Zephaniah paints a picture of an alternative future, where hope for our world is found in God’s justice and love.
Read: Zephaniah 3: 9-17
Although Judah failed to turn back to God in time to avert the disaster of the Babylonian invasion and exile, these turned out to be the route to forgiveness and restoration for people who were humbled by the experience and returned to God, and ultimately were allowed to return to their own land.
Throughout this book, two seemingly contradictory characteristics of God have competed for our attention: his judgement and mercy (or his justice and love).
The world is not the way God planned it to be. It was made “very good” in God’s eyes, but because of human rebellion and sin, has been spoiled and broken.
God expresses his justice as a passion to rescue his world and his people from human evil and violence and his love by creating a future world where everything can flourish in safety and peace. Just as the book of Zephaniah begins with a sort of reverse Creation story, so it ends with a new Garden of Eden story, where God is once again living among his people.
But all this comes at a price. The place where God’s justice and love come together in perfect harmony is a cross on a hill, where the Messiah suffers and dies for the sins of the world. God himself lovingly satisfies his own justice in the person of Jesus, many years in the future from Zephaniah’s day. In the short term, this future event ensures Judah’s release from exile and return to their own land, but ultimately it provides a way to become part of God’s Kingdom, part of a new creation.
If we are new creations, part of God’s Kingdom on earth, how does this affect every part of our lives, from home and family to work and politics? What part are we playing in experiencing and sharing God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?
From here onwards, instead of posting to the blog each day posts will be made once a week, on a Monday. This will keep us in step with the “Ancient Prophets:Modern Message podcast on Anchor Podcasts. This will begin with Haggai part 1 on Monday 8th March 2021.


