All right. Thanks, David. Good morning, everybody. Merry Christmas, everybody. It's the start of a good day together. Hope you can stay and do the caroling with us. It's great to sing the carols and to see some of the people we don't see quite as often as we'd like to. There's a new book out. that will start at the new year. And the way the Sunday school works, the year is divided into three parts. So at the beginning of the year, we do New Testament survey. Summer, we do theology and fall. And winter, we do Old Testament survey. So starting January, we got a new New Testament book, and it is? Revelation, so a timely study for us. I hope you're looking forward to studies in the book of Revelation. And books are available, so grab one. Is that right, David? Grab one on your way out at that table and that table so you can pick one up. Okay, let's start with a word of prayer. Father, we thank You for this wonderful portion of Your Word in the Old Testament. We pray that You would open our eyes to see wonderful things from Your Word. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. So, um, I'm doing Sunday school for the Christmas season. James is doing, um, the, the Christmas series for preaching. So James is going to preach a Christmas series for us in the main service two weeks. And then, um, at the beginning of the year, also, he's going to give a charge to be reading your Bible for, um, the new year as well. So, I get a little bit of a break, get to listen to James. And it's going to be a Zephaniah Christmas for me. I'm doing Zephaniah for my Christmas series, which I'm really enjoying, actually. OK, so I'm going to start this way. I almost hate to do this to you. I'm going to ask you a question, first closed book and then open book. And that is, what do you know about Zephaniah? He was descended from Hezekiah. Oh, wow. Joan, I think Joan's done some study on this. She said he was descended from Hezekiah. Okay. That's good. Anything else? What do you know? His day being hidden. His name means Yahweh hides. Some people think it's because he might have been hidden when he was younger as protection from an evil king. Perhaps Manasseh? Some think that he might have been called God hides. Because he was hidden, he was probably born in the reign of Manasseh. Okay, so that tells you something about where he's from, the south. And when he prophesied kind of towards the end of Israel's history in the land before they went into exile. Anything else? Like well-known verses or? We quoted one? Lord thy God in the midst of these mighty. OK. Yeah. I think that's probably Zephaniah 3.17, about the Lord being mighty in Jerusalem. And it's a wonderful picture of the Lord delighting in his people, singing over his people. Just a wonderful picture, great verse to know. All right. Good. OK. And then I was going to ask you. you can open your Bible, and I was gonna ask you the same question, but I think you guys have covered the basis pretty much. But the reason I ask that question is, because I kind of suspect that even Christians who know the Bible well, and I would include you guys in that number, often for the book of Zephaniah, you just kind of draw a blank. Like, I don't remember anything about Zephaniah. I read it once a year. So one purpose that I have for this morning, and for this series is that that would change, that you would not draw a blank when it comes to the book of Zephaniah. So his name means Yahweh hides. Not so much like hiding himself, but like hiding something valuable, like a deposit, something that you wanna save. That's a helpful way to remember. If you open your Bible there, Zephaniah, And I'll read just the first verse right now. Okay. "'The word of the Lord, which came to Zephaniah, "'son of Cushi, son of Jedaliah, "'son of Amoriah, son of Hezekiah, "'in the days of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah.'"

So he tells that his prophecy takes place during the reign of Josiah, and then he traces his genealogy back further than any of the other minor prophets, like four generations, Zephaniah, son of Cushi, son of Jedaliah, son of Amoriah, son of Hezekiah, and he stops. So why would he stop with Hezekiah? Well, probably because he's tracing his lineage back to Hezekiah the king. And so he's probably part of the royal family and maybe kind of a distant, what is that? Third cousin, fourth cousin, a distant relative of Josiah. So probably they were friends. 

And Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem. He was described in some of the passages as an elite, an upper crust, an aristocrat, you know, somebody who's maybe has an easier life living in Jerusalem. I suspect he was a city person. He did have a really good understanding of how the city of Jerusalem fits into God's plan and purpose. 

His prophecy takes place during the reign of Josiah. Josiah reigned for 31 years, and 18 years in, the law, book of the law was discovered, and he started his reforms. He started to weed out Baal worship that had persisted in the reign of his grandfather Manasseh, long reign of Manasseh, and then father Ammon. as well. So when he was 26 years old, he started a reform and continued that for the rest of his reign. 

