Book of Zephaniah - Ch. 1, Vs. 4-6 (09/10/2023)

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Thank you for doing it. Good morning, everybody.

I'm going to... Dave is trucking his way along in Psalm 18, but he asked if I could cover for him today because he, in his words, shredded his voice.

And by his words, I mean the text he sent me because he couldn't speak to say those words at the time.

He had a busy weekend teaching a seminar, so I'm going to give him a little bit of a break here.

Let's see. I'm going to go back a page. All righty, well let's open up our

Bibles to Zephaniah chapter 1. And the last time we were together, it's been about a month at this point, but we read a stopping point because we read the first three verses, which cover essentially a prophecy about universal judgment that's coming.

Now that's going to be a theme that we'll return to as we progress through the book. But for the time being, starting at verse 4, the prophet is going to hone in on a specific people, a specific group of people, and talk about some imminent judgment that is just around the corner for them.

And so that's where we will begin today at verse 4, so this is a pretty good starting spot.

And this begins our first section beyond how we introduced the book, which is future judgment upon Judah.

I'm sorry, we began our first section last time we were together in verses 2 and 3, which was future judgment on the world.

Now we're kind of on the second part of the same kind of natural section of the book, which is future judgment upon Judah specifically.

So that is what happens beginning in verse 4. If the feedback gets any worse, you might have to go turn it down for me,

David. Y 'all may not even hear it, I hear it a little bit. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read,

I'm just going to read the rest of the chapter real quick. Because what I like to do is for y 'all to just get the big picture, kind of get the full theme in your minds before we start breaking it down verse by verse.

And so let's just do that together. Let's begin at verse 4, Zephaniah chapter 1, it says, I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah.

Now keep in mind, he just said the word also, remember verses 2 and 3, he was discussing and prophesying a global judgment, which we determined the last time we were together was of course a prophecy of the second coming in the epic events that follow that.

So in verse 4, I will also, now he's talking about Judah specifically, stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place in the name of the cherims with the priests and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops and then in them that worship and that swear by the

Lord and that swear by Malcolm. That is the same

God, Molech, just for reference. Verse 6, and then that are turned back from the

Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired of him for him, hold thy peace at thy presence of the

Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests and it shall come to pass in the day of the

Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel in the same day also while I punish all those that leap on the threshold which fill their master's houses with violence and deceit, and it shall come to pass in that day, say it the

Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate and an howling from the second and the great crashing from the hills.

How the inhabitants of Mactesh for all the merchant people are cut down, all they that bear silver are cut off, and it shall come to pass at that time that I will search

Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their leaves that say in their heart, the

Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Therefore, their goods shall become a booty and their houses a desolation.

They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth greatly, even to the voice of the day of the

Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers.

And I will bring distress upon men and they that walk like blind men because they have sinned against the

Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust in their flesh as the dung. Neither shall their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in that day of the

Lord's wrath, but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of this jealousy of his jealousy.

For he shall for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

So that is the remainder of the yeah, that's all of chapter one there, and that will be what makes up a good portion of this next section that we're in.

Now, in verse 13, and we're going to talk about this when we get there again, we're going to backtrack and take a closer look at each of these verses that we just read.

But beginning around verse 13, I believe the theme, not the theme, but the focus of God's judgment switches a little bit.

We'll get there and discuss that in more detail. You'll notice there was a little bit of a change in the language it began.

We began to hear around verse 13 and onward some similarities in the judgment language that is used at the second coming and at Armageddon.

And when those things happen, and so when we get to about verse 13,

I believe it changes back. But for the time being, again, we're talking specifically about the people of Judah.

Remember in our introduction, one thing that we covered was the reality that Zephaniah here, as with all of the prophets, it's a common occurrence, but the prophets,

Jesus himself did this, but they would often prophesy. They would prophesy it kind of in two in two ways at the same time, they would give a near prophecy in a far prophecy.

If you're looking at it from from our timeline of historical events, often the prophet would give by near prophecy.

I mean, something that could have come to pass within a few months or maybe within a few years of that prophecy, in which case what they prophesied about was an actual historical event that we can now look back on as a part of just the the veins of history, while at the same time there may be a prophecy they were talking about that is still yet in our future.

So that was a common occurrence among the prophets. Again, Jesus himself did that in Matthew 24.

He prophesied about the invasion of 70 AD, while also prophesying about the second coming.

But it was all in the same same context. So it was a common thing that happened near prophecy and a far prophecy.

We talked about that in detail in our introduction to this book, because Zephaniah will do it frequently in the brief three chapters that we have here.

And so here is the first switch from that. He began with a far prophecy. And here at verse four, he begins, he does the first switch to a near prophecy that will break down as we go here.

So verse four, let's read it one more time together. I will also stretch out my hand upon Judah.

You know what? Let's see here. Yeah. OK, I'm sorry. This is great. I'll stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place in the name of the Chimerims with the priests.

In verse two and three, he's talking about the whole world. Now he's talking about Judah and Jerusalem. He's going to stretch out his hand upon the inhabitants of those places.

Now, God makes it clear here that Jerusalem and Judah are going to be singled out at some point in the future of this prophecy.

You know, what is one thing that God hates most?

If we were to think of all of the things that God talks about throughout the Old Testament, but certainly allusions to it in the new as well, but big time in the

Old Testament, what is one specific thing that he points out time and time again, do not do this.

And the reason is typically because he is a jealous God. What's something he hates above, seemingly above all else, given the amount of times he mentions it?

Worshipping idols, idolatry, false religion would be another way of putting it.

This is something that God takes very seriously because it totally breaks the the how do

I want to word this? It totally breaks the patterns and pictures that he put forth that he ordained between that would represent his relationship with his people in the covenants that he would put in place with his people.

In verse four here, it says, I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place in the name of the chimerims with the priests.

So we learn really quickly false religion at this point of the prophecy when this prophecy was taking place was an issue.

We know it wasn't the first time this was an issue. Of course, if you recall, we introduced this book with the revival that Josiah started in second

Kings chapter 22, I believe. And so the point of the revival was that false religion in the worship of idols was taking place.

Then he did the revival as king. He used his powers to go break down the groves and to burn the ashes of false priests and to break down the houses of the sodomites and so many other things.

Keep in mind, this prophecy takes place not long after that, and it's already an issue again. False religion is one of the things that God hates most.

And again, given the frequency of him warning against his people to not do that, you would think it's possibly at the top of his list, which makes sense given, again, the covenant between him and his people and the things that make the type of relationship he wants with them.

False religion is literally committing spiritual adultery. So if you as a spouse can imagine the deep feelings you would have and the disdain you would have toward your spouse ever committing adultery and breaking the covenant vows of your relationship, imagine that times infinity in regard to how

God feels when his people do the same thing, because that's what they're doing every time they commit adultery.

I'm sorry, idolatry. They are committing spiritual adultery. It's no wonder that he hates it more than anything else, perhaps.

Now, false religion was obviously a problem at this time. What was one of the main catalysts for God's wrath here?

Well, it was false religion. But specifically, as it mentions in verse four, it's the worship of Baal.

Now, every aspect of this particular false god and the worship of Baal would be removed.

This is interesting because it would be a completion of what the Lord started through Josiah some maybe a couple of decades earlier than this during that revival that we read about a few weeks ago.

Josiah made a strong effort for removing the worship of this particular god during that time in his life.

But it wasn't total. It mentions a remnant of Baal. So we know that that revival brought some cleansing, if you will, of that particular false religion, because now we're left with simply a remnant, whereas it was pervasive throughout the entire culture at the time that Josiah's revival took place.

So he did some work and he knocked out a lot of it, but it wasn't totally gone because there still is yet a remnant.

