Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 181:723 (Jul 2024)
Article: Rejoicing Then And Now: Pleasures On The Day Of The Lord (Zeph 3:11–20)
Author: Jason S. DeRouchie

BSac 181:723 (July-September 2024) p. 259

Rejoicing Then And Now: Pleasures On The Day Of The Lord (Zeph 3:11–20)

Jason S. DeRouchie

Jason S. DeRouchie is Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.

This is the third 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, 9–10, 2023.

What we hope or dread for tomorrow changes who we are today. This is the role that promises play throughout Scripture.1 Thus, Peter asserts that God in Christ “has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Pet 1:4).2 Zephaniah castigates those in Jerusalem who ignored God’s promises of blessing and curse and declared, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill” (1:12). Like Yahweh’s other prophets, Zephaniah magnifies God’s promises to motivate his listeners to heed his exhortations. First, the prophet urges the faithful remnant to seek the Lord together (2:1–4) and then motivates them by overviewing the lamentable state and fate of the rebels from both the foreign nations (vv. 5–15) and Jerusalem (3:1–7). God’s fiery wrath would soon blaze against the wicked (1:17–18), and no unrepentant sinner would survive, even in Judah. Next, in 3:8–10 Yahweh charges those seeking him to wait for him, and in verses 11–20 he offers the highest motivation for patiently pursuing him—satisfying salvation.

BSac 181:723 (July-September 2024) p. 260

Before overviewing 3:11–20, it is important to recall Zephaniah’s hopeful statements in verses 8–10 that already supplied two reasons why the remnant of the faithful in Judah and other lands should “wait” for the Lord.3 The prophet’s initial reason, found in verse