Scripture Daily

Context No. 3049 of 4322 · Zephaniah

Context · Reflection

Zephaniah 1:14-18: in context

14The great day of the LORD is near. It is near and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of the LORD. The mighty man cries there bitterly. 15That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, 16a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high battlements. 17I will bring such distress on men that they will walk like blind men because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. 18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

Zephaniah sounds an alarm: the great day of the LORD is near, hurrying on, a day of wrath, distress, and anguish, of darkness and gloom, of trumpet blast against the fortified cities. He piles up the words to convey the sheer weight of it. And at the center is a stripping away of every false refuge.

In that day, the prophet says, nothing that people trusted in will save them. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath. The wealth and defenses in which people rested their security are shown to be worthless before God's judgment. The passage removes every human refuge one by one and leaves the reader to ask what could possibly stand in such a day. The answer, taken up elsewhere in the prophets, is only the mercy of God for those who humble themselves and seek him.

What am I trusting to deliver me, my resources, my security, when the prophet says none of it will stand in the day of the LORD?

Sources