And so a lot of the judgment that we're about to read about, which is in regard to a near prophecy of Zephaniah, imminent judgment on the people of Judah and Jerusalem is because of the worship of this god that hadn't totally been removed yet.

But there is more as well, as we'll learn. Now, Baal was the Canaanite god of fertility, whom many in Israel had worshiped in the time of judges.

You can go all the way back just right on the other side of Joshua, passing away the worship of this particular god began.

And what's crazy about it, it's a Canaanite god, land of Canaan. This is the promised land.

They had literally just inhabited their promised land by the time of judges, which is just on the backside of Joshua's passing away, not just him passing away, though, but also, if you recall, the elders that were still alive at the time he passed,

I can't remember the way it's worded in Joshua. The people were doing pretty good, like they had done a pretty solid job of keeping the commandments of God, of course, as delivered through Moses and as reaffirmed by Joshua.

And they were living about as righteously as they could and were in good standing with the

Lord, not only by the time Joshua passed away, but also the entire generation of elders after him that were alive during his life.

In other words, all of his contemporaries until all they passed away, it was still they were still in good standing. But by the time you get to judges, the very next book after Joshua, you have the worship of Baal beginning.

It was a Canaanite god of fertility didn't take long before God's people began that particular false religion.

And by the time you get to King Ahab, they were worshiping him again.

The story of King Ahab is an interesting one. It was that one where God basically put together a council of spirits in heaven asking who was going to go do his bidding.

And an evil spirit came and gave a game plan that God approved. And so he went and put the lying spirits in the mouths of all of King Ahab's prophets.

They got him to go out to battle. He tried to get the king of Judah to dress up in his kingly robes so that he would be the one that would get killed.

And he dressed in like just regular armor. And yet an archer way out in the battle shot an arrow up in the air by happenstance,

I think is the word it uses. And it happened to pierce right in between his armor and his helmet, King Ahab.

And he died right there, which was a fulfillment of what God said would happen. And so King Ahab was another one that brought the worship of Baal back during his lifetime.

King Manasseh, we talked about him in our introduction to this book, he was Josiah's grandfather, just a couple of generations removed of the current king at the time of Zephaniah.

He had actually erected altars to Baal. So he took it even a step further.

He didn't just not only condoned it, but he himself as king erected altars to this particular false god.

Of course, Josiah, a couple generations later, destroyed many of those altars. Remember, it's this verse here that we looked at the last time we were together as part of our evidence that Josiah's revival had already taken place but didn't have a lasting effect.

It wasn't as pervasive. And I said this a minute ago, as it was the time that revival took place.

But Baal worship was still around nonetheless. So this was a big, big issue, this particular false religion.

Now, amazingly, Zephaniah tells us that a time will come when

God would remove every last trace of this particular false religion. Now, think about the history behind his people reverting to worshiping

Baal time and time again. And here Zephaniah tells us there will be a time where every last trace of Baal will be gone and no more worship will will happen again.

But not just the worship itself, the worship itself, he's also going to remove the idol priests with it.

Now, look at the end of verse four here. Not only the remnant of Baal, but the name of the chimerims with the priests.

This is an interesting little part that Zephaniah throws in here, the Hebrew word for the chimerims, which is

Komer, it means priest, which is interesting because look at the end of verse four, it says the name of the chimerims with the priests.

So why didn't the translators here translate it the name of the priests with the priests?

Because the Hebrew word here means priests. Well, there is there obviously there's a difference between the chimerims.

There was a distinction that the translators wanted to make here between the chimerims and the priests that it then talks about immediately following.

Are they the same priests? Are they two different groups of priests? He wanted to make a distinction here. I'm sorry, the translators wanted to make a distinction.

So, oh, did you have your hand up, dad? Yeah, I think they got it right.

Oh, they got it right, for sure. We're right. Yes. So if the the

Hebrew equivalent of this word, I was about to get into that. But you're right. It was this was a correct translation.

