Zephaniah 1: The Great Day Of The Lord

Many Christians look forward with anticipation and even glee to the coming Day of the Lord.  It is often presumed to be a time when believers will be vindicated for our faith.  The righteous (read "us") will be embraced into God's bosom, while the unrighteous (read "them") will be thrown into the outer darkness.  The only problem is that the biblical picture of the "great day of the Lord" sounds a lot more distressing than pleasant - even from the perspective of God's people!

"The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there.  That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements" (vs. 14-16).

Were it not for God's love, each of us would be getting what we deserve.  (How's that for a troubling thought?)  We may say we want justice and fairness, but the truth is that we need mercy and grace.  None of us can make it on our own because we are lawbreakers and sinners.  We desperately need not to be given to us as our deeds require, but to be forgiven and saved.

Zephaniah prophesied during the days of Josiah, and what he saw was very disturbing.  He could foresee a day of judgment coming for Judah when the nation would be torn to pieces by the invading Babylonians.  It would be a time of great distress for God's people.

So has Zephaniah's description of the Great Day of the Lord already happened in Judah's overthrow by Babylon, or is it yet to come in our future?  Yes.  There are parts of Zephaniah's prophecy that were fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar's marauding armies in 586 BC (and again by the Romans in 70 AD), but the worldwide scope of judgment coming upon all the nations is yet to happen.  The ancient devastation for Judah was a foretaste of an even greater catastrophe that will one day usher in God's judgment to all the earth.