So far the Book of Zephaniah has been a “mirror” on the sins of Judah around the year 600 BC, a veritable cultural expose! Today we learn of another act that has “upset” Almighty God.
“Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.” Zephaniah 1:7-8
The command “hold thy peace” merely means “be quiet!” God is about to judge the land! In Hebrew “hasah” means “SILENCE!” No more “back-talk,” no more “sassing!”
Zephaniah even seems to employ a “word picture” here, a “metaphor.” God has prepared a meal, a sacrificial meal where the slain (animals, normally) are being eaten. In a ritual type observance. But, surprisingly, almost shockingly, the rebellious people of Judah here seem to be the “main dish!” The “guests” seem to be a soon approaching army, the Babylonians likely!
This is dramatic!
The verb “punish” is spelled “paqad,” meaning “to number, to visit (chastening), to commit,” and 3 times in Scripture, “to empty!” Payday has come!
And those especially labeled for “punishment” here are the “top echelon” of society! Those (wealthy and spoiled grown-up “kids”) who normally “buy” their way out of any trouble!
The “princes” (in Hebrew “sar,” the “rulers”) and the “king’s children,” future members of the royal administration … these will face God’s wrath.
The wealthy especially.
I say that because of the specific sin mentioned, their transgression again the Lord.
They “are clothed with strange apparel.”
But what does that mean?
They have begun to dress like the “heathen” around them! The adjective “strange” means “foreign.” And “apparel” means that which “clothes” a man or woman, is “wrapped around” them. Its the root verb is “labash,” first used in Genesis 3:21 where God “clothed” a naked Adam and Eve with “coats of skins.” It is used once in the Book of Judges too, where the good Holy Spirit “wears” Gideon! “But the Spirit of the Lord CAME UPON Gideon ….” Judges 6:34, translating “labash.”
Wow!
These people, the elite of Judah, instead of wearing GOD … chose to wear THE WORLD! Expensive, gaudy, but “chic,” politically correct! Popular, fashionable, very contemporary!
But obviously displeasing to the Lord!
Yes, in instances God did tell the Jews how to dress. And how not to dress. Including a little “blue border” around their robes. “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders A RIBBON OF BLUE: and it shall be unto you for A FRINGE, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring. That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” Numbers 15:38-40, one’s very clothing being a reminder of one’s God, of obeying His Word!
Sound like a “little thing” to you?
But it was important to God, a point upon which He would judge His people.
Amazing!
His (the Lord’s) thoughts are higher than our thoughts, for sure. (Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.)
More Zephaniah Monday morning, the Lord willing.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell