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Bro. Ben Mitchell
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.
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.
So we may not get too many verses done today, but we will cover some interesting stuff, 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.
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.
And so we did that, but kind of getting into a little bit more of a formal introduction,
we're going to cover a couple more things this morning.
So you'll notice in the opening verse, if you guys want to turn to Zephaniah chapter one, verse one,
we're given a very detailed ancestry of this particular prophet
in the opening verse.
Kenner, if you're like me, you use bookmarks for these types of books.
Let's see here.
Okay.
So one, one, 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.
So this ancestry is traced back four generations, um, which is a very, very
unique thing among the prophets.
A lot of the prophets, um, especially some of the minor prophets, we know very little about, uh, let alone,
uh, an ancestry that goes back four generations.
Sometimes in the cases of like Joel and, um, I think Amos, uh, we're given in
a little, uh, we're at least given the name of their father, but this is, I believe the only, the
only prophet that we have, um, that goes back, uh, four generations here.
Now, what this implies, um, right off the bat is that this prophet of Zephaniah was a man
of prominence in his day when he was living.
Um, and even as we see in the genealogy here in the first verse of royal heritage, because
as you can see at the end of that ancestry, the son of Hezekiah, that's Hezekiah,
he's the great, great grandson, um, of King Hezekiah.
Um, and what's interesting about that is because of that, it also makes our prophet here,
um, a distant relative, uh, a cousin, you know, sometimes removed of King
Josiah himself, who we were reading about last week.
So they're contemporaries, they're living at the same time.
Josiah is King at the time this process takes place.
Zephaniah, the prophet is a distant relative of the King, um, by way
of his great, great grandfather being King Hezekiah.
Uh, he's the only known prophet, only known Old Testament prophet with such a high social status stemming from his,
uh, being a descendant of the nobility.
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,
um, by this time.
And remember last week, we read a good portion of second Kings chapter 23.
If you go back one chapter in second Kings, we read the story about the law of God being discovered.
I'm well being rediscovered, um, in chapter 22 of that book.
Um, 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.
But even though that happened, uh, and in the book of second Kings, it's a very significant,
uh, part of Jewish history, the history of, uh, of Judah.
And obviously a story that we, you know, take a lot of inspiration from as well.
Just the type of man that Josiah was, despite all that, none of it is mentioned in this prophecy
of Zephaniah, which is really interesting.
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, we discussed kind of why that would be the case as we go throughout this book of Zephaniah.
Why wasn't that ever mentioned?
Well, again, that's what last week was all about.
Uh, there are a lot of similarities in this little prophecy of Zephaniah and the
massive work of Jeremiah, who also was a contemporary, um, a little bit
younger than Zephaniah was, but you guys recall the book of Jeremiah, massive, uh, you know, one of
our major prophets in then what follows is also the book of lamentations that was also written by
Jeremiah.
Um, you have, you have Zephaniah, you have Jeremiah, both of which wrote after
Josiah's revival in second Kings chapter 23.
And they saw that judgment was coming regardless of that revival.
In fact, it's only a few decades after Josiah's revival that we read about just last week that we received
Jeremiah's lamentations.
So that kind of puts in perspective as well, the lack of a long lasting
effect that Josiah's revival brought just a few decades later, you have Jeremiah writing the
lamentations.
Uh, 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, um, about a lot of the tribulations that they were already experiencing by the time he wrote
So that's just a little bit more of the historical background here.
The running theme of this book of Zephaniah is the day of the Lord, uh, which is
a phrase used more times in this little three chapter book than anywhere else in the old Testament.
So that will be a phrase that we come back to time and time again.
Now, again, before we continue through some of the following verses, I want to set a
couple of, a couple of parameters for, for lack of a better
term.
Um, some of the ways that we'll interpret as we go, 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.
So just as with other minor prophets, what Zephaniah is going to be doing here throughout this book,
as we go through it is he uses the phrase, the day of the Lord as an all
encompassing warning to his people to kind of, you know, quote
unquote, get their act together.
