Sermon Tone Analysis

*Zephaniah 5**.*

Turn to Zephaniah chapter 3 [pray] *[P]* Let’s read [*Zephaniah 3:1-4* /Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the tyrannical city!

She heeded no voice, she accepted no instruction.

She did not trust in יְהוָה, she did not draw near to her God.

Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges are wolves at evening; they leave nothing for the morning.

Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men; her priests have profaned the sanctuary.

They have done violence to the law/.]

Here we go again!

More woe! Who would want to be a prophet?! Funny thing is they spoke יְהוָה’s message.

Now we all want to hear God speak – well this is what He says!

How come when people give a message from the LORD it doesn’t sound like this?

This prophecy is addressed to the “tyrannical city” – remember what I said last time about the importance of context *[P]*.

We need to know who this prophecy is spoken to.

Who is the “tyrannical city”?

Is it Nineveh who was mentioned in (Zech 2:13-15)?

It has priests and prophets (Zeph 3:4), it has the sanctuary in it (Zeph 3:4), יְהוָה was her God (Zeph 3:2), יְהוָה is in it (Zeph 3:5).

It isn’t Nineveh; it can be talking about none other than Jerusalem itself!

*[P]* The prophecy bursts out with a message of "WOE"!

It is an urgent desperate message – no gently coming to address what needs attention.

It is a last minute cry to Jerusalem to repent.

What is Jerusalem?

It is the city of God!

The holy city!

The city of peace!

The city where righteousness dwells!

It is where God’s people gather to worship their God, יְהוָה!

Can you feel the tragedy here!

This is the city that יְהוָה loves, that is His city yet it is rebellious!

(It defies God’s instruction) *[P]* It is defiled!

*[P]* (followed heathen, worldly customs).

יְהוָה calls it tyrannical!

*[P]* (gone its own way).

It is unresponsive *[P]* – it doesn’t listen or obey יְהוָה.

It is un-teachable *[P]* – it doesn’t obey His discipline!

It doesn’t trust Him – it is unbelieving *[P]*.

These are the essential qualities required of God’s people - what is needed in order to maintain relationship.

We must know, hear and obey, respond to His voice [*John 10:27*/ My sheep hear My voice//, and I know them, and they follow Me;/).

We need to be teachable – when we go astray we must humbly receive instruction, realize that we have gone wrong and be willing to be brought back on track.

It is vital that we hear YHWH’s voice, know it, delight in it; respond to it.

That we humbly receive teaching and correction, have a soft heart and are open to the LORD’s renewing work in our life.

Our trust, our confidence must be in Him alone, not in ourselves or in man.

These are essential qualities of being close to Him but יְהוָה’s city is far from Him! *[P]* Its leaders are ravenous – devouring others in order to satisfy their own desires and lusts.

Her rulers were rapacious, ravenous and cruel.

Instead of caring for the people under them they, in their selfish self interest, devoured them!

They are likened to lion, roaring because they have captured prey.

They are loud and arrogant in their position, cruel and merciless in regard to the inhabitants.

Judges also, who should ensure justice for the individual, are equally rapacious.

Likened to wolves, they gang up, they to devour the people, leaving nothing, preying upon the people until they have nothing left.

[cf.

*Ezekiel 22:6-7** */Behold, the rulers of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood.

They have treated father and mother lightly within you.

The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you/.

*Ezekiel 22:27**/ /*/Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey//, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain//./]

They exploit their position for their own gain.

They are meant to ensure justice for others, yet they are unjust themselves.

From civil ruler, to legal authority, to spiritual and religious leaders – the whole of society is corrupt!

When leadership in every area is like this, the whole of society will be so also – for they lead it and determine its quality – they can only take people to where they are themselves.

It was not only the civil leaders (princes); it was also the spiritual leaders (priests).

The evil that is in the secular sector is also in the spiritual area.

The priest corresponds in the religious world to the prince in the civil sector – he is the leader, the authority, governing and directing the way things are run.

The prophet corresponds to the judge – he is there to ensure corruption doesn’t enter, to keep the system honest, to turn it back to the right way, to fight against evil and wrong.

But both priest and prophet are useless.

The priests, whose role is to distinguish between holy and profane, are the very ones who have profaned the sanctuary (the holy place)!

[*Malachi 2:7-8* /For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of יְהוָה of armies.

But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says יְהוָה of armies/.].

They are meant to preserve the law, the Torah, but they are the ones who have done violence to it!

If those whose role is to guard these things have corrupted it, what is the situation amongst the laity?! [*Ezekiel 22:25-26*/ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey.

They have devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them/.]

The prophet is to be a man of integrity, calling the nation back to God, a man of truth – yet they are treacherous.

Those who are meant to be pillars and supports of society and faith, cannot be relied upon – when this is the case the whole of society disintegrates.

There is nothing to hold it up, to preserve its structure, nothing that is fixed and can be relied upon!

This is a terrible, hopeless situation.

Praise God that there is One who remains righteous and just (Zeph 3:5).

The priests’ role is to preserve holiness – keep the separation between common and holy, defiled and undefiled – to uphold the law.

What is their role and responsibility, this is what they neglect!

What a tragic, hopeless picture.

But isn’t there some resonance with the church?! We are meant to be holy, but we are rebellious and defiled.

We’ve all gone our own way, followed the world’s practices, are unresponsive to יְהוָה.

There are high paid, high profile pastors who are followed by a mass of simple believers – extorting huge sums out of them with heart-wrenching appeals.

Sow a seed of faith teaching – knowing that the offering bag comes to them!

I’ve heard shameful stuff as charismatic personalities attempt to extract as much as they can from a congregation.

Go to South America, and there amid abject poverty the RC church has magnificent property.

They live in luxury by keeping the flock in poverty – this has gone on for centuries!

The prophet has the job of keeping the people on track, keeping them honest.

They had a message of coming judgment, a responsibility to warn the people.

This is their consistent, albeit gloomy, message.

But here are the prophets being irresponsible!

There is impending doom and they say all is going to be fine.

Optimistic prophets have a responsibility to prove the validity of a message that goes contrary to the consistent message of all that have gone before [cf.

*Jeremiah 28:8-9* /“The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence.

The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known /as /one whom יְהוָה has truly sent.”

/But people do not want to hear a sombre message.

I have heard it said that a prophecy that is negative is not from genuine – a prophecy must edify, exhort etc.

So the prophets are irresponsible, they say that they speak from God but only tell people happy trivial stuff that they want to hear.

What a state the holy city is in! יְהוָה longs for her to respond to Him but she refuses [*Luke 13:34-35* /“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!

“Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”/].

Let’s read *[P]* [*Zephaniah 3:5-7* /יְהוָה is righteous within her; He will do no injustice.

Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail.

But the unjust knows no shame.