The Day of the Lord (Zephaniah)
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the June 1, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“Woe to you who long for the day of
the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness,
not light.” Amos 5:18, NIV
In November
of 1996, Spokane County in Washington State was hit by an ice storm that seemed
almost apocryphal to the residents. Following on heavy snow accumulations,
freezing rain added several inches of ice to everything exposed to the weather.
Trees weighed down by the heavy ice snapped their trunks, and all over the
county, the falling trees created dangerous driving conditions and made the
terrain look like a war zone. Roads were blocked and power lines had broken
from their own weight of ice as well as from falling trees and limbs. It was the
resulting loss of electric power rather than the ice that created an apocalyptic
scenario.
Society has
become so dependent upon electricity that without it, we can find ourselves
pushed back to an earlier era with a much more difficult struggle for survival.
Once the power went out, the stores closed their doors to prevent looting as
there were few if any non-electric lights immediately available and because of
our dependence upon electric lights, stores were not designed to have windows
throughout their buildings to provide light. Instead, they often only had
windows on one side to minimize heating and air conditioning costs.
Coincidental
with the store closures, other problems became apparent. Without electricity,
the food could not be kept refrigerated or frozen and huge amounts of food were
lost to spoilage. Although the grocers would have liked to have sold the food
before it spoiled, they were faced with a second problem. All of the cash
registers were computerized and without electricity, items could not be
weighed, prices could not be scanned and the cash registers could not even open
and close. Very few stores still owned manual cash registers. Even if one did,
cash was also hard to come by as banks and financial institutions used electricity
to verify account balances for the availability of funds. They could dispense
nothing.
As the days
went by with people sitting in the dark and cold waiting for the power to come
back on, desperation began to set in. Some became so despondent that they began
using guns to shoot at power company crews who drove by without stopping. The power
companies had made it a priority to get the power back on first in those
locations that affected the most people. Those who were on smaller, isolated power
grids had a hard time seeing those priorities when their families were
shivering and hungry in the cold and darkness.
At the time
of this ice storm, I was living in a mobile home with my disabled wife and my son.
Fortunately we had a gas powered camp stove for cooking and a propane heater
for warmth. The heater was unable to warm the house completely because we had
to keep windows open for ventilation to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, but it
was better than not having heat at all. The two-burner camp stove was able to warm
food, but it was difficult to heat enough water for bathing and cleaning dishes.
Besides, one the propane ran out, the stores were closed. We could not easily buy
more. We needed to ration what we had.
Perhaps the
most difficult thing to deal with during this time was the uncertainty. No one
knew when the power would be restored. Sometimes power would be restored
briefly in one area only to go off again because of an overload in some other
part of the system. Once, we rejoiced to have power restored only to have it go
off again minutes later as the trucks of the power line crews were leaving.
They did not return that day.
When power
was finally, permanently restored, we had a new appreciation for the tenuous
nature of our existence and the thin veneer of civility we all live with. I
even understood better the words of Jesus about winter, end-time scenarios.[i]
Recently, we have received several reminders, such as Hurricane Sandy in New
York and New Jersey, and the devastating tornado that leveled schools and homes
in Moore, Oklahoma. Too, lest we think this is just an American experience, we
should remember earthquakes, typhoons and other disasters that have repeatedly
swept the planet. The tidal wave that recently hit Japan not only created its
own destructive path but also unleashed a nuclear disaster to add to the
holocaust as radiation escaped several flood-damaged nuclear reactors. These events
have had us all reeling and asking for reasons.
Some see the
actions of a vengeful God in these disasters, repaying mankind for evils that
range from allowing abortion to allowing gays to serve in the military. Others
feel perhaps like those of Zephaniah’s day that these are just natural
disasters and God is not involved at all.[ii]
Maybe these “black-and-white” alternatives to the character of God are not the
only understandings one can bring to these occurrences. Is it possible that
even the prophet’s understanding may be tainted by this polarized thinking?
In American
movies sometimes the dialogue between characters plays on this type of
thinking. One character will warn another about something. Then the second
character will ask “Is that a threat?” The first then replies, “No, it is a
promise!” But is God like a movie character? Does He really prefer obliteration
to salvation? Is our desire to attribute everything, both good and bad, to God
so great that we can see no other possibility? Is there a chance that God’s
warnings are just that—warnings? Could He be simply telling us about the
natural consequences of our actions?
Suppose I
have a friend who has a new car, and he tells me that he is going to use it to
drive around “Dead Man’s Curve” at 120 miles per hour. I would naturally warn
him that if he tries that, he could die. How much sense would it make for him
to say, “You just want to restrict my freedom, but your threats won’t work. I’m
going to do it anyway!” You and I both know what the outcome will likely be if
he ignores the warning.
Maybe if we
allow ourselves to consider God’s warnings in this light, we can discover a
better picture of God’s compassionate character. For instance, we are biblically
warned against accumulating wealth and ignoring the needs of the poor among us.[iii]
History is replete with examples of empires that ignored this and sowed the
seeds of their own destruction. The wealth of the few was at the expense of the
many, and while they did all they could to oppress the poor and keep them from
ever receiving any of it back, they became a beacon drawing those in other
nations to do all they could to obtain some or all of that wealth for
themselves.[iv]
Over and over again, the wealth that nations accumulated was taken by others,
only to see the cycle repeated in their case as well.[v]
We can
attribute these things all we want to a vengeful God and then refuse to
acknowledge Him on the basis of the character we have given Him, but we cheat no
one but ourselves if we do. We become like the person who is on a diet to lose
weight and ignores the requirements of the diet. We know that we will not lose
weight, but is it the diet’s fault? How often do we hear people say, “That diet
didn’t work for me,” when we know the problem was not the diet but unwillingness
to follow it?
We can
attempt all sorts of rationalizations for our behavior. We can excuse our
neglect of the poor and needy on the basis of their relative unworthiness to
receive our aid. By implication we are saying that what we have is somehow
based on our own superior worthiness. If we are Christians, we should know this
is not true. God does not dispense His blessings based on worthiness.[vi]
He blesses based on His compassion, mercy and love. Those who have been blessed
accordingly should also bless others in turn without regard to worthiness.[vii]
If we fail
to understand the compassionate character of God and we determine to continue
as we have, we will see the same results past civilizations have seen. “Bread
and circuses”[viii]
was not an adequate response to the poor in ancient Rome. It still isn’t,
today. It represents the wealthy giving the poor what they want in order to
avoid the greater cost of what they need, such as shelter, adequate clothing, proper
nutrition, health care, and meaningful employment. Insuring these necessities
for all insures the security of a nation. The consequences of prophetic
warnings can thereby be avoided[ix]
and the character of God can be revealed in His people[x]
through their compassion toward one another. To leave this undone is to ensure
the fulfillment of Zephaniah’s dark, end-time prophecy.
