by Rev. Thomas Scarborough

8 February 2004

Today I return to the Old Testament with my preaching. It is good to look at the Old Testament from time to time, because that is also part of God’s Word to us. Often the Old Testament is neglected.

We must remember that when we deal with the Bible – no matter what part of it we deal with – we are dealing with the Word of God. Every part of it is precious and every part of it is powerful – every part is God’s revelation of Himself to humankind.

And we find right at the very beginning of Zephaniah – in Zephaniah 1 verse 1 – that this book is – the word of the Lord, that came to Zephaniah.

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Now as far as we know, Zephaniah was a distinguished young man who belonged to the nobility in his nation, when God called him to be a prophet. We notice in verse 1 that he was the great-great-grandson of King Hezekiah – a king who reigned in Judah, whom the Bible ranks as one of the greatest, along with David and Solomon.

So Zephaniah lived about seventy years after the reign of King Hezekiah – in a time where there had been prophetic silence for seventy years. For seventy years, God had been silent. And now God chose Zephaniah to bring a new word to the people of Judah.

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Now we also need to understand something about the time that went before Zephaniah began to prophesy – and that is that during the preceding period, Israel was ruled for 55 years by the wicked king Manasseh. One Bible dictionary puts it very simply: “Manasseh was by far the worst.”

Manasseh hated all that his righteous father Hezekiah had done, and he was fanatically anti-God. Manasseh tried to destroy everything about the Lord God in Israel. He fanatically tried to wipe out God’s Name. He set up a great idol in the middle of the temple, he sacrificed children with fire -he did everything you can imagine that was evil.

And as you read about Manasseh in the Bible, there is a sense of grief in the Bible as Manasseh despises everything that is precious and holy to God, and to His people.

But an interesting thing about Manasseh is that this king – towards the end of his very long reign, repented of his wrong – and he did a complete about-turn, and he tried to undo all the wrong that he had done in his lifetime. He turned back to the Lord God, whom he tried all his life to wipe out from the memory of Israel. It was an amazing conversion.

And Manasseh was convicted of his sin when the Lord brought him to the lowest point in his life. He ended up in steel fetters in a foreign land, and we read that there he “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” And so God brought him back to Jerusalem, into his kingdom – and we read, “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.” He knew that the Lord was God.

Even today, there are many people who can tell that story – that God so worked with them that they knew that the Lord was God. Even though they didn’t care about God, and despised holy things, and spread chaos and harm, they came to know that the Lord is God.

It’s a simple story – sin, and humiliation, and repentance, and conversion, and the grace of God – and coming to know that the Lord is God. Whether you look in the Old Testament or the New, the message is the same.

But by this time – by the time that King Manasseh experienced personal conversion – society had been going one way for fifty years, and it was all already too late. The nation of Judah never recovered from the corruption and evil of Manasseh. Although Manasseh recovered, Judah never did.

After Manasseh came the young King Josiah. And we read in the Bible that Josiah was a righteous king. He tried with all his power to serve the Lord God – but we read in the Bible that he could not turn the Lord away from the fierceness of His wrath, because of all the provocations of Manasseh.

And what this probably means is that, although Josiah was a righteous king, the rot in his kingdom was too deep, and he couldn’t truly turn it around. He brought a veneer of righteousness and religion back to Israel, but in reality it was now rotten at the core.

Now into this situation comes the prophet Zephaniah – to speak the first word of the Lord that has been spoken since everything went wrong seventy years ago.

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Now before we look at this prophecy, let’s consider how this book of Zephaniah got into the Bible.

Well it got there as all the prophets got there – and that is because the prophecies came true in every detail, and God’s people knew that his words truly were of God – and from that time on they treated this book with awe and respect.

When Zephaniah said, “Listen, on that day you will hear wailing going up from that suburb over there,” that happened. When he said, “Watch, and you will see people searching through Jerusalem with lamps,” that happened. When he said, “Every merchant in the business district down there will be wiped out,” that happened.

It happened – and so people knew that Zephaniah had spoken by the authority of God, and that God had spoken through Zephaniah, and that this prophecy of Zephaniah was the truth of God.

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Now there are a number of broad spiritual principles we learn from this book of Zephaniah – or rather, from the words of God through Zephaniah – beginning this morning with Chapter 1, and I shall continue into the first few verses of chapter 2.

The first point – and it might seem a rather obvious one – is that there truly is such a thing as sin against God, and sin brings people under the wrath of God. God doesn’t just understand, as so many people say today. He is angry at sin, and you had better find a solution to your sin.

A particularly interesting feature about this book of Zephaniah is that sin is not defined simply as active evil – but throughout this book it is defined also as being complacent about doing good – it is defined also as being a stumbling-block to what is right. Sin is not only active evil.

The old King James version of the Bible translates Zephaniah 1 verse 3 as follows. It says, “I will consume the stumblingblocks with the wicked.” That is how a number of Bible versions translate verse 3 – unfortunately that doesn’t include the version in our pews. “I will consume the stumblingblocks with the wicked.” In fact the rest of Zephaniah would seem to support that particular translation.

In verse 5, in a similar way, we read that the Lord will cut off not only those who swear by Molech – an evil religion – but He will cut off those who turn back from the Lord – those who don’t even turn to something else – they simply turn back.

In verse 12, God will punish not only those who actively oppose Him in Judah, but also those who are complacent – those who simply don’t care.

Let’s look at that first statement again: “I will consume the stumblingblocks with the wicked.” And a stumblingblock is just that – it is a block that you stumble over.

This world is full of stumblingblocks – people who don’t actively do evil, but others stumble over them as they try to find justice, or try to get ahead in life.

A stumblingblock is the person who won’t tell the truth when they really need to tell it. A stumblingblock is someone who is responsible perhaps for people’s UIF or their ID, and although they don’t do anything evil, they don’t get the job done, and people stumble over them, and can’t get their lives moving. A stumblingblock is someone in authority who receives a complaint – maybe in government, maybe in business – and they just shuffle papers, and it goes nowhere.

There must be a thousand ways you can be a stumblingblock. It is a marvellous word – a Biblical word – and its meaning is very clear. If you put a block in front of someone that causes them to stumble, then you are a stumblingblock. There are many people who don’t deliberately do evil, but still they are stumblingblocks.

And that is the same, says the Lord, through Zephaniah – it is the same as doing deliberate sin and evil. And the Bible says that – because people so often make a distinction – they suppose that you are excused, so long as you are not actively evil.

But the Bible puts stumblingblocks together with the wicked – and it is a mark of someone who knows the Lord that they actually care about not being a stumblingblock. They have a heart that has been renewed by the Holy Spirit not to be that kind of a person, but to do what is right and what is loving towards others.

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Let’s look at some of the specific sins of the people of Judah. Let’s see how God defines sin in Zephaniah chapter 1. I’ll run briefly through the sins that are listed here.

In chapter 1 verse 4, these people follow pagan and idolatrous religions – religions which don’t worship and honour the One True God. In our world today, people so often treat religion as a matter of personal or private preference rather than truth. But there is only one true God, and there is only one way to worship Him.

In verse 5, they worship the starry host. They worship nature. They worship the things God has created. And in just the same way, there are people today who say, “Nature is my cathedral” – or they include created things like crystals and bird feathers in their spiritual life. That also provokes the living God to anger.

Also in verse 5, we find people who follow syncretism. They do acknowledge God, but they mix their worship of Him with other things. In this case, we read that they swear by the Lord – but they also swear by Molech – the evil religion of the Ammonites. That also falls under the judgement of God in this book of Zephaniah.

Then in verse 6, we come across people who are involved in none of these things – but instead they are involved in nothing at all. We read here that many have turned back from following the Lord, and they simply do not seek Him, and do not inquire of Him.

They just don’t care about God – nor do they care much about any kind of religion. And that, says Zephaniah – or again, the Lord God through Zephaniah – will cause these people to be cut off from His presence. God wants us to worship Him – He doesn’t accept that His creatures should just neglect Him.

In verse 8, we read that God will punish those who wear foreign clothes – or strange apparel, as the King James version says. Now this seems strange, but some commentators say that this probably refers to the pride that is tied up with pricy clothes – or pricy cars – or pricy jewellery – and with things that show that your heart is in flash and status and show rather than with the Lord.

In verse 9, we read about people who step on the threshold. Now the threshold is the border into a person’s house – they step on it, and so what is symbolised here is someone who steps on his neighbour’s rights. There are people today who push their way into people’s homes – sometimes they grab houses and lands – they use people’s water and electricity and phone without caring for the cost – they simply step on the rights that belong to people’s homes.

At the end of verse 9, God condemns those who are violent, and those who are deceitful – those words are clear.

And then finally in verse 12, we read again that God will punish those who are complacent, and those who think, “The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.” Now my dictionary defines “complacent” as being self-satisfied – people who are self-satisfied – people who feel that they have everything they need – and as we read here, whether God does anything in this world – either good or bad – well, that doesn’t concern them.

Notice that this last sin is listed in the book of Zephaniah as a sin as great as all the others. God doesn’t want complacency towards Him – He wants people to love Him and serve Him with all their heart. One of the greatest sins of our civilisation is complacency – people who simply don’t care about God in their day to day lives.

So often we think, “Well so long as people feel they have everything they need, does it matter?” God’s Word through Zephaniah says that it matters very much.

This last point is especially interesting, because it shows us another great Biblical principle, which is powerfully and clearly portrayed in the book of Zephaniah – and that is that God is a God of power, who does influence the course of events, and does have final authority and power over every detail of our lives. History is ruled by God. Our lives are ruled by God.

Those who say, “The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad” have got it all wrong. The Bible shows us that God’s judgements are in all the earth, and sin is no matter that He ignores – either in this life or in eternity.

Well we can only look over this chapter in a sweeping way this morning – and without going further into the nature of sin, or the judgements of God – it’s important to understand that this book of Zephaniah is not just about condemning sin. The purpose of this book is really to cause sinners to turn – just as happened with the evil king Manasseh towards the end of his terrible reign.

God is angry towards sin, but He also wants people to find a solution to sin. He wants them to return to Him, and to know Him, and to worship Him. The great Bible commentator Matthew Henry said that the purpose of this prophecy in Zephaniah was not to drive people to despair, but to drive them to God. Its purpose was not to scare people out of their wits, but out of sins.

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At the beginning of chapter 2, we see that the way to return to God – in a way that is acceptable to Him – the only way that is acceptable to Him – is through repentance. A new relationship with God comes about through repentance.

Before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you, says chapter 2 verse 2, seek the Lord – and then verse 3 – “Seek righteousness, seek humility.” Rightousness is the outward sign of a change – humility is the inward sign of change. But there has to be a change.

It is a modern teaching that you can change by degrees. “Look, you are already not too bad – you already have a small light within you that can light up the world if you just let it do that.” “All you need to do is fan the flames of your heart.” There are various forms of this doctrine. And sometimes you find this even within the Church – that people are not that evil – that you can improve by degrees.

But wherever you find this teaching, you know that the truth has been lost. God shows us through this book of Zephaniah that the only solution to sin is a conversion, or a repentance, or a turning around – as happened to King Manasseh, as he sat in a foreign land in iron fetters. “He humbed himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” That is the only solution that God accepts – here in chapter 2.

Zephaniah shows us – as we have seen – that even if you are not deliberately and aggressively evil, but a good person who is just – complacent – or simply doesn’t seek the Lord really, or inquire of Him – that doesn’t mean that you have great spiritual potential. Rather it shows that you are done for, and only repentance will save you.

The difference between truth and falsehood is – is the teaching of repentance at the centre? Or is it good enough to improve yourself, or does God understand you just as you are? If you read a religious book – or if you get involved in a Church – if you want to know if it is based on a solid foundation, a key question is, “Is repentance at the centre? Or is it nowhere to be found?”

The first thing that Jesus ever preached – at the very beginning of His ministry – was, “Repent and believe.” And the message of the early Church was, “Repent and be converted.” And “believe that Jesus is the Son of God”, the Saviour of the world.

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This is a very simple message this morning – it is the bread and butter issues of the Bible that we have seen here in Zephaniah – but it is also important truth that God reveals through His Word. And maybe it applies to you this morning.

Maybe you realise, on the basis of what we have seen, that God is angry towards You – and you need to turn – you need to humble yourself, and say, “Yes, Lord, I’ve offended you, and I want to acknowledge that, and ask Your forgiveness, and mercy, and turn around, and trust in Jesus as my Saviour.”

It is my custom to offer booklets from time to time that explain simply just how you can do that – we don’t simply hand these out to everyone, but please feel free to ask me for one at the door – they are with our compliments.

AMEN.