A Call to Repentance in Zephaniah 2
If the first chapter set forth the coming ruin of Judea because of the corruption of people and princes, and the horrors of the day of Jehovah falling on their selfish security and vainly trusted appliances, we have a call to repentance in the second. “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you before the day of Jehovah’s anger come upon you” (vss. 1-2). It is an appeal to humble themselves before the Lord. “Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth” (vs. 3). We see there are these two calls. To the nation there is a suited warning; but an earnest appeal is made to the remnant of righteous Jews. These were the “meek of the earth.” “Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger” (vs. 3).
Hiding of Jews in That Day
Throughout scripture we see this to be the portion of the godly Jew. They do not look to be caught up to heaven as we do, but they hope to be hidden on earth. They are not removed from the scene and then the wicked judged, neither are they displayed with the Lord returning from heaven for that day; but they are hidden in the day of His anger. It is the precise opposite of the Christian’s portion, though both are to be blessed. When the day comes, we shall come along with Him who brings it. In that day of judgment on the world they will be hidden in His mercy and faithfulness. Instead of their going to the Father’s house, they will have their chambers to hide them on the earth. This is what Isaiah 26 shows clearly in his ample account of that day. “Come, My people, enter thou” (Isa. 26:20)—not into My mansions, but — “into thy chambers” (Isa. 26:20). Before the dawning of that day we enter into the heavenly chambers, or the Father’s house. We are taken and seen there before the judgments begin. (Compare Rev. 4-5). When the day comes, instead of being hidden, we are displayed, whereas the Jews (the godly alone, of course) will not be seen, or at least they will enter into their chambers till the indignation is overpast. That hiding place is prepared for them by the pity of God. We see something analogous in Revelation 12 where the woman had a place prepared of God for her in the wilderness. It is the same substantial truth whether before the day comes, or when it does come. “Hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast” (Isa. 26:20). By the “indignation” is meant God’s wrath, which will be poured out on the nations, and more particularly on the apostate Jews. The indignation of God takes in both; but it is very evident that the Christian has nothing to do with either. He is called out from the earth and man’s portion here and is entitled to wait for heavenly hopes with Christ.
Not so even the faithful Jews at the end of this age. Their hope can only be enjoyed when their enemies are destroyed by divine judgments, during which they are preserved of God. For “behold Jehovah cometh out of His place to punish” (Isa. 26:21). But our hope is to be taken into the Lord’s place before He comes out of it in vengeance. Thus, in every respect the position and hopes of the Christian are contrasted even with those of the righteous remnant who follow us on earth.
The Christian Goes Forth to Meet Christ, Not of the World As He Is Not
We go out in spirit to meet the Bridegroom and will have our hope at His coming for us in peace. It is no question of a special tribulation, or of being hidden, as far as the heavenly saints are concerned. To the godly remnant of Jews it will be so when the Lord deals retributively with their guilty brethren after the flesh and the nations. With the remnant, common views hastily confound the hopes of the Christian; whereas a closer knowledge of the scriptures proves them to be distinct.
The essential difference arises from this—that all through a Christian is one not of the world, even as Christ is not, and hence is looking to be taken out of the earth. Accordingly, it is not only true morally from the time when he is brought to God, but it runs through his calling up to the end: I do not say from conversion simply as such. For important as this may be, the work of conversion is more what takes place always in every renewed soul, Jew or not. But certainly in the believer’s separation to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit he is called out of everything here to God as manifesting Himself in Christ; and the issue will be that he, as thus called out, will be taken up to be with the Lord without disturbing things or people outside. The world goes on. The Christian hears what the world does not hear; the Christian sees a glory that is invisible to man as such. Truly if the rulers of this world had seen it, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). We do see it. Accordingly, our portion is to be thus called out from first to last; and so it will be when Christ comes for us. Then we shall be taken, as we have remarked, into His chambers—not merely enter chambers of our own on the earth, as the Jew at a later day, and be hidden there till the indignation is passed away. We are called out for heaven in the day of grace: they will be hidden in their chambers in the time of Jehovah’s indignation. At that time will they be severed to Jehovah; and then will He come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth; whereas during the whole dealing with the church of God, the earth and its inhabitants are left to pursue their own way. The only testimony which goes on is one of grace towards them, if peradventure they might hear and believe.
