Zephaniah 1:2-3

Genealogy, in particular direct lineage, is especially important in the Old Testament… this changed with Jesus. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. The Holy Spirit ushered in a new and everlasting covenant with all of mankind through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now the spiritual represents the physical, the polar opposite of the Old Testament, where the physical represented the spiritual. Just as the physical gifts of God could be lost previously, now the spiritual gifts can be lost if we misuse them. He gives them and He has the right to rescind them. Without God nothing exists and He will not tolerate any man made gods we place above Him.

polar |ˈpōlər|

adjective: directly opposite in character or tendency

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,”a

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

³ Therefore 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