If you’re looking for some good spiritual reading that is totally in tune with Lent, I highly recommend the Book of the Prophet Zephaniah. It’s the fourth last book of the Old Testament in the Catholic Bible and only three short chapters.
If you have the stomach for it, that is.
What I mean is that Zephaniah was a very no-nonsense guy who didn’t beat around the bush about human sin. He delivered his message with astonishing chutzpah and ferocity. Here’s the very first verse of his prophecy:
I will completely sweep away all things from the face of the earth, says the LORD.
And that’s just for starters. The prophet goes on to offer specifics about what exactly God is going to destroy: the beasts, the birds of the sky, the fishes of the sea, the wicked, and finally:
I will destroy mankind from the face of the earth, says the LORD.
Did I mention Zephaniah was not a real positive person? Not exactly the kind of guy you bring home to mother.
In fact, that was just his opener. His language was calculated for its shock value because he was trying to get his people to take sin seriously. To do that, he spoke to them in terms that would curl your hair:
Day of Wrath, punishment, wailing, crying out, crashing, violence, deceit
Destruction, plunder, devastation, piercing shrieks
Darkness, gloom, blood poured out like dust, distress, anguish, and “a sudden end” to all who live on earth.
These are all terms he uses in just the first chapter.
But, harsh language aside, please don’t despair of this great prophet!
To give Zephaniah his due, I think there was a method to his madness, and I also believe there’s a message in it for us.
No Idle Threat
An Israelite who read the scriptures would probably understand that Zephaniah’s message was not an idle threat. God had done that very sweeping away thing once before in the Great Flood (although I’m pretty sure the fish survived that one). The point was that if He was threatening to do it again, He probably meant business.
The prophet was trying to wake His people up to the enormity of their sin—and their need to repent of it—which was the whole point of his graphic imagery. I think it was Flannery O’Connor who said,
To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large startling figures.
Zephaniah was, in fact, speaking to people who were extremely hard of hearing. Six centuries before Christ, the abominable deeds of two lawless kings of Judah (Amon and Manasseh) had led the people of Israel into idolatry, and Zephaniah’s prophetic vocation was to call them back to fidelity.
He was God’s last-ditch effort to forestall disaster because God knew what was on the horizon for the nation if they didn’t shape up: the Babylonian Exile.
But God’s people didn’t listen to the prophet. Even extreme threats didn’t work. Catastrophe came upon them as a consequence of their sin, and they had to learn the hard way.
I think most of us can relate to that dynamic.
The Whole Picture
In the end, however, Zephaniah wasn’t all doom and gloom (okay, he was mostly doom and gloom, but not totally.)
The prophet who wrote all those drastic threats in Chapter 1 also wrote a message at the end of Chapter 3 that will knock your socks off by its beauty.
It’s almost as if he knew they wouldn’t listen and that they would need hope in their future desperation in exile. There is a ring of eternity to this amazingly beautiful passage, one of the most consoling of the whole Bible (3:14-20):
Shout for joy, daughter Zion! sing joyfully, Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, daughter Jerusalem.
The LORD has removed the judgment against you, he has turned away your enemies; The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst, you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, Zion, do not be discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior, Who will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love, Who will sing joyfully because of you, as on festival days.
I will remove disaster from among you, so that no one may recount your disgrace. At that time I will bring you home, and at that time I will gather you; For I will give you renown and praise, among all the peoples of the earth, When I bring about your restoration before your very eyes, says the LORD.
See what I mean? It’s marvelous.
If you balance all those earlier threats with the terms of this final hymn, you have a perfect prediction of the Messiah’s coming: joy, a mighty savior, the King of Israel, renewal, restoration, removal of judgment, and a final home for our wayward souls.
A Lenten Message
Zephaniah is a great Lenten prophet when you think about it. He swings a 2x4 of graphic language to give them a realistic warning against sin because sin does in fact bring disaster into people’s lives. We must avoid it like the plague…so to speak.
But he also preaches joy and hope as a consolation of God’s mercy to help us endure the ravages of a sinful world and stay the course on our pilgrimage to heaven.
In the Christian mindset, Lenten penance leads to Easter joy, if we heed the voice of the prophets who try to keep us on that straight and narrow path.
For my part, I’m just glad God didn’t carry through on His threat to sweep away all things from the face of the earth. Whew.
Thank you for a picture into the Window of God! Zephania was very pessimistic. Things could not get any worse. But the people did, or would, listen to the Lord through him and change. There was hope. I think constantly about the times we are living in. Anyone, it seems, who says what God says (Ch.. 1 of Zeph.) is "cancelled," "ghosted," exiled from the social unit they may be associated. How do we reach these people and be heard by them?