In our last Lesson (yesterday) I mentioned but failed to emphasize the fact that our Prophet Zephaniah ministered “in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.” Zephaniah 1:1, an important fact. King Josiah, a good man, reigned 31 years. So, the totality of Zephaniah’s Work for the Lord occurred during that block of time, as far as his personally serving God. (In contrast the Prophet Isaiah preached under the reigns of 4 different Kings, a much longer span of time. “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AHAZ, AND HEZEKIAH, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken ….” Isaiah 1:1-2, with the Kings’ names being capitalized. This is chronologically earlier than Josiah.)
Also I need to add this interesting fact. Since Zephaniah labored during the time of King Josiah, he likely would have been a contemporary (at least part of that time) of Jeremiah the much better know Prophet as well. “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of JOSIAH the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” Jeremiah 1:1-2, with Jeremiah then preaching all the way to Judah’s last King, Zedekiah. I mean last simply because of the intervening Babylonian Captivity. (Remember, King Jesus will some day rule on that Throne, too!)
Did Zephaniah and Jeremiah know one another?
That’s a piece of information on which the Bible is silent.
Maybe they did.
Now let’s look at Zephaniah 1:2. “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.” Quite blunt, isn’t it?
Yet this verse sets the “tone” for much of this little 53 Verse Prophecy!
It is a Book of Judgment!
Yet, as most Scripture, it has periods of “Grace” sprinkled into its content. And it ends with one of the Greatest Messages of Hope and Love in all the Bible!
The verb “utterly consume” involves two Hebrew words, “asaph suf.” The first term is similar (and related) to the Old Testament name “Joseph,” which means “adding.” And “suf” means “to cease, to come to an end!” This is an on-going action on God’s part, too. This is a judgment which is progressive. And which (it seems) incrementally grows as time passes!
The noun “land” is unusual. It is spelled “paniym,” the “face” of anything. Probably meaning the geographical area before the faces of the (then backslidden) Jews.
The judgment being mentioned (promised) specifically concerns the impending attack of Babylon on the Land of Judah. That happened in 606 BC and again in 597 BC and finally (total destruction) again in 586 BC. God kept His Word! Because Judah did not repent!
But this paragraph with which Zephaniah begins goes far beyond the Babylonian episode, I believe. It has “Tribulation” implications, for sure!
A lot of Bible Prophecy has a two-fold fulfillment. One more local and immediate … the other more far-ranging and ultimate, its realization more remote. Wow, a principle of hermeneutics right here in the opening section of Zephaniah!
And, as usual, more tomorrow …
— Dr. Mike Bagwell