So where in the reign of Josiah does this prophecy fit? Maybe towards the beginning, maybe before the reform started because it seems like Baal worship is pretty rampant. We'll see that even this morning in chapter one. So maybe, it doesn't say, but maybe during the beginning part of Manasseh's reign. 

Zephaniah, his message is a lot like the other prophets. If anything, it's more intense than the other prophets. So his description of God's wrath is very intense, and then also his description of God's love. at the end, especially, is just very tender, even more so than the other prophets. So he's a prophet's prophet. He's right in line with the others, but has a way of expressing very intensely. 

Okay, and he is a prophet of the day of the Lord. That's the title of our series on the minor prophets, prophets of the day of the Lord. And Zephaniah is certainly a prophet of the day of the Lord. That's what this little book is about, is the day of the Lord. What is the day of the Lord? Well, it's the day of the Lord's power. It's the day when the Lord steps forward on the stage of history and shows his power. 

Now, we believe that God is sovereign over all things. He couldn't be more powerful than he is now, but he's sort of, reigns from behind the scenes. So we talk about God's invisible hand being at work in Providence. He's in control in surprising ways around us, in control even when evil seems to reign on the earth. But in the day of the Lord, His power is going to be manifest. We're not going to talk about his invisible hand. We're going to talk about Christ ruling with a rod of iron and ruling on the earth. So you can tell when you look around on the earth that he's ruling. That's the day of the Lord. So it's the day of the Lord's power. And for sinners, it's a day of terrible wrath. When God steps forth and shows what his justice is like, what his power is like, it's a scary thing for sinners. And so that's what is shown at the onset, at least, of the day of the Lord here.

How long is the day of the Lord? Well, probably refers to a time period. Creationists use this argument against the day-age theory that whenever you have a first day, second day, third day, fourth day, like a number in front of the word day, it's always 24 hours. That's a really good argument. It's kind of an older creationist argument, but it's a very good argument.

But kind of the corollary to that is when you don't have a number in front of the word day, it can often refer to a time period, and it often does in scripture. And it's pretty much the same in English. We can say, remember back in the day of black and white television, you know, you're not referring to a 24 hour day. Or the day of Herbert Hoover, you know, you might be referring to his whole time when he was in power. So it's the same with the day of the Lord.

I think the day of the Lord actually includes the great tribulation leading up to Christ's return. where the Lord is pouring out his wrath on the earth, and then it also includes the thousand-year reign of Christ after that. So I think it refers to a time period, but it also arrives really suddenly, the day of the Lord, arrives suddenly so that you could speak of it as a 24-hour day. I mean, there will be a day when the day of the Lord arrives suddenly, and it's gonna be wrath poured out on the earth. So good to think of it in that way.

Okay, in verse 14 it says, near is the great day of the Lord. Near and coming very quickly, okay? So I just said he prophesied in the reign of Josiah, and then I just told you what I think the day of the Lord is, that it's yet to come, that it comes at the second coming of Christ. So in what sense is the day of the Lord near? to his time, and in what sense is it far from his time? Because it hasn't even happened yet. We're still waiting for the day of the Lord.

Well, you have to think of time a little bit differently, and I was thinking of this even for Christmas. You know, it's the year 2025. and Christ was born 2,000 years ago, and we just keep getting further and further away from his birth. Every year we're further and further away. But in a sense, on Christmas morning, we're closer to his birth than we were the day before, because it's the day that we celebrate the birth of Christ. And so it's like time doesn't just keep on going, but it kind of loops back on itself. You have to use your imagination. You have to go with me a little bit on this. But it's kind of at least a way of understanding time.

And the day of the Lord, I think, is a little bit like that when he says that the day of the Lord is near. It was near because Babylon was coming to come and defeat Judah, take them into exile, that was gonna be within a matter of decades for them. And so in that sense, the day of the Lord is near.

Let's see if I can draw here. I think of it like this, like here's the timeline. And here's the cross, here's where we are, it's 2025. And here's where Zephaniah was, maybe about 630 BC. And I think of the day of the Lord like this big bucket of wrath. And when the time comes, it's like the whole bucket of wrath is going to be just dumped out on the earth. And it's going to be this devastating thing on the earth.

