“In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.”

~ Zephaniah 1:9

Zephaniah 1:4-13 describes five (5) reasons for God’s judgment of Judah when He sent them off to Babylon in captivity.  In previous articles, we examined the first three ways in which Judah’s rebelled against God: idolatry, pride, and worldliness. Now let us examine a fourth way in which Judah rebelled: defiance.

In our text, the phrase: “leap on the threshold” is defined by action “fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit”. A threshold is a boundary, and in the context of Zephaniah 1:9 it is the boundary between slaves/servants and masters. Thus to “leap on the threshold” is to be defiant: it means undermining, even destroying those on the other side of the boundary.

To better understand the significance of the phrase, consider that the word “threshold” (miphtân) is used seven other times in the Bible. And in five of those, it refers to either the boundary between the entrance to the Temple and outside, or the boundary around the place of sacrifice. Therefore, the threshold was a line of demarcation that separated those who had a certain duty, or a certain authority, from those who didn’t.

For example, in the Temple in Jerusalem, Hebrew men could enter the inner court, but women and strangers could not cross that boundary, that “threshold”. Likewise, priests could enter the area where sacrifices were made, but no one else was permitted to cross that “threshold”.

Therefore, to “leap on the threshold” is to attack or undermine the boundary and the authority that the boundary signifies. Hence, those who “leap on the threshold” are specifically attacking/eroding the authority of their employers/masters.

Why is that a problem?

God’s word to us through Zephaniah is that we should consider, reflect on, how we respond to boundaries, how we respond to authority in our lives. For example, how should a wife respond the the authority of her husband? Or how should children respond to the authority of their parents? Or (in the current politically polarized times) how should Christians respond to the authority of the (secular) government in their country?

However, since God is sovereign and ultimately in control of all our circumstances, our text is really challenging God’s children to consider how they respond to God’s authority in their own lives.

Zephaniah’s preaching/prophesying shows that the people of Judah had a problem with authority. Those that found themselves without authority responded with “violence and deceit”: i.e., with malice and dishonesty.

This also remains true of us today. For example, many employees respond to authority by deceiving their employers about how much work they are actually doing or by performing their jobs in a way that hurts their employers.

Similarly, children reject the authority of their parents by being disobedient and seek to hurt their parents with harsh/unkind words and by withdrawing their affection.

And so on…

The real issue that we face when we don’t have authority is that we want it. And often we will do whatever it takes to get it or to resist it or to undermine it. However, it is God that bestows authority. No one can have authority unless God allows him/her to have it. Therefore, to rebel against authority is to rebel against God.

To be clear, this does not absolve anyone who has gained authority unjustly or who uses authority unfairly. God allowed satan the authority to hurt Job and his family. But satan then and now remains evil and under God’s judgment.

Likewise, Jesus submitted Himself to the authority of the Chief Priest and the Roman government both of which were evil and committed the vilest crime of crucifying The Son of God.

The question is, “How do I respond to authority?”, regardless of whether that authority is wielded for good or for evil. Peter’s first letter put’s it this way:

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” ~ 1 Peter 2:18-20

The quality of the person/s in authority can vary, from good to bad, from righteous to evil. But the response to authority that God requires remains the same: submission. Not resistance, not undermining, not violence not deception, but submission is what God demands.

To seek authority that God hasn’t given us is to reject God’s authority over us. Similarly, to resist the authority God has placed over us is to reject God Himself.

“I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;”

Isaiah 65:2

The lifestyle of people of Judah had become destructive because they resisted God’s authority. Rather than yield to God’s authority, in the social struture that existed, the people of Judah were determined to live by their own authority: they had decided to “leap on the threshold”: they decided to defy God.

The world we live in promotes and exalts defiance. But that is not from God. God expects us to submit to authority. Not because authority is good. But because He is good and He is the ultimate authority.

“But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

“But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.”

Jeremiah 7:23-24