Any Prophet is going to denounce sin.
Just as God instructed Isaiah: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and SHOW MY PEOPLE THEIR TRANSGRESSION, and THE HOUSE OF JACOB THEIR SINS.” Isaiah 58:1
The godly Zephaniah is no exception. But in today’s Paragraph God is really the One speaking! Zephaniah just relays the Message! A litany (list) of wrongdoings!
The whole Text, 3 pungent verses: “I (the Lord) will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; and them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.” Zephaniah 1:4-6
Wow!
God KNOWS their acts of rebellion and compromise!
Psalm 139:2, David acknowledging this very fact. “Thou (Lord) knowest my DOWNSITTING and mine uprising ….” And Psalm 69:5 too. “O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and MY SINS ARE NOT HID FROM THEE.”
The Jews of Zephaniah’s day (even under the reign of godly King Josiah) had become egregiously idolatrous!
Look at this list of errors, sins.
- Baal worship! “I (the Lord) will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place ….” A heathen god, baal, whose very name means “lord, boss,” even “husband!”
- Tolerating the “Chemarims!” Again: “I (the Lord) will cut off … the Chemarims.” These seem to be … false priests who promote idol worship. The name means “black,” perhaps a hint of the color robes they wore in their sinful rituals. Another (deeper) root meaning is “hot,” as in “fervent.” They are “on fire” for their false gods!
- Worship of stars and planets! “I (the Lord) will cut off … them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops.” Star-gazing for astrological purposes, forbidden throughout God’s Law. (Part of Deuteronomy 4:19. “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them ….” Wow!)
- Then is a practice mentioned that’s today called “syncretism.” Essentially it’s a “mixing” of religions, some of this one and a little from that one, with some of a third one included too! And so on. Watch … they are worshipping both the LORD and Malcham now. God is still going to “cut them off!” Zephaniah 1:5, yet part of our Text today. “And them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham ….” Malcham is the same god as “Molech,” a chief deity of the nearby wicked Ammonites.
- Then is listed general “lukewarmness” concerning the real God of heaven, Jehovah Himself. “They are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.” Once “turned back” is translated “backslider” in the King James Bible. “Sought” occasionally has the idea of “begging!” God likes it when we NEED Him that much, literally craving Him!
What a list of iniquities!
And yet, as a Nation, we in America are now guilty of them all. Probably even more so than Israel (Judah) of old.
As David once lamented, “Oh, how the mighty are fallen!”
God, help us.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell