CRITICAL NOTES.] Woe] to Jerusalem; others, Nineveh. Filthy] From a word, to straighten oneself; hence, to rebel, to be refractory.
Zephaniah 3:2. Voice] In law and prophets. Correction] Instruction with manifold chastisements.
Zephaniah 3:3. Princes] aggravated the evil (cf. Micah 3). Lions] tearing the poor (Proverbs 28:15; Ezekiel 19:2: Nahum 2:12). Wolves] (cf. Habakkuk 1:8): voracious and insatiable, who devour all in the night.
Zephaniah 3:4. Prophets] Light and vainglorious; from a word, to boil over; frivolous in words; brag (Jeremiah 23:32). Priests] desecrate the temple and distort the law; make everything common (Ezekiel 22:26).
HOMILETICS
THE GUILTY CITY.—Zephaniah 3:1-4
After threatenings denounced against other nations, God speaks to the Church, denounces Jerusalem for the iniquities done by her. Former means were used in vain. Now the last sentence is uttered. A sinful state will bring a woeful doom.
I. Its inhabitants were ungodly. Its citizens were chosen of God to be “a holy people, zealous of good works;” but they were stained with corruption and vice.
1. They were deaf to warning. “She obeyed not the voice” of God in his law and prophets. Remonstrance and appeal were in vain; wise counsel and wholesome reproof were set at nought. “They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.”
2. They refused correction. “She received not correction.” She was neither disciplined by her own, nor the sufferings of others. Humbled by force and not in spirit, men kick and rebel; like an untractable child under the rod, they increase their own chastisement. “Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way.”
3. They hardened themselves in wickedness. Obstinate in sin, they were given up to filthiness and infamy.
(1) They were rebellious. “Woe to her that is refractory (filthy).”
(2) They were defiled. “Polluted” within, notwithstanding ceremonial purity without.
(3) They were oppressive. “The oppressing city.” Rebellion begets inward defilement before God, and cruelty to man. Hence—
(4) They provoked God to anger. “Woe to her!” The infinite patience of God may be exhausted, and he may become weary in correcting for sin. “Why should ye be stricken any more?” (Isaiah 1:5).
II. Its rulers were unjust. The leaders, civil and religious, who should have been a protection and a praise, were cruel and ferocious.
1. The princes were cruel. “Her princes within her are roaring lions.” Terrifying inferiors and devouring the poor who had no helper.
2. The judges were corrupt. “Her judges are evening wolves.” Instead of defending the innocent and redressing the wrong, they were most greedy and rapacious. They were no check to the insolence and rapacity of the nobles; but like wild beasts driven by famine, they left not a bone of their evening prey for the hunger of the morning. “They gnaw not the bones till the morrow.”
3. The prophets were unfaithful. “Her prophets were light and treacherous persons.”
(1) In their words they were light and frivolous, without truth and stability in their teaching. Insolent speech and empty boasting characterized their ministry.
(2) In their life they were treacherous and inconsistent. They evinced not that gravity and humility which become the messengers of God; trifled with most serious subjects; declared their own thoughts to be the truth of God, and apostatized from him to whom they should have witnessed.
3. The priests were polluted. “Her priests have polluted the sanctuary.”
(1) They committed sacrilege; polluted the temple and its services. They encouraged others, in a bold and carnal spirit, to profane that which was holy, and turn to their own use that which should be consecrated to God.
(2) They violated law. “They have done violence to the law.” They openly strained or secretly wrested it in forms of violence. By craft and gloss they perverted its function, and became a type of all who transgress the commandment of God and make it of none effect by their traditions (Matthew 15:6; Matthew 23:23). Thus were all classes of society, high and low, accused of guilt and exposed to judgment. Mere power and outward sanctity will never save a people. They must be under the fear of God, accept his correction, or they will be denounced with woe.
