Book of Zephaniah - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-3 (08/13/2023)

Park Meadows Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

All righty, good morning, everybody. I will say right off the top, we're not going to make a whole lot of progress today in terms of verse count.

00:11

We still have a little bit of introduction to do as we begin this new book, as well as discussing some interpretive parameters that we need to have set before we move forth throughout the rest of it and things like that.

00:31

So we may not get too many verses done today, but we will cover some interesting stuff,

00:36

I believe. So we will jump right into it. Now, last week, as you guys recall, we set a little bit of the historical context for this new book.

00:46

We took a look at Josiah's revival, which, as we established last week, took place before this prophecy of Zephaniah that we're going to be beginning today.

01:00

And so we did that, but kind of getting into a little bit more of a formal introduction, we are going to cover a couple more things this morning.

01:10

So you'll notice in the opening verse, if you guys want to turn to Zephaniah chapter 1, verse 1, we're given a very detailed ancestry of this particular prophet in the opening verse.

01:31

Kenner, if you're like me, you use bookmarks for these types of books. Let's see here.

01:41

OK. So 1 .1, it says, the word of the Lord, which came unto Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hiskiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah.

02:00

So this ancestry is traced back four generations, which is a very, very unique thing among the prophets.

02:08

A lot of the prophets, especially some of the minor prophets, we know very little about, let alone an ancestry that goes back four generations.

02:17

Sometimes, in the cases of like Joel and, I think, Amos, we're at least given the name of their father.

02:26

But this is, I believe, the only prophet that we have that goes back four generations here.

02:35

Now, what this implies, right off the bat, is that this prophet of Zephaniah was a man of prominence in his day when he was living.

02:43

And even, as we see in the genealogy here in the first verse, of royal heritage.

02:49

Because, as you can see, at the end of that ancestry, the son of Hiskiah, that's

02:55

Hezekiah, he's the great, great grandson of King Hezekiah.

03:01

And what's interesting about that is, because of that, it also makes our prophet here a distant relative, a cousin sometimes removed, of King Josiah himself, who we were reading about last week.

03:17

So they're contemporaries, they're living at the same time. Josiah is king at the time this prophecy takes place.

03:22

Zephaniah, the prophet, is a distant relative of the king by way of his great, great grandfather being

03:31

King Hezekiah. He's the only known prophet, only known Old Testament prophet with such a high social status, stemming from his being a descendant of the nobility.

03:42

So that's just a little background on Zephaniah the man himself. Now, interestingly, as we'll see in our study here, even though the law of God was rediscovered by this time, and remember, last week we read a good portion of 2

03:58

Kings 23, if you go back one chapter in 2 Kings, we read the story about the law of God being discovered, well, being rediscovered in chapter 22 of that book.

04:11

And as you guys recall, King Josiah led an honorable and sincere reform or revival, as we might put it, back to God's word, back to God's law.

04:24

But even though that happened, and in the book of 2 Kings, it's a very significant part of Jewish history, the history of Judah.

04:35

And obviously a story that we take a lot of inspiration from as well, just the type of man that Josiah was.

04:41

Despite all that, none of it is mentioned in this prophecy of Zephaniah, which is really interesting.

04:48

Of course, that would seem odd at first glance, but that's why we covered the topic last week of revival by God's hand alone in our introduction.

04:56

We discussed kind of why that would be the case as we go throughout this book of Zephaniah. Why wasn't that ever mentioned?

05:01

Well, again, that's what last week was all about. There are a lot of similarities in this little prophecy of Zephaniah and the massive work of Jeremiah, who also was a contemporary, a little bit younger than Zephaniah was.

05:18

But you guys recall the book of Jeremiah, massive, one of our major prophets, and then what follows is also the book of Lamentations that was also written by Jeremiah.

05:29

You have Zephaniah, you have Jeremiah, both of which wrote after Josiah's revival in 2

05:38

Kings chapter 23. And they saw that judgment was coming regardless of that revival.

05:45

In fact, it's only a few decades after Josiah's revival that we read about just last week that we received

05:51

Jeremiah's Lamentations. So that kind of puts in perspective as well the lack of a long -lasting effect that Josiah's revival brought.

06:01

Just a few decades later, you have Jeremiah writing the Lamentations. Of course, that was a reaction to a lot of the judgment that he saw coming as a prophet, the same judgment that Zephaniah saw coming that we're about to learn about, and of course, about a lot of the tribulations that they were already experiencing by the time he wrote

06:21

Lamentations. So that's just a little bit more of the historical background here. The running theme of this book of Zephaniah is the

06:29

Day of the Lord, which is a phrase used more times in this little three -chapter book than anywhere else in the

06:35

Old Testament. So that will be a phrase that we come back to time and time again.

06:41

Now, again, before we continue through some of the following verses, I want to set a couple of parameters, for lack of a better term, some of the ways that we'll interpret as we go through this book, because it's a very short book, remember, three chapters, and yet Zephaniah covers, at a minimum, two grand historical events, and possibly even three in the matter of three short chapters.

07:15

So just as with other minor prophets, what Zephaniah is gonna be doing here throughout this book as we go through it is he uses the phrase, the

07:24

Day of the Lord, as an all -encompassing warning to his people to kind of, quote -unquote, get their act together, which we discussed, if you guys recall, in Malachi as well.

07:37

The Day of the Lord was mentioned a couple of times in that book, and Malachi was using it as a way to give his people a sense of urgency and to let them know they needed to get things right, they needed to make things right before it was too late from the human viewpoint.

07:55

And so Zephaniah does that in similar fashion, though even more explicitly than Malachi did.

08:01

He's gonna use it as a warning to get their act together. And with that in mind,

08:06

I want you guys to kind of consider for a second the multi -dimensionality of God's use of this day throughout the

08:15

Old Testament, because there are a number of ways in which he uses it, but again, it all boils down to kind of the same thing, and that is creating a sense of urgency.

08:25

He not only uses it as a means to bring repentance to his people, which is part of why this phrase is used in Zephaniah, he uses it as a means to bring repentance to his people.

08:38

Generation after generation, this phrase is used, again, throughout all of the prophets. And he does so, he uses the phrase utilizing,

08:51

I guess what we could call the human viewpoint to kind of create that sense of urgency.

08:57

In other words, if you have a prophet standing before you, and you have the congregation of Judah, congregation of Israel, and you are telling them the day of the

09:05

Lord is at hand, what does that do in the minds of the people, or at least what is it intended to do? It's intended to get them to refocus, to put their idol worship and the pleasures of the world behind them, and to remember that life is but a vapor, and they have a short time to live righteously, and of course, to establish a strong relationship with the

09:29

Lord. So from the human viewpoint, this phrase again is used time and time again to create that sense of urgency, but at the same time, because again, in many, many cases, in most cases, what is the day of the

09:44

Lord referring to? It's referring to the second coming, which is way off into the future of these people living at the time of Zephaniah, right?

09:55

And yet the phrase is still used, just as it was in Malachi, just as it was in Joel, and I think every minor prophet and all of the major prophets as well,

10:03

I guess, I think it's across the board. It's used to that generation as well, to get them thinking straight.

10:12

And so there's that, but at the same time, there's God's viewpoint of this grand event.

10:19

And what I mean by that is He uses the day in the phrase as a warning to every generation, and yet we know that He's not going to return,

10:31

He's not going to come back until all of the sheep have been collected and are part of the fold.

10:38

So you have man's viewpoint and God's viewpoint happening in parallel here. God knows the day and the hour, and yet He's not restricted to use that day as a means of bringing repentance to His people, every single generation.

10:53

Isn't that interesting? He doesn't wait until the last generation that's alive that will actually physically see that day to use it.

11:00

He has used that phrase as a warning going back as far as the earliest kings of Judah and of Israel.

11:12

So we need to keep that in mind as we go throughout this book. At times, the day of the

11:18

Lord is used as an idiom to emphasize the swift and decisive nature of the

11:24

Lord's victory over His enemies on any given occasion, including judgment on His own people after a long period of sinning against God.

11:34

That's another important phrase. Again, this phrase is the majority of the time used to reference the second advent of Christ, but some prophets will use it, will combine the phrase with immediate judgment as well.