Uh, which we discussed, if you guys recall in Malachi as well, the day of the Lord was mentioned a couple of times
in that book.
And in Malachi was using it as a way to like give his people a sense of urgency,
um, and to let them know they, they needed to get things right.
They needed to make things right before it was too late from the human viewpoint.
And so Zephaniah does that in similar fashion, though, even more explicitly than Malachi did.
Um, he's going to use it as a warning to get their act together.
And with that in mind, I want you guys to kind of consider for a second, the, the,
the, the multi dimensionality of God's use of this day throughout the old Testament, the,
because there are a number of ways in which he uses it, but again, it all comes, it all boils down to kind of the same thing.
And that is creating a sense of urgency.
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, generation after generation, this phrase is used again throughout
all of the prophets.
Um, and he does.
So he uses the phrase utilizing, I guess what we could call the human viewpoint,
um, for, to, to kind of create that sense of urgency.
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 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 their, the pleasures of the world
behind them.
And to remember that life is but a vapor and they have a short time to live
rightly to live righteously.
Um, and of course, to establish a strong relationship with the Lord.
So from the human viewpoint, this phrase again is used time and time again to create that
sense of But at the same time, because again, uh, in, in many, many
cases, in most cases, what is the day of the 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?
And yet the phrase is still used just as it wasn't Malachi, just as it wasn't Joel.
And I think every minor prophet in, in all of the major prophets as well, I guess, I think it's across the board.
It's used to that generation as well to get them thinking straight.
Um, and so there's that, but at the same time, there's God's viewpoint of
this grand event.
And what I mean by that is he uses the day in the phrase is a
warning to every generation.
And yet we know that he's not going to return.
He's not going to come back until all of the sheep have been collected and are part of the fold.
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.
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.
He has used that phrase, um, as a warning going back as far as, um,
uh, you know, the, the earliest Kings of Judah and of Israel.
So we need to keep that in mind as we go throughout this book.
At times, the day of the Lord is used as an idiom to emphasize the swift and decisive nature
of the Lord's victory over his enemies on any given occasion, including
judgment on his own people after a long period of sinning against God.
That's another important phrase.
Again, this, this phrase is the majority of the time used to reference
his, the second advent of Christ, but some prophets
will use it.
What will combine the phrase with immediate judgment as well?
How many times have we heard dad talk about the method of prophecy?
And so in so many cases in the 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, uh, that will be talked about in the same context is the
far prophecy that being the second coming, but there's a singular phrase that's used to describe both the
day of the Lord.
So we're going to 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.
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.
Um, in this case, referring to the climax of this age, uh, that we're living in the church age,
the age of grace.
But one thing we need to keep in mind throughout this book is that there are many verses throughout the 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, his return.
Um, as well, of course, is the collecting of all the sheep, the reaping of the wheat.
Um, and it'll be used in a universal sense, either in the verse itself, when the phrase is used in the old
Testament or in the preceding verses or the following verses.
The reason I say this is because again, in Zephaniah, we're going to see some cases where Zephaniah is prophesying
an imminent historical event, that being the Babylonian, uh, invasion in the
exile that follows while using the day of the Lord is a phrase to describe that.
But in, in, in the still within the same immediate context, he's talking about
universal judgment.
So you got to ask, well, which is it?
Because the Babylonian exile was, uh, invasion and exile was pretty specific to the 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 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, uh, interpret when it's talking about which thing, which event it's
talking about and when.
Um, so in other words, in some cases, the prophet speaking is, is using a
method that a lot of theologians refer to as quote unquote, telescoping, uh, two events
into a truncated timeframe.
So near prophecy, far prophecy, there's a lot to talk about, but it's, he had
minimal, you know, space to write or something, or obviously it's the 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.
So Zephaniah is talking about these grand events that span thousands upon thousands of years
in a very truncated method of writing.
So this phrase is used, but he's telescoping in some cases,
multiple events.
Yes, sir.
The day of the Lord.
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.
And so I'm kind of just establishing some of these things now so that we're all on the same page when we get to those points.
Does that make sense?
Exactly.