It's just a matter of why did they why did they do this? What was the basis behind it?

The Hebrew equivalent of that Aramaic word that dad was talking about means priests. But there's there's more to it than that.

The answer, which which dad already alluded to there is that it's two totally different words here. Priests at the end of verse four is the

Hebrew word for Kahane, which is what's used in the Old Testament to designate the

Levitical priests. OK, so this is very important. The Hebrew word that is used for priests at the end of verse four is the

Hebrew word that is used when we are talking about Levitical priests, in other words, the priests that were ordained by God himself to conduct his priestly work.

OK, in other words, priests of the one and true God like Melchizedek.

It's the same Hebrew word that was used to describe Melchizedek's priestly nature as well. The reason there's two words being used here in this verse and why the translation of the chimerams was used is because that first Hebrew word

Komer, it carries a totally different connotation. It could literally be translated like idle priests, like dad said a second ago, or idolatrous priest.

Another interesting note is that it also carries the connotation of if you if you look into the word and dig into the historical context of it a little bit more, it can also mean black priest because these particular priests would be dressed in solid black.

And it's interesting because it was from their type of worship and their type of attire that certain

Satanist movements derived their form of worship from.

They were it was it was modeled after these chimerams, the chimeram priests that's talking about here.

So in that one word chimeram that's used, you we gather they were not only priests, but they were specifically idolatrous priests and more literally black priests referring to the attire they were wearing as they conducted their priestly duties for this for the false idols.

It's pretty interesting stuff, so there's obviously a distinction here. So in verse four, you have a mixed group of idol priests, but who were who were the last priests mentioned again?

The Levitical priests, what does that mean? Again, these were the priests ordained by God to conduct worship for him, the one true

God, in complete contrast to the chimerams that were mentioned in lockstep with them.

In verse four, we have again this mixed group of idol priests and Levitical priests who had defected from proper worship of the true

God to a superstitious faith. Now, does that sound familiar to you guys at all?

We just finished a study in Malachi, and if you guys recall, the

Levitical priests at that time were also conducting just absolute, you know, brazen disregard in terms of their worship and the way they were conducting it, a disregard to the way it was supposed to be, the way they were supposed to be conducting their worship and how they were actually doing it.

And so there were there were some things happening at the time of Zephaniah here that were very similar to essentially how the entirety of the priesthood was at the time of Malachi, which was our last study.

So that's kind of interesting as well. There's some similarities there. As a quick side note,

I want to throw this thought out at you guys as well, because here we are in verse four.

I know we're just getting started, but there's some things that jumped out at me. As you have this unity between God's priests and idol priests happening, you had an obvious disobedience happening among the

Levitical priests of God. Otherwise, they wouldn't be associating themselves with these idol priests.

And Zephaniah wouldn't have joined them together in this warning as if it were one group.

He wouldn't have been combining those groups. The note that I want to throw out to you guys is that all throughout the

Old Testament, we have tons of warnings that are given to the people in that historical context, just like we're getting right here in Zephaniah.

But I believe that they're more applicable to us today, to our generation today and to past generations and generations to come than people may think.

For example, if God is not only able, but more than willing to cast away or to cut off his own priests, which is what he's talking about in verse four and what's about to be fleshed out in even more detail, he'll do the same with people that would defect from proper worship of him today.

Yes, it's a different dispensation, but God himself doesn't change just because there was a certain way for these priests to be worshiping.

And in that certain way was different than the way we may worship today. It's worship all the same, and it's all meant to go directly to the glory of him as he ordained it to be.

And so if like these priests, people who profess to be Christians, and I'm going to leave it a little bit ambiguous there because I'm not necessarily talking about the elect of God, although there are verses that indicate that even the elect can can get into some stuff that is so damaging to the testimony.