KEEPING FROM GOD.—Zephaniah 3:3
God is the source of our happiness, the satisfaction of our hearts, and the end of our being. What, then, the condition of those who draw not near to God? These words may be said concerning—
I. The wicked generally. Sin separates from God, creates enmity against him. The wicked, through the pride of their countenance, will not seek God. God is not in their thoughts nor supreme in their life. They stand at a distance, will not approach God; but say, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
II. Some afflicted people. Jerusalem was heavily afflicted, but stubborn. The end of affliction is not answered in the case of many. Like Asa, they ask counsel of physicians and not God. They murmur, repine, and rebel against him. They draw not near to God in his providential dealings with them. “It lightens the stroke,” said one, “to draw near to him who handles the rod.” “I would run into the arms of Christ, if he stood with a drawn sword in his hand,” said Luther. “It is good for me to draw near to God.”
III. Some professing Christians. Instead of walking with God, they live afar off. The sanctuary and the prayer-meeting are forsaken, the Bible neglected, and the back is turned from God. In a letter to Matthew Henry, his mother says, “I write a line or two to remind you to keep in with God by solemn, secret daily prayer.”
“The soul in audience with its God is heaven.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zephaniah 3:1-2. Corruption.
1. Its nature. “Towards God, in herself, towards man, she is wholly turned to evil, not in passing acts but in her abiding state. She is known only by what she has become, and what has been done for her in vain. She is rebellious, and so had had the law; defiled, and so had been cleansed; and therefore her state is the more hopeless” [Pusey].
2. Its source. Contempt of the word. Law and punishment, invitation and promise, failed. “She obeyed not the voice.”
3. Its manifestation. Unbelief in threatenings and promises leads to settled hatred. “If a man despise the word of God, then the next thing is that he refuses all amendment, because he is well pleased with himself, and imagines everything which is in him good. And this is the climax of perversion of the life from God” [Lange].
4. Its consequence. “She drew not near to her God.” No change effected in life and heart. Distance from God not merely as a natural fact, but as a penal consequence. Drew not nigh in repentance, faith, and love; stood away until too late to come. “The way of destruction begins with obstinacy against God,” says one; “then comes pollution by vice; finally, the destruction of conscience, which becomes manifest in open acts of violence and crime.” The fourfold sin. Disobedience, obstinacy, atheism, and final impenitence. Take heed lest any of you “be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Zephaniah 3:4. Pollution.
1. in the persons;
2. in the things. The priests were polluted themselves, and “made the sacrifices of the Lord to be abhorred.” “Polluted her sanctuary, lit. holiness, and so holy rites, persons (Ezra 8:28), things, places (as the sanctuary), sacrifices. All these they polluted, being themselves polluted—first themselves then the holy things which they handled, handling them as they ought not; carelessly and irreverently, not as ordained by God; turning them to their own use and self-indulgence” [Pusey]. “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 22:26; Malachi 2:8).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Zephaniah 3:1. Polluted. Sinful corruption is a poison so subtle, that it pierces into all the powers of the soul; so contagions, that it infects all the actions; so obstinate, that only omnipotent grace can heal it [Dr. Bates].
Zephaniah 3:2. Instruction. The end of learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate him. “That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace to hear meekly thy word, to receive it with pure affection, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit” [Litany]. Near to her God. The essence of all wickedness is forsaking God [Nichols].
Zephaniah 3:3. Avarice is insatiable, and is always pushing on for more [L’Estrange].
“Fancy, and pride, seek things at vast expense,
Which relish not to reason, nor to sense.” [Pope.]
Zephaniah 3:4. Treacherous. “There is no love among Christians,” cries the man destitute of true charity. “Zeal has vanished,” exclaims the idle talker. “O for more consistency!” groans out the hypocrite. “We want more vital godliness,” protests the false pretender. As in the old legend, the wolf preached against sheep-stealing, so very many hunt down those sins in others which they gladly shelter in themselves [Spurgeon].