In
many cases, when the Old Testament prophesies about Jesus, it prophesies it as if it's one event
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.
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.
it also
requires
us
to
study, which God certainly wants us to do.
And just as the prophets would, in many cases, miss that it was a two advent
occurrence of Jesus's coming, the day of the Lord, again, it can be talking about immediate
imminent judgment, and they may think all of what they're saying is imminent.
They're missing that a lot of history, a lot of, as we now know it, church history takes place before the ultimate
judgment.
And so the day of the Lord is prophesied similarly to Jesus's 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 King coming in glory.
So again, yes, dad, but I hadn't gotten into which phrase or which passages
determining that 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.
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.
So that's why it's so important for us to establish these things.
Now on that note, I want to point out one more thing before we dive into some verses here.
As we progress throughout this book, we're going to 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.
That is the second coming.
And actually, I think it might even be talking about after the millennial kingdom as well.
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.
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.
Then it moves on to talking about judgment on surrounding nations, nations
directly around geographical Israel at that time.
Then it starts going backward.
It goes back to judgment on Jerusalem again, and then the book ends with universal judgment again.
So it's like going like this, and then it goes back.
It's like a reversion pattern.
It starts with universal judgment and 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.
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.
So this is the first section of the book that I will call future judgment of the world,
but it's split into two categories.
The first is universal.
The second is national.
Verse two says, I will utterly consume all things off the land, saith the 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,
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.
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.
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.
It's going to 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.
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, I'm just going to 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, 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 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.
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 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.
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.
What is the point of that repetition?
Nobody is going to be immune or be able to hide from this particular day.
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.
Verse three says, The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the Lord hath spoken
this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away.
The world languisheth and fadeth away.
The haughty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all merry -hearted do sigh.
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoiceth endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
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.
That, at this point, totally stops.
All joy from any man that's left on the earth this time will cease.
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.
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.
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 Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea, wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the
Lord God of Israel in the aisles 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.
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 Jewish remnant.
I would argue it's not merely the Jewish remnant, and I think the aisles of the sea
help clarify that this is not just a Jewish remnant, but rather
a remnant of all ethnicities that's left on the earth the time this judgment is taking place
during the Great Tribulation.
Then it returns to talking about the Great Tribulation here.
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, the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, yea, the treacherous dealers have
dealt very treacherously.
Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon the, O inhabitant of the earth.
That's pretty all -encompassing there.
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.
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.
Even if they were to fall into the pit and then claw themselves out, then the
snare will grab them.
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.
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, and the transgression thereof
shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again.
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.
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.
And after many days shall they be visited.
Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously.".
Well, we could probably spend a few months going verse by verse through that single chapter.
Maybe that's for another day.
But the point being is that in the couple of verses that open up Zephaniah, that
is what's happening in those verses.
I will utterly consume all things from off the land.
So remember the conciseness, but the abruptness of the language.
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.
And this just talked about what we were thinking about.
Let me see if I can find this verse.
Isaiah 24, 5, the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof.
Think about what the liberals have been saying that we humans are creating or
destroying the atmosphere.
The ozone layer.
And bringing global warming.
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.
So we conservatives like to call it climate change, which they changed it to, right?
Because they thought they were wrong when the freeze killed all the trees just a few winters ago.
So the point is we have climate change, but notice it says the earth also is
defiled under the inhabitants because we're sinful human beings.
We do defile the earth.
And it says because they have transgressed the law, God's laws and ordinances, broken the
everlasting covenant, which is the Abrahamic covenant.
Therefore, hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell their own are desolate.
Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left.
Well, now look at Maui right now.
Have y 'all seen that on TV?
We've been there many times with Tradeway.
Beautiful.
We used to go there every winter for how many years, Katie?
Six, seven, eight, nine years.
Every winter we went to Maui and taught advanced stock market classes.
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.
But anyway, the joke's over because look what happened here this week.
Now it's that hot here.
If anyone sparked a fire, anyone anywhere around any of our houses, it would burn them all
down right now because the wind has picked up, you know, huge winds,
hot air, no humidity, dry dead grass.
