The Day of the Lord Is Coming because of Their Idol Worship

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (Weight, 26)

When faced with extensive judgment, like we see in these verses, it is easy to think that God’s call to abandon our sinful pursuits and chase after Him will cost us everything, and it will. What we often fail to realize, however, is that the loss of everything pales in comparison to what we gain in return. If your life’s possessions are worth a thousand dollars, it can be debilitating to think of losing that, unless you realize that you will receive a million dollars in return. In this case you gladly abandon the thousand dollars because you will gain something much more valuable in return. The call to abandon our sin works the same way. We think our sinful life is enjoyable, we think it is fulfilling, but, like Lewis said, we are really just playing around in the mud when so much more is being offered to us.

The people of Jerusalem were widely being judged. They were in danger of losing everything. From the palace to the city gates, everyone was in the path of judgment. Yet, as painful as losing everything might have appeared to them, something much, much greater was available in return—if only they would repent and return to God in obedience.

To be an agnostic is to attempt to take no side in a spiritual conversation. An agnostic claims that we cannot know whether God exists or not. They have neither faith nor disbelief. In verses 12 and 13 we find a group of people who were essentially agnostics, and while they surely thought this spiritual position was a strong one to be in, God wanted them to understand that they, too, could not avoid His gaze and His accounting.

Having just clarified the scope of the impending judgment, Zephaniah now turns his attention on the agnostics among them. They lived their lives claiming to neither believe nor disbelieve in the presence of God. However, this lack of belief ultimately put them in the same category as those who would reject God completely. Functionally speaking, they lived for themselves, making themselves the master of their own domain. They could attempt to claim spiritual neutrality, but they were far from neutral. As a result, God would see that their destruction, too, was complete. Notice that God’s judgment for these individuals who deluded themselves into thinking that they lived in neutrality, but actually worshipped at the feet of their own comfort and pleasure, was to destroy their gods. In verse 13 Zephaniah prophesies that their houses will be destroyed and their wealth will be taken away. He says that their vineyards and the work of their hands will go to waste and never be enjoyed. God is dismantling their gods all around them.

This is ultimately God’s good work to reveal to us the lie of non-worship. We can claim not to know what is right or wrong, and we can claim not to worship, but the truth is that every person will worship, and every person will pursue what they think is right, and every one of us will be accountable for those choices that we make. In Psalm 16 King David explains the folly of chasing after other gods: “The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply; I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips” (Ps 16:4). We may think we have rejected God, but we must understand that this will mean that God will reject us. We chase after other gods, seeking satisfaction. Instead we find ourselves drowning in sorrow. We think we are finding a god, and instead we are losing the only God.

So, how do we remedy this evil? First of all, acknowledge that there is but one God, and He is Yahweh. This is, of course, the core of the ancient Shema from Deuteronomy 6: “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One” (Deut 6:4). This opening line of this ancient recitation reminds us that there is one God. He exists in Trinity, but He is one, and He alone is God. Those who are buried under the weight of their apathy or agnosticism must begin by acknowledging what God’s people have been confirming for years: God is.

Secondly, our acknowledgment of God must be accompanied by the sacrifice of our other gods. We must abandon those gods in our pursuit of Him. This will almost always be a challenging and difficult task. Jesus, anticipating how important this would be and how difficult it might prove, said this: “And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell” (Mark 9:47). This may sound a bit dramatic, but Jesus was making the point that this matters. If we have to take extreme measures, so be it.

Finally, radical severing of the old gods and an embrace of Yahweh runs counter to our typical expectations of lethargy toward God and spiritual activity. It is the exact opposite of that, as a matter of fact. It is spiritual energy. Many times that may be exactly what we need to walk faithfully with God.

Do you remember a time when you were a child and your mother “had enough”? As a hyperactive child, I can remember quite a few times when my impulsive behavior elicited just such a response from my mom. When mama “had enough,” I knew that there was trouble in the offing. This passage resonates with the same type of response from God, only so much worse. In a series of declarations that are among the most discouraging and accusatory in all of Scripture, God’s condemnation of His people gets more ominous. God has “had enough,” and as He levels these strong accusations against His people, He turns up the heat and begins to deliver stronger and stronger verbal blows. In what should be read like an intensifying crescendo, Zephaniah declares that wrath is coming. As the ferocity builds, so too does God’s condemnation, until it explodes with a climax in verse 18. This deafening crescendo of judgment proves its worth by crushing its hearers. While that may seem extreme, it is important to remember that God is crushing His people because He desires them to repent and return to Him. He understands that they love other things more than they love Him, so He systematically begins to eliminate the things that they love, and even their own lives, in an attempt to capture their attention and to see their affections pointed in His direction. His wrath, then, is an act of love, intended to accomplish the best for His children. I appreciate John Piper’s thoughts: “The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God” (Desiring God, 61). In this attempt to call the nation to repentance, Zephaniah emphasizes a few specific characteristic of God’s justice that are intended to heighten the nation’s awareness.

