Zephaniah: How God Really Feels About You

Part 8 of Short Books, Long Shadows
August 2, 2026
Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, AL
James Jackson, Pastor

Sermon in a sentence: God’s wrath reveals His holiness, but God’s delight reveals His heart.

Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Zephaniah.

Last week, one of the young ladies in our church wanted my advice on how to talk to a friend who had turned from Christianity to the Greek pantheon. Which, actually, I’m hearing more and more about people turning to mythology as though the myths depict actual gods and goddesses.

But the strange thing is, even if Zeus and Ares, Hera and Poseidon were real, if you’ve ever read those stories, they’re anything but perfect. They’re jealous. They’re vindictive. They’re impulsive.

Zeus is ruled by lust.
Hera by jealousy.
Ares by rage.
Poseidon by vengeance.

They aren’t holy. They’re just humans with superpowers.

But Gabrielle helped me understand something profound. She said, “I don’t think that’s really the attraction. It’s not so much that they are turning to the Greek gods as they are turning away from the God of the Bible.

They imagined the God of the Bible as angry… spiteful… always ready to smite people. They looked at stories like Sodom and Gomorrah and concluded, “I don’t want a God like that.”

And I wonder how many people—not just outside the church, but inside it—have quietly wondered the same thing.

How does God really feel about me?

I’ll be honest with you: of all the books in the Bible, Zephaniah may seem like the worst place to answer that question.

Because if you only read the first chapter, you might conclude that God is exactly what those people imagine Him to be.

But if you’ll stay with Zephaniah all the way to the end, you’ll discover one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s heart in all of Scripture.

Here’s the big idea of this sermon: God’s wrath reveals his holiness, but his delight in redemption reveals His heart.

Over the past four weeks we’ve looked at four of the minor prophets— Obadiah, Habakkuk, Haggai, and Zephaniah today. By the way, they aren’t called Minor Prophets because they are less important.  We’ve already seen how they were active during some of the most significant moments in biblical history. No, they are considered minor prophets because of the length of their books.

And think about it— if you were living during these times, you probably wouldn’t have much time to either!

If you were to sum up the message of each book in a sentence, it would be:

•    Zephaniah: Judgment is coming.

•    Habakkuk: How do we gain perspective about the coming judgment?

•    Obadiah:  Judgment has come for Judah, but God will also judge the nations.

•    Haggai: Can we not do this again?

So chronologically, Zephaniah comes first— to the reign of King Josiah.

Look at verse 1 with me: Zephaniah 1:1

Zephaniah 1:1 ESV

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

Zephaniah is unique among the biblical prophets in that he is the only one from the bloodline of King David. He was the great-great grandson of King Hezekiah. That made he and King Josiah distant cousins.

Josiah was one of Judah’s best kings. He led a great spiritual revival. But when Zephaniah begins preaching, that revival hasn’t happened yet. Judah is drowning in idolatry. The people have become spiritually complacent. They still go through the motions of worship, but their hearts are far from God.

And looming on the horizon is Babylon.

The people don’t know it yet, but the nation is living on borrowed time. Within a generation, Jerusalem will fall. The Temple will burn. Families will be carried into exile.

But before any of that happens, God sends Zephaniah to plead with the people while there is still time.

That tells us something important about God.

He doesn’t delight in judgment. He warns before He judges.

So let’s see what God says. Read Zephaniah 1:2-6 with me.

Zephaniah 1:2–6 ESV

² “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. ³ “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. ⁴ “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, ⁵ those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, ⁶ those who have turned back from following the Lord, who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.”

1. God’s holiness demands judgment (v. 2-6)

Look again at the first words of Zephaniah’s message.

“I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth…”

Those are sobering words. If all you had was these first six verses, you might conclude that Gabrielle’s friends were right.

These verses remind us of the flood in Noah’s day, when God judged a world that had become thoroughly corrupt.

But notice that God’s judgment isn’t random. He isn’t throwing a divine temper tantrum. Beginning in verse 4, He tells us exactly why He is judging Judah.

They had turned to Baal, the Canaanite storm and fertility god.

They worshiped the stars of heaven, looking to the heavens for guidance instead of looking to God.

God’s people weren’t replacing Him; they were trying to supplement Him. They wanted to worship the Lord and whatever other gods promised prosperity, security, or pleasure.

Let’s go back to verse 5. They tried to worship the Lord while also serving the Ammonite god Milcom. The Hebrew literally says they “swear to Yahweh and swear by Milcom.”

That’s covenant language. They’re trying to pledge allegiance to two different kings.

They wanted the blessings of the covenant without the God of the covenant. They wanted to keep one foot in the worship of Yahweh and one foot in the worship of the surrounding nations.

Sound familiar? We may not bow before Baal or Milcom, but we often want Jesus plus something else.

Jesus plus money.

Jesus plus success.

Jesus plus politics.

Jesus plus self-sufficiency.

But God will not share His throne with a rival.

And Zephaniah warns the people that God is about to say, “Enough.”

Now here’s where many people misunderstand God’s character. They read a passage like this and conclude that God is angry, harsh, and eager to punish.

But that’s not what Zephaniah is showing us.

God doesn’t judge because He has a bad temper. He judges because He is holy.

You’ve probably heard someone say, “God is too holy to look on sin.” I don’t think that’s quite right. Jesus looked at sinners every day. He ate with them. He touched them. He welcomed them.

The truth is even more profound:

God is not too holy to look upon sin. He is too holy to ignore it.

If a human judge looked at evil and simply shrugged his shoulders, we wouldn’t call him loving. We’d call him corrupt. The fact that God judges evil isn’t a flaw in His character. It’s evidence of His holiness.

We need to understand the difference between rage and wrath. Rage is explosive. It’s losing your temper. It’s saying things you’ll regret later.

But God’s wrath is never uncontrolled anger. It is His settled, righteous opposition to evil. He doesn’t judge because He loses control. He judges because He is perfectly holy.

God’s wrath reveals His holiness, and God’s holiness demands that sin be judged.

But it raises the question: If God is this holy…what hope do we have?

This brings us to Chapter 2:

2. God’s Mercy Invites Repentance

Before judgment comes, God extends an invitation. Look at Zephaniah 2:1-3

Zephaniah 2:1–3 ESV

¹ Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation, ² before the decree takes effect —before the day passes away like chaff— before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord. ³ Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.

Three times He says, “Before.”

Before it’s too late. Before judgment falls. Before the Day of the Lord arrives.

That tells us something about God’s heart. He doesn’t warn because He enjoys frightening people. He warns because He wants people to respond.

Then He tells them exactly what that response should be.

“Seek the Lord… seek righteousness… seek humility.”

That’s repentance. Repentance isn’t just feeling sorry for your sin. It’s turning away from your sin and turning toward God.

Sometimes we think repentance is just quitting something. Quit drinking. Quit watching porn. Quit losing your temper. Quit cheating on tests.

But true repentance is more than stopping doing something. It’s changing direction. Christianity isn’t merely about leaving something behind. It’s about returning to Someone.

Thomas Chalmers, a Scottish pastor from the 1800s, said the heart is changed by “the expulsive power of a new affection.” In other words, we don’t simply stop loving sin. We begin loving Christ more.

That’s why Zephaniah doesn’t merely say, “Stop worshiping idols.” He says, “Seek the Lord.”

Repentance isn’t just saying no to a lesser story. It’s saying yes to a greater Savior.

In verse 3, we come to a phrase that may surprise us. At the end of verse 3, Zephaniah says, “Perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.”

Why “perhaps”? This makes it sound like repentance might not guarantee forgiveness. Is that true? If so, how is God different from those Greek gods we talked about earlier? How is He different from the Allah of Islam? I’ve had a Muslim tell me that on judgment day, Allah will weigh your good deeds against your bad deeds, and if he is merciful, you will enter paradise.

