Book of Zephaniah - Ch. 2, Vs. 1-15 (04/07/2002)

Park Meadows Church

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The second chapter of the book of Zephaniah, God has not only judged his people, but he's going to judge the nations.

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He does judge the nations. We find

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Zephaniah sending out God's last call to the nation of Judah to repent and come to him.

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Verse 1. Gather yourselves together. Yea, gather together,

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O nations not desired. It's a little bit difficult to understand this, but I found another translation.

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Gather yourselves together. Yes, gather together, you nations that have no shame.

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Makes it a little more clear. They're to come together as a people.

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Their sin, of course, is the cause of God bringing them to judgment.

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It's not that he doesn't desire them, not that he doesn't love them.

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Judgment came upon them because of their sin. They were detestable.

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They were repulsive. Yet, they were insensible to shame of their sinfulness, to their sin condition.

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They were shameless in their conduct. We would say they had no sensitivity to sin whatsoever.

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They sinned with arrogance. They would sin openly and actually boast of it.

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I find that we have come to the same situation today in our nation. I do not believe,

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I do believe that there was just as much sin when I was growing up as there is today.

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David, why do we hear more about it today? You cannot keep it hid.

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When I was young, they sinned in the backyard or undercover.

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They didn't flaunt it in front of people and didn't boast about it. In other words, it is shameless sin.

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Watching the news, I saw a very beautiful young lady that was boasting of the fact that she was living with a man and not married to him.

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The others on the program congratulated her for her courage, if you can imagine.

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Broad -mindedness. Nobody called it shameless sin.

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Sin's right out in the open today. But I don't think there's more sin.

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It's just that we know more of it. It used to be as done undercover.

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Done secretly. Less secretly and there's more, well, there's not as much shame.

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They think nothing now of sinning in broad daylight. Well, God's going to judge this nation.

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Now, he's talking to Israel and us. The second verse,

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Before the decree went forth, before the day passed as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the

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Lord cometh upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger cometh upon you, they were together together.

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For what reason? Well, that's right.

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He calls them to repentance. There's a note of urgency in his voice.

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He tells them, do this before God begins to move in judgment because when you pass over the line and when

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God begins to move in judgment, you'll find out it's too late. My fear are in that position.

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One of the things that's needed today in our country is for someone whose voice is heard to call our nation to prayer and to repentance.

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Our nation has almost reached the end of its road. Three, Seek ye the

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Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment.

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Seek righteousness. Seek meekness. It may be you shall be hid in the day of the

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Lord's anger. There's always been a remnant.

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Even in the most liberal church, I think there are at least one or two

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Christians. Now, why they are there, I don't know. They're where God put them,

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I know, but they're there by their own choice. But it's a remnant.

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God's always worked with the remnant. That's right.

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Seek righteousness. The remnant also should be very careful of the way they live in their lives.

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Seek meekness. They are not to be lifted up by arrogance and pride and self -efficiency, for that was one of the great sins of the nation.

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This is also a danger among believers today. Did you realize that there are people that are proud of being saved?

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Now, David, how can that be wrong? Yes. That's right.

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We have nothing to glory in. Apostle Paul said that he had nothing to glory in.

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If he didn't, I sure don't. I'm sure that none of us have.

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There's a danger of being proud of the fact that we're God's children. Maybe he shall be hid in the day of the

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Lord's anger. It is a glorious, wonderful thing to be hid in the cleft of the rock and to be covered by his wings.

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God's children need to recognize that. Although they may not go through the

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Great Tribulation period, they may experience a great deal of judgment and a great deal of trouble, just as those people did.

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Judah did not go through the Great Tribulation, the great day of the

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Lord, but they certainly were going through, as I like to put it, the

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Little Tribulation. All of us are going to have tribulation to a certain extent.

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We're going to have trouble. There's not a one of you that cannot raise your hand and attest to the fact that I had trouble.

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Paul says that we've grown within these bodies, but that does not mean we're in the

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Great Tribulation. Now we come to a section beginning with verse 4, going down to verse 8 of chapter 3, in which we see the judgment of the nations.

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This passage reveals that God's judgments are upon all nations. The God of the

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Bible is not a local deity. We get to thinking sometimes that God's right here, and that's all.

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He's not one that you put on a shelf. He's not that in local or national.

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It has been the great error of the white race when attempting to Christianize the quotations of people by bringing them the gospel.

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We don't stop there. We also try to make them live as we live and to adopt our customs and our methods to different people in the world.