11:53

How many times have we heard Dad talk about the method of prophecy in so many cases in the

12:00

Old Testament is there is a near prophecy and a far prophecy, right? And so there at times will be a near prophecy where imminent judgment is coming, and that will be talked about in the same context as the far prophecy, that being the second coming, but there's a singular phrase that's used to describe both, the day of the

12:22

Lord. So we're gonna see that a lot in this book as well, the day of the Lord as describing imminent judgment, as well as like future judgment in our future, not just theirs.

12:34

In the Old Testament, the phrase can refer to either a particular historical event, which we'll see in Zephaniah, or an eschatological event, that being an event having to do with the end times, which we will also see in the same little book.

12:51

In this case, referring to the climax of this age that we're living in, the church age, the age of grace.

12:58

But one thing we need to keep in mind throughout this book is that there are many verses throughout the

13:03

Old Testament, again, that speak of the day of the Lord in a universal sense. Remember, the majority of the time this phrase is used, it is used in the context of the second coming, universal judgment upon his return, as well, of course, as the collecting of all the sheep, the reaping of the wheat.

13:24

And it'll be used in a universal sense, either in the verse itself, when the phrase is used in the

13:29

Old Testament, or in the preceding verses or the following verses. The reason I say this is because, again, in Zephaniah, we're gonna see some cases where Zephaniah is prophesying an imminent historical event, that being the

13:43

Babylonian invasion in the exile that follows, while using the day of the

13:49

Lord as a phrase to describe that. But still within the same immediate context, he's talking about universal judgment.

13:59

So you gotta ask, well, which is it? Because the Babylonian invasion and exile was pretty specific to the

14:06

Israelites and the people of Judah, so how can he also be talking about universal judgment at the same time? So just remember that usually, either in the verse itself, or in the preceding or following verses, when that phrase is used, it's talking about universal judgment, not necessarily just the

14:24

Israelites being judged. Again, I'm wanting to establish some of these before we really start digging into the verses, because we will need to recall some of these to mind as we interpret when it's talking about which thing, which event it's talking about and when.

14:43

So, in other words, in some cases, the prophet speaking is using a method that a lot of theologians refer to as quote -unquote telescoping two events into a truncated timeframe.

14:56

So near prophecy, far prophecy, there's a lot to talk about, but he had minimal space to write or something, or obviously it's the

15:07

Holy Spirit that was the one prophesying through Zephaniah. The Holy Spirit wanted this to be a really short book, but to talk about a lot of stuff within it.

15:17

So, Zephaniah is talking about these grand events that span thousands upon thousands of years in a very truncated method of writing.

15:26

So, this phrase is used, but he's telescoping, in some cases, multiple events.

15:33

Yes, sir. So, tell me again the phrase. The day of the

15:39

Lord. Okay, well, I had a part of my thoughts on this subject.

15:46

What was your cue on knowing, whether you're talking about the near or the far, did you mention something like that?

15:55

Well, all I mentioned was that that happens, and then as we go throughout the book, we are going to see, at times, he's talking about a near prophecy, at times a far prophecy, in the same context.

16:07

And so, I'm kinda just establishing some of these things now so that we're all on the same page when we get to those points.

16:13

Does that make sense? The immediate context will help you know. Exactly. All right, well, the other thing

16:19

I thought I had right there towards the end, talking about that subject, of the conciseness.

16:27

You remember how Paul was talking to the Jews and the Gentiles during his ministry, and he said that,

16:38

I am the one that God chose to reveal the mystery. He talked about a mystery, something that the

16:46

Old Testament prophets looked into as their last dart, did not. Yes. Yeah, well, that, on purpose, everything's on purpose, of course.

16:58

You know, God, the Holy Spirit, wrote in sites like that on purpose because to keep it a mystery to the

17:06

Old Testament, saying even the prophet that wrote it didn't.

17:13

Could not go back and read it and figure it out totally because God wrote it in this manner.

17:19

He didn't reveal it fully until the Apostle Paul. That's pretty cool. In many cases, when the Old Testament prophesies about Jesus, it prophesies it as if it's one event.

17:29

They missed, because they were looking through a glass darkly, that it was two advents, with, as Dad puts it, a great gulf in between.

17:36

It's like they saw the two mountain peaks that were perfectly aligned, but if you turned it, there's a great valley in between these two events.

17:43

And the mystery is the stuff in the middle. Right. You can sum it all up and say the church,

17:52

God dwelling in the body of the believer and Jew and Gentile becoming one because of that, all of that, and then the rapture included, all of that is part of the mystery of that.

