Bible Journaling: The Book of Zephaniah

In this book about the prophecy of Zephaniah, we discover another confirmation of the other prophecies about the end. See how many themes you can identify running through all the prophetic books of the Old Testament. And, is there anything that Zephaniah mentions that is completely unique? Anything that is not mentioned anywhere else?

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip: 

Sometimes we associate places with certain memories. There are even people who study for exams by going on long walks and establishing certain landmarks along the way with important parts of what they need to study. For example, the second tree on the left was where I looked at the history of Spain. For today’s Bible journaling tip, we will do the same. We will choose a book of the Bible and then find a special place to go and read it. Choose somewhere that you haven’t been before, but you’ve been saying you’re going there - maybe there’s a river nearby, or a coffee shop you haven’t been to. The idea is that this place will now capture the memory of reading that book in the Bible forever. For example, I can remember when I read the book of Zephaniah on the beach at sunrise. You can even take a picture or do a little artwork of the place and put it in your Bible to remember the place.

LOOK UP (information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

Zephaniah is the prophet who brought this message. Think about the life a prophet would lead, in order to receive such in-depth and powerful and true messages directly from God. What would their mornings look like? Who would they spend time with? Sometimes when we are not hearing God’s voice in our own lives, it’s because we have too much clutter. We need to tune our lives similar to tuning a radio station until God’s voice is the clearest of all the other voices (people, social media, news, stress, etc.). 

Audience:

This prophetic message was delivered to the people of Judah. It was an urgent call to turn from their wicked ways and seek the Lord wholeheartedly. God’s goal was to call out a “remnant” from all the nations on the earth. Remnant means a small community that is set apart from the rest of the people. Can you find any other places in the Old Testament where it speaks about this?

History:

Zephaniah also prophesies Nineveh’s fall like we saw in the book of Nahum, so this was written around the same time. It is widely accepted that this message was given about a decade before the Babylonian exile. This prophecy speaks identity to the remnant - they are set apart for God’s purposes. Mark all the places where you see this in the book.

Genre:

This is still part of the minor prophets - These short books overlap and when we look at them together, it is like looking at a tapestry woven from different threads. What are some themes you see in all the minor prophets?

LOOK IN(revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

Zephaniah 3:17 NIV

"The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."

Inspiration:

The image of God given by this verse is that He laughs (takes great delight) and sings over us celebratory songs. If God is so creative and full of life, and the Bible is the Word of God, what do you think He wants our Bibles to look like? Often the Bible is seen as an untouchable book, but God is so creative and alive - it is hard to imagine that he wants us to approach him in such a stiff and formal way. Write down how this challenges your view of the Bible as a book, and what this says about Bible journaling…

LOOK OUT(transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

The book of Zephaniah speaks a lot about idolatry. Most Christians today will say that they do not have physical idols that we pray to or make offerings to… But, what do we spend our money on? What do we talk about the most? What do we devote our time to?

Create a self-portrait, and include pictures of all the different kinds of influences and idols in your life floating around you. For example, I could draw myself in the middle of the page and around me you would see my phone, my friends, the shows I watch, the music I listen to, etc. You can use this picture as a type of prayer of repentance, and to remind yourself to be on guard against these things. 

Bible Journey with HolyJot:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the HolyJot community. 

• What did the prophet summon the people to do in the first three verses of this book? (Zephaniah 2:1-3)
• What proof is there in this book that Nahum’s prophecy against Nineveh had not yet been fulfilled in this verse? (Zephaniah 2:13)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

In Zephaniah 2:3 the people are encouraged to seek righteousness and humility. Write a short page about the meaning of those two characteristics. How can you live these out today - in your personal life, in your family, among your friends, with your church, and in your community?

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of Zephaniah. Would you guide me to see your character more clearly as I read this book in the Bible. Help me to see clearly what this means for me today. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!