Zephaniah

There were several people with this name in scripture. The man who bears the name of this book, Tsĕphanyah (‘Jehovah has treasured’), one of the twelve minor prophets. He was a descendant of king Hezekiah (great-great grandson, and therefore one of the legitimate heirs to the throne), and he lived and prophesied at the time of king Josiah of Judah, between 641 BC to 610 BC. He comes ninth in the list of minor prophets, being preceded by Habakkuk and followed by Haggai. It is possible that Zephaniah’s main words applied just before Josiah was enthroned and started his reforms, strongly argued-for by both Zephaniah and Jeremiah.

Zephaniah’s name means that God stored secret knowledge – expressed as prophecy – in him (tsaphan). The second part of his name, Yahh, refers to Jah or Jehovah. (This Zephaniah is not the ‘second priest’ who was killed by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah). The Latin Vulgate bible refers to him as ‘Sophonias’, which means ‘Yahweh protects/conceals’.

His father was ‘Cushi’, which tells us Zephaniah was probably of Ethiopian stock; ‘Cushi’ means ‘Ethiopian’. Despite his lineage he did not shrink from accusing the Ethiopians of godlessness worthy of destruction. He also prophesied the fall of Ninevah.

God warned the people of Judah time and again to repent. Today, watchmen issue the same warnings to modern Christians. But, people, even Christians, love their sins more than they love God and His word. This is why so many believers prefer their individualistic, personal ‘interpretations’ of scripture. At the time of writing, Britain has been spared remaining in the EU. Now, we must build quickly on that blessing with truth and repentance, or God will stop the blessing and give us what we deserve. This is what Zephaniah is now telling the people of Judah, and his words apply to us today.

It is not primarily about politics, but about our relationship to Almighty God... politics is merely how we go about putting God’s word into practice in everyday social life. If we do not do this, our ‘politics’ is bad and ill-conceived. That is when errors and deliberate sins become normal for a country, just as they were in Judah. Apply these warnings to your own life and to national life in the West. Now, in the Middle East, the wickedness of Satan is dominant, and Islam is a dead corpse being made to move by human puppeteers, to be struck down in due time by God’s wrath.

This short book of prophecy is not just about fallen Judah. The words start at the present state of the nation, which needed reform and a return to God. He then speaks of post-return joys, and then goes on to speak of the rest of humanity, after Christ, whose lives would be transformed by His Gospel.

In many ways our current conditions of filth and godlessness are very like that of Judah. Perhaps the brief details of history do not convey the depth of wickedness found in Judah by God at that time. In truth, the wickedness was beyond definition in absolutely everything, from sex to finance, government to society. Everything was corrupt and evil. This is how it is today! Yet, so few believers realise how deep this pit of sin is, though it corrupts and makes filthy everything in every nation, just as a caner spreads its poison to every part of the body. And even fewer do anything about it... they prefer a sticking plaster to radical surgery.

Read Zephaniah again. Take in his words, for they are the words of the Lord, not just for Josiah’s day, but for ours. They also show that Israel will rise again, under God, when He bestows salvation upon them as a people, in Christ.