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Zephaniah, Prophet of Divine Protection, Part 3, Jerusalem's Visitation

Zephaniah 1:7-9 says,

⁷ Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests. ⁸ Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice that I will punish [paqad, “visit, attend, punish, call to account”] the princes, the king’s sons and all who clothe themselves with foreign garments. ⁹ And I will punish [paqad, “visit”] on that day all who leap on the temple threshold, who fill the house of their lord with violence and deceit.

The command to “Be silent” indicates divine intervention, after men have done their deeds, whether good or evil. The day of the Lord points to the day that the Lord imposes His will to bring accountability to the earth.

To punish is literally to visit. A visitation is an investigation to verify accusations of criminal behavior. Hence, Jesus lamented in Luke 19:41-44,

⁴¹ When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and they will level you to the ground… because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

A visitation can result in either a blessing or a curse, in justification or punishment. In this case, criminal behavior was verified, resulting in punishment and destruction in 70 A.D. Zephaniah prophesies a more complete destruction yet to come at the end of the age.

God’s Sacrifice

The prophet links the day of the Lord to a “sacrifice” with consecrated guests. Normally, animals were sacrificed on the altar, and, except for the burnt offerings, were consumed by the priests. Leviticus 6:26 says of the sin offerings,

²⁶ The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting.

The Lord’s sacrifice was to be an eschatological event at the end of the age, wherein the leaders (of Judah) were to be sacrificed by God for wearing “foreign garments.” In other words, these leaders had wrapped themselves in the culture and practices of the Babylonians who worshiped false gods. Having failed to place their faith in Christ’s perfect sacrifice for sin, they will become the sin offering in that day, for they will be required to pay the penalty for leading the people into unrighteous ways.

These ungodly leaders represent the beast nations pictured in Daniel 7—the lion, bear, leopard, and iron-toothed beast—all of which are unclean animals. Hence, instead of offering an acceptable clean animal, such as a sheep, goat, bull, or dove, they will be treated as a pagan offering that is unclean and unacceptable for justification from sin.

This scene is repeated in greater detail in Revelation 19:17, 18,

¹⁷ Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves and small and great….” ²¹ and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

In Hebrew thought, to consume was to conquer or subdue and assimilate. The idea is expressed in the Hebrew letter (שׁ) shin, “tooth.” It is written to portray three teeth (or flames) that consume. The three valleys of Jerusalem (Hinnom, Tyropoeon, Kidron) form the shape of a giant shin on the landscape, reminding Jews of God’s Name (Shaddai) resting on the city, yet also denoting negatively the place of God’s sacrifice.

The shin can be pronounced as an “S” or an “Sh”, and for this reason, some rabbis teach that this represents a duality or choice that people can make between good and evil, blessing or curse, obedience or rebellion. This also applies to the two types of sacrifice: clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable.

An acceptable sacrifice, of course, comes by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12:1, 2 says,

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Zephaniah focuses primarily upon those leaders who fail to follow Paul’s admonition. They failed to “prove what the will of God is,” for they wrapped themselves in Babylon’s garments to identify with the beast nations and their unrighteous laws and culture.

God’s sacrifice is couched in terms of a great battle scene, but this is likely to be symbolic rather than literal. Yet either way, the result is that Babylonian leaders who remain unrepentant, will be consumed by God in His all-consuming fire. No doubt this is connected to Isaiah 29:6,

⁶ From the Lord of hosts you [Ariel/Jerusalem] will be punished [tippaqed, “visited”] with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C., but not in the manner that Isaiah described. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but not in the manner that Isaiah described. Jerusalem was rebuilt as well. Hence, Jeremiah 19:10, 11 has yet to be fulfilled, where the city will be destroyed as a potter’s vessel that “cannot again be repaired.”

Jeremiah smashed the earthen jar in the valley of Hinnom, one of the three valleys that formed the letter shin (שׁ) in the city. It is the place of God’s visitation and judgment.

Jerusalem’s Desolation

Zephaniah 1:11, 12 continues,

¹¹ “Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar [maktesh, likely a district of Jerusalem, perhaps a market area in a valley shaped like a mortar bowl, known for business, trade, and money-changing], for all the people of Canaan will be silenced; all who weigh out silver will be cut off. ¹² It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant [from qafa, “to thicken, congeal, stagnate, freeze”] in spirit, who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good or evil’!”

Canaan literally means “merchant, money-changer.” In this context, the prophet was not speaking of ethnic Canaanites but of Jerusalem’s merchants in the business district. This reminds us of the two occasions where Jesus cast the money-changers out of the temple.

In that day God Himself will conduct an investigation (“visitation”) of Jerusalem’s financial crimes, exposing their evil deeds “with lamps,” that is, by His Word. Psalm 119:105 says,

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.

Those who are spiritually stagnant are, in essence, atheists, denying that there is a God who will hold men accountable for their actions.

Zephaniah 1:13 says,

¹³ “Moreover, their wealth will become plunder and their houses desolate; yes, they will build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but not drink their wine.”

This refers to the curses of law for disobedience. Deuteronomy 28:30 says,

³⁰ “You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit.”

This is repeated in Amos 5:11,

¹¹ Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor and exact a tribute [unjust tax] of grain from them, though you have built houses of well-hewn stones, yet you will not live in them; you have planted vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine.

Instead of security, prosperity, and enjoyment of their labors, they face dispossession: others will take what they built and planted. This proves God is faithful both in blessing and in judgment.