They're taken out early from our point of view, not from God's, but from ours. And so maybe this is just as applicable to the elect, but more broadly, more more general, those who profess to be

Christians, if they defect from a proper biblical form of worship by biblical,

I'm talking about literally the way that God commands us to worship and revere him.

And for us, it's not only Old Testament passages, but all of the New Testament as well. Then what's to keep him from cutting them off just as he did his own

Levite priests, as he's doing here in Zephaniah? Oh, man,

I don't have a lot of time. I was going to read you guys kind of an interesting I may do it some other time.

I may do it the next lesson because we can I can fit it in a couple of different places.

I'm reading Jim Pilgrim's progress right now. And there is a quote.

There's no chapters in the book, but around page 30, 34, something like that, there is the interpreter and he is taking

Christian, the protagonist, and he is showing him different people at different points in life.

And he gets to the point and and whether it be regrets or blessings and thankfulness for where they're at, he's giving contrasting views of what life would look like if you go this direction or that direction.

And he gets to a point of showing him a man in an iron cage. And it represents a man that has seared his conscience, that is now under a reprobate mind and that can no longer turn to God because it's too late.

And the imagery is really interesting because, of course, it's a man that is still in this life.

It's kind of a vision, but, you know, from the point of from Christian's point of view, it's he's just meeting these people as he goes along.

And you have this man saying that it's too late for me. And my first thought, I'm going to read it to you guys at some point because it's really, really amazing.

But my first thought is, well, that is really interesting, a really interesting mental picture this is drawing.

But obviously, from the human viewpoint, a person, you know, you can't say it's too late for a person because we don't know hearts.

And, you know, we've talked about we've talked about Doreen Irvine many times. I mean, if it wasn't too late for her, we don't know whether or not it's too late for a person and they wouldn't know either.

But then I was thinking, actually, we are given a biblical example of hearing directly from a man where it was too late.

And that was in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, because we actually got to go into the pits of Hades and see and hear him talk at the point of no return of what it was like for him and those feelings.

And so when I read that, when I was reading that to Jim and we're reading about this man in the iron cage and his his just complete depression and sadness that that he turned away from the

Lord, from the light giver, as it puts it in the book, for his whole life to the point where he reached a point of no return.

It made me think about these priests that we're talking about here. And it also made me think that, again, the themes throughout human history, they're not all that different.

Yes, it's a different dispensation. We're talking about these priests. It's not like this anymore. It's kind of weird because it's just we can't really relate to this form of the biblical form of worship ourselves.

But really, it's not all that different because the purpose of the worship was the same as the purpose of our worship is now.

And when people take that lightly and there's not any reverence behind it and they start to to unify with the idolatry, just as the

Levitical priests here did fast forward to present day when professing

Christians who perhaps are even in a position of leadership, maybe they're even they're even leading a, quote unquote, church congregation or whatever it may be, but they are infusing secular ideologies within it and trying to harmonize those things.

It's literally no different than Levitical priests trying to harmonize with the chimerams, the idol priests, the black priests.

And the result will also be the same. And we're about to see what that result is shortly. Let's go ahead and look at verse five real quick.

It says, so just talk about the priests and how Zephaniah kind of conflated these priests, these groups of priests into one.

Verse five says in them that worship the host of heaven upon the houses, we're still talking about people where judgment is imminent, them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, them that worship and that swear by the

Lord and that swear by Malcolm. In verse six says in them that are turned back from the

Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for him.

So after calling for the removal of the false priests in verse four, our prophet here then referred to three forms of idol worshipers.

So he talks about the idol priests first. That same pattern is in Malachi, where the the priests are rebuked first and are condemned first.

Then it breaks off and talks about the people. Notice the standard that is being set there in more than one place.

The people that are taking on a leadership role in the worship of God for us today, it would be it would be pastors, bishops, elders that if again, the best that we don't know hearts.

So if a man tells us that he is called of God, he is then held responsible for fulfilling the role that comes with the position he says he's called for.

