Read Zephaniah 1:4–7
Questions from the Scripture text: What will YHWH do (Zephaniah 1:4a)? Against whom (verse 4a–b)? To cut off what (verse 4c–d)? And who do what (Zephaniah 1:5)? And who do not do what (Zephaniah 1:6)? What must the people do (Zephaniah 1:7a)? In Whose presence? Why—what has arrived (verse 7b)? Who has prepared what (verse 7c)? Whom has He invited (verse 7d)?
Upon whom does the wrath of YHWH focus? Zephaniah 1:4–7 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the wrath of YHWH focuses especially upon the false worshipers among His own people.
Judgment begins at the household of God. In Zephaniah 1:1-3, we heard God’s judgment that echoes the flood (Zephaniah 1:2) and undoes the creation (Zephaniah 1:3). Now he zeroes in on Judah—those who have been given YHWH’s Name by which to swear their oaths (Zephaniah 1:5b, cf. Deuteronomy 6:13, Deuteronomy 10:20), but who have combined the divine worship with many idolatries (Zephaniah 1:4-5). Greater spiritual privileges increase our responsibility. God will clean the place where He has put His Name (Zephaniah 1:4). The description is very vivid: “I will stretch out my hand, and I will cut them.” Judgment begins with the household of God (cf. 1 Peter 4:17). How great is our danger, if we think that we can combine drawing near to God in His own worship, while resting upon and delighting in the same things as the worldlings.
Syncretism is apostasy. Syncretism is the idea that we can combine worshiping the Lord with other worship practices that are not from Him. But this is simply an impossibility: one cannot combine the worship of the Lord with the religious practices of men, because God defines such people as “those who have turned back from YHWH, and have not sought YHWH, nor inquired of Him” (Zephaniah 1:6). This would have been news to the people of Jerusalem; after all, Zephaniah 1:5 says they “worship and swear by YHWH.” But the prepositions in verse 5b and verse 5c are slightly different, implying that they only swear to YHWH (outward expression of worship), whereas they swear by their king (“Milcom” means “their king,” and the preposition implies that this swearing is the “real” one in their heart). No one can serve two masters, and those who try become functional atheists (cf. Zephaniah 1:12). So God says, of those who attempt to combine His religion with their own, that they don’t worship Him at all. They have turned away from Him.
Better just to be silent. The “noise” that they were making in the presence of the Lord YHWH (Zephaniah 1:7a) was their worship and vows (Zephaniah 1:5b). But the Lord doesn’t want any of it. Whatever they were seeking of Him, He rejects it by saying that they were not seeking of Him at all (Zephaniah 1:6b). But this does not mean that they will get nothing from Him. The reality is much worse than that. They will get wrath from Him!
The meeting to which they are coming now is not one that they can fake their way through. In this “day of YHWH” (Zephaniah 1:7b), YHWH engages in a solemn ceremony (“prepared a sacrifice,” verse 7c), for which He prepares/consecrates/sets-apart His guests (verse 7d). Idolaters, and other wicked ones, are bold to sin because they have no true sense of the majesty of Him against Whom they sin. But they will! And their mouths will be stopped in His presence (verse 7a, cf. Romans 3:19, Psalm 46:10, Psalm 106:40–42, Habakkuk 2:20). This language of “sacrifice” is frequently used of YHWH cutting off His enemies (cf. Isaiah 34:5–8; Ezekiel 39:17–20; Revelation 19:17–18). It is a slaughter that glorifies God by vindicating His righteousness. Have Judah failed to hold a proper sacrifice to YHWH? Then He will hold one for Himself!
How might you be tempted to feel safe on account of your church membership or worship attendance? What manmade things are you tempted to wish for, or do, in the worship of God? Whom do you think of as being the focus of God’s wrath, and how does this passage inform that? In what ways are you too quick to speak, and too slow to listen, when you are in the majestic presence of the Lord?
Sample prayer: Lord, help us to remember that judgment begins in the household of God. Don’t let us think of ourselves as the ones who are safe to sin, but as the ones for whom sin is most dangerous. Forgive us those sins, for the sake of Christ, and give us to come to You only through Him, and only in the ways that You have said. So, give us to know the greatness of the majesty of what it is to draw near to You, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage” or TPH177 “Before Thee, God, Who Knowest All”
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