CRITICAL NOTES.]
Zephaniah 1:4.] Judgment, especially upon Judah. Stretch] Not only threaten, but exert power to injury. Remnant] Statues, images dedicated to Baal, domestic and tutelary god of the Phœnicians.
Zephaniah 1:5.] The people now denounced for star-worship and incense-burning upon the flat roofs of houses (cf. Jeremiah 19:13; 2 Kings 23:12); for combining the worship of God with idolatry. Swear] Acknowledge in public, solemn manner; openly to pledge one’s service (2 Chronicles 15:14).
Zephaniah 1:6.] Two further classes mentioned—those who entirely apostate, and those who are indifferent.
HOMILETICS
JUDGMENT AT THE HOUSE OF GOD.—Zephaniah 1:4-6
The prophet now declares upon whom the sore desolation must come. Even Judah, where God is known, and Jerusalem, the holy city, must suffer. Those most exalted are most responsible, and those who sin against greater privileges will be most signally punished. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Six classes are singled out for judgment.
I. Idolatrous priests destroyed. Two kinds are specified.
1. Inferior priests. “The Chemarims,” priests ordained by the kings of Judah to minister at high places, or at the altar of Jehovah, with alien and impure rites (cf. 2 Kings 23:5; Hosea 10:5). “In either case,” says one, “they were renegades from the national faith; miscreants, who, to earn a loaf of bread or to win the favour of the court, were prepared to stand at any altar and administer any ritual.”
2. Superior priests. “The Chemarims with the priests.” Those of the family of Aaron, Levitical priests, who have apostatized to idolatry. Such ministers are not worthy of the name and office of priest. Corrupt in doctrine, flagrant in practice, their very name shall be blotted out of existence. Ministers who pervert the national faith, and sell their birthright to gain the favour of the world, will suffer awful punishment. “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land, the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule at their hands.”
II. Idolatrous people destroyed. Corrupt priests influence the people. From the ministers the judgments pass to the people. Three classes are pointed out.
1. Open idolaters. These blended the worship of Baal (sun) and Astarte (moon) with Sabæism or pure star-worship. The stars were thought to be originators of all growth and decay in nature, and rulers of all sublunary events (2 Kings 21:3). The housetop was chosen for secrecy, or to obtain fuller views of the heavenly bodies. This custom was (a) prevalent, and (b) popular. Public idolatry was individualized and adopted, family by family. From house to house, from street to street, incense burned and homage rendered to the queen of heaven. “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods.”
2. Time-servers. “Them that swear by the Lord, and by Malcham.” They swore allegiance to God, but lived to Moloch or Baal as their king. To the service of Jehovah they joined that of idols, and sought to be on good terms with both. One of our own poets stigmatizes them, “as willing to serve God, so that they did not offend the devil.” They thought Jehovah the true God, but yielded to the fashion and adopted the religion of the day. Principle had no hold upon them, and reproach was endured for present advantage. “Will ye steal, swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods, and come and stand before me in this house; which is called by my name” (Jeremiah 7:8-10; Jeremiah 5:7).
3. Religiously indifferent. “Returning behind Jehovah, drawing back from him, turning the back upon God, is just the same as not seeking Jehovah, or not inquiring after him. The persons referred to are the religiously indifferent, those who do not trouble themselves about God, the despisers of God” [Keil]. Notice the steps of this departure. They do not want God, and therefore do not seek him. They fear his presence might embarrass them, and therefore forget him as much as they can. Then they cast him behind them, abstain from all worship, and renounce every custom that would bring him to their minds. “Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee.”
FOUR CLASSES OF UNGODLY MEN.—Zephaniah 1:5-6
I. The worshippers of nature. When men see beauty in creatures, and derive advantage from them, their hearts dote upon them, and are drawn from God. Men adore nature, and forget nature’s God. A specious and plausible idolatry abounds in our day. To honour a star is quite as offensive to God as to honour a stone. To worship the splendours of heaven or the wealth of earth; to love self, family, or business more than God is “to change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.”
