DRYBNZ - Zephaniah (Week 9)
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Lair of Wild Beasts by DRYBNZ
a gang of wolves led by lions the law is your violence
Indulge me with injustice mask it with your pride
I will rip out your tongue to cease your lies
I will restore the ones you’ve oppressed
I will restore the ones you have shamed
You fraudulent beasts I will make you see I will make you see
I will sacrifice and feed you flesh and blood
you will know, yes you will know
I AM, and always have, all is mine
You complacent plunderers
You will be vacant left destitute and bare
Hide the humble wait for me, wait for me
Jealous fire consuming all, blood rains
Wrath & ruin, Distress and anguish
Cover the righteous consumed in me consumed in me
Hiss and shake your fists (X2)
The desolation of the world is at hand
Gathered in renewal the old has past the new has come
The shame is gone home is here
Judgment is love and catalyst for rest
The lowly and the shameful are children of rebirth
The artist: DRYBNZ
Zephaniah’s prophecy revolves around a single topic: the Day of the Lord. Although the concept occurs throughout the prophets, no other book refers to it as often as Zephaniah.
Zephaniah’s prophecy revolves around a single topic: the Day of the Lord. Although the concept occurs throughout the prophets, no other book refers to it as often as Zephaniah (1). The Day of the Lord refers both to specific times of judgment on particular people, as well as eschatologically to a final time of worldwide judgment.
The Jews of Zephaniah’s time were awaiting that day when God would defeat all their enemies and bring about the fulfillment of all the promises given to Israel. That God was just and would ultimately bring about worldwide judgment was known and believed by all. Zephaniah intersperses proclamations of that final day of judgment of the nations with warnings of an impending day of the Lord against Israel (2). The inference is clear, If God will judge the nations ultimately, and you currently live like the nations, know that you also will be judged. And he makes clear that their day is imminent.
The people of Israel worshiped like the nations. They had incorporated the worship of Baal (3) and Milcom (4) into their lives, and on top of that no longer inquired of the true God (5). They also lived like the nations. They were more interested in foreign fashion than maintaining the national distinctiveness they were called to.
They robbed (6). They had become oppressive and fraudulent (7) .The consequences would be receiving judgment like the nations would receive. They had convinced themselves that God was as complacent as they were (8), but they were wrong.
Zephaniah calls for the people to repent before its too late, and calls the faithful to seek the Lord for protection in the time of judgment (9). This is the first hint we get that some will escape the immediate day that will come upon all Israel. As Zephaniah moves back to talking about the final eschatological day he makes clear that it will fall upon all nations (10).
He also mentions multiple times that the faithful remnant will indeed benefit from that day (11). Once again Zephaniah connects the future judgment on the nations with Israel’s behavior now. What first looks like condemnation on Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, ends up being directed at Jerusalem (12). Although God is in their midst, you’d never know it from their behavior (13). God is shocked to see that despite the judgment falling around them, Israel is stirred on to more and more corruption (14).
The book of Zephaniah suddenly takes a turn. Yes judgment, even worldwide end-to-end judgment is coming but that is not all that God has planned. The day of the Lord is more than judgment. There will also be a people from the nations who come to worship God. For the Jews that day will be an end of shame (15) and even an end of sin (16). That day is a day of rejoicing (17) and not fear (18). Even God himself is pictured as singing over his people (19). Zephaniah began with six statements of God’s coming judgment (20), and he finishes with seven statements of God’s coming restoration and salvation (21). Yes, Israel should be sure of their impending judgment because God will judge the whole world–but they should be even more sure of God’s good intentions for them. That is an even greater reason to repent.
