20: Minor Prophets – Zephaniah 1-3:5

[Dunkle] Welcome to Minor Prophets class. We're continuing our way through the Minor Prophets, and today we get to begin with the book of Zephaniah. So I’ll say Zephaniah, not Zechariah. And for those who are watching the recording, whenever you might be, I’ll apologize—my voice has gotten a little bit wonky, so I’ll try to project enough to where you can hear me.

But as we do with each one of our new books that we start, I want to begin with the five W’s. So the five W’s of Zephaniah—well, we talk about the who. Who is the author of this book? Well, it’s Zephaniah, but we don’t know anything about him other than what’s written in the first verse of this book. And we get a little bit of a genealogy, and that’s pretty unusual for the minor prophets.

And it says, "The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah" (Zephaniah 1:1).

It’s interesting that it mentions—it traces his lineage back four generations—and that it goes to Hezekiah, because we know there was a King Hezekiah. Could it be that it was that one? And if so, then Zephaniah is part of the royal family, part of the aristocracy, possibly even King Josiah’s cousin. He’s prophesying in the days of Josiah.

But I should note, some scholars think it’s the other way around, because it doesn’t say King Hezekiah—it just says Hezekiah. Some would say, well, it would certainly say the king if it was the king. So we’re still left not quite sure. I tend to lean toward thinking he is related to the king, because I think that’d be more interesting. It doesn’t change his message, though.

As with many of our men writing books in the Bible, we see the name—or the meaning of their name—in Hebrew could be interesting. Zephaniah could be translated to mean Yahweh hides, or hidden by Yahweh, or hidden by God, which might pertain to part of the message we’ll come to as we go through it.

So he does tell us a bit about when. If it’s in the days of Josiah—we believe it’s King Josiah—we generally place it around 615 or so BC, although it could be a little bit earlier. There’s some question of whether it’s early in Josiah’s reign or late in Josiah’s reign.

The reason I mention this is that there’s talk of sin, and we know that Josiah led a great revival. Josiah led Judah back to the true worship of God, at least temporarily. It wasn’t going to be as long-lasting as we wish, but it was going in the right direction.

I’ll note also a key to the time in chapter 2, verse 13. There’s a mention of destroying Assyria and Nineveh. Nineveh’s fall is foretold, and that happened in 612 BC. So obviously, the book of Zephaniah was written earlier than that.

And the time period we’re looking at—we could see that Zephaniah would have overlapped somewhat with Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah had a pretty long career. Jeremiah started when he was still young, probably a teenager, and Zephaniah would have been ahead of him—an older man when Jeremiah first started. But they’re still there at that pretty much same time period, which is right about the end of Israel as a kingdom and looking ahead to the end of Judah as a kingdom.

Let’s talk about where. It seems certainly this was written in Judah, the southern kingdom—especially if Israel had gone into captivity earlier, which we believe they had. So if Zephaniah was of the aristocracy, if he’s related to the king, he’s probably in Jerusalem. And so I think that makes sense and fits with a lot of what we’re going to cover.

So the who, when, and where are pretty easy. The what and why are a little more complex and I think often more interesting. So let’s talk about why. Why was this book written? Well, a clear theme that emerges is the Day of the Lord. That term appears in Zephaniah’s writing quite a bit. For thinking of the Day of the Lord, we can look at it in two fulfillments—or two ways of understanding it.

One of the things I’ve liked to say—boy, that’s a terrible way of saying that—two ways I like to say it is, any time that God intervenes in human affairs, it is a day of the Lord. But when we think of the Day of the Lord, we think of the end of this age—the catastrophe that will happen leading up to Christ’s return.

So this could be a warning for Judah at that time before they would fall, but there’s good reason for us to look and say how much of this would apply to the end time that we might see, if we live long enough and Christ returns then. We want to look for lessons for us as well.

And let’s talk about what. Zephaniah’s writing, interestingly, is called not sublime—meaning it wasn’t real elevated and elegant—but he’s considered to be graphic and descriptive, strong, powerful writing, we could say. His language is also referred to by scholars as pure.

And when I first read that, I said, what do you mean pure? But what they mean is it doesn’t include phrases from other languages or borrowed things. And interestingly, Zephaniah is the one who prophesies—we believe—in the millennium of there being a pure language for the whole world. Maybe he was consciously trying to keep his language pure.