“They trifle with the truth, until, at last,
Delusions strong as hell shall bind them fast” [Cowper].
II. The half-hearted in religion. By acts of solemn profession they worship God, and then try to serve the world. They pledge themselves first to one and then the other, and try to serve two masters. This is morally impossible. The affections cannot be divided. One only can be our master, call him Baal, Moloch, or Christ. All men are made to serve something. The choice lies between Christ and the world. Compromise and neutrality are impossible. “How long halt ye between two opinions?”
III. The backsliders from God. This class is too common. Many once started well, were firm in purpose, and kept their face Zionwards, but have ceased to follow after, and utterly forsaken the Lord. To go back from God is virtually to join the enemy. “He that is not with me is against me.” Wandering is the natural tendency of man; but to wander out of the way of understanding, amid light, conviction, and privileges, awfully aggravates the sin. Watch the first step in feeling and practice, lest it fix you in a state of apostasy among “the mighty dead.” Backsliding is the fountain of its own misery, and the most fearful of Divine judgments. “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.”
IV. The practical atheists. Those guilty of defection will soon live in total neglect of God and his ways. It is said that a sheep, having once wandered from the fold, never tries to return, but “wanders on still more and more astray;” so in many cases backslidings are multiplied until men are reduced to extremity and ruin. “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zephaniah 1:4. The remnant of Baal.
1. Good men may be hindered in their work, or leave it partially done. Hezekiah’s and Josiah’s reformation did not clear away the idolatry of Baal. Moses and Luther did not entirely finish their work. “Good and evil have each a root, which remains in the ground when the trunk has been hewn down. There is a remnant of grace when the rest have been blinded (Romans 11:5-7); and this is a holy seed to carry on the line of God (Isaiah 6:13). Evil too has its remnant, which, unless diligently kept down, shoots up again, after the conversion of peoples or individuals” [Pusey].
2. The presence and efforts of good men increase the guilt and the responsibility of any nations.
3. If these nations heed not their warnings or hinder their work, God may justly punish them for their sin. God will consume Judah for the remnant that remains. The reign of the pious Josiah preceded the doom of Judah, to deprive the people of all excuse. “I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
Zephaniah 1:6. Positive and negative apostasy. Positive, in forsaking the Lord for idols; negative, in ceasing to “seek” after him in real prayer. The latter is the forerunner of the former: many who do not go so far as open apostasy, are virtually guilty of it, for they do not “inquire for” the Lord. This verse describes more comprehensively those guilty of defection from Jehovah in any way. “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” [Fausset].
Seeking God.
1. God must be sought diligently to be found.
2. Men do not seek God diligently.
3. The natural consequences are, turning back, forgetfulness, and carelessness. “Not sought. Diligently sought him (Hebrews 11:6), zealously inquired after him, as after a lost jewel (Jeremiah 29:13) God will visit for unzealousness; and curse those that do his work carelessly, cursorily, in a perfunctory, formal way” [Trapp].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Zephaniah 1:4-6. Remnant. Baal was the Phœnician tutelary god. His name means lord; and the feminine deity corresponding, and generally associated, with him, was Ashtoreth. As he was represented by the sun, so she was the goddess answering to the moon and the rest of the heavenly bodies. In fact, it was the worship of nature; a worship to which correspond the pantheism and scientific exaltation of nature and her laws in our days [Fausset]. They offered the sacrifices upon the roofs, that they might be the better able to see the stars in heaven [Theodoret]. Swear. A neuter is a monster; he hath two tongues, two minds, two souls: he hath a tongue for God, and a tongue for the world too: he looks up to God, and saith, certainly thou art mine: he looks down upon the world, and saith, surely I am thine; he hath a mind to be religious, and a mind to save his own stake in the world too [Brooks].