So it's very fascinating here that it says the inhabitants of the earth are burned up.
Now, I remember my mom used to teach me that the rainbow reminds us God will never destroy the earth
by water again.
And then my mom would say, he's going to destroy us next time by fire.
And I was a little bitty.
I mean, 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.
I still remember it.
And as I became a man and got saved, studied the 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.
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're teaching on it.
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.
And it's quite remarkable to see this.
There's one other point in here I saw that was pretty amazing.
I know this isn't even your main point today.
Well, it is because what you're saying is FNI summarizes all this.
All of this is included in it.
Let's see.
They should lift up their voice.
Was it talking about the part when it was talking about the remnant or?
Oh, I found this fascinating.
People have asked me, where are you going to go?
Right?
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?
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?
So maybe, maybe not.
Ben may have just revealed some of it to everyone listening.
Of course, this isn't everyone.
This is just us and our friends out there listening from afar on the internet this morning.
Some of our most cherished friends are listening out there right now.
But look at this.
Verse 13.
I'm in Isaiah 24.
When thus it shall be in the midst of the land.
In other words, when all this stuff, when you see this stuff start to happen, right?
Where the land is burning and people are, I mean, the death toll there's way over a hundred as of
this morning.
We don't know that.
They don't even know.
They think it may be thousands.
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.
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.
They shall sing because of the majesty of the Lord.
They shall cry out loud from the sea.
Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord of Israel in
the aisles of the sea.
Years ago, I asked brother Raj, Dr. Raj Kripalani, our friend
here in town.
So where would you put, where would you look for your cave Raj?
Because I was thinking South America, right?
Well, brother David, I would look at some of the Caribbean islands that have the Protestant Christians on
them.
There's three or four of those like that.
You've been there, right?
And I said, yeah, yeah.
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,
but I'm not telling you which island I'm going to.
No, that's many times.
Y 'all heard me say when America gets new, I want to be watching it on a color TV.
Well, that has been a joke, but it's real with me.
That's what I'm really thinking.
I'm going to be doing.
And that scripture right there, pretty well.
Cause I had not seen that in context of me questioning where until this morning,
your son needs to do the lesson.
So I had to share.
Well, I was once asked, well, exactly.
Well, um, and thanks for saying all that.
So close to the mic, by the way, dad, cause that was very helpful for our listeners and the recording.
I was going to say a second ago.
I was once asked, uh, if the, if the rapture is post
tribulation, what's even the point, 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 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.
Now that's in a very, there's more detail to it, even more than that, but that's boils
down to that and to the glory of the Lord.
Absolutely as well.
Well, um, here there's a couple more points for this verse and then, and then we'll call it for today, but this
is some great stuff.
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, uh, you know, in verse two
and three there.
Um, and then after reading the detail, uh, in Isaiah chapter 24, the judgment on the earth
that Zephaniah in those opening verses talk about, it's all encompassing it's land,
it's air, it's sea.
Uh, this will be, um, a decreation event.
The earth will be, you know, the earth will be moved in ways that it hadn't been.
When's the last time that happened?
The flood.
Um, and as dad said, as he quoted Nana, he judged the earth and destroyed the earth once by water.
The second time by fire, this is going to be, um, a massive thing that takes
place.
This is talking about, of course, um, just the judgment that the universal judgment that will take
place during that time, but the remnant will be spared, uh, as we saw in that Isaiah
chapter.
And as we will see in Zephaniah, by the way, as well, when we get into chapter two, really interesting stuff.
Um, the remnant will be spared, uh, but the wicked will be destroyed along with the fallen, uh, creation.
Now I'm going to do something a little bit nerdy.
Uh, hopefully I'll enjoy it though, but I just had to throw this in there.
Do you guys recall something, um, known as the Septuagint?
It is a Greek translation of the Hebrew old Testament.
And it's significant because it was, it was the Bible for the first century Christians before all of the letters
of the apostles started being circulated long before the revelation of Jesus, uh, as prophesied by
John was written and circulated the Bible of the first century Christians long after Jesus passed away
was the old Testament written in Greek or translated in Greek.