One more thing I’ll say about Zephaniah before we get into chapter and verse. Some consider Zephaniah to be a good summary of all the prophetic books—maybe a concise statement. You know, it’s powerful, it’s brief. But one of the things I’ll tell you about the prophets—a lot of times the message is, you’re sinning, stop sinning or you’ll be punished. And then after the punishment, God will bring you back and have mercy on you. We see that over and over again, and we’ll see it in Zephaniah fairly powerfully.

So I’ll say we read verse 1 already, which just sets the stage. Verse 2 starts sounding pretty dire. This seems to be God speaking, and He says, "I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land… I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea… I will cut off man from the face of the land" (Zephaniah 1:2–3).

Wow, that’s pretty strong.

Let’s say this is indicating what we’d call universal punishment. You know, it’s similar to when God sent the flood in Noah’s day—saying, I’ve had enough, I’m going to take care of all of them.

So I don’t know if this—you know—well, one thing I’ll say: when it says face of the land, that Hebrew word eretz can be translated to mean the globe, but land can mean this territory, a piece of land. And I think that’s more the case here. We don’t see prophecies that God is going to eliminate everything from the whole earth unless we’re getting to after the millennium and even after the Great White Throne Judgment, which I’ll address in a moment.

But let’s say for now, God is saying, okay, punishment is going to be all over here—we’re going to get it all.

And a couple of terms we’ll want to clarify. There in verse 3, partway through it, it mentions stumbling blocks. That’s an idiomatic phrase, typically in the Hebrew, that is used to talk about idols. God is going to destroy the idols along with the wicked—the people who are worshiping those idols.

And later on, Zephaniah is going to describe idolatry in his era, and we could say we’ll look for some of how it could apply to us.

I do want to mention, though, when we talk about destruction of the whole earth in 2 Peter 3 and verse 12. Peter describes when "the heavens will be dissolved and the elements will melt with fervent heat" (2 Peter 3:12).

And as I indicated, that seems to be referring to a time when no physical beings are left—when all are either part of God's family or cease to exist. So, you know, that could be something to look forward to. It’s talking about everything being destroyed. Not sure if we look forward to it in an excited way.

Well, let me add one more scripture. Malachi 4:1 talks about the day will come burning as an oven when all the wicked will be burned up. So that again is looking well to the end, not necessarily in Zephaniah's time.

So let’s move on. We’ll see a description of some of the idolatry.

In verse 4 He says, "I will stretch out My hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place" (Zephaniah 1:4). Baal—of course, Baal worship had become very common during the reign of King Manasseh. Manasseh was before Josiah and Amon. He’s considered to be the worst king in Judah’s history. He even engaged in child sacrifice, so he was very, very bad. And even though the nation would turn away, Baal worship would continue, and God’s going to call that out.

He mentions here also in verse 4 the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests. The Hebrew here that’s translated idolatrous priest—well, the word is kemareem, which the literal translation of the Hebrew is "black ones." But what it’s talking about—it’s not skin color at all—it’s talking about black robes that the pagan priests tended to wear. And so in the Hebrew they just called them the black ones.

This is rather different than the priest garments that we see described in the Pentateuch that Aaron and later his descendants would wear. So it’s a clear standout, and God could just refer to them that way.

Moving on, though, He also mentions in verse 5, "those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops" (Zephaniah 1:5). Host of heaven seems to be referring to the oldest form of paganism—sun worship, and also worship of the moon. These were common in pagan, simple societies, and God condemned it strongly.

And that would happen even on housetops. That’s something we don’t think of—on housetops—because we live in a modern society where we have these peaked roofs, and it’s kind of dangerous to get up there on them. In the culture and society at that time, they typically had flat roofs, and they had a means to get up there, and they used it as additional living space.

The equivalent in North America in our time would be if you have a nice deck in your backyard—especially some two-story houses built by a slope—you go out and you’re on that deck and you are up in the air, but it’s not a dangerous situation. So up on the housetop, in that flat area, would be a place where you might be honoring and worshiping the sun and the moon, which God here condemns and says He’ll punish.

And continuing in verse 5: "Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom" (Zephaniah 1:5). So some people say they’re worshiping God, but they also swear by Milcom. Milcom is believed to be another name for Molech. Molech was the chief god they referred to when they did child sacrifice—a dire evil that God condemned. Also he’s equated with Moloch and, in some societies, perhaps Saturn—getting into, I don’t remember if Saturn was Greek or Roman.

