Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

This Chapter contains God's judgments for divers sins.

Zephaniah 1:1

O "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."

This verse is only an introduction to the body of the discourse contained in the prophecy. Some have thought that Zephaniah, in its extent of meaning, is alike the name given to Joseph, Zaph-nathpaaneah; a revealer of secrets. Genesis 41:45.

O "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. (3) I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. (4) I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; (5) And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; (6) And them that are turned back from the LORD and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired for him."

The captivity of Babylon, was to reach both to men and beast - A type of sin in the original fall of man, which brought a curse upon the ground, and for which the whole creation groaned, and still groans. Genesis 3:1; Romans 8:22.

O "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. (8) And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. (9) In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. (10) And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. (11) Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off. (12) And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. (13) Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof."

I do not presume to determine, but I humbly conceive that there is an allusion in this sacrifice of the Lord, to the One glorious Sacrifice, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And as this stone the Lord hath laid in Zion, though a rock to Israel, yet a stone of stumbling, and of offence to them that are not Israel; so all that follows in these verses corresponds to the same great truth. That very gospel, which is to some a savor of life unto life is to others a savor of death unto death. The year of the Lord's redeemed, is also the day of his vengeance. And the discovery of both is with Him, who undertakes to. search Jerusalem with candles. Reader! think of these solemn things! See those scriptures: Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:6-8; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16; Isaiah 63:4.

O "The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. (15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, (16) A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. (17) And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. (18) Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land."

All these verses are to one and the same purport, namely, to intimate God's judgments, and the total inability for any to resist them. Reader! what a blessed privilege is it for you, and for me, to read those solemn scriptures through the medium of the gospel. In this blessed gospel of the ever blessed God it is alone we discover how the aboundings of sin make way for the aboundings of grace. Sin was felt by all men in all ages; but the remedy to sin only discovered in the person, work, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:19-21.

REFLECTIONS

THINK Reader! from all that you and I have seen and gone through, in reading of the sins and sorrows of poor fallen nature, what an awful state was that nature in by the fall, and what a blessed deliverance from the guilt, dominion, and endless punishment of it, by the gracious undertaking and accomplishment of salvation, by the Lord Jesus Christ! Oh! thou Great, thou Glorious, and Almighty Benefactor of thy people. It was thine, O Lord, to bring us out from a ruin which nothing could have delivered from but thou. It is thine now, O Lord, to keep. us from. A ruin that would still cast us down, did not thy grace preserve us. And it is thine, O Lord, forever to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before thy throne, in thy kingdom. Precious Lord Jesus! do thou who hast been our preserver, and the preserver of thy Church in all ages, keep us to the end, and bring us to thine eternal glory. Amen.