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They are all people whom Christ died. Our business is to get them to hear the gospel, to get the word of God to them, and then let them work it in their own

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Christian life, in their own customs. The God of the Bible is the

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God of the universe. You need to remember that. He created all of it.

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Yes, that's right.

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He was a redeemer of mankind, not just those in Corsica. He's going to judge other nations, not just his own people.

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God's put up certain standards that have become worldwide. They have been written into the

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Ten Commandments, which God gave to Moses. All nations have a sense of right and wrong, although they may vary on what's right and what's wrong.

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A missionary was telling a story about a tribe he had worked with out in the

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South Seas. They were headhunters. How many of you know what a headhunter is?

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A cannibal. They'd eat you. But he said that they had a high sense of honesty.

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He told me that you could put your billfold with the money and cards and everything down in the middle of where they live, and nobody would touch it.

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But, of course, they didn't mind eating their mother -in -law.

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You would never know exactly what they meant when they said they had their mother -in -law for lunch today. But they did have a high sense of honesty, which is something

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I recognize or I don't think we have in our country today.

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Standards apparently vary, but God has given to the nations of this world certain standards.

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You'll find them in all nations of the earth. No nation could be a civilized nation unless they recognized some of the things.

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But when the people depart from the living and true God, they go into the deepest kind of paganism and heathenism.

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Verse 4, And gazes shall be shaken, and Ashkelon the desolation, they shall drive out

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Ashok, that the Noonday and Ekron shall be rooted up.

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Mentioned here are four cities of the Philistines. They're going to be judged.

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Somebody might ask, why didn't they mention Gath? Well, it was a very prominent place, all right, but it was under the domination from the control of the

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Southern Kingdom. These four cities are to be judged, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron, for Gaza shall be forsaken,

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Ashkelon the desolation. It's interesting that Gaza is forsaken today and Ashkelon is a desolation today.

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They shall drive out Ashdod at the Noonday. Now, Greg, what could that mean?

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Why put a time of day on it, Noonday? Well, that's true.

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Clarence, what do you think he means by Noonday? Bill? Diane?

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Well, that's all true. Certainly God can exercise his power whenever he wants, but the

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Noonday, that bothered me, and I got to looking, and it's very hot in that country, and they take a siesta.

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It's hard to get into a store between 12 and 3. So when they are resting, when they're not at their guard, when they least expect it, judgment will come.

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As at Ashdod, it's pretty warm, although it is by the sea. It gets very warm there in the summer.

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Zephaniah says it will be destroyed, that they will be driven out at Noonday.

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In other words, the enemy will take them off guard, and Akron shall be rooted up.

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Akron was rooted up. It was completely removed. Oh, and to the inhabitants of the

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Sycos, the nations of the Cherithites, the word of the

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Lord is against you. O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitants.

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The Jews, instead of friendships with the nations, they were their enemies.

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He calls on the Canaanites, whom the Lord appointed to be slain. Did they slay all of them?

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By the way, that ought to be the answer to some of the people, especially the liberals who have raised.

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I have heard the question, what right has Israel to drive the

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Philistines out of their native land? Greg, how would you answer that? Well, on a human level.

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Well, that's exactly right. It was their land before it was the Philistines. Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, all their offspring went down to the land of Egypt, and while they were gone, these foreigners moved in.

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Now they think it's theirs. This book is very contemporary.

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The word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, the land of the

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Philistines. I'll even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitants.

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He says that you're going to be judged. By the way, when was the last time you ever saw a

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Philistine? They disappeared. They're not anymore.

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Six, and the sea coast shall be dwelling cottages for shepherds and foals for flocks.

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This took place, and this condition exists all over a thousand years, maybe 2 ,000, 1900.

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Seven, and the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah.

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They shall feed their own in the house of Ashkelon.

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They shall lie down in the evening, for the Lord their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity.

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This is God's promise to his people. He will return them from the land of captivity to inhabit the land of Philistia, which was a part of the territory

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God had given to Abraham. Yes. Yes.

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We've always been a remnant. What does a remnant mean,

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David? That's what it means, exactly.

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The leftover bunch. I do not consider that we're seeing this today in fulfillment of what that prophecy.

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I believe that Israel will be driven from that land again before a final return.

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Now, don't tell them that I said that. Eight, I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revelings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their borders.

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Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the

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God of Israel, surely Moab shall be as a Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles and salt pits and a perpetual desolation.