18:07

I just think that's one, if you wanna give a human reason, try to figure out why it's so precise.

18:14

But it's almost like a parable, that way. Like, okay, I'll leave the ones God wants to save.

18:20

Well, it also requires us to study, which God certainly wants us to do.

18:27

And just as the prophets would, in many cases, miss that it was a two -advent occurrence of Jesus' coming, the day of the

18:36

Lord, again, it can be talking about imminent judgment, and they may think all of what they're saying is imminent.

18:43

They're missing that a lot of history, a lot of, as we now know it, church history takes place before the ultimate judgment.

18:50

And so the day of the Lord is prophesied similarly to Jesus' coming. They saw his coming, but they didn't realize in the detail that we now know that it was a first advent, the humble servant, and the second advent, the

19:07

King coming in glory. So again, yes, Dad, but I hadn't gotten into which passages determine that.

19:17

We're just kind of laying some of the groundwork for when we get to that. Hopefully it'll be easier. But yes, so Zephaniah is telescoping two events in more of a truncated timeframe, and that's a continual occurrence in this book as we go through it.

19:30

There's imminent judgment that is coming for Judah that Zephaniah is prophesying about, and there is a universal judgment coming that is even in our future as we sit here today, but they're both spoken of together, just back and forth.

19:45

So that's why it's so important for us to establish these things. Now on that note, I wanna point out one more thing before we dive into some verses here.

19:54

As we progress throughout this book, we're gonna notice kind of an interesting pattern. So the book begins with, it actually starts with universal judgment, judgment on the entire earth, and the language is so strong that it's undoubtable what it's talking about.

20:12

That is the second coming, and actually, I think it might even be talking about after the millennial kingdom as well.

20:19

Well, you guys will see what I'm talking about in just a second, because we will get to that verse in a moment. So it starts with that, okay?

20:24

There's the first part of the pattern. Then it moves on to judgment on Judah in Jerusalem, and it talks about specific judgment on that nation for a good portion of the book for a while.

20:39

Then it moves on to talking about judgment on surrounding nations, nations directly around geographical

20:48

Israel at that time. Then it starts going backward.

20:54

It goes back to judgment on Jerusalem again, and then the book ends with universal judgment again.

21:00

So it's like going like this, and then it goes back. It's like a reversion pattern.

21:05

It starts with universal judgment, it moves on to some things, then it ends with universal judgment. And so that's going to be happening again just to kind of give y 'all a mental picture of the way this book is structured.

21:18

So with all that being said, I know that was a little bit dry, but I think it was necessary, again, for the, well, as we move through the book and as we interpret which events it's talking about, let's go to verse two.

21:31

So this is the first section of the book that I will call the future judgment of the world, but it's split into two categories.

21:40

The first is universal, the second is national. Verse two says, "'I will utterly consume all things off the land,' "'saith the

21:49

Lord. "'I will consume man and beast. "'I will consume the fowls of the heaven "'and the fishes of the sea "'and the stumbling blocks with the wicked.

21:59

"'And I will cut off man from off the land,' "'saith the Lord.'" So I want everyone to consider for a moment that just consider how the prophecy begins here.

22:13

Aside from just a quick brief genealogy of this prophet in verse one, there's no lead in, there's no history being hashed out, there aren't any specific events being discussed, it just begins with this abrupt and somewhat horrifying entrance of global catastrophe.

22:32

I find it interesting that it starts with global catastrophe given that it is about to move on all the way into chapter two here in a second of talking about that imminent judgment on Israel and Judah, but it begins with the universal.

22:47

It's gonna be so important, guys, because when we get to chapter two, this book talks about some pretty interesting stuff regarding our future, but we'll get to that when we get there.

22:58

Just think about the abruptness, the image that we have. I want to turn to Isaiah for a second, chapter 24, and just like last week,

23:08

I'm just gonna read a good portion of this chapter, maybe even the whole chapter, I'm not sure, because what we just read in two quick verses,

23:16

Isaiah in chapter 24, it discusses the same exact event, but in even more horrifying detail, and it's horrifying, of course, for the wicked at the time that this happens, because we know our standing in the

23:34

Lord, but nonetheless, judgment is being used here as a method of bringing repentance upon the people of Israel and Judah at this time, but we have this prophecy ourselves for a good reason.

