The author was requested a while ago to speak on the subject: “The Prophets and Their Message.” Upon reflection, this began to take on the dimensions of a lifetime study instead of a 45-minute talk. How does one go about condensing such a vast collection of material into manageable limits? (By actual volume, the “prophets”—including the Revelation of John — comprise 21% of the whole Bible). And, furthermore, in the welter of various and sometimes conflicting interpretations, just what is “the message of the prophets” anyway?
The matter was considerably simplified by arbitrarily omitting 15 of the 16 Old Testament prophets, along with the Apocalypse, and narrowing down the selection of source material to one, short, little-studied book: Zephaniah. Why Zephaniah? For one thing, it has been called, as you may have already guessed from the title, “The Summary Book of All Prophecy.” This is because, in only three chapters, it contains all the basic elements of Bible prophecy, which are three.
- God’s judgments on Israel (1:1-2:3);
- God’s judgments in the nations (2:4-15), and
- God’s future kingdom, after His judgments are finished (3:1-20).
And, when you think about it, what else is there really? In all the other prophets, simply variations of these three elements!
Israel (or shall we say Judah?) was God’s nation, and our example. Everything they did and everything God brought upon them are for our examples and admonition. So let us, who think we stand in God’s estimation, take earnest heed to these writings—lest we fall, as did Israel (1 Cor. 10:11,12).
“I will utterly consume all from off the land . . . man and beast . . . fowls and fishes,” says the Lord. “And I will cut off man” (1:2,3). “I will cut off,” He says, four distinct classes of sinners:
- The open idolaters: “the remnant of Baal, the Chermarim (sig. ‘the black-robed ones’) with their priests, and them that worship the host of heaven” (vv. 4,5);
- The secret idolators: them that worship and swear by both (!) Yahweh and Malcham (or Molech) (v. 5) ;
- The backsliders, who are “turned back from the Lord” (v. 6); and
- The indifferent, who “have not sought the Lord” (v. 6).
That seems to cover the field rather well! Can we imagine any sort of sinner who does not fall into at least one of these categories? Do we not sometimes find even ourselves periously entrapped in sins of most of these types?
It all has to do with “caring”: The open idolators care, but they care wrongly; they have a zeal but not according to knowledge, and they bow five times a day toward Mecca or burn incense to a smiling stone image, but it profits them nothing.
The secert idolators care too, but only half-heartedly; they serve God at times, but they never quite overthrow the altar of “Mammon” in their lives!
The backsliders cared for God at one time, but they stopped caring. Perhaps the “cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches” entered their lives and choked off the Word of God.
And, last, there are the indifferent, who care not at all, who cannot be moved even with “dynamite” from the comfortable ruts of their sad, empty little lives.
What is the lesson for us? God sees and will judge every type of iniquity: the external idolatry of false religion as well as the secret, internal idolatry of covetousness (Col. 3:5), which wears a cloak of “righteousness” in order to deceive (both oneself and others).
“Search us, 0 Lord, and know our heart. With every idol bid us part.”
These exhortations are lost on us if we only think of “idols” made of wood and stone and pride ourselves on having nothing to do with such. But the “idols” that should frighten us, from whose bondage we should pray to be delivered, are the twentieth-century “gods” of materialism, licentiousness (in books, movies, and television), and pleasure-seeking! For God will judge every type of sin: the open indifference of atheism no more than the hidden indifference of a lax Laodicean faith which seeks its own comfort and ignores its “nakedness” in God’s sight.
* * *
“For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, so that in turn he may also be the bridegroom of the marriage feast. The Father has invited guests to the sacrifice —to avail themselves of the forgiveness of their sins which Christ has made possible, and to obtain a “wedding garment” so that they will be suitably attired to attend the feast. But those guests who have not faithfully prepared themselves, when they do try to enter the great marriage feast, will be punished because they are, in figurative language, “clothed with strange apparel” (v. 8).
* * *
“And it shall come to pass in that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the people that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil” (v. 12). Is this a picture of the “household of faith” in the last days ? By their attitudes (that is, in their hearts) some appear to say (although they would never think of saying so openly) that God is indifferent to what man does. “Don’t remind me that He sees or cares what I do. Leave me alone to while away my satisfied, self-centered little life.”
The great causes of God are not often defeated by open frontal attack, but rather by the slow, crushing, glacier-like mass of indifferent disciples. The Truth of God cannot be destroyed by the enemy, but it can be smothered by the lazy “friend,” who sits on it!
