Welcome to Bible Fiber where we are encountering the textures and shades of the prophetic tapestry in a year-long study of the twelve minor prophets, one prophet each month. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
This week we are reading the second chapter of Zephaniah, a prophet who, like Jeremiah, ministered during the reign of the righteous King Josiah. Slightly before this time, Nahum prophesied Assyria’s ruin and Habakkuk envisioned the rise of the Babylonians. It was also during Josiah’s reign that the Book of the Law was rediscovered during renovations at the Temple. Hulda, a prophetess in Jerusalem, authenticated the scriptures. She warned King Josiah that God was soon going to discipline all those who have forsaken the covenant (2 Kings 22:3-13; 2 Chron. 34:14-21). This makes for at least five biblical prophets in the seventh century BCE all sounding the same siren. They are prophets living on the precipice of disaster and there is an urgency to their unified call.
As I mentioned in the last podcast, the context clues in Zephaniah link his oracles to the early part of Josiah’s reign, before the king tried to purge the nation of paganism. Jeremiah came a bit after. His book says he first received the word of the Lord in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign (Jer. 1:2), slightly in the middle of Josiah’s campaign of reforms.
Still, Zephaniah’s descriptions of Judah’s failures in chapter 1 correspond exactly with Jeremiah’s complaints. The people of Judah were committing the same sins of idolatry, injustice, and immorality that led to Israel’s judgement a hundred years earlier. With all the prophets delivering the same warning message, it is shocking that most of Judah still believed Jerusalem, God’s chosen city, was impenetrable to attack. Not until the Babylonians had the city surrounded did they understand the seriousness of the situation.