The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. The voice of the day of Jehovah the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
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That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and gross darkness,
Zephaniah piles up word after word for one single day. Three questions sit behind the pile: what makes God's anger burn like this, when does this day arrive, and can anyone survive it?
Earlier in the chapter the prophet names specific sins. Here he names the day itself. One writer follows the chapter to this point:
The day of Jehovah would send up a cry from the gates of Jerusalem. He would search Jerusalem with candles and expose the folly of those who denied that He would step in, either for good or for evil. The prophet then states the terrors of the day of Jehovah in general but very forceful terms. The fire of His jealousy would devour the whole land.
The opening words of this verse were later carried into a famous hymn about judgment. And the day itself leaves no way out:
In 1250 Thomas of Celano wrote his famous hymn about judgment. He took the words "Dies irae, dies illa" from the Latin translation of the first sentence of this verse. When that day comes the wicked will perish. Distress will be on everyone. They will walk like blind men, trying to find a way to escape but unable to find one. Nothing will be able to save them from the fury of that day. Neither silver nor gold will be of any use.
The judgment does not stop with the openly violent. It reaches people who had quietly decided that God would never act at all, and that is where the blow falls:
It was not only the openly violent. No one would escape, no class and no rank. They "say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good, nor will He do evil." It is the unbelief of the Sadducees before the Sadducees existed. "Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them." That is, they are struck at the very point of their unbelief.
(The Sadducees were a Jewish group of a later day who held the same unbelief.)
The invader in view here is the Chaldean, the conqueror from Babylon. One writer says this real man also stood for something far larger:
But the Chaldean was not only a real person, but a representative one. In the prophets he points forward to coming and final judgments. His sword visited not only Judah and Jerusalem, but the surrounding nations. His was a day in which the God of all the earth was rising up, and the world had to keep silent. It was a miniature, or first instalment, of the judgment of all the nations. It was "the day of the Lord," in spirit or in principle.
Some readers merge this dark day with the moment Christ gathers His own to Himself. The clouds and gloom rule that out:
But that day surely comes: "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness." It is impossible to apply this to the Lord's coming to receive His saints, caught up to meet Him. Could anyone want a clearer example of the folly of treating the day of Jehovah, with its terrors for the earth, as the same thing as Christ's coming to take His own on high? Will His presence, which gathers us to Him above, be in any way "a day of gloom and thick clouds"? The confusion is an obvious blunder.
Judgment is not the end of the story. One writer shows what it clears the way for:
Judgment never closes the scene. In the ways of God, glory touches judgment. Judgment cleans out the vessel, and then glory fills it. It removes whatever stands in the way of the presence of the Lord. Then God sets up His kingdom and displays it, as Zephaniah and all the prophets show us.
This day is not only something to believe. It is something to say out loud, and to live:
It is very important that we hold and testify to "that day" — not only the coming of the Lord but His day. Where truth is high and practice is low, no one can testify honestly to the day of Jehovah. It then does not hold the place in our daily service that it holds in the word of God.
- The day named. The prophet turns from naming sins to naming the day. God searches Jerusalem with candles, and nothing stays hidden.
- The day earned. God struck the doubters at the very point of their doubt. They said He would do neither good nor evil, and they built houses they never lived in.
- The day rehearsed. Babylon's sword was a miniature of the judgment of all nations; the real day still lies ahead.
- The day distinguished. Clouds and thick darkness cannot describe Christ gathering His own to meet Him above. The two events are not the same.
- The day answered. Judgment cleans out the vessel so that glory can fill it. Those who hold this truth honestly will match their practice to it.
a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fenced cities and against the high battlements.
The list of names for the day of the Lord ends here with noise. A trumpet sounds, an army shouts, and the target is the strongest thing a nation owns: its walled cities and high towers. Two questions follow. Whose day is this? And why do the best defences men can build fall when it comes?
Zephaniah spoke while a godly king was cleaning up the nation, yet his message ignores the improvement.
Zephaniah prophesied in the days of Josiah, a godly king whose faith and energy had produced a marked revival in the outward state of Israel. But this book takes no notice of this revival. Instead it moves straight to a declaration of the sweeping judgment of God, who will completely consume everything from the land. The revival only looked real on the outside. At heart the nation stayed the same as before.
The phrase behind this list, "the day of the Lord," has a fixed sense in Scripture. One writer marks off what it touches.
"The day of Jehovah" in Scripture always deals with the world. It deals with living men and their works on the earth, and at last with the frame and elements of the universe itself… Nothing can be plainer. It is judicial in character, and it concerns the world where people live.
Some read this as nothing more than an ancient invasion. One writer points to something far larger.
Critics see nothing here but some invasion of the land by hostile forces. But it is the same great day, the high point of all the past ages, when Jehovah is revealed… When that day comes the mighty man will cry out in bitterness. He cannot save himself from the storm of judgment.
The blast is not only an army's signal. One writer reads the Lord's trumpet as His public case against evil.
The Lord God blowing the trumpet speaks of His declared testimony against evil which all the world will hear.
The verse aims at the fortified city and the high rampart — precisely where people feel safest. One writer states plainly what happens to such confidence.
Great fortifications, strong natural borders, and every possible build-up of military force will be worthless when the day of the Lord opens. He is wiser and stronger than men. Everything will collapse before Him.
The people of Zephaniah's day had told themselves that God would do neither good nor harm. The day announced here answers that.
"The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near, and comes hurrying on, even the voice of the day of Jehovah." They denied it completely. They said Jehovah would do neither good nor harm. He was a God who took His ease, as they did.
Kelly ties our ability to speak of that day to the way we live.
It is very important that we hold and testify to "that day"… Where there is high truth and low practice, no one can testify honestly to the day of Jehovah. It then loses the place in our daily service that it has in the Word of God.
The prophet's own name carries an answer to the alarm he announces. It points away from walls to a Person.
Zephaniah means "hidden of the Lord." In a very special way he foretells how the "hidden ones" will be brought through the storm and stress of the last days into the joy and glory of the millennial world. And it is in this connection that our thoughts are turned to Christ. Who but He could be the hiding-place of these godly Jews?… In Him they will find their refuge.
- Warning — The alarm sounds during a national reform. The change was only outward, and the nation's heart had not changed.
- Scope — The day of the Lord is not one ancient invasion. It is God's judicial dealing with the world, with living men and their works on earth.
- Target — The trumpet and war cry name fortified cities and high towers. Walls and military strength will be worthless when that day opens.
- Exposure — The people said God would do neither good nor harm. The day they denied is near and hurrying on.
- Refuge — The prophet's name means "hidden of the Lord." He points past walls to Christ, the hiding place of the "hidden ones" in that day.