The Wrath to Come - Zephaniah

 Zephaniah 1:14 (ESV)

The great day of the LORD is near,

near and hastening fast;

the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter;

the mighty man cries aloud there.

Here is what RC Sproul writes about this verse and the verses that follow:

“The message is not politically correct in our time. The descriptive terms Zephaniah uses to paint the picture of the day of the Lord include the following:

bitter; devastation; darkness; troubler; refuse; devoured; alarm; desolation; gloominess, distress. wrath; fire; blood  

It seems almost as if the Holy Spirit enlarged Zephaniah’s vocabulary to make the point clear. The litany of descriptive terms leaves little doubt about the horror of this predicted day. And this passage is but a small portion of the prophecy. The full message is even more hair-raising in its graphic declaration of the outpouring of God’s wrath.”

Excerpt From: R. C. Sproul. “Saved from What?.” Crossway Books & Bibles, 2010-07-10. iBooks. 

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If you continue to read through chapters one and two of Zephaniah, you read more and more of these words of devastation.  God takes sinning against Him seriously and will, at some point, pour out his wrath on mankind.   For those who believe we are not to worry:

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (ESV)

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

There is a “wrath to come.”   It is not intended for believers.  But, those who continue to worship the creation and not the Creator will be fully consumed by His wrath.