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Be silent before the Lord God! For the Day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests. And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice—“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons … and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. … and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill.’ Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste.” … The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, 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. (Zephaniah 1:7-8a, 9b, 12b, 13a, 14-15)
A little background might help as we try to understand this passage. In Old Testament times, people would offer sacrifices at the temple of God, and when it was over, they would take home most of the meat. Then they would celebrate with their families and friends all eating together.
In this passage, it is the Lord Himself who has prepared a sacrifice and invited His guests—and we can’t help thinking of our Savior Jesus Christ at this point. Because He is God Himself, become a human being so that He could sacrifice Himself through His death on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice was the final, real sacrifice, the one that really took away all our sins and made us clean and new in front of God—every one of us who trusts in Jesus.
And now that He has risen from the dead, He has made us guests at the Lord’s table—clean and holy, forgiven and beloved. We eat His body and drink His blood at Communion, and we look forward to the Day of the Lord when Jesus raises us from the dead to be with Him forever—just as He is risen from the dead and will never die again. That day will be a day of joy for all God’s forgiven guests.
But it will not be so happy for those who continue to oppose God, to do evil and to despise God, thinking, “The Lord will not do good, neither will He do ill.” That’s just a way of saying, “I don’t need to worry about the consequences of my evil deeds, because there is no God to call me to account.” Their judgment will not wait forever. God is patient, but on the Day of the Lord, He will put a final end to all evil.
So we pray for those who do evil and who do not yet know or trust in Jesus. We tell them about Him when we can. Because we too were once among them—lost in the darkness, without hope and without God in the world. Jesus has brought us to Himself out of pure love and mercy, and we want to share that same blessing with everybody we can.
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, You have loved me and made me Your own. Use me, please, so that others may come to faith in You. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions:
- Why do you think guests at a sacrificial celebration need to be clean and holy?
- Who makes us clean and holy?
- Who can you pray for, so that they may believe and be guests at Jesus’ celebration?
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