Zephaniah
The Day of the Lord

Week of Monday, August 12, 2002

In describing the scientific enterprise, Professor Dick Bube of Stanford once remarked that there is a big difference between description, which can be comparatively easy, and explanation, which can be extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. Reading the prophet Zephaniah makes me feel like that. Of the twelve minor prophets, his central theme is probably the easiest to describe, for in five brief pages he refers to “the day of the Lord” nineteen times. That much is clear; but what Zephaniah means by the day of the Lord is more difficult to explain. And let's admit it, we typically give very little attention to the idea of God's judgment, so it is not something we are accustomed to think about.

The book begins with the wild poetry we have come to expect from the prophets. Zephaniah announces a coming day of destruction:

“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 off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

This is “the great day of the Lord's wrath” (1:14) and it is a day of bitterness, anguish, ruin and gloom. Notice, too, that Zephaniah's initial scope is not just Judah or her surrounding enemies but rather the entire world. His vision is universal. At least portions of his prophecy about “the day of the Lord” are directed to “the whole world” and “all who live in the earth” (1:18 and 3:8), the nations and kingdoms (plural) “on every shore” (2:11).

But as one might guess, he has particularly harsh words for Judah. In two long passages he directly addresses God's elect people (1:4–2:3 and 3:1–20), and by now we are familiar with the sorts of grievances prophets like Zephaniah were given to speak. There was religious infidelity in the worship of Baal and Molech. In the economic sphere there was wanton luxury predicated upon oppression and exploitation; these people wore “foreign clothes”—only the nicest imports from the most expensive stores (1:8). The market district, merchants and those who “trade with silver”—Jerusalem's Wall Street equivalent —will be “wiped out” (1:11). In the social and cultural realm violence and oppression ruled the day (1:9, 3:1). Judah's leadership, the officials, prophets and priests were singled out as predators (3:3–4). This is a people who “knows no shame” (3:5).

Zephaniah then turns his attention to five surrounding nations. Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Cush and Assyria will also experience Yahweh's judgment. Notice the concentric circles: God's elect people Judah, five surrounding nations, and even the entire world or the whole earth.

Whatever we can say about God's judgment, it is equitable in at least two senses. The judgment that Zephaniah describes is the same for all. In effect, neither God's elect nor the pagan enemy nations are treated differently. There are no “favorites”, so to speak. In writing to the believers at Rome, Paul made this very point. To the Jews who (rightly) saw themselves as a people of divine privilege—and perhaps we Christians should listen carefully here in our spiritual condescension toward unbelievers—Paul reminds them. God's judgment is righteous: “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:5–11). In Zephaniah Judah, the five nations, and the entire world get the same treatment.

Yahweh's judgment is equitable in a second sense, too. Often when we think of His judgment we imagine that it is ambivalent and arbitrary, like the unpredictable outburst of a parent who lashes out at his children. But that is hardly the case here. God's judgment is entirely predictable, without any surprises. It is a purifying response to all the many things that dehumanize us—violence, oppression, religious fakery, exploitation, and the like. Think about it; do we really want a Hitler or an Idi Amin to go unpunished? Now think again: do I really want God to leave me to my own envy, greed, anger, and so forth, or do I want Him to judge, rescue and purify me from them? Would we really prefer that these sorts of impurities, as they appear in others but also in our very own selves, not be cleansed and taken away from us, that we not be held accountable? I doubt it. To me, the most terrifying texts in the Bible are those that indicate that God gives us up to our own sin, poor choices, foolishness ignorance, and the like (cf. Romans 1:24, 26, 28). Divine judgment is equitable and even merciful in that, like a loving parent, it indicates that God has not given us up, that He is not done with us.

When is this judgment? Two times Zephaniah writes that it is “near” and “coming quickly” (1:7, 14). A natural way to read this is that he foresaw the coming invasion of Babylon, roughly a mere fifty years in his future. Everyone already knew what had happened to the northern kingdom of Israel only a hundred years earlier when in 722 BC Assyria destroyed them. But given Zephaniah's universal scope, it's likely that he also envisioned not only a near future but a far future. Perhaps at this point we should be content with his description and admit our ignorance about the detailed explanation.

The important point about “the day of the Lord” and divine judgment is that it has less to do about chronology and clock time (what the Greeks called chronos, from which we get the word “chronology”), and everything to do with sensing the “time” of God's special visitation (what the Greeks called kairos). Thus Jesus encourages us to understand the “signs of the time”—not in the sense of what day of the week it is or what year, but in the sense of understanding what God is doing (Matthew 16:3). Similarly, and tragically, Jesus lamented that Jerusalem “did not recognize the time (kairos) of God's coming to you” (Luke 19:44). So, discerning God's judgment has less to do with solving a chronological puzzle about the far future, and everything to do about sensing the speaking and acting of Yahweh right now, today.

In Zephaniah we also observe that, ultimately, Yahweh's judgment intends to be redemptive and not merely retributive. It is not an end in itself but a means to a better end. There is a scattering, but there is also a “gathering” (3:20). There is the announcement of impending doom, but Zephaniah also includes an invitation and appeal. He beseeches us to seek the Lord “before” (3 times) this awful day of the Lord comes. Divine judgment is not inevitable, it is not some immutable law of fate. Should we repent, the result is likewise predictable.

Zephaniah envisions a day when God “takes away your punishment,” a time when “you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me” (3:11, 15). It is a day when Yahweh is “mighty to save,” a time when He “takes great delight” in us, a time when he will “quiet us with His love and rejoice over us with singing” (3:16–17). Echoing his prophetic compatriots, Zephaniah finally says that the day of the Lord is a day when “the nations on every shore will worship him, everyone in his own land” (2:11; Isaiah 2:2, Micah 4:1–2, and Zechariah 8:22–23). Yahweh's judgment, then, is a “severe mercy” or a “tough love,” for it anticipates the time when His mercy triumphs over wrath (Habakkuk 3:2) and His grace overshadows our sin (Romans 5:20).

The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself Copyright ©2002 by Dan Clendenin. All Rights Reserved.