Zephaniah 1:2-6

There will be a day of reckoning it is only a matter of time. When? No one but the Father knows the day. On that day all will know the truth and the truth will set man free. Free to be what the Creator meant for them to be without the shackles of sin and pride that bind him!

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.

Baal worship and its evils had led to the destruction of Israel and its capital Samaria in 722 b.c. Likewise, Baal worship and its associations would lead to the destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 b.c. Milcom is a reference to an Ammonite deity whose worship included acts of infant sacrifice.

Zephaniah 1:2-6

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.

4 “I will stretch out My hand against Judah,

 And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

 4I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,

 The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—

5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;

 Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,

 But who also swear by Milcom;

6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord,

 And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him