Roman—thank you. I was going to guess that, but I wasn’t sure.

And reading through this, we can see it’s pretty easy to identify idolatry in ancient times. They would make a statue, or they’d burn incense to the sun or the moon. What about in our modern time? Well, we typically aren’t doing that. We’re not bowing down to some wooden statue coated in gold, but we do elevate things and look to those.

We also have modern religions. You know, the way Christianity is practiced by many people in the world involves elements of ancient paganism. And to be honest, Judaism and Islam also bring in elements whose origins are not related to the true God. So we want to be careful. We want to be aware of what we’re doing in reference to some of these practices.

As we can see, God clearly condemns these things. That’s what’s going to bring the punishment described at the start of the chapter.

Now, before elaborating on the judgment that’s going to come, in verse 7—I like it—it says, "Be silent in the presence of the Lord God" (Zephaniah 1:7). You know, so there’s a call for silence. We actually saw something similar in Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 20.

But rather than turn there, I want to notice something similar in Revelation. Revelation chapter 8 and verse 1—if you remember, early on in Revelation there’s a scroll that has seven seals, and John is really upset until it turns out Jesus Christ is the one who can open them. And as the seals are opened, certain events come forward.

And chapter 8, verse 1 says, "When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour" (Revelation 8:1). It seems there are times when God calls for silence. Maybe He’s about to do something big, or He wants people’s attention.

So here in Zephaniah 1:7, it’s also, "Be silent in the presence of the Lord God" (Zephaniah 1:7). 

That reminded me of something that Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes. I'll just read it for you. Ecclesiastes 5:2, where it says, "God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few." 

You know, so think about how you talk with God. Now, it doesn't mean not to talk to God. Obviously, we pray and we communicate, but we never want to lose sight of who and what we are next to Him. And there's a time to keep silent. And I don't, I didn't even get through that whole verse. 

Verse 7, "Be silent in the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand." The Day of the Lord—this seems to be referring especially to the end time. "For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests" (Zephaniah 1:7). 

By the way, prepared a sacrifice—He’s not sacrificing to worship some higher god. There is no higher God. This is a bit of a euphemism. It means there’s going to be a slaughter. And we see similar references in other places—Jeremiah 46:10 uses that phrasing.

But I want to turn to one in Ezekiel 39:17, because I think it makes it much more clear what he’s talking about when he says sacrifice. There He says, "Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field." So these are animals who would consume carrion, dead flesh. "‘Assemble yourselves and come; gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal… that you may eat flesh and drink blood’" (Ezekiel 39:17).

Then He gets more specific: "You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth" (Ezekiel 39:18). And He goes on to describe the animals.

Coming back to Zephaniah, where He says the Lord has prepared a sacrifice—it means there’s going to be a great slaughter. This could relate to Revelation 19, where there’s described this great battle when the armies come to fight against God, and they don’t stand a chance. He’ll squash them, and it talks about the blood running as high as the horse’s bridle.

It’s violent, and it’s not pleasant to think about, but when man turns his power against God and God shows who’s in charge, you get those results.

There’s another detail I want to point out about verse 7. If you see there, "Be silent in the presence of the Lord God" (Zephaniah 1:7). We’re used to seeing LORD in all caps, but this is lowercase—L-O-R-D. That’s from the Hebrew word Adonai. And so we have G-O-D in all caps… They get all caps, and that’s where the tetragrammaton is used—the Y-H-W-H. So that’s the normal word that’s translated as LORD in all caps. It’s not done here because the word before it is Lord. If the King James Version did it the way it normally would, it would be "the Lord LORD," which doesn’t roll off the tongue and make sense. So they switched it—"Lord God" is a good translation. I’m just pointing that out. It’s a small detail, but it reminds us that when we see LORD in all caps, that’s representing the tetragrammaton—a name that God gave Moses and Israel. But sometimes it’s translated differently for the sake of the flow in English.

Moving on, in verse 8 it says, "It shall be 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 foreign apparel" (Zephaniah 1:8). The princes and the king’s children are people being prepared to be leaders. They should be leading the nation into righteousness, but it’s evident that instead they’re leading into corruption and idolatry.

And I’ll mention, at the time this is written, the current king—Josiah—if our understanding of the timing is right, he would have maybe not had any children, or if he did have some, they’d be fairly young. But this seems to be referring to the royal family, and they’re going to be punished.