Let us examine ourselves. We all build “fences” around ourselves in one way or another. It is a deep-seated desire of human nature to seek protection and security, and to forget unpleasant things. But unless we are careful, we may come to seek our strength and support within ourselves, in our own possessions and accomplishments. “I will build bigger barns,” we say; but God says, “You are fools Even this night your lives may be required of you.”
Let us not develop ingenious ways of keeping God and His demands out of our lives. Let us not be as children, hiding in our “playpens,” amusing ourselves with expensive and time-consuming “toys,” until the urgency of the Truth has melted away in our lives.
Rather, let us “seek the Lord . . . seek righteousness and meekness”; it may be that we will be “hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (2:3).
God’s Judgments on the Nations
For us, these can be both warning and encouragement: warning, because God is a jealous and a holy God, whose long-suffering is not endless; but also encouragement, because His judgments upon the nations are the prelude to the kingdom, when “the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9).
In this section, four peoples or groups of peoples stand for the Gentiles in their totality: To the west of Israel were the Philistines (2:4-7); to the east, Moab and Ammon (vv. 8-11); to the south, Ethiopia (v. 12); and to the north, Assyria (vv. 13-15). These nations encircle Israel, which is of course the center of God’s plan. Their “bounds”—both as to national boundaries and limits of influence — are set by God according to His purpose with His people Israel (Acts 17:26; Deut. 32:8).
This is a comfort to those who see and understand the Divine Hand in world affairs. God has said, in effect, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but not further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:11). Though around us men’s hearts are failing them for fear, if God be for us, then nothing will harm us but what He causes or allows for our betterment.
God’s Future Kingdom
The Sins (3:2) The Reasons(3:3,4)
- No obedience Wicked princes
- No correction Wicked judges
- No trust Wicked prophets
- No atonement Wicked priests (“drawing near”)
In Zephaniah’s days, all the kings and princes (except Josiah) were wicked men who could not lead a wicked nation into obedience. “Like princes, like people.” The judges were accustomed to bribery and graft, and did not teach “correction” or “instruction” (margin). With the exceptions of Zephaniah and Jeremiah, the prophets were false and wicked men, who trusted in the arm of flesh and not God. And the priests, who “polluted” the sanctuary, could not help in the least to draw men back to God.
It was a sorry state, but there was yet hope. As the sins of the people fell under four headings, because of the failures of all four classes of national leaders, so God’s remedy for His nation (and for the world!) is also seen in four parts—all involving Christ. The recurring theme through the last section is:
“The Lord in the midst of thee” (vv. 5, 12, 15, 17).
Christ was once, and will be yet again in greater scope, the manifestation of God upon the earth. He will be “in the midst of” men once again, in the captivity of righteousness leader, as:
- A righteous judge (vv. 5-7) — who will do not iniquity, but will instruct the world in righteousness.
- A righteous prophet (vv. 8-13)–who will bring to mankind “a pure language”, with which they will call upon the Lord; “and they shall trust in the name of the Lord” (v. 12).
- A righteous king (vv. 14-16—who will deliver his people from evil and lead them in the ways of
- A righteous priest (vv. 17-20)—who will save the people, and bring them back to oneness, or atonement, with God.
The Prophet’s Message
This man Christ must be our study, no matter where we turn in the Scriptures. His mind must be in us (Phil. 2:5), his delights must be ours, his sorrows ours too. And his perceptions of the world around us must be shared by us. As he walked with his disciples one day near Herod’s temple, they exclaimed, “What a great building . . . what great stones . . . ” To this he replied, “See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2).
We are thereby reminded that nothing of what we see around us is eternal—not the magnificent buildings, nor the noble accomplishments, nor the heaped-up wealth, nor the awesome weapons, nor the seductive “entertainment.” Only character is eternal, and only then when it manifests the righteousness of God. The same prophet (yea, the greatest of all prophets!) who prophesied that every “stone” would be cast down also said: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33).
Even though we cannot see it now, that “city” and that “kingdom” will be eternal; and it will be built up with “living stones” wherein dwell righteousness. Judgments there must be first, on God’s people no less than on the world. But the storm clouds will finally expend their force, and a new day will dawn—brighter and more blessed than we have ever witnessed—with joys unspeakable for those who have truly sought the Lord. This, my brethren, is the prophet’s message.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One