Zephaniah was a prophet during the days when Josiah was King of Jerusalem, about 600 years before Jesus was born. The Assyrian threat was waning. Egypt and Babylon were rising threats against God’s people. But the real threat to God’s people was not a foreign army. The real threat was the people turning away from God. The real threat was idolatry. Even the leaders and kings, who were supposed to forbid idolatry and protect the people from it, promoted idolatry and corrupted the people’s hearts.

Josiah was one of the few good kings. Under Josiah, the temple and proper worship was restored. While they were cleaning the temple, they found the book of Deuteronomy. The Word of God came back to the people bringing revival. The people were humbling their hearts before the Lord. You would think that the prophet Zephaniah would have a pleasant message to the people, but it was not.

Zephaniah’s short book is a message of the judgment of God against rebellion. It is a message of God’s coming judgment against sin. Long God had been patient with his people doing whatever they wanted rather than doing what he had told them to do. The Great Day of the Lord’s wrath was coming to destroy sin and everyone who would cling to their sin rather than humbly follow the Lord.

How does this relate to joy? We would know that answer if we had a better understanding of the wrath and judgment of God. God’s wrath and judgment is not because he is out to get you. God’s judgment is not meant to destroy you. It is meant to destroy that which is destroying you. The people of Judah were endangered, not by God, but by their sin. They were being destroyed by their lust, greed, injustice and idolatry. Radical as it was, the judgment of God had a healing effect on the people. V 11: Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill. But I will leave within you the meek and the humble, who trust in the name of the Lord…They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid.

After judgment the Lord holds his people secure, not because they have earned security, but because he has made them free from all that attacks them: free from enemies from without and especially the enemy within. Our text is full of joy because the Lord has delivered the people. V 14 Sing, O daughter of Zion: Shout aloud, O Israel…he Lord has taken away your punishment, and has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel is with you, never again will you fear any harm. He is talking about a final state of freedom, deliverance and peace—final joy.

Christmas is about judgment and wrath. Christmas is about the destruction of the enemies of God. The wonder of Christmas is not just that Jesus was born as a baby. The wonder of Christmas is that God would use that baby as the means for our salvation. God would pour his wrath and judgment out on sin and rebellion and destroy it through this baby named Jesus. Jesus came to teach and heal, but most of all he came to take the sin and rebellion of the world upon himself and bear the brunt of God’s wrath. The description of the wrath of God in the first 3 ½ chapters of Zephaniah is nothing compared to what Jesus endured for us. Jesus died to take away our sins. Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem meant that judgment was coming. It would not fall on God’s people. In Christ it would fall on God himself.

The end result was the joy that Zephaniah writes about in v 15: The Lord has taken away your punishment, and has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel is with you, never again will you fear any harm. Never again will you fear any harm. Never again will you fear the wrath of God. This gives us joy. This is the joy that will not go away. This is final joy.

When does this final joy come? When can we expect to have it? Jesus died and rose again, but we still have difficulty. Jesus came that we would be forgiven, but we still struggle with sin. When does this final joy come into play?

It is already here now. We have a right to this joy because we can know deliverance from our sins. Still, this joy is not yet in its fullness. We know the reality of the presence of God right now, but this is only a taste of what it will be like in heaven. There will be a time when the Lord our God will quiet all our concerns with his love and he will rejoice over us with singing (v 17). In fact, that is happening now but it will get even better. This final joy is an active part of making us new people in Christ.

This Christmas may you know that final joy through a deeper relationship with the Savior.