Lent Midweek II
Zephaniah 1:7-16
March 19, 2025
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme of today’s sermon is this: The Day of the Lord is certainly frightening, but not for us.
What will the Last Day be like? This is a natural question for all Christians. It comes up regularly. The rest of the Bible stories have happened already, and they have been written down. We have read them or heard about them, and we know them. There is nothing “frightening” about the stories about King David. He was king, and now he isn’t. History has moved on. But there is a genuine curiosity: what will the Last Day be like?
And there is something “frightening” about prophecy in general, because in some cases, the events foretold have not happened yet. In today’s case, Zephaniah reports to us in detail about the judgment side of the Day of the Lord. He speaks to those who have not obeyed the voice of the Lord and those who are not saved from the judgment. Zephaniah is a prophet at the same time as Jeremiah, and the two of them are facing a nation that has rebelled against God. Babylon will overthrow them.
And so, as you might imagine, these preachers were heavy on the Law and light on the Gospel. They were calling to repentance God’s own people, that they would believe in Him and trust in Him. There are four parts to Zephaniah’s message today.
- There will be punishment.
- There will be repentance.
- God will find every soul.
- God is the Lord.
First, there will be punishment. Zephaniah is like a father who wants his children to listen or like a teacher who wants the students to quiet down. Zephaniah says Be silent before the Lord God! This is not a time for prayers; this is not a time for singing and dancing. This is not a “Be still and know that I am God” moment. This is a “sit down, don’t talk, and listen to me” moment for Zephaniah to God’s people.
Zephaniah preaches: For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. The prophet starts at church, as most preachers do. And for the people of that day and time, the day of the Lord was the Day of Atonement that we learned about in Leviticus 16. The day of the Lord was a holy day set aside for God’s work. And we think the same thing. That we come to church for God to work among us. That we come to church and that He consecrates us for His service in the world. That the Lord is the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.
But instead of promise, Zephaniah prophesies punishment. He says, “I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. What we notice first is that Zephaniah blames the leadership. Don’t we know that to be true? As goes the leader, so goes the army. Or put another way, If the shepherd falls, the sheep will be scattered. Or even one more example, the sins of the father will be punished to the third and fourth generation, to his own wife and their children. Zephaniah rightly punishes the leadership for getting God’s people into this mess.
But you might ask, How did the leaders get the nation into this mess? Zephaniah claims that they “wore foreign attire” and “jumped over the thresholds.” Wearing foreign attire in this context does not mean wearing something made in China. What it means is that they were trying to live like the world. They were walking away from God and trusting in themselves. As to “jumping over thresholds,” this was a pagan religious practice of the Philistines. And the point of that is this: that the leaders were worshipping false gods and leading the people astray from the Old Testament Church.
That was the message that the people needed to hear. And they had to be silent and listen up to Zephaniah when he preached it. But on that day, the Day of the Lord that Zephaniah is talking about, it will not be silent. He says, “On that day a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! It is almost as if Zephaniah is waving his hands while he is preaching. For there are cries and wails and loud crashes in every direction. It would be the same as if I said, There is a cry from Farnam and there is wailing from Curtis, and there is a loud crash from Hayes Center. Wail, O inhabitants of Stockville!
This is not just screaming at the top of the lungs. This is repentant prayer or fearful prayers to God on the Last Day. The Lord shall return for judgment and, like I said at the beginning, it will be frightening, but not for us. We will not be screaming or wailing or worrying and running. We will be waiting and hoping and seeing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on that day. The day of the Lord surely is a day of punishment, but it is also a day of repentance and prayer. And for us, the day of the Lord is the day of great hope.
But what Zephaniah says next is my favorite part. For on that Day, God will find every soul. Like a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, God will search the world for believers. Like a father trying to find his children in the dark, our Lord shall check every house and every corner for those who are His. Like the angel of death at the Passover, the Lord will pass over our homes and spare us and deliver us from this valley of sorrow.
But for those who do not believe in God, Zephaniah says, At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent. In other words, you cannot play hide-and-seek with God. Just ask Adam and Eve. The Lord finds every soul, both the sheep and the goats. And he will punish the self-righteous, complacent modern-day Pharisee characters of every nation. For they thought that heaven belonged to them because of their good works. But they rejected the good work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. They thought that they had riches enough to earn glory, but they will go away sorrowful like the rich, young ruler. For they reject that Christ for our sakes became poor so that we might become rich in grace and God’s mercy.
The Day of the Lord is certainly frightening, but not for us. The message is simple for us: On that Day, God is the Lord! We believe that because on that cross, Jesus Christ paid for our punishment and our guiltiness. Jesus Christ was both High Priest and sacrifice on that day of Atonement. He made the sacrifice because He is the sacrifice.
Instead of us, Jesus was punished by the men of foreign attire, Herod and Pilate and Caiaphas. At Jesus’ death, there was no leaping over thresholds, only the temple curtain torn in two and access to God made forever possible. The old religion was fulfilled and the new testament enacted in Christ’s own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
That day of the Lord when Jesus died on the cross extended far past the Fish Gate and way further than the Second Gate and up and down every hill on the earth. For the death and resurrection of Jesus changed the whole world then and now and forever.
And when God Himself shall search this house with lamps, He shall find us, quietly, patiently, fervently worshipping Him. He shall find His Church upon the earth here and there and throughout His creation. And we shall not be frightened, for the Lord comes back for us to take us home on the Last Day.
In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.
Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog
The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack
Rev. James Peterson
St. John Lutheran Church
Curtis, Nebraska
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