Did you know Zephaniah was a prophet of the Lord? It’s true. He was. According to my chronological bible, I read about him around the beginning of August. I’m like behind-behind, y’all…in writing summations. My reading is on track though, so there’s that. Each time I have thought about writing my Zeph, Building 4291 gets stuck in my noggin. Perhaps actually getting this summary published will get the song out of my head. Let’s find out, shall we?
I made a whole two notes about the book when I read it. Try not to be impressed. What are they?
God ain’t no joke. (If you’ve read my other prophet posts, go ahead and put on your shocked faces.)
Divided loyalty is not loyalty.
Yep, that’s it. Since my recent daily reading has been steeped in the final days of Jerusalem before the exile, and then the exile along with Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel, I decided to take a look-see back over Zeph’s short book, three chapters to be exact, in an effort to help remind myself of what I read. The headings in my bible2 provided a useful synopsis and so I share them with you here:
The Great Day of the Lord
A Call to Repentance
Judgment Against the Nations
Woe to Oppressive Jerusalem
Final Restoration Promised
Simply from the headings, you can see, I think, why I always come back to the fact that I believe that God says what He means, and He means what He says. He won’t be mocked. The note about divided loyalty comes from 1:5b-7 where God talks about people who pledge loyalty to Him, but also to Milcom. Who is Milcom? Great question. According to Strong’s, Milcom may also be translated “great king,” but Milcom himself is the god of the Ammonites (you remember, the offspring of Lot and one of his daughters). Blech. The note continues on that “some Israelites sacrificed their infants to [to Milcom] in the valley of Hinnom.”3 Fun times.
Often, I find, scripture holds up a mirror to me as I read. As much as I’d like to see myself in a prophet or an Esther or that Proverbs 31 chick, I usually see it in the ones being called out. All I have been seeing this year is idolatry. To whom do I look when times are hard? God, of course, but also others or other things. Who’s going to come to my aid? Who’s going to rescue me? The only one who can is God, but sometimes I think I can be my own hero…or my bank account or my brain power or “my” control. Don’t worry, I’m laughing at myself for thinking I have any. At the end of the day, it’s all idolatry and God don’t jive with that. He’s the only one who gets to say “It’s all about me” because it is.
As we move on with the headings, there’s almost always a call to repentance. As much as we like to see others, “them” if you will, called out, the other nations are not the only ones with a finger pointing at them. Zeph 3 is pretty hardcore in its finger pointing at God’s own people. It’s not just them; it’s us, too. It’s hard for me not to draw correlations between God’s people in Zeph’s day and God’s people today, but we’re talking about Zeph and Jerusalem, so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. Jerusalem turned its back on God and His commands. They failed to trust in Him. They ran with itching ears to priests and prophets who would tell them just what they wanted to hear. It ended up being their ruin.
The fact that the Lord often (though it feels like always) leaves us with a promise of His kindness in the prophets never fails to rock my world. The end of Zeph is beautiful. Zeph 3:9 and following shows the kind, compassionate gracious Father who restores, edifies, humbles in the best of ways, rescues, protects, is the source of joy, heals, strengthens, saves, gathers, and loves. Why? He’s just good like that.
It’s actually helpful to have a song associated with a book of the bible. Great mnemonic device. The ad nauseum repeat I could do without. Hopefully posting this will provide relief.
The Holy Land Illustrated Bible, CSB
Ok, this is interesting to me…probably because I’m a nerd. I’m currently reading a CSB translation, and I have the Blue Letter Bible app on my phone to use mainly for the purpose of interlinear translation. On my phone, I can see the CSB translation which is Strong’s H4445. I just looked it up on my computer and for whatever reason, I can only search Strong’s in the KJV. The word there is Strong’s H4428. They are basically the same thing Milcom v. Malcham, with each having the alternative translation of “king.” The phone app is where the quote came from. Clear as mud? Cool. I actually really appreciate going back and forth between translations in an effort to bring more depth, nuance, and hopefully understanding to my reading.