Perhaps it's true, but as we know, there are plenty of ministers behind a pulpit as we speak around the world that are committing what you may call pulpit crimes on a weekly basis, total heresy, total blasphemy from the pulpit.

And they say they're called in because they say they're called. People are listening and using them as a model for how to live their lives.

And so if you are going to take on that role, whether you were called or whether you're just saying you were called because you want the the authority behind that position, you're held to the same standard.

And so the priests are singled out first, happened to Malachi, happened here in Zephaniah.

We need to remember that because that's not a coincidence that the spiritual leaders are singled out first.

But now it talks about the worshipers. OK, so we have the chimerims, which are idol priests.

Well, let's look at some of the different forms of idolatry that were happening at this point point in time because it wasn't just Baal worship.

Verse five, again, I'll reread these verses really quick in them that worship the host of heaven. OK, totally new segment.

It's still idol worship. It's still a false religion, totally different. The worship of the hosts of heaven on the housetops, them that worship in that swear by the

Lord and by Malcolm. Remember that one. That one's really interesting. And then that are turned back from the

Lord altogether, added that last word and those that have not sought the Lord or inquired from him.

So they call the removal of the false priests. Zephaniah, our prophet, calls for the removal of the false priests.

Then he references these three forms of idolatrous worship, introducing each of them by the phrase then that so he's saying them that do this, them that worship in this way, them that worship in this way.

And so he's making a point again to show us there are groups being distinguished here. First, we have the worshippers of the celestial bodies are literally star worshippers which believe that it's through it's through these celestial bodies that the powers of nature were harnessed.

And that is why they were worshiping these celestial bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars.

They were all regarded as deities in the minds of these people at this time. So you had the worshippers of Baal, you had people worshiping the stars simultaneously in tandem.

Even Manasseh led this type of worship, the same great grandfather of Josiah who erected the altars of Baal, he also led this type of worship as well, as we learn in Second Kings 21.

So not a great guy. Thankfully, Josiah didn't take after his great grandfather.

Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, also talked about this form of idolatry quite a bit, and that's worth noting because Jeremiah was a contemporary as well as a successor of Zephaniah here.

So this type of worship was happening quite a bit and continued to happen for some time. So that was the first category, the worshiping of celestial bodies.

Second, in verse 5, he mentions those who attempt to combine, this is even more scary in my opinion, those who attempt to combine the worship of Molech.

Remember the god mentioned there, Malchim or Malcolm, however you pronounce it, it's the same god,

Molech. So I'll just refer to him as that because it's a little bit more of a recognizable name there.

They were combining the worship of Molech and Yahweh together. This is something that's called syncretism, which happens a lot even to this day, which is when people try to unify multiple religions and, you know, do a little bit of the worship for that one over here, a little bit of the worship over there.

And it's all great, coexist, you know, all that kind of stuff. It's the idea of syncretism, which is what's happening right here.

Listen to this for a second. Molech, or think about this, Molech was the chief god of the Amorites, a people that were disdained by God and who were who had commanded his people to annihilate more than one occasion.

He was the chief god of the Amorites. And as we may remember, what the god that required the sacrifice of what by his worshipers, the children of his worshipers, this is the very god by which the people would offer up their infants through the fire to this particular god.

People were literally combining the worship of that with Yahweh at the same time.

Tell me how that works. How on earth could that even be a thought, let alone acting it out in a form of this fake, you know, quasi worship.

I was listening to Brother Otis do a lesson on this particular chapter, and he got to this verse and he says, how that's possible,

I do not know. And then he moved on. That was his commentary on that particular verse.

It's literally incomprehensible to us to think about. It's one thing to be an idol worshiper and to be so far out of touch with the universe that you're over here worshiping a stone god called

Moloch and to think that that's it. But to understand and to know the reality of Yahweh and to even continue to worship him in your mind, it's obviously from God's perspective, it's all junk, it's all fake, it's all false religion.