Foreign apparel seems probably to refer to fashion and opulence—sort of trying to mimic the leaders in other nations, where they give way to a show of being wealthy. Some Bible scholars think it might be referring to those black robes that we said the pagan priests were wearing—possibly—but I don’t see that as likely as just dressing in flashy fashion, showing off.

In verse 9 he says, "In the same day I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s houses with violence and deceit" (Zephaniah 1:9). So leaping over the threshold—I think—likely refers to servants or people forcibly entering people’s homes and stealing. You know, they’re leaping in and robbing people.

I do want to point out that some scholars think of a different translation or understanding, and this comes from a story in 1 Samuel. If you remember, the Israelites go to battle against the Philistines, and they bring the Ark of the Covenant, thinking it’ll protect them. The Philistines win the battle, take the Ark, and put it in the house of their god Dagon. But when they look the next day, Dagon’s knocked over. Then they set him up again, and the next day he’s knocked over and his arms are cut off.

And so it says in that passage that no one treads on the threshold of the house of Dagon after that. Which I always took to mean they’re leaving off worship of Dagon because Israel’s God showed He was much more powerful. But if you take it literally—they don’t step on the threshold—you could say they’re leaping over the threshold.

Again, I don’t find that very convincing, but some say he’s talking about punishing Dagon worshipers. In the setting, I think people practicing violence and robbery is a bit more fitting.

I can tell you guys are thrilled with this detailed analysis. Let’s move on.

In verses 10 and 11: "And there shall be on that day… the sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate" (Zephaniah 1:10). This is talking about Jerusalem. The Fish Gate is probably where they brought in fish—especially if they were bringing it up from the Jordan or elsewhere. "Wailing from the Second Quarter would be a lower part of the city." The hills might refer to areas within the city walls, like Zion and Moriah.

"Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh" (Zephaniah 1:11), which is probably referring to a merchant district. It talks about those who handle money being cut off—the merchants are cut off.

One thought about this is that, knowing the fall of Jerusalem was coming and Nebuchadnezzar’s armies would conquer it, some have said this is a prophecy of the progress that army would make—breaching the city walls and moving through different sections. I kind of like that, although I’m not certain it’s true. But God is showing it’s all through the city that this happens.

Going on to verse 12, we see God is going to be very thorough in using Babylon. "It shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps."  It's like no one's going to escape. We're going to scrutinize, "and punish the men who are settled in complacency" (Zephaniah 1:12). If you had the old King James, it would say "settled on their lees."

And thats a reference to making wine. So it'd be if you leave the wine as a ferments in the same container, the stuff that goes down or the sediment, the lees. And so it means complacent. It hasn't been tipped out.

In Jeremiah 48, there's a reference to Moab being like that. You know, they weren't disturbed, but God says, I'm going to disturb them. I'm going to make a move. So complacency is a good translation into English of what it means, not a literal word for word. So take it for what it says. Complacency.

The Lord will not do... who say in their heart... So these people who are complacent say, oh, the Lord's not going to do good. He's not going to do evil.

Let me read verse 13. I'll back up to that. "Therefore, because they're complacent," don't think God will do anything, "their goods will become booty. Their houses of desolation. They'll build houses and not inhabit them. Plant vineyards, not drink their wine." (Zephaniah 1:13)

These are similar punishments that we see in other places, especially in the blessing and curses chapters, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, where you'd go to all this work, but others come and enjoy the labor of it.

Yeah, there I wanted to reference when they say, oh, God's not going to do anything. He's not going to do good or evil. It's very similar to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter 3 verses 3 and 4. It says, "scoffers will come in the last day, saying, where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they did from creation" (2 Peter 3:3–4).

Well, when Peter writes that, he's saying they're wrong. They might say that, but God is going to do things, and these people are wrong. Don't be complacent. Just because God doesn't execute punishment speedily doesn't mean that it won't come.

And we go on from there, and verse 14 says, "the great day of the Lord is near. It's coming near" (Zephaniah 1:14). And when they approached the end of Josiah's reign, it was getting a lot closer, because those who followed Josiah would not be good kings. And God basically speaking through Jeremiah would tell him it's enough. He'll even tell Jeremiah, don't pray for these people for their good, because the end is coming near. It hastens quickly.

"The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men cry out" (Zephaniah 1:14). There's noise in the day. We've seen in some of the other minor prophets, it talks about God roaring from Zion. So he doesn't have to be quiet about this. We also have references to trumpets. So this kind of thing happens.