23:45

Let's read this together. Isaiah chapter 24, talking about the same event that just said, that Zephaniah just referenced, utterly consuming all things off the land, saith the

23:55

Lord. It says in verse one, behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

24:05

And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master, as with the maid, so with her mistress, as with the buyer, so with the seller, as with the lender, so with the borrower, as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury of him.

24:19

What is the point of that repetition? Nobody is going to be immune or be able to hide from this particular day.

24:27

It doesn't matter if you're the wealthiest person in the world or the poorest person on the planet, nobody will be able to hide from this day.

24:33

Verse three says, the land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the Lord hath spoken this word.

24:40

The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

24:47

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

24:55

Therefore, hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned in few men left.

25:05

The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all merry -hearted do sigh. The mirth of Tabaret ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoiceth endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.

25:15

You guys recall what's going to happen prior to the great tribulation? They will eat, they will drink, and they will be married, just like before the flood.

25:24

That, at this point, totally stops. All joy from any man that's left on the earth this time will cease.

25:33

They shall not drink wine with a song, strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is broken down, every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

25:43

There is a crying for wine in the streets, all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone, and the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

25:52

When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done, they shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the

26:04

Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea, wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the

26:10

Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea. What just happened there? It's the remnant, it's the people that are called of God still on the earth at the time this is happening.

26:22

Now, if you look at your Schofield notes here, or mine, it puts a little like subtitle before those few verses, and it says the

26:29

Jewish remnant. I would argue it's not merely the Jewish remnant, and I think the isles of the sea help clarify that this is not just a

26:41

Jewish remnant, but rather a remnant of all ethnicities that's left on the earth at the time this judgment is taking place during the

26:51

Great Tribulation. Then it returns to talking about the Great Tribulation here.

26:56

From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous, but I say my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me.

27:04

The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

27:10

Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon the O inhabitant of the earth. That's pretty all -encompassing there.

27:18

And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up from the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare.

27:26

For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. Recall that there will be people crying for the rocks to fall on them.

27:36

Even if they were to fall into the pit and then claw themselves out, then the snare will grab them.

27:43

There's nothing that will be able to hide them from the windows on high being open. Verse 19, the earth is utterly broken down.

27:50

The earth is clean dissolved. The earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a cottage.

27:59

And the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again.

28:05

And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

28:13

Recall the battle of Armageddon. Every global leader at that point will be there. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shall be shut up in the prison.

28:24

And after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the

28:31

Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously.

28:39

Well, we could probably spend a few months going verse by verse through that single chapter. Maybe that's for another day.

28:47

But the point being is that in the couple of verses that open up Zephaniah, that is what's happening in those verses.

28:56

I will utterly consume all things from off the land. So remember the conciseness, but the abruptness of the language.

29:03

Did you have a thought, dad? Probably a few. Well, it's funny, because mom and I had a thought on the way over here.

29:13

And then this just talked about what we were thinking about. Let me see if I can find this verse.

29:25

Okay, Isaiah 24, five, the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof.

29:31

Think about what the liberals have been saying. That we humans are creating or destroying the,

29:40

I don't know which part of our atmosphere, ionosphere maybe. The ozone layer, whatever. And bringing global warming.

29:48

And those of us who live in Central Texas would agree with that as of this point, right? I've never seen heat like that.

29:57

So we like, we conservatives like to call it climate change, which they changed it to, right?

30:03

Because they thought they were wrong when the freeze killed all the trees just a few winters ago. So the point is we do, we have climate change, but notice it says the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants, because we're sinful human beings.

30:18

We do defile the earth. And it says, because they have transgressed the law,

30:24

God's laws and ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant, which is the Abrahamic covenant.

30:31

Therefore, hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell thereon are desolate.

30:36

Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. Well, now look at Maui right now.

30:43

Have y 'all seen that on TV? We've been there many times with Tradeway. Beautiful. We used to go there every winter.

30:50

For how many years, Katie? Six, seven, eight, nine years. Every winter we went to Maui and taught advanced stock market classes.

30:58

Just one of the most beautiful heavenly places on the earth. I once joked that God forgot to curse it, and while we were there, a hurricane almost hit.