But in your mind, to be worshiping the true God while also combining that with the worship of an idol priest that requires the sacrifice of the very bearers of God's image to him, it's absolutely beyond comprehension to me.

What were they doing, though, to these two, not only the true God, but to Moloch? They were swearing to both of them, as it says in verse five, to swear by a deity in antiquity, regardless of whether it was the true

God, the only God or any of the myriad false gods at that time throughout history.

Regardless of what kind of worshiper you were, everyone understood that to swear by a deity meant to pronounce an oath under the threat of punishment by that deity if one failed to carry out that oath.

And so people in a total immersion of ignorance were making oaths in swearing by the name of Yahweh, by the name of Jehovah, as well as by this false god that is

Moloch. You know, again, how that's possible, as Brother Oda says,

I do not know, but it was happening and it was it was absolutely terrible. Let's see here.

Yes. Well, of course not.

It seems more subtle to us because of the culture that we are used to.

It's a little bit it jumps off the page a little bit more when we're considering exactly who Moloch was as a false god and what his followers did.

When we hear that in unison with the worship of the true God, it really jumps off the page.

But to your point, it really is no different. They're covering all the bases, basically, and I think part of that is because to be a part of all of the different kinds of religions is really to be very humanistic because you're bringing that back to your, you're in the focus because you're worshiping everything.

So it's a very humanistic thing and we see a lot of that today.

Well, I'll say I said it a minute ago, but I'll say it again, just for lack of a better term, the attempt to harmonize secularism, which is the current false god erected on the largest pedestal that we could come up with as a human race to harmonize that with the worship of God in a so -called church.

That's what's happening right now. To your point, it's really no different. And from God's point of view, it's not. But again, it just jumps off the page more to us here, and it's a little bit more of a potent reminder of where humanity can go.

But we need to remember that it's not so far from us even now.

Yes. Think about what the revelation says, that if we don't, the antichrist will raise up an idol like a machine that will come alive.

The god of forces? Who will be worshipping this huge idol. Right. It's to be outside somewhere, so people can see it as coming back.

I mean, the tactics don't change. We talk a lot about the immutability of God. His character doesn't change, but neither does the devil's.

His character is immutable as well. And the same tactics that he has employed throughout human history to get people to move away from the worship.

He will even go so far as to, quote unquote, allow from his perspective, the worship of Yahweh, as long as they're also worshipping

Molech, because he knows from God's perspective, it doesn't count. But think about it.

You have worshippers of stars. You have the worshippers of Baal. You have the worshippers of Molech and Yahweh simultaneously.

And then we have a third category we're about to look at all happening simultaneously. Satan couldn't care less about who they're worshipping as long as it's not solely the one true

God. There will come a time when he requires the worship of himself solely.

That'll happen during the latter part of the Great Tribulation. But for all of human history, before that little blip in time, he doesn't care who you worship as long as it's not the one true

God alone. He's fine with it. Yes, sir. Worship is

OK because there's no morality in the Bible. And the children become devoured by that thought of life.

And you're offering your children to Satan doing that. And it's amazing to me, too, how many nations, third world countries even, that have become the

Roman Catholics, and I've seen the news lately rising up and marching in the streets in favor of abortion legal in their countries.

And those Roman Catholic countries are doing it now. So, you know, we're offering billions of children to Satan through sexual immorality.

And the abortion that comes as a result of that is countless. So when we look at the evidence, it may seem mind -boggling to our brains, because we're using 100 % of our brain to think how many millions of children were offered by Satan.

It really is mind -boggling. And it's happened throughout, you know, tens of thousands of years of human history in different ways.

But it's sacrificing is all the same. And that will be a very stark reality when we see that.

But yeah, I mean, here we are. We see just numerous forms of the same thing, false religion that essentially leads to the sacrificing of children, as well as obviously a separation between those worshippers and the true

God, which is the last thing that should be happening. Let's look at this last category here in verse 6, and then we'll call it quits for today and pick it up in verse 7 next time.