And when it says the mighty men shall cry out, that's widespread despair. Even the mighty men are crying out. They're the ones you expect to be standing firm and resolute. But, you know, they see their weakness.

Verse 15, "that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess" (Zephaniah 1:15). Are you getting the point yet? You know, they have clouds and thick darkness, "a day of trumpet and alarm" (Zephaniah 1:16). We don't want to forget sounding the trumpet shows alarm. Joel 2:2 explained that very well, as did Amos 5:18.

And God is showing, you know, there's no protection. Because in verse 16, the trumpet and alarm are against fortified cities, against the high towers. It seems to be saying fortifications and towers aren't going to protect against God's punishment, whether God is doing it directly or He's bringing in the Babylonian army. The Babylonian army would be strong and powerful, especially because God was blessing them and leading them to success.

Well, there's another point I want to make, but let's address verses 17 and 18 first. "I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men" (Zephaniah 1:17). It could be saying they lack direction, they've got no spiritual vision because they don't repent. And here it says, "because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like refuse" (Zephaniah 1:17).

And in a situation like that, verse 18 says, "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them" (Zephaniah 1:18). Your riches don't matter.

Let me give you a couple of quotes. Proverbs 11 verse 4. As a matter of fact, I'm going to turn to that one because it'll force me to slow down a little. "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death" (Proverbs 11:4). Here in Zephaniah, we can see people might be trusting on their riches, but they're not developing righteousness. So we put the Bible together and we see what should be.

There's a similar prophecy—well, it's not the same statement—but in Ezekiel 7:19. Ezekiel 7:19, God says in this era, you know, the time of the end, the day of the Lord, they'll basically throw their silver in the streets and their gold won't deliver them.

I remind myself of this whenever I hear these commercials about buying gold, you know, to save yourself from whatever catastrophe is happening, and say, no, gold's not going to save you. You know, we saw in Proverbs righteousness can deliver, but not gold or silver.

And the rest of this verse, verse 18, "but the whole land shall be devoured" (Zephaniah 1:18). We could relate that right back to verse 2 where he says, I'll utterly consume everything. "By the fire of His jealousy… He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land" (Zephaniah 1:18). God might be slow to anger—I shouldn't say might be—He is slow to anger. That's what He tells us. But when He takes action, things can happen very quickly.

And that reminds me of something we've said for a long time in the Church in regard to end-time prophecy, because we know there's a series of events that we're watching. And it seems that we've said it could come together very slowly. You know, we've watched Europe for years and said, are the countries going to come together and form the beast power? And if we go back to the forming of the European—trying to think—the coal and something community, the EEC, later the European Economic Community, then now the European Union, it seems to be so slow. Are they going to come together or not?

But we said when it's ready, prophetic events could happen very quickly. Almost like if you've ever done the game where you set up dominoes and you've got to be very careful, set them up one at a time and slowly. But when it's done, you knock that first one down—they go fast. That's why you get to set up so many, so you can enjoy watching them for a while. So think of end-time prophecy in that way. The Lord will make a speedy riddance, but He's slow to anger. It takes time to get there.

Okay, moving into chapter 2. We could say after we've seen a description of punishment, we're going to see some ways of escape, because he says, "Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation" (Zephaniah 2:1). And that seems to be the nation that's undesirable because they've been sinning. And in this case, that's Jerusalem.

I would look to us as a Church, though. Remember, we're called the Israel of God—a spiritual nation. So we want to gather ourselves together and not be undesirable. Gather together could even imply a religious assembly. Looking again back in Joel 2, there are two times it says blow the trumpet. The first time is an alarm of war. The second time is call a sacred assembly, coming together, perhaps to fast and seek your God.

Ah—Joel 2:15: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly" (Joel 2:15). And that seems to be what he's talking about here in Zephaniah 2—gather yourselves together.

"Before the decree is issued, or the day passes like chaff" (Zephaniah 2:2). Chaff—chaff is basically what's left after you thresh grain. You know, it's the stuff you don't want. But after it's dried properly, it separates and it's light and airy. The way you thresh—or the way they thresh back then—is put it on a threshing floor, let the oxen walk over it, and then throw it up in the air and the wind would blow the chaff away. So chaff is light and it blows away in the breeze. It doesn't stick around.