31:08

But anyway, the joke's over, because look what happened here this week. Now, it's that hot here.

31:16

If anyone sparked a fire anywhere around any of our houses, it would burn them all down right now, because the wind has picked up.

31:27

Huge winds, hot air, no humidity, dry, dead grass.

31:33

But it's very fascinating here that it says the inhabitants of the earth are burned up.

31:39

Now, I remember my mom used to teach me that the rainbow reminds us God will never destroy the earth by water again.

31:47

But he, and then my mom would say, he's gonna destroy us next time by fire. And I was a little bitty. I mean,

31:52

I was about Winston's age, and I'm wondering, why was she teaching me that? But I still remember it, maybe that's why.

31:58

I still remember it. And as I became a man and got saved, studied the

32:05

Bible, I began to think, okay, that's probably way out there at the end where he destroys the earth with a great noise and so forth.

32:14

But now, as just in your lesson today, and after me and mom's talk, of course, we hadn't seen this passage till we got here and you were teaching on it.

32:22

I think some of this fire happens before that event. And it seems to me, it's going to be happening during the seven years and maybe prior to it.

32:33

And it's quite remarkable to see this. There's one other point in here

32:39

I saw that was pretty amazing. I know this isn't even your main point today. Well, it is, because what you're saying, as Zephaniah summarizes all this, all of this is included in it.

32:51

Exactly. Let's see, they should lift up their voice. Was it talking about the part, when it was talking about the remnant or?

33:03

Oh, I found this fascinating, okay. People have asked me, where are you gonna go, right?

33:15

All over the country. And I tell them the truth. I say, God hasn't revealed that to me yet. Well, when he does, will you tell me?

33:22

And I'm thinking, maybe, maybe not. Because you don't know if you want a bunch of people to be there or just a few where no one can notice you, right?

33:32

So maybe, maybe not. Big ol' colony, maybe a little bit technology. Ben may have just revealed some of it to everyone listening.

33:39

Of course, this isn't everyone. This is just us and our friends out there listening from afar on the internet this morning.

33:46

Some of our most cherished friends are listening out there right now. But look at this.

33:54

Verse 13, I'm in Isaiah 24. When thus, it shall be in the midst of the land.

33:59

In other words, when all this stuff, when you see this stuff start to happen, right? Where the land is burning and people are,

34:07

I mean, the death toll there's way over 100 as of this morning. You don't know that. They don't even know, they think it may be thousands.

34:15

When thus, it shall be in the midst of the land among the people. There shall be as the shaking of the olive tree and the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

34:25

They shall lift up their voice. They shall sing. Now watch this. In the midst of all this, where millions of people are being destroyed by fire and other things, there is a group of people that are lifting up their voice.

34:41

They shall sing because of the majesty of the Lord. They shall cry out loud from the sea.

34:50

Wherefore, glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord of Israel in the isles of the sea.

34:58

Years ago, I asked Brother Raj, Dr. Raj Kripalani, our friend here in town.

35:06

So where would you, but where would you look for your cave, Raj? Because I was thinking South America, right?

35:12

Well, Brother David, I would look at some of the Caribbean islands that have the

35:17

Protestant Christians on them. There's three or four of those like that. You've been there, right? And I said, yeah, yeah.

35:23

Even the cab drivers start witnessing to you. You know, we'll think about that passage. And I'll leave that for you to think about.

35:29

But I'm not telling you which island I'm going to, okay? No, that's -

35:35

How many times have y 'all heard me say, when America gets nuked, I want to be watching it on a color

35:41

TV from the Dominican Island. Have you heard me say that? We have the cable. Well, that has been a joke, but it's real with me.

35:48

That's what I'm really thinking I'm going to be doing. And that scripture right there, pretty well just guided me.

35:55

Because I had not seen that in context of me questioning where until this morning during your

36:00

Sunday School lesson. So I had to share it. Well, I was once asked - I'm not going to Maui though.

36:06

Yeah, well, exactly. Well, and thanks for saying all that so close to the mic, by the way, dad, because that was very helpful for our listeners and the recording.

36:18

I was even going to say a second ago. Yeah, I was once asked if the rapture is post -tribulation, what's even the point?

