Zephaniah 1:7-16
Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is near;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice—
“I will punish the officials and the king's sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
On that day I will punish
everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master's house
with violence and fraud.
“On that day,” declares the Lord,
“a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,
a loud crash from the hills.
Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!
For all the traders are no more;
all who weigh out silver are cut off.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the men
who are complacent,
those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do ill.’
Their goods shall be plundered,
and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
they shall not drink wine from them.”
The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, November 19, is from Zephaniah chapter one, verses seven through 16. Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, the Lord is prepared to sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And on the day of the Lord sacrifice, I will punish the officials and the king sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who feel their Masters House with violence and fraud. On that day, declares the Lord, a cry will be heard from the fish gate. A whale from the second quarter allowed crash from the hills, whale, oh inhabitants of the mortar, for all the traders are no more. All who weigh out silver are cut off. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and I will punish the men who are complacent. Those who say in their hearts. The Lord will not do good nor will He do ill. Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses they shall not inhabit them. Though they plant vineyards they shall not drink wine from them. The Great Day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day of Day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. Here ends the reading. This reading from Zephaniah continues the Old Testament theme we had last week with Amos, talking about the coming day of the Lord as a day of judgment. You remember, you may remember Amos saying that it's a day of darkness and not light. And that's repeated again at the end of this reading. The book of Zephaniah is difficult to date, we're not exactly sure. It's supposed to be during the time of Josiah the king who would reform but we don't know whether it happened before the book of the law was discovered. And King Josiah reinstituted temple worship, and got rid of all the false gods and all of that, or after that, and we don't know exactly who the destruction refers to. Now, there aren't any clear illusions, but we can interpret some general things. So let's begin with it. It goes be silent before the Lord God for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord is prepared to sacrifice and consecrated his guests. So it's been silent before the Lord God is near his power and his might are coming. What's interesting here is that the Lord is preparing a sacrifice. This is not people are preparing a sacrifice for the Lord, He has prepared a sacrifice. So there's something that is going to get killed and then burned. And he's consecrated the guests who are coming with him to share in that feast. So on that day, I will punish the officials and the king sons, and all who arranged themselves in foreign attire. On that day, I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their Masters House with violence and fraud. So the sacrifice now seems like it's all of these people that it names, kings, officials, everyone who wears foreign attire, people who leap over the household, and commit violence and fraud. Now, these things might be a little confusing, array themselves in foreign attire, and can you not wear clothes from far away? Like my clothes? Or some of my clothes were made in China or Thailand? Is that the problem? Of course not. This is likely referring to some sort of false worship that's associated with the clothing of foreign gods. And so you're, you're trying to fit in with the gods of faraway places by wearing these clothings. And leaping over the threshold would have a similar idea is that it was a practice of some false god or something like that. And so the day of the Lord is coming and he's going to punish all those people who were supposed to be worshipping Him, but are instead worshiping all of the false gods. It continues on that day, declares the LORD will cry will be heard from the fish gate, a whale from the second quarter allowed crash from the hills, and then continues on like that. There is all sorts of wailing and sadness. I think we Christians and many people often think that about God's coming. If we think of it at all, we're not altogether too worried about it. But these passages that show the day of the Lord is judgment, and not just grace. And so there is there is a healthy fear of God's coming, that when He comes, He will judge the living and the dead. That judgment will be grace and eternal life for the people who believe in Him. But for those who are false Christians or non believers, there's a whale and a crying. This for Zephaniah's day was focused specifically on the people in in Jerusalem, where they are complacent or where they are worshipping false gods. I'd like to move into this. This piece though it says, At that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps and I will punish the men who are complacent those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill. So he's focusing in on this section on the people who think God just will do nothing. He doesn't have any power, he doesn't have any control. In fact, the foreign gods are likely the ones who had power and control in their mind. Back in the ancient world. The when people conquered, or when they had power in mind, it was often attributed to a God. And so every group of people had their own patron god. And when they went to war, it was the god with the most power that brought victory. And so what they're saying is, is that the Lord can't do good and he can't do ill, which means he has zero power, he's unable to do anything. And I think many people, especially those who don't understand the Bible, think similarly about God, that he's just some happy old man up in heaven, just kind of looking down and smiling like a, like an uncle who just sort of loves his children from afar. There's no judgment, there's no problem. He says, What will he do those guys? Zephaniah says their goods shall be plundered in their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit it, though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them. This is kind of the reverse of what Moses said when they would go into the Promised Land. He told the people of Israel that they would have houses that they did not build in vineyards that they did not plant. And they would know that God is the one who gave it to them. Now they are building houses and they're not dwelling in them. They're planting vineyards and they are not drinking wine from them, because God is going to send judgment. Finally, he ends up with more talk about the great day of the Lord. It says the day of wrath is that day a day of distress and anguish a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty embattlement. Here, it seems like Zephaniah is looking forward to the day when God brings judgment on Judah by bringing in the armies of Babylon, to bring Israel into exile. For us, we look forward and we see a day of judgment that is darkness and gloom as the day of judgment that God put out on Jesus Christ. The day of the Lord well are the sun turned dark and the moon turned to blood, and judgment came down on our Savior Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. We look forward to because that judgment was spent on Jesus. When the day of the Lord comes and he returns, He will raise us from the dead and give us life. There's a judgment that is coming as well. For all those who are outside the church, it will be a day of gloom and darkness and battle cry, and a day of judgment and sadness for them as they're cast into eternal torment. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai