Zephaniah 1:4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
Note that God declares that His judgment is falling upon Judah and Jerusalem and we see the fulfillment of that in Jeremiah 44. His judgment is coming upon Judah because of their idolatry. Baal is the name of a pagan god we see often in the Old Testament. The Chemarims are idolatrous priests and according to various commentators, these priests wore black garments. Baal worship was introduced into the kingdom of Israel by Jezebel, whose father was a high priest of Baal. Manasseh brought Baal worship back into the kingdom of Judah during his reign as king.
How did Israel’s downfall begin? It began through idolatry and spiritual apostasy – the turning away from God in favor of other gods or the worship of man and nature. The Israelites rejected God and His blessings and followed false gods and false teachers and when God was rejected, the Israelites lost their sense of morality. God and His Word are the foundation of absolute morality and when a nation turns from Him, they start following their own idea of morality which is situational. In other words the people of that spiritually corrupt nation will do what is right for them at the moment, even if it is not consistent. Consider this: in America, people will declare that women have the right to control whatever is happening with their bodies – namely the right to have an abortion. They state that the government cannot tell them what to do with their bodies, it is their choice if they want to abort or not. However, these same people are applauding President Obama’s health care bill, which mandates that all Americans must have health insurance or they will be heavily fined. Do you see the contradiction?
Listen to this quote by J. Vernon McGee written at least 25 years ago: A great many people in the United States today think that our problem is in Washington D.C. – I don’t think so. Another group of people feel that if people could be reformed, if we could get people to act nicely, not be violent and not steal, if we could just lift our moral standards, then that would solve our problems. Very frankly, I believe that the problem in this country is religious apostasy. The problem is out yonder with you and right here with me. The problem is that the church failed to give God’s message. The great denominations, by and large, have now departed from the faith. They have come to the place where they no longer give an effective message to the nation. As a result, from this religious apostasy have flowed moral awfulness and political anarchy.
Listen to this quote from a large newspaper’s editorial on the failure of churches to present any spiritual message whatsoever even longer ago: This betrayal of Christ in the name of Christianity is one reason for the moral and spiritual malaise with which this country is afflicted. The melancholy fact is that the churches no longer influence the development of national character. People go to church mainly because of an impulse to participate in a service of worship, not because of any spiritual guidance they expect from the clergyman [McGee].
Idolatry was the downfall of Israel and it will be the downfall of America if we do not, as a nation, repent of our sin of rejecting God. Israel was idolatrous during the Old Testament and during the New Testament – the only thing that changed was the idol. In the Old Testament, they worshiped statues, but in the New Testament they worshiped themselves but called it the worship of Jehovah. When Jesus Christ came down and stood among them and revealed Himself to them, they rejected Him and slew Him on the cross. Even after they saw Christ Jesus resurrected from the dead, they still turned away from Him.
Zeph 1:5, 6 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; (6) And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired for him.
In Israel, it was common to build their houses with flat roofs and they would spend time on the roof tops as a family especially in the evening where it would be cooler. Look at what Zephaniah was stating: the Israelites were now worshiping the idols at home as well at the pagan temples. The Israelites were turning their homes into little pagan temples!Furthermore, Zephaniah is declaring that they are worshiping the host of heaven, meaning the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon. The Israelites were worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. I think it is horrible when a professed Christian has to daily read their horoscope – that is worshiping the stars and the heavens. The idolatry gets worse, for in the last phrase of verse 5, we see that the Israelites were making vows unto Malcham, which is another name for Molech. The god of the Ammonites, Molech was the idol that the Israelites sacrificed their children to. God warned the Israelites in Levitcus 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. The Israelites were sacrificing their first born child to a pagan god just as people do today when they have an abortion. Look at Zephaniah 1:5 again, the Israelites were worshiping the host of heaven and Malcham (Molech), but look at the middle phrase: and them that worship and that swear by the LORD. They were worshiping idols and at the same time they were worshiping the Lord God! They sacrificed their children in worship to Molech and on another day of the week went to the Temple of the one true God and worshiped Him. How horrible! They had forgotten the first commandment given by God!
Deuteronomy 5:6-10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. (7) Thou shalt have none other gods before me. (8) Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: (9) Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, (10) And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
There are too many people today that claim the name of Christian but also worship at the altar of a false god. They may name that false god Jesus but that false god is nothing like the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Some will call that Jesus “superstar” but that is far from true worship of the true Jesus Christ. They try to dent the deity of Jesus Christ and they try to change the words that He spoke as they were recorded under Holy Spirit inspiration in the Bible. These people will still go to church on Sundays and they may go through the various Christian rituals like saying grace or accepting communion, but they are not following the Jesus Christ of the Bible. They have changed his image through their traditions and man made ideas rather than following what the Bible tells us. That church may have a large choir and comfortable pews and air conditioning, but are they truly following God or just going through the motions? What about us here today? Are we obedient to God or to ourselves? Are we worshiping God on Sunday and worshiping ourselves the rest of the week? Who is the focus in our life, God or ourselves? Have we taken up the cross or have we set it aside thinking it is too heavy to carry when times get difficult?
Is there no other way, Oh, God,
Except through sorrow, pain and loss,
To stamp Christ’s likeness on my soul,
No other way except the cross?
And then a voice stills all my soul,
As stilled the waves of Galilee.
Canst thou not bear the furnace,
If midst the flames I walk with thee.
I bore the cross, I know its weight;
I drank the cup I hold for thee.
Canst thou not follow where I lead?
I’ll give thee strength, lean hard on Me! (Author unknown)
The problem for Israel back then and the problem for America today is that they claimed to be following God but they were really following false gods and idols. Man cannot serve two masters.
Zeph 1:6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired for him.
The people of Israel had turned away from God. There are only two types of people in this world: the saved and the lost. We see in verse six that in Israel both kinds had turned away from God. I pray the same does not happen in America.