So he's talking about a day passing as chaff. You know, it's just here and it's gone. Before that happens—"before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you" (Zephaniah 2:2)—before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you, before that, "seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth" (Zephaniah 2:3). You know, don't let it pass. Don't let it be gone without realizing it. Seek the Lord now.

"Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger" (Zephaniah 2:3). You'll be hidden. What did I say? Zephaniah means hidden of God. So he might be making a little reference to his own name here.

But we want to look to—okay, maybe some of the Jews could be hidden when the Chaldean army is coming through and conquering. But we look for being hidden in the cataclysm at the end of the age, when these plagues are being poured out.

And I can't help but reference back to Isaiah 26 verse 20: "Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past" (Isaiah 26:20). "For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth" (Isaiah 26:21).

So there are some indications that God will protect the righteous—His called-out people—at the end time when the trumpet plagues and the last plagues are being poured out. In the Church, we've used the phrase "place of safety." The Bible doesn't use that term exactly. In Revelation 12, it talks about the Church fleeing to her place. But we see clear descriptions of being hidden, as Zephaniah says—hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.

If I had a choice, I'd take that one. I don't mind being hidden from the Lord's anger.

Okay, I'm going to pick up and keep going.

In verse 4, for this reason, "Gaza shall be forsaken, Ashkelon desolate; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be uprooted" (Zephaniah 2:4). We've covered four of the five Philistine cities. So they're being mentioned here. Why not Gath? Gath was the fifth? Well, our understanding is Gath had been conquered by the Jews earlier and was no longer a Philistine city. 2 Kings 18:8 seems to mention that. 2 Kings 18, 8.

And then it mentions verse 5, "Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines: I will destroy you; so there shall be no inhabitant" (Zephaniah 2:5). And it goes on in verse 6 to say, "The seacoast," and by the way, let's look at this. So the Philistine cities are on the sea coast, and it says they'll be turned to pasture with shelters for shepherds. So God's going to destroy the cities, and it's reduced to pastureage.

One of the things I want to note is we mention these cities. If Judah is the central location, which direction is this? It's to the west. Okay, that alone doesn't necessarily say much.

But if we go on to verse 8, it says, "I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the people of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people, and made arrogant threats against their borders" (Zephaniah 2:8). "Therefore, as I live," says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "surely Moab shall be like Sodom, and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah—overrun with weeds and salt pits" (Zephaniah 2:9).

I want to say it refers to these arrogant threats of Moab, and over and over again, God condemns Moab for pride. That's one of the things that God says He hates in Proverbs. He'll list several things that God hates, and pride is right up on that list.

And saying Ammon will be like salt pits like Gomorrah. Remember the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, when Lot chose to settle there, was rich. It's described as being like the Garden of God. But after the destruction, it's barren land. And of course, we've got the dead sea there with salt pits and nothing worthwhile.

At the end of verse 9, it talks about "a perpetual desolation… the residue of My people shall plunder them" (Zephaniah 2:9). Oh, yeah, and I mentioned pride, of course. In verse 10, "This they shall have for their pride, because they have reproached and made arrogant threats" (Zephaniah 2:10). God doesn't take kindly to that.

The other thing I wanted to mention, though, is that Ammon is here, Moab is here. So we had the Philistines to the east. Now we're going from one side to the other. God is talking about all around my people, they're going to be destroyed. Which fits what we saw at the beginning of the book. I'll literally consume everything. You know, the whole land is going to come under destruction. So Judah and everybody on this side, everybody on that side.

But we're not done with that yet. In verse 12, he mentions, "You Ethiopians also, you shall be slain by My sword" (Zephaniah 2:12). He'll stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, make Nineveh a desolation. Ethiopia wouldn't appear on this map. If I go to this one, it'd be down here. And then Assyria is up here.

So what I'm saying is now we've got south and north. We had east and west, which completes the all around, the whole land. When God brings out the punishment, he's going to be thorough about it. Everywhere is going to get it. Boy, that was a very bad colloquialism, but I think you see the point.

Since we're mentioning Nineveh again, it's going to be a desolation, which we've seen it would be destroyed in 625 is the date many historians think that's when it happened. And Nahum, of course, prophesied of that. And so "Herds shall lie down in her midst, every beast of the nation. Both the pelican and the bittern" (Zephaniah 2:14). So it's a desolate land where wild animals come and settle. I think of some of the Psalms. I know, trying to remember if it's still in the hymnal, there's talk about a pelican alone and, you know, some weird phraseology to the western ear, but it fits describing this.

