Have you ever had a day circled on your calendar? One you’ve been counting down the days to in great anticipation? For the Israelites in Zephaniah’s day (600s BC), that day was “The Day of the Lord.”

Put the Popcorn Away

The Israelites expected it to be the day they could get their popcorn out and watch God zap their enemies. Many who first heard Zephaniah’s message would have thought he was reading the wrong script—because he includes Israel itself in the coming judgment.

Zephaniah 2 has been described as a veritable who’s who of Judah’s enemies: Philistia, Moab and Ammon, Cush/Ethiopia, Assyria. Yet the chapters on either side make clear that judgment is going to be worldwide and include Judah and Jerusalem.

Those in positions of leadership (officials, judges, prophets, priests) are particularly singled out for condemnation (Zeph. 3:3–4). And yet for those who would use the sins of church leaders to walk away from church entirely, there is a reminder that “the Lord within her is righteous” (v. 5). Those who have “turned back from following the Lord” (Zeph. 1:6) are among those singled out for judgment.

Warnings of Judgment Are Gracious

I was once asked to speak on the first two and a half chapters of Zephaniah at Glasgow University. The following week, someone else was going to speak on chapter 3. To be honest, I felt like I’d been given the short straw! My section is all about judgment; the next section is all about grace. But God warning us about coming judgment is actually gracious!

In 1987, Michael Fish told those watching his televised weather forecast that a woman had called the BBC saying she’d heard a hurricane was on the way. He then uttered the infamous words: “Don’t worry, there isn’t!” A few hours later, southeast England was hit by its worst storm in three centuries, which killed 19 people and caused record damage. The subsequent outrage was not that the storm came, but that no warning was given.

God graciously warns us about coming judgment so we can do something about it.

Know the Lord of the Day

To be safe on the day of the Lord you must know the Lord of the day.

Some of the judgments threatened by Zephaniah have been fulfilled. But the ultimate day of the Lord is still to come, when Jesus returns. The New Testament takes up this theme. Peter warns us, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar…and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Pet. 3:10).

How can you be safe on that day? Not by pretending the day won’t come (Zeph. 1:12). Not by running from God—but by running to Him. Not primarily by doing, but by seeking: “Seek the Lord…seek righteousness” (2:3), “seek refuge in the name of the Lord” (3:12).

Arrayed in Foreign Attire

One of the sins highlighted by Zephaniah is that of people arraying themselves in foreign attire (Zeph. 1:8). In other words, God’s people didn’t want to be associated with Him. They would rather live like the nations around them. But gloriously, we can survive the day of the Lord because the Lord Jesus dressed Himself in foreign attire for us. On the cross, He was punished because He was “wearing” our sins.

Worldwide Judgment, Worldwide Salvation

Zephaniah speaks of a judgment that no corner of the world can escape (Zeph. 1:18; 3:8). But the Lord also promises a time when He will “change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord” (3:9). Babel’s curse will be reversed.

The God Who Rejoices over Us with Singing

Zephaniah 3:17 speaks of the Lord rejoicing over His people with gladness, resting contentedly in His love for us, and rejoicing over us with singing.

It’s nothing less than what C. S. Lewis described as “the weight of glory”: “To be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in, as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

Stephen Steele is minister of Stranraer RP Church in southwest Scotland. He is married to Carla and they have four children: Willow, Poppy, Isaiah, and Elijah.