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.
And I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men; for they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung
Zephaniah has been announcing a judgment on Judah and Jerusalem that will miss no one. Here he reaches what that day feels like: people groping in helpless distress, because they have sinned against the Lord. Which day is this? Why blindness? And can anyone find shelter?
This distress belongs to a day Scripture keeps naming. One writer sums up its reach:
"The day of the LORD" in Scripture always deals with the world, with living men and their works on the earth, and finally with the frame and elements of the universe itself… Nothing can be plainer. It is clearly judicial, and it concerns the world people live in.
Another writer answers those who read the chapter as nothing more than an ancient invasion:
Critics see nothing here but an invasion of the land by hostile forces. But it is the same great day, the climax of all the ages before it, when the LORD reveals Himself… When that day comes the mighty man will cry out in bitterness, for he cannot save himself from the storm of judgment.
The blindness pictures a hunt for escape, not a failure to see the danger:
When that day comes the wicked will perish, and distress will come on everyone. They will walk like blind men — that is, trying to find a way of escape and not able to find one. Nothing will be able to rescue them from the fury of that day. Neither silver nor gold will be of any use.
Earlier in the chapter, Zephaniah shows what that sin looked like. It included a settled belief that God would never act at all:
"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps." Not just those who were openly violent — no one would escape, no class or condition. They "say in their heart, the LORD will do neither good nor harm"… they will be struck at the very point of their unbelief.
The same thoroughness runs through the whole book, and the judgment is measured out with care:
There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem. There are the peoples around them — Edom, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians. North, south, east and west, all come in for this same complete exposure, down to its finest distinctions… Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right: those who have deserved many stripes get them, while others are beaten with few, for God shows no favouritism. He repays every man according to what he has done.
One writer ties honest testimony about this day to how a person lives:
Where there is high truth and low practice, no one can honestly testify to the day of the LORD… It will never do to live in it or on it, because it is not the right food for the soul. Still it is a solemn and necessary truth to hold up before our own eyes and the eyes of everyone else… For instance, we keep finding this self-deceit where a Christian lives in worldliness, which leads him to say that at least his heart is not in it.
One writer traces the same order in the gospel — judgment first, then a place to hide:
This prophecy does not refer to Christians, but to Jews. Yet we may see a close parallel between what Zephaniah unfolds and what the gospel makes known to us. We have to learn, first of all, that man in the flesh is utterly offensive to God because of his sin, and must be got rid of in judgment. The believer can see this carried out for him in the cross of Christ. Man, the world, sin, himself — all are judged and removed from the eye of God in the death of Christ… But in raising Him from among the dead God starts the history of man again… He becomes the hiding place, the shelter, of His people.
- Day. This is the day of the LORD. It deals with living men and their works on the earth — judicial, not just one ancient invasion.
- Cause. The distress is not random trouble. The reason given is sin against the Lord, including the quiet unbelief that says He will do neither good nor harm.
- Search. God searches Jerusalem with lamps. No class or condition escapes, and each one gets what he has deserved.
- Blindness. People grope like the blind because they want a way out and cannot find one. Even the strong man cries bitterly, because he cannot save himself.
- Shelter. At the cross God judged man and sin. In the risen Christ His people have a hiding place.
their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them, in the day of Jehovah's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy for a full end, yea, a sudden [end], shall he make of all them that dwell in the land.
Zephaniah 1 ends in total loss: wealth that cannot buy safety, and a land swallowed by fire. The verse raises two hard questions. What is this "day of the wrath of the LORD"? And how far does it reach?
This last verse names the day the whole chapter has been building toward. One commentator separates it from "the day of Christ" and marks what it always means in Scripture:
It is "the day of Christ" that more directly affects a Christian. "The day of the LORD" in Scripture always deals with the world. It deals with living people and their works on the earth, and at last with the frame and elements of the universe itself... Nothing can be plainer. It is a matter of judgment, and judgment on the world where people live.
The same writer says Zephaniah's whole message turns on that day, and that people have never liked hearing it:
Is he not clearly taken up from first to last with the day of the LORD on Jerusalem?... God's judgment must clear away every offence, so that righteousness by grace may flourish. Few truths offend the proud and lawless Christian world more than the Lord's unexpected dealing with the living... If the LORD must judge His people, all the world must bow; no nation can escape.
Money is the one thing that has always worked. The verse says it stops working. A comment on this chapter puts it bluntly:
When that day comes the wicked will perish; distress will be upon all. They will walk like blind men, that is, trying to find a way to escape, but not able to find one. Nothing will be able to deliver from the fury of that day, neither silver nor gold will avail anything.
Riches are not worthless — they are worthless then. Writing on Proverbs, one commentator marks the exact boundary of what wealth can do, and names what takes its place:
Riches cannot turn away or hold back God's displeasure, however much they may shield and rescue a person in man's day. "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
The fire here is not a loss of temper. God is jealous because His love will not share:
He is a consuming fire, because He is holy. He will not put up with evil, and must burn away what is worthless in us. He is also jealous because He will not allow any rival a place in the hearts of those He loves. He must have the whole heart, because He alone is worthy of it, and He alone can fill and satisfy it forever.
Many people split the God of love from the God of wrath. One writer holds them together, and traces where God's jealousy comes from:
God's jealousy has its source in His love for His chosen people... He is jealous over His people, so that they will not serve other gods. And because He is a jealous God, a holy God who hates sin, He must punish whatever is against His character... God is the God of Love as much as He is the God of Wrath. He must be that or He would not be the God of Light and Holiness. He cannot afford to let evil go on forever.
Commentators differ over how far this fire reaches. Older translations read the verse as "the whole land," and one writer takes that to mean Judah:
The whole land should be devoured by the fire of His jealousy. We have here the whole land — Jerusalem and Judah — judged in the great day of God.
Another reads it wider, and points to the rest of the book as evidence:
The land does not mean only Israel's land; it means the earth... The great day comes upon men everywhere (1:17); it is universal (2:4-15); all the isles of the nations are mentioned (2:11).
The chapter ends with a clean sweep, and the reason lies further back — man's sin had reached beyond himself:
He had dragged in even the animals, the birds and the fish. His sin had defiled the whole creation. There was nothing left but for God's judgment to remove him from the scene that Christ is to fill. And so God will make "a full and sudden end... of all the inhabitants of the earth."
The sweep is total, yet one door stays open. Summarising the whole book, one writer traces its arc from judgment to comfort:
He lets the righteous see ("it may be you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger") that, since it is the day of the LORD, no one should escape... He ends with the richest comfort for the godly remnant. They are called to wait for the LORD until He carries out His sentence on the gathered kingdoms. Then He delivers His people, now poor and meek, rejoices over Zion, and rests in His love.
- Cause — rivalry. God names the fire after His jealousy, because He will not share the hearts He loves with any rival.
- Currency — worthless. Silver and gold shield a man in man's day; in God's day they buy nothing.
- Substitute — righteousness. What wealth cannot do, righteousness does: it delivers from death.
- Reach — total. Commentators differ on whether "the land" means Judah or the whole earth. Either way, no nation escapes.
- Result — a cleared scene. Sin had defiled creation itself. Judgment clears the scene for Christ to fill, and the poor and meek find comfort and shelter in that day.