November 12

Zephaniah 1 Grandma was a godly woman. She had 20 grandchildren. We occasionally would all be out at grandma & grandpa’s farm for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or 4th of July. It was a great time together playing spoons or football or hunting or simply walking in the woods. I have two cousins that have both served the Lord as ministers of music, one also as a pastor. It is nice to have that common bond with them. I also have cousins that do not embrace the glory of our Lord. While I still love them dearly, it hurts not to be able to have that same bond in Christ that I have with other cousins. Just because we share the same godly heritage, does not mean that we share the same god. Zephaniah was the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah. Josiah was the great-grandson of Hezekiah. I think that would make them 6th cousins. As part of the royal lineage, Zephaniah was also chosen by God to be a prophet. That could be either a good thing or a bad thing. Were Josiah evil as were his father and grandfather, then Zephaniah’s message would be ill received by Josiah. Jewish tradition informs us that Josiah’s grandfather had the prophet Isaiah sawn in half. Manasseh and Amon had left the nation in a religious mess. They had mixed the worship of Yahweh with the idolatrous practices of the Canaanite gods. The result was that the people were left with gods who did nothing, who were impotent, and the people knew it. The problem is that because the people had mixed the worship of Yahweh with their impotent gods, they could not distinguish the impotence of their false gods from the omnipotence of Yahweh, the true God (v.12). It was a crisis point for a vision of the glory of the Lord. Into this context Zephaniah is called to speak God’s message of judgment upon Judah’s idolatrous defamation of God’s glory. Would the new king Josiah be open to the rebuke, or would he be like his father and grandfather? Did Zephaniah even know Josiah well enough to know how he would receive the message of the Lord? Zephaniah had a message of the glory of God and judgment that burned within him. Whether or not he was aware of how he would be received, it had to come forth! It was a message of judgment: 4”I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests— 5Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship and swear oaths by the LORD, But who also swear by Milcom; Zephaniah’s message of judgment was delivered to his cousin and to the nation. How was it received? 2 Kings 23:5 informs us of how Josiah responded to the message: Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. Today we live in a nation which has mixed the glory of the Lord with our idolatrous gods. The result is an impotent church. We are satisfied with it. As long as our programs continue along to produce what they have always produced-lukewarm Christians-, we are satisfied. It matters not to us that the programs produce nothing of eternal value. We are satisfied with a God who does neither good nor evil. I need cousins who will settle for nothing less than the glory of an omnipotent God who judges evil and rewards those who seek Him with mercy and His presence. Will you be that cousin? Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john