The Day of the Lord is coming, and it is coming soon. This is Zephaniah’s cry. The point is that there is no time left to wander between obedience and disobedience. The cry of the prophet is a cry to turn from their sin and return to God, and not to waste time in doing so. It is reminiscent of the Apostle Paul’s statement to the Corinthians: “For He says: I heard you in an acceptable time, and I helped you in the day of salvation. Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). The imminent coming of God’s judgment was intended to provoke an immediate response and to keep the nation from remaining in its present state.

Not only was God’s judgment imminent, but it would be astoundingly intense. The descriptions on display in this passage are not insignificant— the “warrior’s cry,” “trouble and distress,” “clouds of blackness,” “their blood will be poured out like dust” and so on. These are not soft or encouraging words—they are not intended to be. God’s judgment will be swift, it will be soon, and it will be complete. The pain they experienced would be insuperable.

Finally we see the source of their punishment: their sin. “Because they have sinned” Zephaniah declares that they will face this soon-coming, far-reaching judgment. Their impending destruction is their own doing, but the good news is that there is an alternative available. While their sin has kept them from God and brought them face-to-face with God’s judgment, some, if not all, of this could be averted if they would simply repent and obey.

The final act of this chapter’s devastating judgment is this description of their absolute destruction. It is interesting to consider this text alongside Acts 3. In Acts we find Peter and John going up to the temple where they meet a man who has been lame from birth. The man asks them to provide for him financially, and their reply is to confirm that they do not have “silver or gold” but they do have something worth far more that they can give him, and that is the gift of health. They reach down and restore his health, and he leaves them “walking, leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3:1-10). In this passage we see a people who have “silver and gold” and who think their wealth secures them happiness and protection. Instead, in spite of their wealth, God’s judgment is coming, and He will take it all away. Unlike the humility of the lame man in Acts 3, these people are drunk on their own self-confidence, and God is no longer satisfied to allow it to continue. Instead of celebrating God’s goodness and their need for Him, these people were ignoring Him, chasing their own satisfaction, and celebrating their self-fulfillment.

Zephaniah begins this verse by reminding the people that their wealth is no barrier to God’s judgment. It is apparent, throughout this book, that possessions had consumed the nation. They had become full blown worshippers, bowing at the feet of the god of materialism. Seeking after it for hope, help, protection, and care, they were instead forced to recognize the empty existence that they were experiencing, and to acknowledge a god who was ultimately impotent in the face of the one true God. The words of Jesus again emphasize the importance of getting this right: “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money” (Matt 6:24). Sadly, the people of Judah had decided to chase after money, and their god would now fail them, as Zephaniah reminds them in the beginning of verse 18. So now they find themselves guilty of grievous sin, worshipping a god who has failed them and cannot protect them, and soon with nothing to show for it all. Things are very, very dark indeed.

Not only are they worshipping a false god who cannot serve them in any way, they are now powerless to resist the judgment of the Lord, and His judgment is severe. The text describes Him as “jealous,” which indicates His dissatisfaction with their affection for other gods. The text reminds us that His judgment will come with a fire—one that can consume everything that exists. This is “Noah-esque” judgment being declared against the people of God. The end result of His judgment will be complete annihilation, yes, but even worse, the destruction will be so severe that it will be a “horrifying end.” The severity of the judgment can cause pause among those who recognize that God is strong in grace, mercy, and love. Why is God’s judgment so severe, and how is it consistent with His character?

God’s justice is one aspect of His character that we often misunderstand. Justice, simply put, means to do what is right. When we learn that God is just, we can be assured that God will always do what is right. Just as a human judge would be soundly condemned (and rightly so) for freeing a convicted murderer, regardless of how much good the murderer has done, so too God would cease to be just if He simply dismissed our sin. God’s justice does not run counter to His love, it runs parallel with His love. This is what makes the cross so majestic. That He condemned His Son to die testifies to God’s justice; that He allowed His Son to die in our place testifies to His grace. The cross is the perfect intersection of justice and grace.

This passage, then, reminds us of His justice and compels us to remember the importance of walking faithfully before Him. We desire to know His love, but we have to remember that His love in no way diminishes His justice.