And I think of the times when the day of the Lord kind of made its appearance in history as like a little drop from the bucket that's coming. And so in that sense, it's near. It was near to Zephaniah. Not the whole thing. It's not the whole day of the Lord that came, but certainly a taste of the day of the Lord. And he's thinking about what's coming at the most profound level. And he's thinking at the most profound level, I'm gonna tell these people what it actually is. It's not just Babylon coming, this is the day of the Lord. This is like a day when the Lord stands up and shows his justice. And it's gonna be a scary thing for sinners because it's gonna be a taste of the Lord's justice on the earth. And so he tells them, you better be ready for it.

And how much more we, when we're right on the cusp of the Lord pouring out his wrath on the earth as well. So the day of the Lord is the day of the Lord's power. Who you are on a day of the Lord or the day of the Lord is who you really are. It reveals who you really are. It reveals who you are in your soul of souls. And we're pretty good at making a pretense. People are pretty good at making a pretense. The Pharisees were very good at making a pretense of how you stand with God, a pretense to other people, even a pretense to yourself. When the day of the Lord comes, there's no more pretense. and what you see is what you get. And so a sinner is one who falls under God's wrath. And so he tells them to be ready.

The word of God has kind of the same effect as the day of the Lord. Remember, it's a sharp two-edged sword, and it exposes you and makes you naked and bare before the one with whom we have to do. So he's actually gonna tell them to get ready for the day of the Lord in advance. OK. Let's see. Let's see if I can do some more drawing without coloring outside the lines here. OK. There's a big emphasis, like I said already, on the city of Jerusalem. So here's my idea of a city here. And there's an idea that Jerusalem is a microcosm. That's a word that I like. Microcosm means a small world. Here's the idea of this, is as Jerusalem goes, so goes the world. That's the idea of a microcosm. We're kind of not used to thinking in those terms. So here's the world, here's Jerusalem at the center of it. We're kind of not used to thinking in those terms. We like to think in terms of cause and effect, like instrumental cause, this caused that to happen. But there's an older way of thinking in addition to that. which is correspondence, this corresponds to this. Because God created both and he connected them somehow. Somehow they're connected. So they correspond to each other. So Jerusalem corresponds to the world. God has joined them together. As Jerusalem goes, so goes the world as well. And Zephaniah understood that very well and doesn't totally explain it in the book, but it's key. It'll help you to understand the book.

Okay, let me try to give an outline of the book, and we're gonna study it in three parts. So, oh boy, okay. So, chapter one is judgment on Jerusalem. Chapter two is judgment on the nations. And chapter three is hope for the nations and Jerusalem. OK, and then I want to draw it this way because, um... Verse one to three of chapter two probably belongs to chapter one, we won't get to it, but it tells about how to repent and what the purpose is that they would repent in advance. And then the judgment on the nations here is to nations like Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, Assyria, and this probably belongs to it as well. because it's also a judgment on Jerusalem. And Jerusalem just kind of appears in that list as if they're just like all the others. They're just like all the other nations because they're just as bad as Israel. as the other nations again. So it's judgment on Jerusalem again, that goes to verse eight.

And then it goes to the hope for the nations and Jerusalem. This is a big key turning point in the book right here after verse eight. And I want to, yeah, I want to read verse eight of chapter three, because it kind of comes to, okay, here's my decision. Here's my final verdict. He says, indeed my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out them my indignation, all my burning anger. That's the bucket being poured over. For all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal.

Okay, so he's gonna totally pour out his wrath upon Jerusalem and actually upon the earth, because Jerusalem's kind of a microcosm of the earth. But here's the amazing thing about this book.

is that when he does that, the end result is that it doesn't destroy. You might think it'd just annihilate the earth. Wouldn't that be fair? The earth is sinful, Jerusalem's sinful, he's gonna pour out all of his wrath, so there's none left, on all of it, and you'd just think there's nothing left, it's just the story of annihilation.

