IF YOU'RE FAMILIAR WITH ZEPHANIAH, RAISE YOUR HANDS! (Zephaniah, part 1)

 If you're like me, you probably never heard a sermon preached on Zephaniah, and probably have never covered it in a Bible study or Sunday School class. I taught on it in Sunday School almost 20 years ago because I wasn't familiar with it, and memorized several passages, and learned to love this book! So I'm sharing this on Sundays over various weeks.

I'm sure that a prophet often feels like this addax from the Louisville Zoo - all alone in the open, vulnerable to attack on any front. (Okay, in reality this antelope does have some off-camera companions, and in the zoo there's no predators to worry about, but let's go with this analogy.)

One thing about the prophets (in this blog, I'm considering Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and the 16 writing prophets) is we don't know much about the prophets. 

With some, we're not sure if we know them by their name or just by a description - for example, "Malachi" means "messenger."

Occupations? We know Ezekiel was a priest and suspect Jeremiah and Zechariah were as well. Daniel was one of Babylon's wisemen, and Amos was a shepherd and fig picker. Otherwise, we're not sure.

Marital status? Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea were; Jeremiah and Daniel weren't. The other fourteen? Some are assumed to be unmarried but there's no definite record.

Finally, how about geneology? Looking at the nineteen considered prophets, we know Zechariah's grandfather's name. We know the father of nine others, and nothing about eight more. 

This brings us to Zephaniah. No, we don't know if he was married or what he did for a living. Zephaniah was definitely his name (and that of others in Scripture), but we're not absolutely certain of its meaning - it can be translated "Yahweh has concealed, "Whom Yahweh has hidden," or "Yahweh lies in wait" (which fits Zephaniah 3:8). But we do know his geneology, which goes back five generations.

The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. -  Zephaniah 1:1, NKJV

 Zephaniah has the longest lineage of any of the prophets. It also lets us know that he's of royal lineage: his great great grandfather was King Hezekiah. True, it doesn't say for sure, but to me its logical that considering it's the last name given and that it's a recognized name, as well as the time span - reigning king Josiah was Hezekiah's great grandson - it seems likely.

I mentioned the reigning king. Josiah was a good king who led in a reform. However, most consider those reforms to be superficial. Josiah had three sons (and a grandson) become king after him, and none followed his example, and the people didn't seem to be bothered.

I did make a comment of prophets feeling isolated like the addax pictured above. Zephaniah may have felt that way in his ministry, but he did prophesy in the same time as Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Urijah whose short and tragic ministry is described in Jeremiah 26:20-23).

So what was the message God gave through Zephaniah. You can wait until next week for Part 2. (Or you can read the book of Zephaniah - it will take 15-20 minutes to read the whole book.)