Day of the Lord - Sacrifice

by Lance Ponder⁽⁸⁵⁾
http://fkiprofessor.xanga.com

Zeph 1:7 Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.

After declaring doom, and the reason for the doom, Zephaniah commands silence before God. One can only imagine that as Zephaniah preached, his profoundly violent opening statements would draw the attention of all who heard it. With attention drawn, the silence would gather, just as he commanded, until you could hear the proverbial pin drop. With all attention focussed, Zephaniah began speaking of a special day on the horizon.

The balance of the first chapter and arguably much of the second chapter is devoted to description of this day he called “The Day of the Lord.” Various other prophets use the very same phrase. The phrase is of such a nature that it could be interpreted as any time the Lord intervenes significantly in the affairs of man. Such a reading, however, usually attempts to avoid either the Messianic reference to the life or death of Jesus Christ or to the return of Jesus Christ. Scholars debate whether the term consistently means either of these depending on its use. In the case of Zephaniah, in Jewish tradition he was talking about the near to come day when the Lord’s judgment on Judah resulted in the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile. By overlooking various specifics you can easily see how the balance of Zephaniah’s first chapter could refer to the immediate problem addressed by verses 4-6. Within his own time this would have been entirely logical. If Zephaniah prophesied before Josiah’s reforms, it would certainly make a lot of sense. While the prophesy had the desired effect in the short term, Zephaniah’s words contained a number of specific details which were vividly fulfilled with uncanny accuracy in the life and death of Jesus.

Still other details, however, suggest a more distant look forward to the final revelation of Jesus Christ in his ultimate return. Verse 7 states that the day is “near” and that YHWH has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests. It was normal for the priests to prepare the sacrifice. Here God is preparing the sacrifice. This is profoundly significant. God will do what man cannot do. Sacrifices were a tradition from the time of Adam, codified by Moses, and were commonplace in the temple in Zephaniah’s day. Although God commanded many specific sacrifices, the only record of God Himself preparing and making a sacrifice prior to Zephaniah is found in Gen 3:21 where God shed animal blood to cover the appearance of sin by clothing Adam and Eve with skins. Where that sacrifice hid sin, Zephaniah prophesied the sacrifice of Jesus as the lamb of God to atone for human sin once and for all.

The other element to 1:7 to consider is that God has chosen whom he will to consecrate as guests for this sacrifice. If the sacrifice is Jesus on the cross, the “guests” chosen were chosen well in advance to be present for the crucifixion and resurrection. As upcoming verses will show, Zephaniah’s prophesy referred to the apostles and the priests and Romans – all who were present on the great and terrible day when our Lord Jesus was crucified for our sin. As it relates to the Babylonian conquest, much would be lost in the fall of Jerusalem (a type of sacrifice) to the Babylonians (“guests” chosen or consecrated by God to fulfill the purpose of punishing his disobedient children). While this interpretation satisfies an orthodox reading, it is really only foreshadowing.

Article submitted Wednesday, June 01, 2011 & read 163 times.

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