The author of the Book of Zephaniah was a man by the same name, a prophet sent by God to the people of Judah and Jerusalem during a critical time before their exile and destruction by Babylon. God’s purpose for him was to warn and give hope through his prophesy during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC), decades before the Babylonian period in Jewish history when the Babylonian armies would invade Judah in 586 BC, destroy Jerusalem, and carry off its people to live in exile as slaves in Babylon. How can we in the year 2020 relate to God’s message through a prophet who lived more than 2,500 years ago on the other side of the world?
Zephaniah came from royal blood because his great-great grandfather was King Hezekiah of Judah so Zephaniah was related to the then-reigning king of Judah (Josiah) in Jerusalem at the time Zephaniah was prophesying. God’s message spoken through Zephaniah’s prophecies warned Josiah to follow God and because he did, the entire country of Judah along with Jerusalem was spared from Babylonian destruction during Josiah’s reign.
However, because of the time period of history he lived in, Zephaniah knew about the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the exile and slavery of its people by the Assyrians around 720 BC. Zephaniah also knew God’s prophet, Isaiah, had been murdered in Judah around 650 BC during the reign of Zephaniah’s great-grandfather’s brother, Manasseh, who had turned away from God and filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents.
As a result, Zephaniah knew fear and warned the people of Judah repeatedly in his prophesy about the “Day of the Lord” coming quickly as a day of wrath, trouble, distress, destruction, desolation, darkness, and gloom—a day when the Lord would rise up as a witness against the nations, and the earth would be devoured by the Lord’s fire. It should have come as no surprise to the people in Judah that God would come to judge them since evil abounded everywhere in the land and God’s people like Isaiah were being persecuted. God did come soon thereafter with a vengeance through the Babylonian armies. Likewise, today, in a world where there is religious persecution of the innocents and intense suffering of believers for the sake of Christ, it should not be surprising if God were to intervene on behalf of His people as a modern “Day of the Lord” to execute His judgment.
But Zephaniah also knew of God’s mercy and hope of redemption out of violence and destruction. Although Zephaniah lived hundreds of years before Jesus Christ walked around Jerusalem, through God’s revelation Zephaniah could proclaim God’s deliverance for His people with the “warrior (Jesus) in their midst” to give victory and remove disaster.
For us today living during the year 2020 with the rampaging evils of social injustice and the death toll of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, Zephaniah’s warnings and hope of deliverance remain relevant and ring true-- destruction awaits those who turn away from the Lord but the hope of deliverance continues for those who have faith and trust in the Lord.
So what can we do as we as pray for an end to the current Covid-19 virus and social plagues and for restoration and peace for our world? As believers, we are called to love others as Christ loved us. God has shown us what He requires of us in showing Christ’s love: we are to “seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility.” (Zephaniah 2:3). We are to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:9);