Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 181:721 (Jan 2024)
Article: Revering God: Punishment On The Day Of The Lord (Zeph 1:2–18)
Author: Jason S. DeRouchie

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Revering God: Punishment On The Day Of The Lord (Zeph 1:2–18)

Jason S. DeRouchie

Jason S. DeRouchie is Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology, and Rich and Judy Hastings Endowed Chair of Old Testament Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.

This is the first article in the three-part series “Rejoicing in Hope on the Day of the Lord: Understanding and Applying Zephaniah,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectureship at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 7–10, 2023.

Some scholars regard the fifty-three-verse book of Zephaniah as the climax of the Minor Prophets.1 Of Zephaniah, Luther declared, “Among the minor prophets, he makes the clearest prophecies about the kingdom of Christ.”2 Far before Luther, the apostle Peter said, “God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets . . . that his Christ would suffer” (Acts 3:18) and that “all the prophets . . . proclaimed these days” of the church (v. 24).3 Zephaniah was one of these prophets, and his overarching message was this: Seek the Lord together to avoid punishment and wait for the Lord to enjoy salvation. This book portrays the day of the Lord in a furious fire that both consumes God’s enemies and purifies a multiethnic community of worshipers for a transformed Zion. Yahweh’s day both punishes and renews.

Zephaniah’s Heading (Zeph 1:1)

As an introduction to this book, the superscription declares: “The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of

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Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah” (1:1). We first learn of the prophecy’s nature—a word, a living and authoritative word because its source is Yahweh. In this book Yahweh is King over all (3:15), and he stands as a mighty Warrior (1:14; 3:17) who commands armies (2:9), who will famish all the earth’s gods (2:11), and whose just jealousy for the world’s allegiance blazes like fire and will consume all the earth (