It's not to destroy, it's to purge. It's to purge, and so when the wrath is over, his wrath is gone, and there's actually, his love is shown to Jerusalem, and then his love is shown through Jerusalem to the rest of the world, and so you end, it's a big turning point here, and you end with a real hope, as it says, a hope for the nations, and for Jerusalem, and so after his wrath is poured out, you get this wonderful picture of all nations worshiping the Lord with pure hearts.

Everybody on earth worshiping the Lord, and then Jerusalem at the center of the nation, of the nations worshiping the Lord with a pure heart and God present in Jerusalem in his day, in the day of the Lord, with no more anger, all of that is spent but love and delight, singing over his people and delighting in them and then gathering into the city the outcasts, the lame, pictures them, the rejects, the people that nobody wanted, and he's gathering them into the city and welcoming them to exalt them to a place of honor.

So it's a wonderful picture that it ends with the hope for the nations and for Jerusalem. I said Zephaniah is like other prophets, but more intense. He's more intense when he speaks of God's wrath. He's more intense even when he speaks of his God's love as well. So... How can that be? We're all sinful. God pours out all of his wrath until there's none left, and then there's people left, and the world is better because of it, and there's a picture of the Lord dwelling with his people on the earth. How can that be as a result of his wrath? Well, Zephaniah doesn't say, but the answer is another correspondence here, which is the Messiah. And so I'll do a picture here. There's the cross. And here is, at the bottom of the hill, the empty tomb. Can you see that? OK. Yeah, that works OK. Yeah, so that's another course. He doesn't mention the Messiah. He just mentions Jerusalem. This is an event that happens in Jerusalem. The Lord said it could happen nowhere else. It happens outside the walls of Jerusalem. It's the death and resurrection of Christ. And that's the only way. that you can have wrath poured out and it leads to life. That's the only way you can have death and it leads to resurrection, is if Christ is the one bearing the wrath, at least for some of the remnant of the people that remain. And so it all fits. Jerusalem follows the pattern of death and resurrection, and the world that corresponds to it also follows the pattern of death and resurrection. It all corresponds to 

And so we might say not just judgment on Jerusalem, it's really death to Jerusalem, death to the nations that comes in the day of the Lord, but also resurrection. And I apologize for my terrible sloppy handwriting. That's just how it is. So resurrection as well. 

Okay, one more correspondence. And I'll do it this way. It's you, it's the Christian, who also experiences death and resurrection that's similar to what is seen on the day of the Lord as well. I think in seeing that, that you also fit the pattern of death and resurrection in Christ and his wrath coming over you. And the sin, you come before the Lord as a sinner, not dodging his wrath, but saying, I deserve all of his wrath. And when I say I deserve all of his wrath coming upon me, when I come to him as a total sinner with no hope, I actually break through to the other side of the day of the Lord, the wonderful side of the day of the Lord, which is his wonderful grace. And there's no way else to get there. than through that. 

So it's really the picture of how someone is saved. Something that makes very clear for the city of Jerusalem, what's the hope for the city of Jerusalem? What's the hope for their history? As you read through Zephaniah and follow the outline of what's gonna happen, what's the hope? Is it reform? Is it that they're gonna kind of just gradually become more pleasing to the Lord? And gradually things are gonna, he's gonna bless them because they're gonna become more and more obedient. That could have happened, but it's not their history. That's not their history. What's shown about God's ways is that they're a sinner. They're totally sinful. And what's gonna happen to them is that God is gonna act himself. to bring about both wrath and also life for the city of Jerusalem as well. 

So that's the way in which we show up to the Lord as well, not saying, well, the hope is that I'm gonna just kind of slowly reform and slowly start earning God's favor more and more. No, you come like Jerusalem, totally sinful, like Jerusalem is how a Christian is saved, and experience God's grace in Christ. Maybe that's part of what it means, Zephaniah, God hides. He has to hide you in Christ, and then the storm passes over. And then you can break through to the other side of this line to the wonderful hope. And there's no other way to get there than through Christ and through the wrath of God coming to meet you, but landing on Christ instead, and then experiencing the resurrection life as well. 

So it's important for us to dwell in the day of the Lord. experience the reality of the day of the Lord, both His wrath falling on a total sinner and yet amazingly resulting in something we never could imagine, something better than we could ever imagine, which is the Lord's love towards us. I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31, if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. And Zephaniah kind of encourages people to have their own day of the Lord before the day of the Lord comes. When it comes, it's too late. And so he says to them things like, to repent, chapter two, verse two, before the decree takes effect. The day passes like the chaff before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you, seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth.

