All right, if you'd go to Matthew, you go back about four books, and you'll come to Zephaniah as we continue our study through this Old Testament book.
Zephaniah. Josiah is the king at this time in Judah. Judah is generally known as the godly remnant. Israel, the northern kingdom, they divided ten tribes, went to the north and formed Israel, if you will, the northern kingdom. Two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, stayed to the south and formed what generally is just called Judah. But unfortunately, under some wicked kings, Judah has fallen into sin and idolatry, just out and out, rebellion against God.
But this young boy king comes to the throne, Josiah, eight years of age, and within a few years, and I'm convinced with Zephaniah's tutelage and discipleship, he begins radical reforms. All across Judah. Removing the high places, the pagan shrines, the idol worship, and calling the people to repentance.
However, it was too little, too late. God's judgment was already cast against Judah, and that's what we're seeing unfolding before us. We come to chapter 1, verses 14 through 18, and I don't have a title. I forgot to get one, so we'll just unpack verses 14 through 18, all right? The prophet writes, Near is the great day of the Lord. Near and coming very quickly, listen, the day of the Lord.
In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and the high corner towers. I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord, and their blood will be poured out like the dust and their flesh like dung. Either their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath, and all of the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one of all the inhabitants of the earth. Again, dealing with Old Testament prophecy, we remind ourselves that there are usually two things involved.
Matter of fact, always two things involved. There's a limited application for the people of the day. The text must have made sense to them, but then there's almost always an ultimate and full fulfillment, if you will, of the prophecy in the end times. And that's what we see here, the day of the Lord, referring to the end time coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, this is a day of the Lord for Tiny Judah, as God's judgment comes against her, as we also remember for us, there is the day of the Lord still out in front of us. Both are captured in the prophet's message. Let's notice, as we begin unpacking the text, Romans 1, the prophet wants to make it very clear that judgment is near. You might even put near and severe, but we'll pick that up more in Romans 2. Judgment is near. He begins in verse 14, the first part. Near is the great day of the Lord.
Near and coming very quickly. This made me think of God's omnipresence, his nearness. God is everywhere at the same time. Now, in our day, almost every time we hear someone say that God is near, they're referring to God's help and God's consolation.
He's near to support, near to encourage us. That's true, the psalmist said in Psalm 73, verse 28. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.
I've made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all of your works. And that is true for the child of God. The nearness of God is our good. You come to the Lord in humility, as these two dear souls did, confessing their testimony before us in baptism. And you come confessing your sin and putting your faith in Jesus Christ, then you have made God your refuge.
But he is holy. And in holy love and grace, his nearness is the greatest of joys and the greatest of blessings. Through Christ, justice mandates that we are the objects of holy blessings.
Now, think about that. Through Christ, his justice because of Christ, on Christ's behalf, mandates that we are the objects of God's holy blessings. But equally so to the unrighteous, and the unsaved, his holy justice demands punishment. It demands retribution.
It demands wrath. So here in verse 14, we do not have the nearness of God as a hope, a comfort, a consolation. We have the nearness of God, and then he said it twice. And again, near is the Lord of the great day of the Lord.
It's not a word of salvation and hope in this context, but of judgment and of horror. Hebrews 10, 31, and 32. I remember as a young Christian, I had a liberal tell me that, and this is from the liberal theologians of the last 50, 70 years, that the Old Testament, God is a God of wrath, and the New Testament, God is a God of love. He's always been a God of love and a God of wrath.
He didn't change himself halfway through. We started the New Testament. So we look at the New Testament, we see the same kind of weighty announcements of God's wrath against the wicked.
Hebrews 10, 30, and 31. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, and I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And even the context there isn't those who would deny Christ or are abandoned a faithfulness to Christ to go back into their legalisms of ancient Judaism. And he talks about how much more severe the punishment should be when you've sinned against that much light.
You've sinned against the Christ who has come, who has talked, who has died on the cross, who rose from the dead. So here in verse 14, we have God's fierce wrath and judgment are at the door, very near at the door. And he uses the word great day there in our text. Near is the great day of the Lord.
It's the idea of severe. That's why I said we could say this is that God's wrath rather is near, but it is also severe. The idea is that God stands nearby. He's ready to charge the gate.
And again, let's remember there's two mountain peaks. God is charging through the Chaldeans, his instruments of judgment into Judah, take them captive to punish them for their sins. But also this points to that coming day when the Lord Jesus Christ will return from glory and punish the earth for sin and punish sinners. So the day of the Lord is near, the prophet is telling us. Now, Roman numeral two, suffering will be severe.
