Wipeout
- The prophecy opens with a bang, not a whimper. God is going to destroy everything on earth.
- It’s going to be even worse than the flood, because this time even the fish will be destroyed.
- He’ll utterly destroy Judah because of their unfaithfulness.
- Zephaniah describes the coming day of the Lord as a day of sacrifice, with Judah as the offering on the altar.
- God will go house to house in Jerusalem, ferreting out everyone and destroying the untroubled wealthy, who will now be extremely troubled.
- Here are a few of the things that will be involved: wrath, distress and anguish, ruin and devastation, darkness and gloom, clouds and thick darkness.
- It will be a “terrible end” (1:18) for everyone on earth.
- That said, God just might leave a righteous remnant to take over the places whose residents he has wiped out, so behave yourselves, kids, and you just might get lucky.
- The prophet lists all the nations about to be desolate: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Canaan, Moab. All these traditional enemies of Judah will be conquered by the remnants of Judah left after God gets finished with them.
- That’s what they get for jeering at God’s people.
- The Cushites and Assyrians won’t be spared, either. Their cities will be destroyed and all that will be left are birds and animals living in the abandoned homes.