God’s righteousness and people’s repentance
Reveal God’s righteousness
(at the time of the prophet)
“Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow (一點食物也不留到早晨). Her prophets are light and treacherous persons (虛浮詭詐的人): her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light (顯明他的公義), he faileth not (無日不然); but the unjust knoweth no shame (不知羞恥).” (Zeph 3:1-5)
(at the end of the world)
“I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings. Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey (直到我興起擄掠的日子): for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” (Zeph 3:6-8)
Call for repentance
“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them (我就必後悔，不將我想要施行的災禍降與他們). And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them (我就必後悔，不將我所說的福氣賜給他們).” (Jer 18:7-10)
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isa 55:6-7)
The Lord has no pleasure that the wicked should die but has pleasure that he returns from his evil ways. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Ezek 18:23)
“Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin…For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezek 18:30,32)
“Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord…seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.” (Zeph 2:2-3)