Zephaniah Chapter Two, Undesirable Nation

Zephaniah 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, [2] before the decree is issued, or the day passes like chaff, before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you!

God issues a command for Israel to gather together; they are the undesirable nation, the nation “not reckoning itself among the nations,” Numbers 23:9. The prophet Joel proclaimed a similar command, writing, “Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord,” Joel 1:14.

The ESV renders “undesirable,” as, “shameless,” and the Jewish Tanakh follows closely with this rendering, using, “without shame.” By this point in Judah’s career they had straddled a spiritual fence, teetering to one side or the other when a godly or ungodly king took David’s throne. As discussed previously, Josiah was a godly king who was deeply concerned with making spiritual reforms within his kingdom and culture. But the wounds had long since festered and a spiritual sepsis had crept in, creating a terminal illness that required excision and expulsion from the land. Israel would be exiled a year for every sabbath year they neglected to observe since entering Canaan, tallying seventy in total dating to the conquest of Canaan when Joshua led Israel across the Jordan and settled them in their lands, see 2 Chronicles 36:21, Leviticus 26:34, 35.

There is an urgency in this issuance. God wants Israel to come together in reverential solidarity before the day of the Lord finds them. The decree will go out when God’s patience reaches its end and His anger burns to the lowest Hell. Three times in verse 2 they are exhorted to do this thing BEFORE the decree is passed, or the day passes, or the Lord’s anger finally breaks forth. Mind you, this isn’t about losing one’s temper. God is not a man; He does not grow angry like you or I do, lose His temper, and do rash or impulsive things. Sometimes the writers liken human emotion or reactions to God so the reader or beholder may better grasp the nature of the situation we find ourselves in. God CAN become angry; but His anger will never lead to tantrums, irrational outbursts or the like. Why? That would be sinful, and God is incapable of sin, James 1:13, 1 John 1:5, Numbers 23:19, etc.

God’s anger will reach a determined point, and at that specific, arranged point God will not allow the mystery of lawlessness to continue any further without finally and completely being judged by the universe’s Creator. Lawlessness is a virus in the machine of God’s creation, and God’s wrath will purge it, so the machine may run without its contamination any longer. Twice the prophet warns that the day of the Lord is fierce anger, and the Lord’s anger. Putting these together, we find that it is the day of the Lord’s fierce anger on account of sin. No longer will people be capable of mocking God and asking why He doesn’t deal with the reality of evil or sin; He will. In one respect He already has by giving us His Son to die on our behalf for our sins, so that we may receive His righteousness and be reconciled to God. For those of us that do not want His Son, there is His wrath, which will burn away sin, and for those who still harbor it without repentance, it will likewise burn them away as well.