Interestingly enough.
And you think, you know, we, we talk a lot about the, uh, the, you know, King James translators
being just a really amazing group of people think about how good the translators were of the
Septuagint.
They were so good that Jesus and the apostles themselves quoted the Septuagint oftentimes,
not, not the direct Hebrew old Testament.
So we have the Septuagint, it's the old Testament, but it's in Greek.
And this is how the Septuagint renders verse two, where it says, I will utterly consume all things off the land, sayeth the
Lord.
This is how the Septuagint reads with extinction.
Let it become extinct from the face of the earth, says the Lord.
Very dramatic, very dramatic language.
The Greek word that those translators used for the
word consume is the Greek word eclipo.
And what that Greek word means is it means to fail or to admit, I'm sorry, to omit
or to cease.
This is really, I'll probably have to end with this, but check this out, go over to Hebrews chapter
one for a second.
There's actually set, there's actually two or three passages that this Greek word is used in the new Testament that is really fascinating, but
this is just to give y 'all an example of the severity of this event.
This is just taking it just one, one little step deeper of how the Greek mind
viewed the wording and the abruptness of language in this, in this verse, I will utterly consume
all things.
This is how they were viewing it.
They use the word eclipo.
And again, it means to cease or to omit.
If you read Hebrews chapter one, let me get a little bit of context.
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.
And then get to about verse, I guess let's start in 10.
It says, and thou Lord, talking about Jesus, obviously in the beginning has laid the foundation
of the earth in the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish, but thou remainest in, they shall
wax old as doth a garment.
And listen to this.
And as a vesture shalt thou fold them and they shall be changed, but
thou art the same in thy years shall not fail.
That word fail there is the same Greek word, eclipo,
except it's the opposite.
It will not fail.
So Jesus's immutability is the antithesis
of what's going to happen to the earth at this time.
When I will consume all things, Jesus says, I will make all things cease from
existing.
I will make all things fail.
I will omit all things.
It's the exact opposite of his very immutability.
The same Greek word used to describe his immutability in Hebrews one 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 Greek.
I thought that was pretty fascinating.
All living creatures are included in this judgment.
This is a very heavy, severe judgment.
The extinction of every species of living animal as we know them will be gone.
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.
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.
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.
So starting either next week or after that, I'm not sure, but Dave and I are alternating quite a bit right now.
Next time, the focus for a good portion of Zephaniah here will move to the
Babylonian invasion of 586 BC.
Zephaniah spoke of Judah's destruction and universal judgment is two parts of one
grand event.
Again, we ask, why would he do it that way?
Or better question is, why would the Holy Spirit inspire it to be written that way?
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.
However, there is another group of people that he's going to 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 Zephaniah is combining, or as we said earlier, telescoping these events.
But we will get to more on that later.
The word consumed in verse two.
Well, yes, it's used in verse two and in verse three.
And again, the Septuagint renders it with extinction.
Let it become extinct from the face of the earth is about as dramatic as it could
be.
You guys have any other thoughts or comments before we dismiss here?
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.
For
sure.
Well, it's interesting because that's a good point in that context.
Of course, it's using the rain in a positive way.
Even the unjust, they receive rain on their crops.
But think about the flip side of that same coin.
One of the biggest proof texts of pre -trib dispensationalists is
that we will be, I forgot how the verse is worded, but essentially
we're spared from the wrath of God and they take that.
See, we're not punished.
We're not going to experience with 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.
Well, obviously we're going to 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.
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.
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 going to experience some trials and tribulations ourselves.
We are not immune to that.
In fact, the new Testament promises that several places as well.
First Peter chapter three comes to mind.
Think it not strange, the fiery trials.
So great stuff.
Do you guys have anything else you'd like to comment on?
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.
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.
So we're thankful for these things.
We're thankful for these minor profits that we have that give us so much insight into
your, the story, the grand plan, your decree that you put into motion
before the, or at creation and that you established before the foundation of the earth.
We get to see a part of that in these even small books that talk about so many
grand events, even in our future.
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.
Amen.