Zephaniah Chapter One, Spiritual Abandonment

Zephaniah 1:6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord, and have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”

Zephaniah already addressed the idolatrous priests, or those once seemingly faithful in His flock who went after idols in verse 4. There are the double minded who swear oaths to both Yahweh and Milcom in verse 5. And now God addresses unfaithful Judah who has turned back from following Him as their spiritual head.

In Isaiah God condemns Judah for the same reason, stating, “Judah is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter,” Isaiah 59:14. Judah has turned back from following God and demonstrates this by abandoning truth and fairness. God describes truth as a person collapsed in the streets of the city, while equity itself is barred entrance. Hosea adds, “They are all hot, like an oven, and have devoured their judges; and their kings have fallen. None of them call upon Me,” Hosea 7:7. The judges have been proverbially consumed by the people, uninterested in truth or righteousness. The kings have fallen through personal sinful conduct. And nobody amongst God’s own people considers calling out to the Lord. This is truly the biggest shame, since God clearly told Israel, “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Joel 2:32. God is able to deliver us from physical circumstance and suffering; more so He is able to deliver the soul from the just judgment of Hell.

God likewise expresses His extreme displeasure in the attitude of the man who draws toward God but then retreats. “If he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him: but the just shall live by my faith,” Habakkuk 2:4, LXX. The Septuagint renders this verse to express the idea that faith in God (my faith) is what causes the follower of God to live; it is faith in Him. Those who draw back or turned back suggest a spiritual barrenness in them. “Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward” Isaiah 1:4. There are people who profess to follow God but do so out of motivations that do not touch upon the transformative power of the gospel. In John’s gospel we read that when Jesus attempted to teach His disciples a very powerful spiritual truth, they rejected the message and Him. “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more,” John 6:66. They sought miracles and food; but when confronted with their very real spiritual need they debated, argued and eventually abandoned Jesus.

There does appear to be two different camps being mentioned in this verse. There are those who turned back from following Yahweh, and there are those who have never sought Him to begin with. The NASB clarifies the verse. We read: “And those who have turned back from following the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of Him.” The latter perhaps suffer from nationalistic pride: a pandemic in Zephaniah’s contemporary’s time, Jeremiah 7:4. Yet God warns, “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations?” Jeremiah 7:9, 10. 

It is a dangerous line of thinking to believe oneself above God’s judgment because we suppose we are His children, without knowing how one becomes His child. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that we are not, by nature, children of God. Being born Jewish does not save. Being born into a “Christian” family or “Christian” nation does not save. Every member of a Christian family is made one through personal faith in the Savior. And there is no such thing as a Christian nation. We are born in Adam’s image and are by nature children of wrath. Jewish or Gentile, we stand in need of the Savior Jesus Christ to give us new life in His name and forgiveness of sin. But when our relationship with the Lord is adversarial, traitorous, or non-existent, such redemption cannot occur. The singular criterion for salvation is faith. So, if the Jews of Zephaniah’s time did not seek or inquire of the Lord, they will never find Him. “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13. 

God delivered this amazing promise to Israel during the height of their infidelity and on the verge of their captivity in Babylon. This is all He wants of Israel: to seek Him, to enter into a personal relationship with Yahweh and to reciprocate His love so that He is free to bless them with all of the blessings He promised. After their exile God promised to visit them and return them to the land of their ancestors. He added, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you,” Jeremiah 29:12. Those who call upon Him are saved; those who pray to Him (being saved) are heard. More than hearing; God will listen! He is listening to the prayers of His children, and He wants for us what is best. Not by our rule of measure, but by His. To save Israel from itself He needed to excise the spiritual cancer that was crippling the entire nation. He would deliver them to Babylon and put them through the furnace of affliction to purge them for 70 years before finally bringing them back to their homeland.