36:31

What would be the point of God's people going through that? Well, I plan on answering that as we go throughout this study, as well as future studies, but verse 14, they will lift up their voice and they will sing for the majesty of the

36:44

Lord. They shall cry aloud from the sea. The chastening of the bride, the closeness of that relationship like never before seen, that's the point.

36:58

Now that's in a very, there's more detail to it, even more than that, but that boils down to that and to the glory of the

37:06

Lord absolutely as well. Well, here, there's a couple more points for this verse and then we'll call it for today, but this is some great stuff.

37:15

And remember, it was intended, we weren't intended to get too far today because of all the groundwork we needed to lay, but point being, in verse two and three there, and then after reading the detail in Isaiah 24, the judgment on the earth that Zephaniah in those opening verses talk about, it's all encompassing.

37:35

It's land, it's air, it's sea. This will be a decreation event.

37:44

The earth will be moved in ways that it hadn't been. When's the last time that happened?

37:51

The flood. And as dad said, as he quoted Nana, he judged the earth and destroyed the earth once by water, the second time by fire.

38:00

This is going to be a massive thing that takes place. This is talking about, of course, just the judgment, the universal judgment that will take place during that time, but the remnant will be spared as we saw in that Isaiah chapter.

38:17

And as we will see in Zephaniah, by the way, as well, when we get into chapter two, really interesting stuff.

38:23

The remnant will be spared, but the wicked will be destroyed along with the fallen creation.

38:29

Now, I'm going to do something a little bit nerdy. I hope we all enjoy it though, but I just had to throw this in there.

38:37

Do you guys recall something known as the Septuagint? It is a

38:44

Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. And it's significant because it was the

38:52

Bible for the first century Christians before all of the letters of the apostles started being circulated long before the revelation of Jesus as prophesied by John was written and circulated.

39:04

The Bible of the first century Christians long after Jesus passed away was the Old Testament written in Greek or translated in Greek.

39:13

Interestingly enough, and you think, we talk a lot about the King James translators being just a really amazing group of people.

39:24

Think about how good the translators were of the Septuagint. They were so good that Jesus and the apostles themselves quoted the

39:32

Septuagint oftentimes, not the direct Hebrew Old Testament. So we have the

39:38

Septuagint. It's the Old Testament, but it's in Greek. And this is how the

39:44

Septuagint renders verse two, where it says, I will utterly consume all things off the land, saith the Lord. This is how the

39:49

Septuagint reads. With extinction, let it become extinct from the face of the earth, saith the

39:56

Lord. Very dramatic, very dramatic language. The Greek word that those translators used for the word consume is the

40:08

Greek word eclipo. And what that Greek word means is it means to fail or to omit or to cease.

40:20

This is really, I'll probably have to end with this, but check this out. Go over to Hebrews chapter one for a second.

40:29

There's actually two or three passages that this Greek word is used in the New Testament that is really fascinating.

40:35

But this is just to give y 'all an example of the severity of this event. This is just taking it just one little step deeper of how the

40:45

Greek mind viewed the wording and the abruptness of language in this verse.

40:51

I will utterly consume all things. This is how they were viewing it. They used the word eclipo.

40:57

And again, it means to cease or to omit. If you read Hebrews chapter one, let me get a little bit of context.

41:07

The context is that the writer of Hebrews is talking about Jesus being better than the angels, the son of the father being better than the angels, okay?

41:16

And then get to about verse, I guess let's start in 10.

41:22

It says, and thou Lord, talking about Jesus obviously, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands.

41:32

They shall perish, but thou remainest. And they shall wax old as doth a garment.

41:40

And listen to this. And as a vesture shalt thou fold them and they shall be changed, but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail.

41:53

That word fail there is the same Greek word, eclipo, except it's the opposite.

42:01

It will not fail. So Jesus's immutability is the antithesis of what's going to happen to the earth at this time when

42:13

I will consume all things. Jesus says, I will make all things cease from existing.

42:19

I will make all things fail. I will omit all things. It's the exact opposite of his very immutability.

42:27

The same Greek word used to describe his immutability in Hebrews 1 .12 is the Greek word chosen by those translators before Jesus was ever born to describe this event as they were translating it into the

42:43

Greek. I thought that was pretty fascinating. All living creatures are included in this judgment. This is a very heavy, severe judgment.