Let's go on in verse 15. There's a strong parallel here that we'll see with later Babylon, or mystery Babylon the Great. We were talking about Nineveh as "the rejoicing city that dwelt securely, that said in her heart, ‘I am it, and there is none besides me’" (Zephaniah 2:15). That's pretty vain.

You see similar language to that in Isaiah 47 verse 8. Isaiah 47, 8. "Hear this now," And this chapter 47 of Isaiah is talking about Babylon. "And you say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children’" (Isaiah 47:8). And this chapter 47 of Isaiah is talking about Babylon.

It seems to correspond also with Revelation 18 and verse 7. Revelation 18, 7, talking about this false, you know, we would say Babylon, but mystery Babylon the Great. "In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow’" (Revelation 18:7). That's very similar to saying, I'm it. There is none besides me.

And finishing Zephaniah 2:15, "How has she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down! Everyone who passes by her shall hiss and shake his fist" (Zephaniah 2:15).

Okay, that's pretty strong stuff. What did we see? Does God take kindly to pride and arrogance? He does not. He'll punish the peoples for that. And then that makes me think, Frank, you need to look in the mirror. Do I have pride and arrogance? God doesn't care for that. I could learn a lesson from Nineveh and from Babylon and squalch pride in my own life.

And we could extend that to the Church. I don't think we've been overly proud lately. We've had our trials and difficulties, but we want to make sure we don't become proud, because God will protect the righteous. We've seen that. That's the way you have the protection, not gold and silver, righteousness, certainly not pride. We want to be close to God.

Going on to chapter 3, it says, "Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city!" (Zephaniah 3:1). It seems that Zephaniah is coming back to prophesying destruction for the Jewish people. So this oppressing city, most scholars think is referring to Jerusalem. So he talked about Nineveh, related to Babylon, but we're coming back to God's chosen people, the ones who should know better. He gave them his law, and to whom much is given, much would be required.

And in verse 2 he says, "She has not obeyed His voice, she has not received correction; she has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God" (Zephaniah 3:2).

By the way, I should mention here, you see, I'm trying to remember how you would describe this parallelism, but it's sort of saying the same thought over and over again with different wording and sort of increasing intensity. This is a high point of Hebrew poetry that we can easily lose in English, and I usually lose it. But again, these are the people that should have been corrected by God, should have drawn near to him because of having the opportunity. We never want it said to us that we had the opportunity and didn't.

So in verses 3 and 4, he's going to call out four particular classes of people for condemnation. And I'll just list them here. We've got princes right at the start, and verse 4 we've got prophets and then priests. And which one am I missing? Oh, Judges are in verse 3. So verse 3 has princes and judges. Verse 4 has prophets and priests.

"Her princes in her midst are roaring lions" (Zephaniah 3:3). We could say they're violent when they should be protecting their people. "Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning" (Zephaniah 3:3). They won't even leave a bone. The judges are extorting from the people and taking from them, probably taking bribes. "Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people" (Zephaniah 3:4). They're insolent. They're not really worshiping God. So these must be false prophets. You know, they're teaching falsehood. "Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law" (Zephaniah 3:4). They're polluting proper worship and instead replacing it with bad false worship.

I'll add, going back to the prophets, where it says they're insolent, the King James Version says they're light. It doesn't mean they've been on a diet. It means they don't have any substance. You know, light there means, you know, there's just no substance, nothing weighty to it.

But in contrast, "The Lord is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails" (Zephaniah 3:5). But the unjust knows no shame.

I don't know if we need to say much more about that, but I just love saying God never fails. Every morning, He brings His justice to light.

To me, that brings to mind something that Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations. Lamentations is a very depressing book about utter devastation and suffering, but in the very middle there's a light of hope. And in Lamentations 3:22-23, he basically says that God's mercies are new every morning. Every day, there's a new chance, and God gives us that chance. And I think that fits with where he says every morning, He brings His justice to light, and He doesn't fail.

I'm looking here. I'm not going to try to cram several more verses into a couple minutes like I've been known to do before. So let's say that'll be enough for this session, and we'll pick this up in the next session.

And since the following book is fairly brief, we'll get a start on Haggai, possibly get through all of it. I'm going to try to make myself go slow enough that we don't push too far. So next time, we'll pick up here in Zephaniah and finish that book.