The third category that is mentioned here of the type of false religion, false worshipping that was happening, that the prophet spoke of others who were religious.

This is an interesting idea. They were religiously indifferent. They were unconcerned about worshipping the true

God, as we see in verse 6, when it says them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the

Lord or inquired of him. They were unconcerned about worshipping him, though there's not really any indication that those individuals were worshipping anything else anyway.

In other words, atheism perhaps was happening at the same time.

In this specific culture, in the midst of these other forms of worship as well, they were totally indifferent.

They had absolutely no interest and no concern with worshipping the true God, but there's no indication they were worshipping anything else anyway, which, of course, we realize that is another form of attack on true religion in our very day.

This is obviously quite the mixed bag of false religions that we have in verses 5 and 6. Again, these are types of false religions, types of false worshippers that judgment is going to come upon soon.

And this is who Zephaniah is directly prophesying against at this time. And yes, when I say false religions, that includes the atheistic description as well.

All of these different forms of false religion were permeating the culture surrounding

God's people and even his very house, as we learned in the context of Josiah.

Because remember, Josiah is alive while we are reading all of this, which is a very thought provoking thing in and of itself.

We may revisit that concept later because he was a holy king. And yet this is what's happening in the culture.

It's just very, very bizarre. But even God's house was surrounded by these types of evil false religions, which quite literally sucked in these people.

It altered them completely and spit them back out to then take part in the just messing up the culture continually.

In other words, it's being passed from one generation to the next. The culture sucks them in, turns them into false religious idol worshipers, spits them back out where they continue the same cycle.

And that that's what's happening at this time. It's a pretty scary similarity to how potent our current culture is in doing the exact same thing.

And what does that lead to exactly? And of course, I'm again talking about secularism, which is all encompassing.

If you think about it, Zephaniah is making this distinction between all these types of idol religion, idol worshiping.

You could sum it all up in one word, and that would be secularism, which is what we're dealing with. And so this is very similar to our current culture.

It sucks us in. It absolutely destroys the people that it does. To dad's point, there are multiple ways of sacrificing kids.

One of them is the indoctrination that is happening not only in schools, but in homes as well.

Any anywhere where secularism is thriving, it is a form of of sacrificing the character of that particular person so that when they grow up, they can continue the same cycle for the next generation.

So it's very, very similar to what we're dealing with here. And what does it lead to? We'll pick it up in verse seven next week, where Zephaniah starts breaking down exactly what's coming for these people, for the false priests, for the black priests.

That is the chimerams, as well as for the various types of idol worshipers, whether it be of the celestial bodies,

Moloch, or atheists, the same judgments coming for all of them.

So you guys have any other thoughts you'd like to share before we end today? That makes me think of the

One World Order, the building that was recently opened, where people from all over the world go and do this all together, worship, whatever is known to man, basically.

Is it that was the One World Order, One World Religion, and the church? George Bush, the younger, appreciated the

One World Order for his service with Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Catholics, remember that?

I was amazed that he just appeared and did that. He's right.

I read the Ten Commandments, where it says that I shall have no other god before me, and the word before literally means in addition to.

Is that right? Yeah, we tend to think it means above, and it can be that, but the first definition lists it as in addition to.

As you can see in this example of the worshipers of Moloch and Jehovah, simultaneously, God foresaw that happening, obviously, and condemned it hundreds of years before at least the passage we're reading now was happening.

So, yeah, that's crazy, really crazy stuff. Well, alrighty guys,

I guess we'll go ahead and dismiss. Dave, would you mind dismissing this, please? Sure. God, we thank you for this day, we thank you for your word, we ask

God that you would help us to apply the word to our hearts and our minds.

Help us to seek out any idols that we may have our own minds, recognize them as that, and get rid of them like the psychic did with me.

God, we thank you for this day, we ask that you bless us to hear this today, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.