Zephaniah 1:1-6 The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah… The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amen, King of Judah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast, etc. Of Zephaniah we have no information but what is contained in his prophecy. His genealogy is given in the first verse of this chapter. He prophesied in the reign of Josiah, probably between the twelfth and eighteenth years of his reign. In the first chapter he predicts the utter desolation of Judah. In the second, he exhorts his countrymen to repentance in view of the approaching judgments, and threatens the surrounding nations, Philistia, Moab, and Ammon. In the third, after a severe rebuke of Jerusalem, he foretells, in glowing language, its future purification and enlargement, and the destruction of air its enemies. The style is distinguished neither by sublimity nor elegance. He resembles in many respects his contemporary, Jeremiah. He borrows some of the language of former prophets (comp. Zephaniah 2:14 with Isaiah 13:21 and Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:15 with Isaiah 47:8). "The genealogy of Zephaniah is given through Cushi, Gedaliah, and Amariah to Hezekiah; for in the original Hebrew the words 'Hizkiah' and 'Hezekiah' are the same. As it was unusual that the descent of prophets should be given with such particularity, it has been assumed with some probability that Hezekiah was the king of that name; though in this case we should have expected the addition, 'King of Judah.' The chemarim are the idol priests; that is, priests devoted to idol worship. In 2 Kings 23:5, where the writer is speaking of the reformation under Josiah, the word is translated idolatrous priests; in Hosea 10:5, simply priests, which is its meaning in the Syriac language. Some have maintained that the invasion of Judah to which Zephaniah refers was that of the Scythians described by Herodotus; but this is very improbable. From the fact that the king's children are included in the threatened invasion - in the Hebrew, 'I will visit upon the princes and the king's children' - some have inferred that they must have been already grown and addicted to idolatrous practices; consequently, that Zephaniah wrote later than the eighteenth year of Josiah. But, as Keil and others have remarked, the mention of the king's children may have been added simply to indicate the universality of the approaching visitation; not to say that the prophetic vision of Zephaniah may have anticipated the sin and the punishment of these king's children, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim" (Barrows). In these verses we learn two things. I. THE DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY OF MAN, AND THE WONDERFUL CONDESCENSION OF GOD. 1. The distinguishing capacity of man. What is that? To receive the word of Jehovah. "The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi," etc. This Zephaniah, who from the fulness of his genealogy here given, was perhaps a person of note, was, however, mainly distinguished by this - viz, that he received a word from Jehovah. What is it to receive a word from another? Not merely to hear it, to remember its sound, or to write it down, but to appreciate its meaning. This is the grand distinction of man as a mundane existence, it is not the reasoning principle that distinguishes man from other creatures on earth, for other creatures possess this in some degree; not the durability of his existence, for other creatures may live as long as he; but the capacity of taking in ideas from the Infinite Mind, to understand and realize God's thoughts. In a sense, there is a greater distance between me as a man and the most intelligent animal on this earth, than there is between me and my Maker. The highest animal cannot take in and understand my thoughts; but I can take in and understand the thoughts of my Maker. "The word of the Lord" comes to every man at times - comes in visions of the night, comes in the intuitions of conscience, comes in the impressions that nature makes on the heart. 2. The wonderful condescension of God. How amazing the condescension of God to speak to man! Many of the pour little wretched creatures who are called emperors and empresses would, perhaps, not deign to speak to paupers, to hold converse with them; but the "Lord, though he be high, yet hath respect unto the humble; .... Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, To that man will I look who is of a contrite heart." II. THE MORAL CORRUPTION OF MAN, AND THE EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF GOD. 1. The moral corruption of man. There are three great moral evils indicated in these verses. (1) Idolatry. "I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops." The remains of Baal worship, which as yet Josiah was unable utterly to eradicate in remoter places. Baal was the Phoenician tutelary god. His name means lord; and the feminine god corresponding and generally associated with him was Ashtaroth. As he was represented by the sun, so she was the goddess answering to the moon and the rest of the heavenly host. In fact, it was the worship of nature; a worship to which corresponds the pantheistic and scientific exaltation of Nature and her laws in our own days, as if God were the slave of his own world and its laws, instead of the Lord, Creator, and Sustainer, who can and will modify, alter, and suspend the order of the present system of things, according to his own sovereign pleasure, and in furtherance of the higher moral laws, in subserviency to which the laws of nature exist. From the time of the judges (Judges 2:13) Israel had fallen into this idolatry; and Manasseh had lately set up this idol within Jehovah's temple itself (2 Kings 21:3-7): "He reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove [symbol of the goddess Ashtaroth]... and worshipped all the host of heaven... And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my Name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he set a graven image of the grove [the symbol of the heavenly host] that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my Name forever." Josiah began his reformation in the twelfth year of his reign (2 Chronicles 34:3, 4, 8), and in the eighteenth had as far as possible completed it. "And the name of the Chemarims with the priests." These chemarim were in all probability subordinate ministers of the idolatrous priests, and their duty was to assist them at the altar. "Them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops." The houses in the East had flat roofs, open to the heavens, and there the worship was performed. Idolatry is one of the great sins of the world; it is confined to no age or laud. Its spirit is loving the creature more than the Creator. (2) Backsliding. "Them that are turned back from the Lord." Indeed, idolatry is an apostasy, and so is all sin. All sin is a going back from the Lord. "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13). (3) Indifferentism. "And those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him." This is the most prevalent of all sins, and is one of the great roots of all immoralities - an utter neglect of religion. Religious indifferentism is the great sin of England today. God and his claims are everywhere practically ignored. This indifferentism, like a vast pool of mud, generates all that is morally noxious, pernicious, and vile in our midst. 2. The exclusive prerogative of God. What is that? To destroy. "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord." (1) No one can really destroy but God. "I kill, and I make alive." Annihilation is as far behind the power of the creature as is the work of creation. Man may crush the forms of things, but the essences lie infinitely beyond his touch. (2) God has a right to destroy human life. He has a right because it belongs to him. He has a right because through sin it has forfeited its existence. (3) His destructive work is as beneficent as his sustaining and creating. Destruction is a principle in all nature; one plant destroys another, one animal destroys another, and there are elements in nature whose work is destruction. From destruction new life and beauty come; destruction keeps the universe alive, fresh, and healthy. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. |
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