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Their residue of my people shall spoil them and the remnant of my people shall possess them.

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Bill, what is nettles? All right.

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Pitching. What? Pitching. Yes. Well, what is salt pits?

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That means the land is dried up. The remnant of my people shall possess them.

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Greg, there's remnant again. The poorest country that has ever been in this modern nation of Hashemite, the

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Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, occupies what once was the land of Moabites and the

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Amorites. The modern capital there is Ammon. You just do not find any more desolate country than that.

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All of this prophecy has been fulfilled in the past. That's right.

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Somebody described for me the average man in the world. If you just took an average, what would it be like?

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Well, that's true if you had certain things. But I'm talking about the average man worldwide.

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How does he live? What does he eat? How old does he get? All right.

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What kind of a house does he have? Just to lean to.

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A few rags on his back. He eats one meal a day, and that's usually a fish or some other intestinal thing.

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Lives to the age of 45. He's the fortunate one.

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His wife is even worse. So when you look at us, what does that make us, world?

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It makes us rich, exceptionally rich. Ten, this shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the

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Lord of hosts. They're judged for their pride. And as you know, pride is the very way of the devil, the way he sinned in the beginning.

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The Lord will be terrible unto them, for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and men shall worship him, everyone from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.

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Now we come to the word famished. Greg, what's that mean?

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That's right. God's going to judge the nations of the world, because they have ignored him.

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They have not recognized him. When they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise.

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They became fools and changed the glory of an incorruptible

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God into an image made like unto corruptible man and to birds and four -footed beasts.

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This is the reason God will judge them. Twelve, ye

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Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.

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Ethiopia or Cushite. Cushite is a descendant of Cush, grandson of Noah through Ham, and a member of that nation.

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Ethiopia is in Africa. There's going to be a worldwide judgment.

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Thirteen, and he will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy

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Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness.

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Stretch out his hand. Yes. Yes, these people are black.

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They're a descendant of Ham. Ethiopia's in the south, but now we move to the north and find that Assyria also is to be judged.

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In Zebaniah's day, Assyria was making quite a splash in the world and will mark

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Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness. That is, yes.

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Yes. That's what

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I want you to see. That's the way of Nineveh today,

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Nineveh, and all of that area is still desolate. So it's already happened. But there shall be a judgment of nations, including all of them.

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Fourteen, and flocks shall lie down in the midst of her and all the beasts of the nation, both the corment, that's a ceremonial unclean bird, perhaps a pelican, and the bittering porcupine or hedgehog shall lodge in the upper lintels of it.

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Their voices shall sing in the windows. Desolation shall be in the threshold, for he shall uncover the cedarwork to be bare, denude, uncover, leave destitute, discover empty, raise or pour out.

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In other words, their buildings are to be torn down. This is the rejoicing of the city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart,

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I am, and there is none beside me. How has she become a desolation, a place of beasts to lie down?

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Everyone that passes by her shall hiss and wag his hand.

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Everyone that passes by shall hiss at them. People will hiss at Nineveh in the sense that it will be sort of an explosive explicative that comes from a person who is surprised.

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Why, I thought that Assyria was a great nation and that Nineveh was the great city. Just look, see what's happened to them.

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They hiss and their breath is just blown out of them and wag his hand.

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Greg, what's that mean? Well, not exactly.

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They simply shake their hands of it, being absolutely stupefied to see what has taken place.

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Yes, that's right.

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That's right. Yes, they can go down.

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God has judged the nations in the past. History shows that. And God judges nations today.

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History shows that. The Lord Jesus says that he will judge nations in their future.

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As we see the book of Habakkuk, God was moving in that way and the prophet never suspected it.

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And God is moving in the nations of the world today. He has judged them in the past.

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He will judge them in the future. He will judge us. Are we worthy of judgment?

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Do you think we will be judged? What can we do to prevent it?

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Bill, what can we do about the judgment that's coming?

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That's right. It seems as though we can pray, but God does not remove the judgment, but he gives us the strength to go through it.

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Yes. Now, something

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I want you to do. Don't apply this to everybody else. It applies to you, to me.

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I must see that I escape this. And in doing it, we will.

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A worldwide judgment. No. Well, we know.

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Now, what are you going to do about it? All we can do, all

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I can do is what I'm doing. Well, that makes sense.

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I want us to be quiet Christians. Quiet in the Lord. Not afraid to speak out when he asks us to.

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And you each one know when that is. But I dare not flaunt anything.