Overview of the Book of Zephaniah

Moore's Corner Church

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The overview of the week for this Sunday is the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah wrote sometime around 630 to 635

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BC, and the theme of his prophecy, like the prophet Joel, is the day of the

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Lord. Zephaniah was the great, great grandson of King Hezekiah, and he was also a contemporary of Jeremiah the prophet.

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And both of those men, Jeremiah and Zephaniah, foresaw and foretold of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by Babylon.

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So Zephaniah used that as a type or a foreshadow of the great and final day of the

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Lord. The book has three chapters, and it begins this way. The word of the

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Lord which came to Zephaniah, the son of Qushai, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah.

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Here's what he says. This is the Lord speaking. I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land, says the

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Lord. I will consume man and beast. I will consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

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And I will cut off man from the face of the land, says the Lord. I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place.

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And the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests, and those who worship the hosts of heaven, that is the sun, the moon, and the stars on their housetops, and those who worship and swear oaths by the

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Lord, but who also swear by Milcom. And Milcom is most likely another name for the demonic god,

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Molech. So times were really bad in Judah in these days.

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Thankfully, there were some reforms that came after his prophecy under King Josiah.

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But eventually, Jerusalem did fall in 586 BC. In chapter 2 of Zephaniah, the prophet speaks of how the meek could find shelter in the day of God's judgment.

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And then he closes in chapter 3 with a word of hope, where he says, speaking of Israel's restoration during the kingdom age, the messianic era, he says in chapter 3, verse 15, the

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Lord has taken away your judgments. He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the

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Lord, is in your midst, and you shall see disaster no more.