And so we trust the Lord himself in faith and dwell there, dwell there with him singing over us in faith because he saved us and we've come to him as total sinners. So it's important for us to, live in the reality of the day of the Lord, of God's action, not our own action to try to please the Lord or somehow make our way gradually more pleasing to him, but his action towards us. And to worship him and serve him as he's presented here at the end of the book of Zephaniah.

You can serve the Lord and you're worn out. And if you're not serving him according to his grace that's shown to us in the gospel. But if you serve him according to his grace, thinking of him according to his grace, then you're like what the Lord talked about with the woman at the well. You have a spring of life welling up in you all the time. Or like what he says in Isaiah where it says that those who wait upon the Lord will mount up in sorrow with wings as eagles. The young men lack and suffer hunger, suffer fatigue, and yet those who wait on the Lord have new strength, and it's the strength that comes by faith in the Lord's goodness to us.

And so that's important to remember as we serve the Lord. He looks at the attitude. He looks at the attitude of the heart. We can get really into results. Like I gotta have this result before the Lord. And as we serve the Lord, he looks at the attitude of the heart. And when the attitude of the heart is pleasing to him, when you're trusting in him for what he has done and resting in what he has done, then he takes what you do and he magnifies it because it's pleasing to him in that way.

So we're to serve the Lord, not as a hard taskmaster, but as the amazing God who's presented here in the book of Zephaniah.

Okay, okay, that's it for introduction. So we should start and work through the verses of chapter one. I'll give you a quick outline. He's gonna overview the day of the Lord, verse two to six. He's gonna give a sharp warning about the day of the Lord, verse seven to 13, and then an even sharper one in verses 14 through 18.

So it starts with, he starts with a bang here, and this is kind of an overview of the day of the Lord. And if we're thinking of it as this bucket, the day of the Lord, it's like he starts, he's warning Jerusalem, but he's gonna start not with the drop that's coming to him, but with the depths of the bucket itself. He's gonna really start with a bang and start with what the day of the Lord actually is. in its full expression.

So verse two, I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will remove man and beast. I will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. So it's talking about the totality of his wrath, the totality of destruction when it comes and it couldn't be more total. will completely remove all, in fact, it sounds like the end. It's not, but it sounds like just the total end of the world. As I was going through this, it really reminded me of the flood, where the Lord says, I'm just gonna wipe everything clean, everything is gonna die, and I'm just gonna start over. And actually, this is very much like the flood. The Lord promised not to send a flood of water upon the earth again, until the decisive time comes. But the Bible tells us that the day of the Lord is gonna be worse than any time that's been on earth since the very beginning of the world, including the flood itself. So the Lord says that in Matthew chapter 24, and that's kinda how it's presented. So it made me think of the flood.

I'll remove man and beast. The commentaries that I was reading said it's, for them, it reminded them more of creation. Except it's an uncreation. This is an uncreation. And it's even in the reverse order of the way things were created. So man was the last thing to be created. And he's the first thing mentioned here. I will remove man and beast. It's kind of going in reverse through the order of how things were created. Then the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea as well. And then he specifically mentions this at the end. I'm going to cut off man from the face of the earth.

Where does he mention this? The stumbling blocks. Yeah, verse three. And the ruins along with the wicked in a lot of translations translate as stumbling blocks. I'm gonna remove the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. And this speaks of the Lord's reign and the Lord's day upon the earth. He removes the wicked. He restrains the wicked. He's actually gonna make a, I think he's gonna make a fresh start with all righteous people at the beginning of the, of the millennial kingdom, both in Jerusalem and in the world as well. And he's gonna remove stumbling blocks from the earth.

And this is probably quoted, or at least alluded to, when Jesus explains the parable of the wheat and the tares. And he basically says in this parable that the kingdom that's coming is gonna come in two stages. There's a mystery phase of the kingdom that we're in now, where it's the reality of the kingdom and the power of the kingdom is here, like the Holy Spirit's power is here, and yet it's not, God's judgment hasn't been poured out on the earth. He hasn't removed the wicked from the earth. So it's here in part, and then there's gonna be a second phase of the kingdom where it comes just like this. And that's in the second coming of Christ. He's coming twice. He's telling them in these parables. but he's explaining the parable, Matthew chapter 13 and verse 41.

