ZEPHANIAH
Zephaniah may be the only Old Testament prophet who had royal blood in his veins. But his kinship with King Josiah didn’t prevent his preaching a message of judgment at a time when the king was leading the nation in a religious reformation (2 Kings 22–23). Both Jeremiah and Zephaniah saw that the “reform” was not true revival, for it never got to the hearts of the people. It was only a surface change because the king promoted it and the people went along with whatever was popular.
The prophet’s emphasis is on “the day of the Lord,” a phrase we have met in Joel and Amos. It applies historically to the invasion of Babylon in 606 b.c., but prophetically it speaks of a future day of wrath in the end times.
Like Habakkuk, Zephaniah saw both the wrath and the mercy of God. He announced that judgment would come to Jerusalem and Judah (chap. 1) and to the gentile nations (chap.