42:50

The extinction of every species of living animal as we know them will be gone.

42:56

And of course, a big portion of the human race will be gone as well, not totally extinct, but a lot of them will be, whereas most of what currently exists on the earth will be totally extinct at that time.

43:12

The Greek word eclipo, the root there, is where we get the English word eclipse. And so you can also, it gives the connotation of the sun's light being blotted out.

43:25

That's what will happen on this particular day. But before the prophet follows up on his universal statements in the opening verses that he did here, he's going to detail some particulars for the immediate future of Judah in Israel.

43:43

So starting either next week or after that, I'm not sure, but Dave and I are alternating quite a bit right now.

43:49

Next time, the focus for a good portion of Zephaniah here will move to the

43:55

Babylonian invasion of 586 BC. Zephaniah spoke of Judah's destruction and universal judgment as two parts of one grand event.

44:06

Again, we ask, why would he do it that way? A better question is, why would the Holy Spirit inspire it to be written that way?

44:13

Well, first of all, he did so to create that sense of urgency that we spoke of earlier to light a fire of repentance under his people.

44:21

However, there is another group of people that he's gonna be talking to later. In this book of Zephaniah, another group that's being warned of something, and that will clear up a lot of why

44:34

Zephaniah is combining, or as we said earlier, telescoping these events. But we will get to more on that later.

44:41

Yes, sir? Which word is it in Zephaniah one that is that sacred word, the word consume?

44:48

The word consume. In verse three? In verse two, well, yes, it's used in verse two and in verse three.

44:57

And again, the Septuagint renders it with extinction, let it become extinct from the face of the earth.

45:04

It's about as dramatic as it could be. Do you guys have any other thoughts or comments before we dismiss here?

45:13

We didn't get a whole lot of verses in, but we got quite a bit of something in. A lot of, hopefully, some stuff that will be helpful as we move throughout the book in the coming weeks here.

45:29

Well, Matthew 45 reminds us that a great is only just and the unjust to like.

45:35

For sure. So, I think, I could perceive a

45:40

Jewish destruction. Well, it's interesting because that's a good point. In that context, of course, it's using the rain in a positive way.

45:47

Even the unjust, they receive rain on their crops. But think about the flip side of that same coin.

45:54

One of the biggest proof texts of pre -Trib dispensationalists is that, we will be,

46:03

I forgot how the verse is worded, but essentially, we're spared from the wrath of God and they take that seed.

46:09

We're not punished. We're not gonna experience what the wicked experience unless you do a word study and realize that it's talking about God's ultimate indignation, which is a reference to hell.

46:20

Well, obviously, we're gonna be spared from that if we are of his fold. And so, that's not telling us that we are immune to trials and tribulations on the largest degree.

46:35

And there is one little nuance to it though, Mimi, which is a wonderful thing, and we'll see that later in Zephaniah, is that while we will see what they see, we will be singing praises of his majesty and we will be hidden, we will be protected, at least those who obey his word and go to the appropriate places to avoid the destruction that will come.

46:58

So, that's a great point that you just made because it's the flip side of the same coin that the unjust receive rain on their crops, the blessings that we receive in many cases, but we're gonna experience some trials and tribulations ourselves.

47:13

We are not immune to that. In fact, the New Testament promises that in several places as well. First Peter chapter three comes to mind.

47:20

Think it not strange, the fiery trials. So, great stuff. Do you guys have anything else you'd like to comment on?

47:27

Well, I guess we will go ahead and dismiss for today. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this wonderful day, for bringing us all back together again and allowing us to fellowship, to study your word together and to be edified by what your word has to say about these future, not only your history, but also the future events that are yet to take place that we have to prepare for and to look for.

47:52

And Lord, while it's not going to be easy, you did give us this word so that we could, as we said, prepare for it and sing praises of your majesty, of your grace and of your mercy, even during that time.

48:08

So we're thankful for these things. We're thankful for these minor prophets that we have that give us so much insight into your, the story, the grand plan, your decree that you put into motion for the creation and that you established before the foundation of the earth.

48:27

That we get to see a part of that in these even small books that talk about so many grand events, even in our future.

48:36

We ask you to be with us for the rest of today, Lord. Bless the remainder of our services. And we ask all these things in your name.