He talks about a time when the wheat and tares should grow up together and don't remove them, because if you try to remove them, the tares, you're gonna uproot the wheat. And so actually, I think what comes out of this is almost something like the religious freedom that we have in our country. Allow the false religions to grow together with the true religions, because if you start uprooting, we're not qualified to do that. You're going to uproot Trinity Bible Church along with the Mormon Church or whatever, or the mosque or whatever.

So, but when the Lord comes at the end of the age, it's not going to be like that. And he's going to separate the wheat and the tares at that point. And it says in Matthew chapter 13, verse 41, the son of man will send forth his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom, all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness. and it's probably a reference, probably the Lord read Zephaniah and it's probably a reference back to this where he removes the stumbling blocks and he removes the wicked from the face of the earth. 

So the liquor store or the brothel is gonna be gone in the kingdom or the mosque or the Mormon church or the Jehovah's Witness church is gonna be gone. in the kingdom when he comes. And so Zephaniah is kind of pointing to what they're about to experience in part is the day of the Lord, and he's telling what it is totally when it comes. 

Okay, so... It's the Lord speaking of the day of the Lord, and when it falls, it falls, the center point of it is Jerusalem. Verse four, so I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, and those who bow on the housetops to the host of heaven, and those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, and those who have turned back from following the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of him. 

So it talks about Jerusalem and it talks about groups on which the day of the Lord, when it comes, and I'm kind of not clear whether he's talking about the final day of the Lord falling on Jerusalem or this drop, maybe both. I'm not sure. Sometimes it's not totally clear. But it talks about different groups. that it's gonna fall on. And actually, the groups kind of speak of what's pretty contemporaneous current in Zephaniah's day back in 630 BC, because it seems like Baal worship is rampant, and that took place in Manasseh's reign, Ammon, and people were probably still doing it in Josiah's reign as well, especially before he started his reforms as well. 

So it's interesting just the groups that the wrath of God is gonna fall upon. And he's gonna take away these people out of Jerusalem, the remnant of Baal, the names of the idolatrous priests, like priests of Baal, that was happening in Manasseh's time, with the priests, the true priests, except they're not following the Lord. Those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, and I won't show you these passages, 2 Kings chapter 21, 3, Jeremiah chapter 19, verse 13, but it talks about during the days of Manasseh, the people started worshiping the host of heaven, and they did it on their rooftops, and so they'd make a little shrine on the rooftop, and then they'd worship the stars of heaven, and they're gonna be taken away. 

Those who bow down and swear to the Lord, and yet swear by Milcom. So these are people who are syncretistic. They do both. Swear to the Lord. and fear him, and yet they fear Milcom, or Molech, as well. So it's gonna not skip them, the people who worship the Lord on Sunday morning, and then worship Baal Monday through Saturday, so to speak, for us, and it falls upon them. And those who have turned back from following the Lord, so those who followed the Lord at one time, and they've turned back from following the Lord, and then the final group kinda, I think, should hit home for us, and those who have not sought the Lord, or inquired of him. 