This will be a horrific, terrible day for the men and women families of Judah. He says there in verse 14, the last half, listen, the day of the Lord, in it the warrior cries bitterly. The word warrior there is a word that was used for Samson. The idea is it means a mightiness compared to others. Much more mighty than the other. Samson was much stronger and more mighty than the men around him. The word warrior here is also a derivative of a Hebrew word that's used when you would say in Hebrew mighty God. In other words, God is greater, stronger, mightier than the others. So it's talking about a great strength. And the point is when he says these warriors, these men of such great, incomparable strength, will themselves fall as babies crying bitterly before the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, that they come in to crush Judah.
They cry out bitterly in hopeless defeat. Jesus said something about this in Luke 11 21 and 22, as far as the strong man and the one stronger who's coming. In this context, he's talking about himself and Satan.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away for him all of his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. Now Satan is the strong man of the universe, except for Jesus. Jesus in this text, Luke 11, is the strong man who defeats and plunders Satan.
Because Satan's strength, rather, is no match for Jesus. But here our Lord comes through the Chaldeans, through the Babylonians, to punish Judah. And the strong man here is not really the Babylonians. The strong man here is the God who is using the Babylonians. And we think of Satan as a punishing foe, and he is that.
But remember, Satan is limited in authority and he's limited in power, but God is not. Jesus is mighty to save, but he's also mighty to punish. Here he comes in this mighty, punishing wrath. And the strongest warriors, look at our text, the warriors in that day will have no hope against him. They will cry out bitterly in hopeless defeat. Verse 15, a day of wrath is that day.
And then he continues on. As a matter of fact, there are 11 descriptive words, starting in verse 15, going through the first line of verse 16, to exemplify, if you will, the severity, the suffering of this judgment that God is bringing. Let's look at these 11 words. A day of wrath, that's the first one. A day of trouble, distress, destruction, desolation, darkness, gloom, clouds, thick darkness, trumpet, and battle cry.
Look at just a couple of these. First of all, the word wrath here is an interesting word. It's sort of an all-inclusive word to depict the events of this awful day of God's judgment. This word is often used of God's wrath, but it's also used in context of the king of Babylon at one point in the Old Testament, who is God's instrument of wrath against Judah.
It's used to describe these vicious pagan kings of antiquity. For example, in Isaiah 14.6, this very word is used to express the striking down of the peoples with unceasing blows and relentless aggression. So this word wrath, when we see it today of wrath, first line of verse 15, it means more than just wrath, it means the fierceness of his wrath. I mean, God wants you to know here that I'm not just a little displeased.
I'm not just marginally or mildly displeased with you. I'm coming with the fierceness of holy wrath. And when Jesus returns again, remember what the Bible said? That men will literally go out to the rocky cliffs and the mountain cliffs and say, fall on us, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. God gets angry and it's a holy anger. So here we have this idea that his wrath burns and overflows and sweeps away everything that's before it. Here we have God breaking out against Judah with wrath and with fury.
The New Testament, again, gives us the same kind of balancing understanding, Romans 2.5, but because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God is always active. People say, well, where is God? He's not doing anything.
Oh, he's very busy. He's busy storing up wrath for those who will not repent and come to Christ. So God has been storing up and holding back the raging waters of divine justice, but now they're exceeding the dam, at least in ancient Judah's situation, and God himself is about to break out upon her. In Bailey's commentary, he points out the significance of darkness. Look at there in verse 15. It's a day, fourth line, the day of darkness of gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. I've never thought about this, but he points out that the darkness here is the word that was used for the darkness of the pre-creation cosmos, if you will.
So there was matter, but things were in no structure or no form. It was a meaningless blackness before God created the light and then spoke and put things into order and into meaning. So here's the point the prophet's making. This darkness means that you did your own thing, you disregarded God, you pushed away Yahweh, the God who saved you and kept you, to chase after your own gods, the gods of your own making, and what you're going to get is the primeval darkness of meaninglessness. That's what you're going back to as we look at our own culture today and see how our culture has just run to the darkness and run to evil and you hear these people and they have no hope, they have no meaning to the life, there's no up, no down, no right, no wrong, just disorder, just darkness. He gives the phrase, the first part of verse 16, a day of trumpet and battle cry. Now the ancient peoples would know just exactly what that meant. When you heard the trumpet and the battle cry, it meant there's imminent warfare. It literally meant that the day of preparation is over, it's time to fight. God is there through the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, to come against Judah and there's no time to prepare.
