Zephaniah 1:2-3

Nobody likes to hear bad news….we would be a little sadistic if we did. But as much as we do not want to think or talk about it the truth is: there will come an end to life as we know it today. There will come a time that will catch most of mankind off guard even believers if we are not careful. There will be warnings in the form of wars and rumors of war, pestilence and famines all over the world but the exact time only the Father knows. 

We, as believers, tread a narrow path of turning others off by our doomsday tidings or allowing them to believe that God is like a Santa Claus who loves so deeply that He overlooks the evil and mayhem inherent in man. 

The truth is that God does love all of His creation with an unfathomable love BUT He drew the line when He sent Jesus to die for us. We either accept His agape love gift of salvation in and through the birth, death on the cross and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ OR we choose to say no thanks. 

Our job is to persuade others that there is indeed a Savior who loves them so much that He gave His life for them. Only the Holy Spirit can convict man… it is our job to get them to open the door…if only a crack.

Jesus seized on Zephaniah’s picture of the day of the Lord. On one occasion He referred to Zephaniah 1:3, when He spoke of His second coming and gathering “out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness”. On another occasion, Jesus no doubt envisioned Zephaniah’s description of “a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm”.

The message of Zephaniah begins with a pronouncement of universal judgment. These words not only introduce the particular judgment that would be pronounced upon Judah, but they also speak of the final judgment that will usher in the kingdom of God on earth. 

Stumbling blocks here refers to idolatry, or substitutes for God in the life and affections of a person. Because there is nothing in the universe that really may be compared to the Creator, God abhors all forms of idolatry.

 Zephaniah 1:2-3

² “I will utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,”

Says the Lord;

³ “I will consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,”

Says the Lord.

¹³“I will surely consume them,” says the Lord. “No grapes shall be on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And the leaf shall fade; And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ” 

Jeremiah 8:13

³Therefore the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away With the beasts of the field And the birds of the air; Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. 

Hosea 4:3