And so it just, it texts these, the worst Baal worshipers, the priests of the Lord, and then they're included with people who just, they don't seek the Lord. They don't rely on the Lord. They don't seek the Lord's guidance for what they're doing. They don't seek the will of the Lord. They just sort of ignore him. And the wrath of the Lord falls upon them too, just as much as it falls upon the Baal worshipers. So it's kind of a sobering warning here, and it ends with that. Okay, so that's kind of an overview of the day of the Lord, the nature of it, what it is. The next section is an even sharper warning, verse seven. Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests. Then it will come about on the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king's sons, and all who clothe themselves with foreign garments. It's kind of a funny, picture here, because it pictures the Lord sending out invitations for a feast, like a sacrifice, except it seems like the people who come to this feast are the victims of the sacrifice. So it's kind of a funny picture. He's prepared a sacrifice. He's consecrated his guests. But on the day of the sacrifice, he's going to punish the princes, the king's sons, those who clothed themselves with foreign garments, those who were involved in the worship of Baal. I will punish on that day those who leap on the temple threshold, and that's probably like a superstitious practice of Baal worshipers. In fact, it's mentioned for Samuel five, verse five, remember the whole story of Dagon, and they brought the ark in to Dagon, and then the Lord knocked down the statue, and the end result was that his head and hands were on the threshold, And so because of that, it says that the worshipers of Dagon, they don't wanna step on the threshold, maybe superstitiously as well. And so this is probably a reference to that. The Israelites adopted all kinds of pagan ways. I will punish those on that day who leap on the temple threshold, who fill the house of their Lord with violence and deceit. On that day, declares the Lord, there will be the sound of a cry from the fish gate, and a wail from the second quarter, and a loud crash from the hills. And here I picture the Babylonian army breaking through. to Jerusalem. It's like their worst nightmare. And it's actually the wrath of the Lord. It's the day of the Lord coming upon them. The fish gate is kind of to the north of the city. In the newer part of the city, the city expanded to the north. And the attack always came from the north. Jerusalem is surrounded by really steep hills on the south and the west and the east. But on the north, that's where you want to attack. And so it's kind of a picture of the army coming. The fish gate is somewhere up there. The second quarter is the later part of the city to be built, the second part of the city more to the north. So there's a loud crash coming from those hills. And then Wailu, inhabitants of the mortar, for all the people of Canaan will be silenced, all who weigh out silver will be cut off. And this is a reference to more the southern part of the city, which would seem more protected, but that's gonna fall too. And it calls the people who live there, the people of Canaan, they're not Canaanites, they're Jews. But they're just as bad as Canaan. And it's kind of a merchant section. And the word Canaanite means a merchant. So it's kind of a play on words there. All the people of Canaan, they're actually Jerusalemites, will be silent. And those who weigh out silver will be cut off. So that's the main market of the city. And it's like the armies moving from north to south in the city and breaching the city, every part of it. It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good or evil. So he's gonna search out Jerusalem and punish all of the wicked. At that point, it's a day of the Lord coming upon the city of Jerusalem. Comes on those who are stagnant in spirit, and the word, it's literally something that has to do with wine. I will punish those who are thickening on their leaves. And it refers to the dregs down at the bottom of a wine bottle. And apparently, when you're making wine, if you just leave it there sitting, it turns into syrup eventually. So it has to be taken and poured out into a new bottle from time to time so that it doesn't, or I guess shaken up or something, so that it doesn't do that. And it's an interesting picture of sin. And I'm not quite sure what to make of it, and if I had time I would kind of throw it open to you. There's some other scriptures that use that, like Jeremiah chapter 48, verse 11 and 12, as well, as to what that would mean. But perhaps, I'll just give you my idea of what it might mean, perhaps it's adversity. Sometimes it sort of shakes you up a little bit so that you don't stagnate in your own sin. Or perhaps it's just sort of a selfishness when you're not poured out as you should be. So he puts it here just as those who are stagnant in spirit. those thickening on their leaves, they're sinning and there's nothing stopping them from just becoming more and more sinful until the day of the Lord suddenly comes. It pictures them as saying in their hearts, the Lord will not do good or evil. And one translation translated this, the Lord will not reward or punish. The Lord doesn't do anything. The day of the Lord is never coming. That's what they're saying and the punishment is gonna come upon them who believe that the Lord never acts and the Lord, seems to not act for a while, and then suddenly he does act, and the day comes. And so it's gonna come upon those who are described in this way. Verse 13, moreover, their wealth will become plunder, and their houses desolate. Yes, they will build houses, but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards, but not drink their wine. 

And so again, this is just sort of the worst nightmare coming upon them. The idea of building houses and not living in them and planting vineyards and not drinking from them is what was promised to Israel when they went in the land. I'm going to give you houses you didn't build. I'm going to give you vineyards that somebody else cultivated and got up to speed to where it's a productive vineyard. That was what the Canaanites did. And now this is going to happen to you. Somebody's gonna live in your house and enjoy your labor and get the yield of the vineyards that you cultivated as well. And so this is kind of a reversal, another reversal taking place because of the day of the Lord coming upon them. 

