Have you read Zephaniah recently?

“I will bring such distress on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath.” (Zephaniah 1: 17 & 18)

When did you last hear a sermon based on the prophecy of minor prophet, Zephaniah? Was it as recently as never? The book has only three chapters; I reread it just now in about ten minutes. I also read online that it’s contemporaneous with Isaiah and was likely written down just before the exile, in 670 – 690 BC.

       To spare you reading it, I’ll summarize: The Day of the LORD is coming, and on that day, the Baal worshiping neighbours of Judah will be utterly destroyed as God’s wrath is poured down upon them as it was at the great deluge. Likewise, the people of Judah (the Jews) will see the sinful among them purged and a humble, honest remnant will be left behind, living in peace,

That land will belong to the remnant of the people of Judah; there they will find pasture. In the evening they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon. The Lord their God will care for them; he will restore their fortunes.

The book lends itself to the “prophetic ministries” people and feeds into the Zionist and Fundamentalist-Christian conviction that modern Israel was predestined, that it’s the peaceful remnant visualized by Zephaniah . . . and other prophets. That modern Israel bears almost no resemblance to the holy remnant Zephaniah predicts may be a good reason for preachers to avoid touting the merits of this neglected book. Numerous commentators have resolved the problem by placing the Day of the LORD contiguous to the Second Coming of Christ—pre-millenially, one is left to assume.

     There is a place for prophetic words; there always has been. “If you continue to smoke two packs a day, emphysema or worse may destroy you” is life-giving prophecy for us to heed or ignore, as are environmentalists’ predictions of what disasters may result from climate change. The future is foreshadowed by human behaviour today, and whether the warnings come from Zephaniah or Suzuki, they’re simply products of the relevant circumstances of their times being analyzed by concerned, thoughtful people.

     And even though Old Testament prophets offered their dire predictions in the form of words spoken by GOD, they were wrong as often as right. In the end, prophecy doesn’t predict the future so much as it analyzes current behaviour and imagines its consequences. There’s no arguing that Judah had admitted the ogre of corruption into its daily commerce (as have we and every other culture), and that this mistake was both an abomination to GOD and would weaken them, make them vulnerable to the militarism of their neighbours. In that, Zephaniah was right on; Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the temple happened; the questions of the decimation of the idol-worshiping neighbours or the shaping of a pious, peaceful remnant . . . not so much.

      I’m scheduled to deliver a sermon on a topic of my choosing in a few weeks. I’m leaning away from Zephaniah. Habakuc . . . Hakabut . . . Hubakkak maybe, if I can learn to spell it by then.