Author’s Note: I encourage all of my readers to prepare for the Christmas season with the Choose This Day Family Bible Study for the Advent season. It’s a fun, short (10-15 minutes) Bible study that the whole family can enjoy daily from December 1 to 25. You can visit that website by clicking this link.
And now, back to today’s lectionary reading:
Start with Scripture:
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OBSERVE:
Zephaniah, one of the twelve so-called “minor prophets,” was likely writing during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.), and was a contemporary of the more prolific prophet Jeremiah.
What is interesting about this passage is its tone. It differs significantly from most of the rest of the book. This excerpt appears near the end of the book, but it has been preceded by stark warnings of doom for Judah and the other nations. Zephaniah is pleading for Judah to repent before the great day of the Lord, which the prophet says will be a day of judgment:
That day will be a day of wrath,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements (Zephaniah 1:15-16).
In contrast, the tone of today’s passage is very positive and optimistic about God’s ultimate triumph:
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away the judgments against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.
When Zephaniah speaks of the Lord who is in your midst , this is a reminder of the language of the prophet Isaiah quoted by Matthew’s Gospel:
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel”
which means, “God is with us.” (Matthew 1:23).
The prophet promises that Jerusalem will not need to fear because
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory . . .
In the cosmic struggle of good and evil, the Lord will win the war. Furthermore,
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival.
The language Zephaniah uses is reminiscent of celebratory wedding imagery, as in Isaiah 62: 4-5:
…you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your builder marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.
In other words, this passage seems to be a kind of “epithamalion,” which is a wedding hymn or poem. The imagery of a wedding is often used to describe the joy and celebration of the ‘end of days’ when God’s kingdom comes.
And Zephaniah also describes the positive changes that God will bring: disaster is removed; oppressors will be punished. And those who are considered marginal will be blessed:
I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
This is reminiscent of the Magnificat of Mary in the Gospel of Luke, when she speaks of God turning the world upside down:
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty(Luke 1:52-53).
And finally, Zephaniah seems to forecast the exile of Judah, which wouldn’t happen until 587 B.C., and the ultimate return of the Jews to Jerusalem, which wouldn’t occur until 538 B.C.
Zephaniah likely wrote this passage prior to Josiah’s reforms in 622 B.C., at least 84 years before the return:
At that time I will bring you home,
at the time when I gather you;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes, says the Lord.
Clearly, from Zephaniah’s perspective, the ultimate advent of the day of the Lord will be a day of restoration and renewal, healing and wholeness for the people of God.
APPLY:
It is easy to understand why many of us would be somewhat ambivalent about the day of the Lord. We’ve certainly heard the fulminations of some celebrated preachers, warning us of the impending disasters of the end of time. And we’ve likely seen some movies that have scared us witless.
But there is another side to the day of the Lord. That this day, although a day of judgment, is also a day of rejoicing. It will be like a wedding, the completion and consummation of our hopes and dreams.
For the people of God and for those who are often marginalized in many societies — the disabled, the outcasts — the day of the Lord is something to be hoped for and welcomed.
RESPOND:
My wife is a very gifted musician, and her primary instruments are the piano and the organ.
When she was in college she had an organ lesson early in the morning with an organ teacher who was very hard on her, and very demanding. She found this to be a very stressful, tense experience.
As a devout Christian, she of course would pray that she would do well, as any of us might. But what makes me smile is her honesty. She said she can remember praying, “Lord, you have promised that you are going to return one day. If you’re going to return soon anyway, could you come before I have to endure this organ lesson today?”
She definitely saw the coming of the Lord as a positive thing! Seriously, the day of the Lord will provide resolution to the ancient conflict between good and evil, and will turn sorrow into joy. Stress and fear will be no more.
Our Lord, I do not fear the coming of the end, no matter how dismal or dangerous the interim time may be in my life or in the world around me. I do not fear because you are with us, and you will be victorious! Amen.
PHOTOS: "Zephaniah 3:17" by Charlotte Tai is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 