I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Zephaniah 1-3 and Haggai 1-2.

    There are two ways to read Zephaniah (OK, there are probably more, but I am just going to consider two): as a single prophecy about the coming fall of Jerusalem containing some hyperbole, or as two prophecies, one concerning the end of the world and one concerning the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon (or perhaps some other historic event). I believe that Zephaniah considered it a prophecy about a single event. While I believe that elements of this passage concern the end of the world, I think that it is best to consider it as a prophecy about a single event.
    The main point of this passage is that the day of God’s judgement is coming. When that day comes it will not be limited to just a few people, or even a limited geographic area. When I was growing up during the Cold War, we understood how comprehensive that day would be. We read passages like verses 2 and 3 of chapter 1 and thought of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Our understanding of the worldwide devastation which would follow was influenced by those who remembered World Wars I and II. We understood and talked about how such a war would be indiscriminate in killing people throughout the earth. That was the image we had of the Day of God’s Judgement.
    However, Zephaniah tells us that perhaps there is yet time to seek God so that He will protect us on that Day. But this is not a private, personal seeking to do what is right. Zephaniah tells us that this salvation is corporate. Each one of us must choose to seek the Lord ourselves, but we cannot go it alone. We must gather together with those others who are also seeking the Lord. We must humbly test our understanding of what is right against others who also seek to do right.

    Haggai has a message which is timeless. All too often we do what the Returned Exiles were doing when God called Haggai. We tell ourselves that as soon as we get our lives together we will begin serving God. I have been guilty of it myself. Through Haggai God tells us that we will never get our lives together until we put Him first. We will never have enough to fully meet our needs as long as we put our needs ahead of serving God. Our “needs” will expand to consume all of our resources as long as we put them first. When we start putting God first, we will find that we have a surplus to serve Him even more. Sometimes, that surplus will be because God has blessed us with more. Sometimes that surplus will be because we realize that we did not need many of the things we called “needs”.