Judgment of the Gentiles Neighboring on Judea
Then we have the warning of what will take place in the day of Jehovah’s anger, which no doubt has been partially accomplished, and will be yet more. “For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up” (vs. 4). These were cities of Philistine power. “Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of Jehovah is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon” (vss. 5-7); which has clearly not been accomplished yet to the full. “In the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down in the evening: for Jehovah their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity” (vs. 7). In fact, the Jews have been carried off into a longer dispersion since then. The captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar was nothing at all so extreme as their scattering to the ends of the earth, consequent on the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.
Christian Worship Contrasted With That of the Kingdom
“I have heard the reproach of Moab” (vs. 8). It is not merely the Philistines on the west, but Moab, and so forth, on the east who must come into judgment for their proud enmity. “I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached My people, and magnified themselves against their border. Therefore as I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of My people shall spoil them, and the remnant of My people shall possess them. This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts. Jehovah will be terrible unto them: for He will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from His place, even all the isles of the heathen” (vss. 8-11).
It is not here the rejected Son of God turning away from the jealous religionists of tradition and opening out the grace of the Father and the power of the Spirit, which characterize the hour that now is. During which hour neither Jerusalem nor Samaria is more than Japan or Sierra Leone for sanctity, but Christ received by faith displaces the old man, and flesh and forms vanish before the gift of the Holy Spirit consequent on redemption. In the period which Zephaniah contemplates there is no such absolute blotting out of special place and outward show as according to John 9:21-24 we now know or ought to know in Christianity. Hence, we see no sentence of death as it were on the ancient city of solemnities, but only, as in Malachi 1:11, the opening for worship elsewhere “each from his place” (Luke 23:5), even all the isles of the nations.
Idolatry of Romanism, Ritualism Idolatrous
That the great change for the earth—the full putting down of idolatry—awaits the execution of divine judgment is plain everywhere. We can clearly see that idolatry goes on, with the worst forms in Christendom itself; for there is nothing so bad as idolatry where Christ is named, and there is nothing that more characterizes Christendom than the prevalence of Romanism which is essentially idolatrous, besides the monstrous assumption of the Papacy more than ever towering up in its vanity against God. For what is idolatry, if not the worship of images, in whatever measure they may mete it, the worship too of saints, angels, and the Virgin Mary? Whatever may be judged of the Greek and Oriental bodies, I should say that idolatry is not characteristic of Protestantism at all, but rather headiness, and, among the worst, high-minded self-will, which sets up to judge the Word of God. This is much more the public vice of corrupt Protestantism, which therefore tends to rationalism. But the ritualistic system is another root of evil, which does not tend to idolatry only, but is in fact idolatrous (Gal. 4:9-10). I should not however call it Protestant. We all know that a certain portion among the Reformed in these and other lands is falling into Ritualism and ripe for Rome, whenever it suits both.
Having seen the divine dealing with their neighbors, we find a judgment that takes place on some of those who, though farther off, came into contact with the chosen people—the Ethiopians on the extreme south, and again, on the northeast, Assyria: “Ye Ethiopians also shall be slain by My sword. And He will stretch out His hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness” (vss. 12-13).
Nineveh Threatened With Desolation
It is evident, save to those who regard the prophets as impostors, that this utterance of Zephaniah must have preceded the destruction of Nineveh. He lived, there can be little doubt, in Josiah’s reign. “And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations. Both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for He shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand” (vss. 14-15). Thus, we find it is a judgment which selects two classes, nations near and others afar off, to show the character of a universal judgment upon the world. It is the day of Jehovah on the earth.