It's coming on them quickly. Verse 16, he continues on and says, against the fortified cities and the corner towers. These were the last structures to fall in any kind of an onslaught from the enemy. So this means that the enemy has already taken the majority of the country and there's just a little bit more left to take. The point is, all is lost.
The point is, there is no hope. This was the mighty Babylonian army of antiquity led by Nebuchadnezzar himself, but was in reality God himself using the Babylonians. So it was God fighting against them. And if God is fighting against you, you're doomed.
There is no hope. Generally, we see throughout the Old Testament that God was fighting for Judah and on Judah's behalf. Here, ironically, at least seemingly ironically, he's fighting against her and all in punishment for her sins. Matter of fact, look back at verses four through six of our chapter. So I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Notice his hand, his literal hand, this is God speaking. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place in the names of the idolatrous priest along with the priest. That means the priests who gave themselves over to Baal worship and then the priests who still were of the tribe of Levi, but they were not faithful priests. Verse five, and those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, they were worshiping the celestial bodies. And those who bow down and swear to the Lord and swear by Molocham.
Molech, you could translate it, the scholars say. And those who have turned back from following the Lord and those who have not sought the Lord or acquired of him. Their sins have brought God's severe judgment upon them.
Psalm 51 verse 4 reminds us, against you you only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. Look at verse 17, notice the horrific condition again, the severity. I will bring distress on men so they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. Walking like the blind means those that were not killed in the slaughter were like the living dead, stumbling around in the streets in utter delusion, moving around like aimless zombies, just literally traumatized. Then he says their blood will be poured out like dust.
In this part of the country dust always covered everything, but not in this day. In this day blood will cover everything. He said their flesh will be like the dung. The destruction is so severe and so devastating that there will be no one to bury the dead and their bodies will rot on the earth like the dung in the hot sun. So the prophet writes and he says I want you to know the wrath of God is near and it's going to be severe. And number three, no human atonement will suffice. There's nothing in your human ability to stay God's hand. This is the way, where is it in verse 18? Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath. Their silver or gold. Historians tell us this was common in the ancient world, that an opposing enemy would come in and flood the gates and come into their territory and the people would offer, the wealthier people at least, give them silver or gold or part of their wealth to appease them if they would just leave them alive and maybe let them keep their homes.
And a lot of times this worked, but it will not work here. Nothing is going to avenge the retributive judgment of God that's coming against them. May I say something to you, dear friend, as a fellow sinner? If God has given you wealth, praise the Lord, God's good to give some men wealth, allow some men wealth, but that does not make you immune from God and accountability to God. Your puny wealth means nothing to him.
One of the points that jump out here, silver and their gold will do nothing to help them. God rejects all offers to stay his hand. Man's work or man's wealth cannot mediate a settlement with God.
It cannot temper his wrath. It reminds me of Cain. Has not man been doing this from the beginning?
From the very beginning, man has thought if I'm successful enough, if I accomplish enough, if I have enough in the bank, if I want enough lands and wealth, and somehow I become bulletproof. Cain, that was the same principle Cain had. I'm bringing this work I've done to the Lord. And God rejected it. God rejected it.
No type of atoning or human effort will in any way appease the wrath of God in this day. You remember the illustration in Luke chapter 12. The Lord Jesus is talking and he talks about a man that was just blessed and blessed and blessed. He said, man, I'm so blessed.
I have so many things, so many good things. I'm going to tear down my old barns. I'm going to build bigger barns and we're just going to keep filling those barns. I'm going to have so much stuff and I'm just going to eat, drink, and be merry. The Lord said, you fool, this day your soul is required of you. Then he cast our eyes again past that first mountaintop and that is the ancient Babylonians crashing into Judah itself and onto that ultimate day of the Lord that's coming.
That's the only thing this kind of terminology could fit. When he says in the last part of verse 18, And all of the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth. He uses the phrase, in the fire of his jealousy, all the earth is going to be devoured in the fire of his jealousy. God's wrath is a jealous wrath. It reminds one of the rage of a man who has found out that another man has used his wife, committed adultery with his wife. Proverbs says in that context, Proverbs 6, 32 through 35, The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense.