Okay, we had an overview of the Day of the Lord, a really sharp warning about the Day of the Lord, and then an even sharper warning. And it's leading to a call to repentance, which we'll get to next week in chapter two. But this is kind of an even more poetic section here in verse 14. Near is the great Day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly. Listen, the Day of the Lord, in it the warrior cries out bitterly. And it's really the sound of war, which would be a terrifying sound. something you don't hear every day, and that's what they're going to hear when it comes. It's going to come suddenly. In it, the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

You're suddenly, on this day of the Lord, when it comes, he's telling him, you're suddenly gonna be absorbed in war. It's gonna come to your city. It's gonna come to your home. And the wrath of the Lord is going to fall upon you. It's gonna come against the fortified cities and against the high corner towers, which would be the most secure part of the city. The corner towers, that would be the most fortified. And if those fall, the whole city's gonna fall as well. 

Verse 17, I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. So it's a really intense image, a horrible image of God's wrath falling upon them. And it fell on them in real time when Babylon came. And it's wrath because they've sinned against the Lord. It's the debt's coming due against the Lord. They've sinned against Him. They've sinned against Him. They said He's never gonna act, and suddenly it comes upon them. And it brings distress on them, so they walk like a blind man. They're not blind. They can see. They're so troubled by what's happening. that they're not able even to walk around, so it's a really intense picture of somebody falling under the Lord's wrath. 

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them, and that's often how a city would deliver itself, is just by paying off the army, but not so in this case. on the day of the Lord's wrath, and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete end, even a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth. And so I think there's a sense in which, you know, a lot of what he's describing here is that drop that's gonna come. It's gonna come on Jerusalem, and the fish gate, and the corner towers of Jerusalem, and that happened in 586 BC. But he also is, Zephaniah wants to say, that's just a taste of what's coming for the whole earth. All the earth is going to be devoured in the fire of his jealousy that's going to be just like this. And it's going to be a terrifying end. He's going to make a complete end, pour out all of his wrath on all of the inhabitants of the earth, the earth dwellers. And that's a word that the book of Revelation picks up. It talks about earth dwellers, those who dwell upon the earth. That shows up again and again in Revelation, like Revelation chapter three, verse 11, where the tribulation years is called the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. 

So that's the day of the Lord. And I think a question for you is, are you ready for the day of the Lord? Are you ready for the day of the Lord? It's coming. It's near. It's already come. A taste of it has come in history. If it finds you unprepared, if you're caught in the day of the Lord as it comes, as it springs like a trap, it's too late. There's no relief. It's the wrath of the Lord coming completely.

And so you're to really have a day of the Lord in your soul before it comes, before it comes, to understand yourself as deserving the full wrath of God, and then to live in the reality of the day of the Lord, not the wrath side of it, that's been taken care of in Christ, if you're hidden in Christ, but the side that we're gonna get to when we get to this wonderful passage in chapter three about the wonderful presence of the Lord, and if you live in that reality, you're gonna be able to serve the Lord in humble and glad obedience, because the Lord is better to us, better to sinners than we could ever imagine, and he is in Christ.

So have your own day of the Lord, hidden in Christ, hidden in Christ. And maybe that's what it means about Yahweh hides. And that's the key to all of this is to go through the day of the Lord, hidden by the Lord in Christ, in the Messiah. That's really where the safety is and where the death and resurrection is as well.

Okay, so I'm enjoying Zephaniah. Hope that gives you a taste and we can pick up on it. That's the great thing about a series. We can pick up on it next week as well. If you have questions, you can ask me or maybe I'll try to save more time for them next time. I did kind of a long introduction this time.

So let's bow in prayer. Father, we thank you for this wonderful book. We thank you for what it tells us of the seriousness of your wrath. and the fierceness of your wrath against sin. Pray that you give us a fear of you. Pray that you would not give us a spirit that stagnates and says the Lord never does anything. but that you would give us a true fear of you, and then through that fear in Christ, that you'd give us a wonderful trust and faith and enjoyment of your wonderful love towards us that is shown to us in Christ. Pray that we'd live in the light of that, worship you in light of that, and serve you in light of that good news, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.