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Sunday School Lesson
The Day Is Coming (Zephaniah 3:1–8)
more judgment in tears. In other words, God received no joy out of it. Lined on his face are love and concern.
Zephaniah 3:1, 2 describe the city itself in three ways: op- pressors, rebellious, and de- filed. The city’s stubbornness is described as, She obeys no one. She accepts no correction. This is the height of arrogance. Verses 3, 4 describe the lead- ers in the city. God called out the officials, rulers, prophets, and priests. God’s complaints against them were that they preyed on people instead of serving them (roaring lions), they took undue advantage of people (evening wolves, who leave nothing for the morning), they lacked ethical convictions (are unprincipled), and they treated the things of God as common (profane the sanctu- ary). Corrupt leaders corrupt others.
Just God | Zephaniah 3:5- 8
In contrast to the corrupt city is a just God. God’s corrupt people cannot corrupt him. Even if people are faithless, he remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). God is no creature of his environment. God lives within
this corrupt city, but he re- mains righteous; he does no wrong. His character is unim- peachable. He cannot be less than himself, which is totally just.
In fact he acts daily within the confines of his character. Morning by morning he dis- penses his justice. This phrase reminds one of his daily mercy and faithfulness mentioned in Lamentations 3:22-24. This indicates God’s ongoing involvement with his creation on a daily basis—no matter the situation. People (even God’s people) cannot derail God’s jus- tice by their acts of shame. When it fits his purpose he will destroy nations, leave their streets deserted, and allow their cities to be deserted and empty. At the end of the day, if God’s people were punished by being sent into Babylonian cap- tivity, they had only themselves to blame. “Let God be true, and every human being a liar” (Ro- mans 3:4).
Verse 7 is reminiscent of Einstein’s famous rule of insan- ity, “doing the same things and expecting different results.” God’s people continued to dis- obey God yet expected that
somehow things would work out differently. They did not. God was hoping for reverence and repentance. Instead God’s people were bent on self-de- structive behavior that brought about even more punishment from God. They felt invincible and put their full confidence in the city (and the temple in par- ticular), but that would be de- stroyed. The real attitude comes out in the phrase, But they were still eager to act cor- ruptly in all they did.
The passage in today’s lesson starts with woe and ends with wait. God calls his people to wait for him. Waiting on the Lord has a positive nuance in the Bible. It can mean to wait with eager anticipation of and faith in what God is going to do (Psalm 40:1; Acts 1:4; Ro- mans 8:23; 1 Thessaloni- ans 1:10). But in this passage it means to wait for judgment. God would testify against na- tions and gather kingdoms. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.
In the world to come time shall be no more. But in our world the clock continues to tick. Someday the ultimate teacher will say, “Time is up.”
“Turn out the lights” is an- other way to say, “Time is up.” Last week’s lesson from Zepha- niah predicted the day of the Lord. This week’s lesson is fo- cused on that day actually com- ing. God had an appointment with his people to judge them for their unfaithfulness. Were it not for God’s impeccable char- acter, his jealousy might be viewed as arrogance. But be- cause the triune God is totally selfless and loving, his jealousy for total fidelity from his people is proper. God is a jealous God in the best sense of jealousy (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 4:24; 6:15; Joshua 24:19). Even one of his names is Jealous (Exodus 34:14). When God’s
people don’t express that loy- alty to him, he is compelled by virtue of his own integrity to punish the people he loves.
Corrupt City | Zephaniah 3:1-4
God’s people would not be the only ones judged. The judg- ments pronounced on God’s people in Zephaniah 1 were matched by the judgments pro- nounced on the nations in Zephaniah 2. In Zephaniah 3 the judgment of God turns again to God’s people. The judgment on the corrupt city of Jerusalem started with the word woe. This word sounds like doom and gloom. In reality it is a word that means “alas.” It implied judgment, but it is
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