The Great Day of the Lord
God said: I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land, man and beast, birds, fish, stumbling blocks, along with the wicked.
What is the Great Day of the Lord?
That day is a day of wrath; of trouble and distress; of devastation and desolation; of darkness and gloominess; of trumpet and alarm...against fortified cities and high towers.
God said: I will bring distress upon men and they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like refuse.
Nothing will be able to save them for He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land.
Commentary:
Zephaniah was related to the royal line of King Hezekiah of Judah and prophesied during the reign of Josiah. His prophecy is directed to the whole world. Obviously, it has not happened, yet; but it will, right before the millennial kingdom, at the end of the Great Tribulation period.
Zephaniah 1 demonstrates what occurs during a nation's decline. First, there is religious apostasy, next, moral awfulness, and finally, political anarchy. In America, churches no longer influence the national character. People go to church for a religious experience. We don't need more religious experience.
Vernon McGee lists the five signs historian Gibbon described that lead to the decline of a society:
1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home (the foundation of a stable society); 2. higher taxes (public money spent for more bread and circuses to pacify the people); 3. elevation of pleasure (sports and entertainment); 4. the building of great armaments without, while the enemy was within (decay of individual responsibility); 5. the decay of religion (loss of power to guide people/morality).
Then a nation departs from the living and true God or when it gives up great moral principles which were based on religion, when it goes into idolatry, these factors eventually lead it into gross immorality and into political anarchy.
At the time of Zephaniah's prophecy, Judah/Jerusalem were practicing idolatry. They were going to the synagogue and being religious, but they were also worshiping false gods.
McGee listed three forms of idolatry. The first is Baal, introduced by Jezebel. It was a form of nature worship. the second form moved into the home where they worshiped the sun, moon, and stars instead of the Creator. The third form was the worst: it involved swearing by the Lord, but also by Molech, the god of the Ammonites, the god whom they sacrificed their children. It reminds me of people who call themselves Christians, go to church on Sundays, even profess Jesus as Lord; but they also support abortion, the sacrifice of babies to the god of convenience and selfishness.
About the Day of the Lord:
The Day of the Lord is a day of judgment, and it begins in the Great Tribulation period, after the church is raptured from this earth.
Unfortunately, right now, as in Zephaniah's time, there are people who do not think God will punish wickedness and evil. This leads people to believe that God is dead. But He is not dead, and He is already judging evil.
Zephaniah said the Great Day of the Lord is near. While Israel experienced a small portion of tribulation, in Babylonian captivity, there is a greater Tribulation still yet to come.