That’s not the gospel. The gospel is that through the cross, God has already expressed His mercy. Romans 5:8 tells us that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

In Zephaniah, God’s mercy was expressed by the fact that He was warning the people in the first place.  If God delighted only in judgment, He wouldn’t have sent a prophet. He would have simply sent Babylon. Every warning in Scripture is evidence that God still desires repentance.

So the ‘perhaps’ in verse 3 isn’t expressing doubt about God’s willingness to forgive. It’s about God’s purposes in history. Even the righteous in Judah would live through the Babylonian invasion. Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel all experienced exile. Repentance was no guarantee they would avoid the consequences that were coming upon the nation.

But it was a guarantee that, whatever came, they would belong to the God whose mercy never fails.

That’s an important distinction. We often think repentance is a way to escape hardship. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t. The promise of Scripture isn’t that God will always remove us from the fire. Sometimes He meets us in it.

Zephaniah’s message is not, “Repent, and nothing bad will ever happen to you.” The invitation is, “Repent, and return to the God whose mercy is greater than your sin.”

We sang it earlier. Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more.

3. God’s Heart Delights in His People

If chapter 1 is one of the darkest chapters in the Minor Prophets, chapter 3 is one of the brightest. After all the warnings, all the judgment, and all the calls to repentance, Zephaniah ends with a song. Look at verses 14-17.

[Read Zephaniah 3:14-17]

Zephaniah 3:14–17 ESV

¹⁴ Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! ¹⁵ The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. ¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. ¹⁷ The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

If all you knew about God came from chapter 1, these verses would almost seem impossible. The God who said, “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” now says, “Sing aloud… rejoice… exult with all your heart.”

What changed?

Did God calm down?

Did He become less holy?

No. God didn’t change. The people’s relationship to God changed.

Verse 15 says, “The Lord has taken away the judgments against you.” Zephaniah didn’t yet know how God would do that. We do. At the cross, God’s judgment wasn’t ignored; it was satisfied. Jesus took the judgment our sins deserved so that we could receive the mercy we never could have earned. That’s why Romans 8:1 can say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

But the greatest surprise isn’t that God forgives His people. It’s what He feels toward them.

Listen again to verse 17.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.”

That’s wonderful. But then Zephaniah goes even further.

“He will rejoice over you with gladness.”

God doesn’t merely tolerate His people. He rejoices over them.

“He will quiet you by His love.”

I love that picture. How many of us have an inner voice that never stops? Regret. Shame. Fear. “You’re not enough.” “You’ll never change.” “God must be disappointed in you.”

And then God speaks.

Not with condemnation, but with love.

His love quiets the noise.

Then comes one of the most astonishing statements in the entire Bible:

“He will exult over you with loud singing.”

Think about that.

The singer in this verse isn’t us.

It’s God.

We spend a lot of time talking about singing to God. Zephaniah says there is a day when God Himself sings over His redeemed people.

I have no idea what that song sounds like. But I know what it means.

It means the deepest truth about God’s heart is not that He delights in judgment. He delights in redeeming His people.

I wonder how many Christians are living as though God merely tolerates them.

•    Every time they pray, they assume He’s disappointed.

•    Every time they fail, they assume He’s finished with them.

•    Every time they read the Bible, they feel like they’re trying to earn their way back into His good graces.

That’s not the picture Zephaniah gives us.

Yes, God disciplines His children.

Yes, He calls us to holiness.

But He also delights in them.

Imagine how it would change your week if you actually believed that.

Remember the question we started with.

How does God really feel about you?

If you are outside of Christ, His invitation is still the same: “Seek the Lord.” Turn from your sin. Come home while there is still time.

But if you are in Christ, hear this with fresh ears: God doesn’t merely put up with you. He doesn’t reluctantly let you into heaven because Jesus talked Him into it. The Father sent the Son. The Son gladly gave His life. The Spirit opened your eyes. From beginning to end, your salvation is the work of a God who delights to save.

The God of chapter 1 and the God of chapter 3 are not two different gods.

His wrath reveals His holiness.

His delight reveals His heart.

And that’s why we can sing with confidence:

Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more.

[Response time]