The Book of Zephaniah: Expository Commentary from Sermons by Dr Peter Masters

Bible Commentary on Zephaniah

by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London (adapted from sermons)

The prophecy of Zephaniah is indeed the great sum and substance of all prophecy in the word of God, a very remarkable book. There is a gloom with which this book seems to be enshrouded, but it isn't the case at all; it is a wonderful book, and we need to see its great treasures.

From the first verse we see that Zephaniah's great-great-grandfather was Hizikiah, likely to be King Hezekiah of Judah (same spelling in Hebrew). He lived in Jerusalem. The way the prophecy is couched from various verses, he seems to speak as an inhabitant of Jerusalem. His name means ‘hid of the Lord’, that is, protected of the Lord, or ‘treasured of the Lord’.

Israel had fallen to Sargon II, king of Assyria in 722 BC, and the ten tribes had been carried away into exile and replaced with others brought from Babylon who populated the cities of Samaria (2 Kings 17:23-24); it no longer existed as a nation. Allowing for a little controversy, Zephaniah prophesied to Judah in the south, sometime between 630 and 625 BC, some 30 years before the events of which he mainly speaks. He began to prophesy at the same time as Jeremiah. Jeremiah's prophecy is much longer, much more full of appeals to the ungodly, though there is a great appeal also here in this short prophecy. But Zephaniah, in a most unique way, brings together all the events of both the judgment of the Jews in Babylon, the judgment of the Jews in AD 70 at the beginning of the gospel age, and the judgment of the whole world at the end of time. He brings these events together and tells us the character of the last things and what exactly God will do.

He preached and prophesied during the later part of Nahum’s ministry, at a time when Assyria was about to be destroyed. The mighty Assyrian Empire had dominated the whole of the region for generations. Now it is going to be brought to an end. One of the subject nations in the Assyrian Empire, Chaldea, or Babylon, is going to rebel, declare unilateral independence, and eventually take up arms and topple the mighty Assyrian Empire.

While the Assyrians had been the chief empire, the Jews on the whole did pretty well. They paid homage, they subjected themselves to that empire, and except in 701 BC when Sennacherib sought to take all the walled cities of Judah and attack Jerusalem itself, they had been untroubled. Assyria was good for them in a way. The peace of the region was kept pretty well by the Assyrian overlord as long as they paid their homage.

But things were going to change. Chaldea, Babylon, was going to become the supreme empire, and Babylon would not be anything like so kind to the Jews. In fact, Jerusalem would be attacked three times, and finally destroyed, and the Israelites or the people of Judah would be taken off into captivity for seventy long years before the next empire came along, the Medo-Persian Empire, when they, in their turn, displaced the Chaldeans, the empire of Babylon, then there would be liberty once again. So this terrible situation is about to arise. The Jews in Jerusalem don't seem to think it can come. They don't seem to think it can happen. They seem to be complacent and indifferent, and so, not only Jeremiah, but Zephaniah and others are sent to warn them.

While Zephaniah was prophesying, Josiah, the last good king of Judah, was reigning. Hezekiah earlier than him, who was a good king, had a son, Manasseh, who nevertheless was a very evil king. Manasseh reigned for 55 years and his own son, who was evil, reigned for a further two years. During that 57 years, all the good that King Hezekiah had ever done was undone, and all the reforms were overturned and great evil came into the land of Judah, and Baal worship returned and just about everything went wrong that could possibly have gone wrong to anger the Lord. Because of this, the land of Judah was finally condemned. It was condemned to be destroyed and Jerusalem, and the people taken away into captivity. That would happen in the not-too-distant future.

But before it happened, there was the reign of Josiah. He was converted at 16, and he began to bring in reforms at the age of 20. It was while carrying out his order for the clearing out of the temple that the book of the law was rediscovered. He reestablished godly practice in the land, but it seems that the people didn't wholly go along with this. The previous 57 years of idolatry under Manasseh and Amon were still in their hearts, and although Josiah brought in reforms, the instant he died, the nation went back to its old ways. So while Zephaniah speaks from a good era in Judah’s history, he is speaking about a judgment that will come after the time of Josiah, anticipating the collapse of the people once again.

But if God was determined to punish the nation, why then did he bring about a period of outstanding reform under Josiah? Because while the people were away in captivity in Babylon, a remnant must be preserved. There must always be a remnant, a proportion among the Jewish people who truly loved the Lord and walked closely with him and upheld the standards. And after 57 years of evil, no doubt that remnant was in danger of being completely wiped out and the testimony lost and this nation had to be preserved because the promised seed, the Messiah, would come from this nation. So Josiah’s reform preserved a converted remnant for the time of captivity.

Josiah's reforms were wonderful on the surface when you read about them, yet only a remnant of people were genuine even through that period. We read passages from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah who ministered at exactly that period, the last part of that reign, and he speaks of the tremendous hypocrisy of the people and God's judgement would continue upon them. So astonishingly, all Josiah's reforms – and he was a good man and a sincere man, who no doubt brought great blessing and many were truly brought to the Lord and were very earnest – still left the majority of the people of Judah in rebellion, and there was much secret Baal worship. It was no longer in the public places, the public shrines, for false gods were destroyed, but it was obviously in their homes and things were bad. And at the same time, Nahum ministers and so does Zephaniah.

So the book is primarily a word spoken to Judah and Jerusalem, seen as the continuation of Israel as a nation (even though the ten tribes had gone into exile). It is a warning of certain judgment to come, because Judah’s sin is not going to be forgotten by the Lord. At the same time it takes account of Israel’s longstanding enemies, and warns that in his concern for his people the Lord will take vengeance on those enemies. But it is also a message of hope to the believing remnant, and promises restoration and future blessing when God will form for himself a people who love him and obey him from the heart, who pursue holiness, and over whom the Lord will rejoice. These promises to the remnant have largely in view gospel age blessings.