He who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find. Notice, and his reproach will not be blotted out. He's jealous and he will not get over it. For jealousy enrages a man, verse 34, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be satisfied, though you give many gifts. You see, metaphorically speaking, Judah was married to the Lord God. She was his bride in every sense she belonged to him, but she grossly and openly and repeatedly committed spiritual adultery, chasing idols and sin, forsaking the Lord. So God is full of a fiery jealousy here, the Bible says. But God's jealousy is not like man's jealousy. Man's jealousy is always tainted by sin, but God's jealousy is a holy, righteous jealousy. You see, God is never jealous in the sense of being envious. God is not jealous because he wishes he had what someone else had. God's holy jealousy here speaks of God wanting the honor and the way he ought to properly be honored. He's being robbed of the honor and the faithfulness he's due. He just wants what's righteously due him.
This fiery jealousy, he finally comes against Judah for her idolatry of chasing other gods and worshiping and serving other gods. And then what a statement. What a statement. And this has to have an apocalyptic tone of that final day when the Lord Jesus is returning. Third phrase from the bottom of the New American Standard, for he will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, a complete end. This is the end to end all ends. And we sometimes say, we hear the phrase and it's the end of the story.
We know what that means. We know that means there's another story coming, probably. There's other stories. This is the end of just one story, but not here. This is the end. This is the end.
This is putting a wrap on all that there is. This is not a partial ending. It's the end of the end, the end of people, the end of places, the end of the heavens and the earth, the present heavens and the earth, the end of the social order as we know it, the end of time, the end of the sun, the end of the moon. Everything comes to an end when he returns.
Now he's going to begin some new things, but everything that is is ended. It's going to end in a terrifying way. Notice verse 18 again, he made a complete end, indeed a terrifying one. Look at the last phrase, of all the inhabitants of the earth. So we note how pointed, how directed the nature of God's punishing wrath is. It's coming for the inhabitants of the earth. While God will destroy all things, the earth and all life forms in it, it is because of the sin and the wickedness of man, the inhabitants.
It becomes so offensive to him. So man is the specific object of God's wrath. Those who say, now God hates the sin, but he loves the sinner, need to rethink that notion. Sin is not the object of wrath here in verse 18, people are. The inhabitants of the earth are the objects of God's wrath and punishment. As Bailey wraps up his comments on verses 4 through 18, he says this and I quote, certainly no clear picture of God on a rampage is possible.
Powerful. All the way through this text, all the way through this text, I thought about Jesus. I just thought about Jesus and I know the scholars will say, now be careful spiritualizing a text. Let me say something to you.
Well, let me just stay with my notes. Look, Jesus is our sure and only hope. No, he has not spoken of here. It's not even one of those Old Testament passages that shows us a type or a foreshadowing of Jesus, but he's here. You see, Jesus comes shining through, at least for the saved, Jesus comes shining through every dark passage of Scripture.
Wow. His wrath and retribution may be powerfully seen as in this text, however, his wonderful love and grace is always just beneath the surface. We hold to progressive revelation. What we mean by that is, as God unfolded in chronological form the men who would write his book, it chronologically flows toward a conclusion. The Old Testament builds and builds and builds toward the new. The New Testament is the unveiling, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and all of a sudden everything's becoming clear of all that God is about. We would call this a biblical theology when you try to grasp in a nutshell the overarching purpose for the totality of God's book. I'm convinced I've got as good a one as anybody has.
Maybe I need to sharpen it. I don't know, but here's what I'm going to give you again. If you'll hold this in your mind, I think you'll get what God's about, and you can go to any text of Scripture and take this grid to view that Scripture through, and I think you'll be on solid ground. Three simple statements. The priority of God's glory, the preeminence of God's Son, and the centrality of God's people are his church. That's always in God's heart.
That's always connected to, or if you will, flows out of the text. The priority of God's glory. Is God not glorifying himself by bringing righteous judgment to those who deserve it? Judah? Sure he is, but then we get reflections in the book of Zephaniah throughout the Old Testament prophets, the Old Testament in general, of this saving one, the Son of God. The priority of God's glory, the preeminence of God's Son, and the centrality of God's people.
Everything that's ever happened on the earth, everything that is now happening, I should say not just the earth, in the earth and in the universe, and everything that's going to happen on earth and in the universe is to the end of the glory of God and the good of God's people. You are the apple of his eye. He loves you. You see, no faithful man gets up and goes to work without thinking about his bride and his babies. At the center of his heart. He may be doing a thousand things, but they're always connected. And so is our precious Lord Jesus and his purpose to build his church, always connected with everything in the text. So, we see Jesus in the entire Old Testament. Indeed, he is the centerpiece and the crown jewel of every page, every verse, every word of the entire Bible. You say again, pastor, how do we see Jesus at the dark austere text of Zephaniah 1, verses 14 through 18?
