own People Will Be Destroyed because of Their Treason and Idolatry (1:4-6).

III. The Day of the Lord Is Upon Them (1:7).

IV. The Grief Will Be Intense Because No One Will Be Exempt from God’s Judgment (1:8-11).

V. Those Who Pursue Other Gods Will Lose Everything (1:12-13).

VI. The Day of the Lord Is Unlike Any Other Day in Its Terror (1:14-17).

VII. Their Sin Will Bring About Complete Destruction (1:18).

The Whole Earth Will Be Destroyed

Zephaniah 1:2-3

Talk about a doomsday scenario! Zephaniah kicks off with a bang, and not in a good way. The nation of Judah was guilty of gross negligence in its relationship with God, and as a result Zephaniah warns that judgment is coming. However, this is not your typical warning of judgment. In what is arguably a more intense and extensive warning than anywhere else in Scripture, Zephaniah pleads with the nation, and specifically the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to repent of their sin and to turn back to God. In what can be viewed as one of the more depressing prophetic books, Zephaniah attempts to awaken the people to their disobedience. In an attempt to convey the seriousness of this charge, God, speaking through Zephaniah, threatens not only to judge them, but to wipe them off the face of the earth. Not only will He wipe them off the face of the earth, He makes the claim that He will wipe every living thing off the face of the earth. This is a deep and devastating warning that Judah must heed.

Like every culture and people who have been introduced to God, there is a temptation to diminish God in our minds and to live as if there are no ramifications for our behavior. The people of Judah, like many of us today, found themselves tempted by a host of good things, as we will see later in the passage. The temptation to chase after the good things, though, had caused them to abandon the best thing, namely their pursuit of God. This is not altogether different from our temptations today. In his book Counterfeit Gods Dr. Tim Keller speaks about this temptation:

The human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them. (Counterfeit Gods, xiv)

In Zephaniah’s day their pursuits appeared to be such things as comfort, wealth, and political influence. Sounds a lot like our contemporary culture, does it not? While we claim allegiance to Jesus, with all that brings, we often attempt to divide our allegiance and chase other things rather than pursue Christ. In these times Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 are a reminder to us of the futility of worshipping at the feet of multiple gods: “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money” (Matt 6:24). You and I could insert any number of good things at the end of that verse. Marriage, children, vocation, and rest are all sufficient temptations. In light of those temptations, though, we need to hear and heed Zephaniah’s warning to Judah. If we choose to jettison Christ for the pursuit of false gods, we are in danger of judgment. We must choose to follow God or not to follow Him. That choice will have eternal consequences. Like Joshua and the nation of Israel, we must choose to serve Christ, and to serve Him only:

But if it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh. (Josh 24:15)

This basic theme will resonate through the rest of the book. Before Judah are two choices. They can choose to honor God, repent of their sin, and experience His blessing, or they can persist in their disobedience and face His judgment, which could include their total destruction.

Making this judgment possible is the anger of God. While we often do not like to speak of God’s anger, we cannot study Zephaniah with integrity and not recognize that God is not just a little displeased; no, He is very angry, and His anger has very real and dangerous implications. At the conclusion of the book we will see one of the most beautiful and majestic offers of grace that can be found anywhere in Scripture—both in the Old and New Testaments—but before that offer of grace can be extended, it must be preceded by a clear depiction of God’s wrath. It is against the backdrop of God’s appropriate wrath that the grace of God is so powerfully displayed.

God’s Own People Will Be Destroyed because of Their Treason and Idolatry

Zephaniah 1:4-6

While the declaration of judgment in the first few verses was a bit more general, God begins to zero in, very specifically, on His own people. This, of course, would have shocked and terrified them. God says to Judah that He is ready to stretch out His hand against them. This is a specific reference to judgment. God is going to judge the people that He loves, mainly because they have begun functioning as those who are not His own. The latter part of verse 4 reveals why He is so displeased: their worship of Baal had gone unabated for t...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Zephaniah
• Works Cited
• Scripture Index