Well, actually, I would say to you it's quite simple. You and I should rightly be the objects of this very judgment. Listen, you and I should rightly be the objects of this very near severe descriptive judgment. But we're not because of Jesus.
We're not because of him. You see, the Old Testament talks about how severe, weighty, the gravity, the holy justness of our, of the rather retribution and the wrath God will bring against us. But it's not just in the Old Testament.
Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You're dead in which you formerly walked. You're disobedient according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. That's Satan. That's demonized. The spirit that's now working in the sun is disobedient.
You're disobedient too. Among them we all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. The New Testament says your very being, when you are a one-celled human being in the womb of your mother, there was composed in you rather a sin nature that cried for the wrath of God. Ephesians 2, 4. A glorious conjunctive word begins that verse, but in that state God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, sent his Son and made us alive together with him, the text tells us. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.
Actually, to be is not in the text. He made him who knew no sin, sin on our behalf. The point is, Jesus never committed sin, but God looked upon him as sin in our place. So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. We're not righteous, not in and of ourselves, but we take the place of righteousness just as he took the place of sin for us on the cross.
That's a pretty good exchange right there, pretty good swap out for us. So we see Jesus, because as we see what God is bringing against these Judeans of antiquity, we say that that should be us, but it's not because of Jesus. Let's look at it again quickly in our text, if you would. Look at verse 14 again, in that day the warrior cries out bitterly, that speaks of hopelessness, but Jesus endured that hopelessness for me. Verse 15 talks about this wrath, this fierce wrath, Jesus endured that on the cross for me. Trouble and distress, verse 15, Jesus endured that for me. Destruction and desolation, Jesus endured that for me.
Darkness and gloom. The Bible says that the earth was darkened while Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for our sins. It was God's work, the Holy Father and the Holy Son working at our redemption, Jesus endured that for me. Clouds and thick darkness, Jesus endured that for me. Distress, verse 17, Jesus endured that for me. Walking around like blind men, like zombies, just delusioned under the fierceness of the wrath, Jesus endured that for me. Blood will be poured out like the dust, verse 17, Jesus endured that for me.
The flesh will be like dung. His body was a bloodied pulp of wretched punishment, if you will. He endured that for me. All the wrath that should come on sinners should come on me, but Jesus took my place. Simple but profound, it's a vicarious atonement. He took my place, so we don't face this impending wrath.
He is, Jesus is, truly our sure and only hope. Oh, but listen to me, you can't sin so nastily, you can't sin so grievously, you can't sin so deeply that Jesus can't save you. You may be a mighty sinner, but Jesus is mighty to save.
I've got a practical word for some of you. Stop analyzing your stinking sin, it stinks, and look at Jesus. Don't analyze Jesus. And I think for our children sometimes, we get them to analyze their lives too much. There's a place for that, but not analyzing Jesus enough. You look to Jesus, you look to Jesus, you look to Jesus. And look, you'll sin less by analyzing him than analyzing your sin and why you're sinning. Are you hearing me?
You'll sin less by being intoxicated with him, because it's really a pride thing when you keep examining yourselves and wondering why you're so bad all the time. Well, what do you expect? What do you expect? Jesus took, excuse me, Jesus took it all for us.
He is, Jesus is, truly our sure and only hope. As these Babylonians, these Chaldeans, crash into Judas' gates, tearing down the walls, destroying the city, slaughtering the people, the text implies they're going to do what carnal people do. Here's some silver and gold. Would you spare my household? Would you spare me? Here's silver and gold.
That's what the text said. Would you let us go? Would you take what you need?
Just please leave my family and maybe leave me a place to live. Here's all my wealth. So I ask you, dear friend, on this Sunday morning, when you stand before the judgment bar of God, what are you going to offer? Here's what you better offer. Empty hands. I bring nothing. Sin and pride and guilt and unworthiness. I have one hope, Father, that your son has cleansed me from all sin.
That's it. Jesus is all in there. Do you know him today? Do you know him today? Is he your hope? Is he where you're resting?
I mean, is he where you're resting? I'm not saying, did you walk an aisle? Did you pray a prayer? Have you done good?
Have you morally cleaned up your life? In a very real sense, I don't really care about that. Are you resting on him? Him. Even when you don't feel it, even when it's not exciting, even when you're not stirred or heart warmed by it, but still down deep inside in your soul of souls in the mirror of the bone, I'm resting on him. That's enough. That's enough.
