Thursday
Evening Bible Study
June 22, 2006
Zephaniah 1
:1 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 – Ts@phanyah –
“Yahweh
has treasured” or “Yahweh has hidden”
the son of Hezekiah … this is King Hezekiah. In other words,
Zephaniah was in the family of the kings of Judah.
For you Bible students – we often think that Hezekiah only had one son,
Manasseh. At one point in his life, Hezekiah became deathly ill and was told to
put his affairs in order. Hezekiah prayed and God answered his prayer by
healing Hezekiah and promising to give him fifteen more years. When Hezekiah
died and his son Manasseh took the throne, Manasseh was only 12 years old. This
gives us the idea that Manasseh was born after Hezekiah’s illness and that
perhaps Hezekiah was so desperate in his prayer because he might not have had
any sons to pass the kingdom on to. Some have wondered if Hezekiah shouldn’t
have asked for a longer life since the son born after his answered prayer was
the wickedest king ever.
But this tells us that Hezekiah did have another son, perhaps before or
after Manasseh, we don’t know.
days of Josiah – Josiah ruled from 640-609 BC. Jeremiah was just
beginning his ministry during this time as well.
The nation of Judah
had been doing well under the reign of good king Hezekiah. But when Hezekiah’s
son Manasseh took over the kingdom, things went bad.
Manasseh led the nation into horrible idolatry. He was worse than all the kings before him
and all the kings after him (2Ki. 21:1-16).
He brought idolatry into the mainstream, even having pagan gods
worshipped in the Temple of Yahweh.
One of the prophets living in the time of Manasseh was the prophet Isaiah,
who also happened to be the grandfather of Manasseh (he was Hephzibah’s dad)
(2 Ki 21:16 NKJV) Moreover Manasseh shed very much
innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to
another, besides his sin by which he made Judah
sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
Tradition tells us that Manasseh had been confronted by the prophet Isaiah
(who was also his grandfather), and Manasseh had Isaiah put to death.
Manasseh ruled the nation for fifty-five years, the longest king to reign
in Judah.
When God allowed Manasseh to be taken captive by the Assyrians and hauled
as a prisoner to Babylon, Manasseh
finally broke down and asked God for forgiveness (2Chr. 33).
Even though God forgave Manasseh, the damage he had done by leading the
nation so far from God for so long had gone too far.
When Manasseh’s son Amon took over, he took the nation back to the evil
ways of his father before he had repented. Amon only ruled for two years before
he was assassinated and his son Josiah became king at the age of eight.
Zephaniah’s prophecies were written some time during the reign of King
Josiah. Just when we don’t know.
When Josiah was sixteen, he turned to the Lord and began a season of
housecleaning for the nation of Judah,
trying to undo all the damage brought by Manasseh. Could this have been partly due to
Zephaniah’s influence?
Yet even though there was a measure of success in Josiah’s housecleaning,
the hearts of the people weren’t really into it. After Josiah’s death, the
people went back to their sin and eventually the nation was taken into
captivity by the Babylonians.
:2-18 Judgment on Judah
is coming
:2 "I will utterly consume everything From the face of the land,"
Says the LORD;
:3 "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. I
will cut off man from the face of the land," Says the LORD.
:4 "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, The names of the idolatrous
priests with the pagan priests;
Baal – the word means “lord”, “owner”, or “husband”. The word was
sometimes used as a general term for god, but it also referred specifically to
a Canaanite god. Baal worship was introduced to the nation of Israel
when Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom, married the daughter of the king
of the Phoenicians, Jezebel. Their daughter was then married off to the son of
the king of Judah,
and she brought Baal worship into the southern kingdom.
Israel’s
worship of Baal developed in three stages (from Ryrie):
1. Placing the Canaanite gods in a secondary place to Yahweh
2. Considering Yahweh as a super-Baal
3. Baalizing Yahweh worship so that the people completely forsook Yahweh.
I guess you could call it Baal-creep.
:5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;
Astrology
:5 Those who worship and swear oaths by the LORD, But who also swear by
Milcom;
Milcom – also known as Molech. This was the god of the Ammonites. Molech
worship involved taking the god who was made out of bronze, heating it in the
fire, and then placing our little baby in the red hot arms of Molech while the
priests beat their drums to drown out the cries of the baby as it was burned
alive.
Molech worship was brought to Jerusalem
by none other than Solomon because of the pressures from some of his wives
(1Ki. 11:7)
The people of Judah
were “inclusive” in their religion.
They didn’t believe there was just “one way”. They worshipped Yahweh AND
Molech.
:6 Those who have turned back from following the LORD, And have not sought
the LORD, nor inquired of Him."
Some of these verses remind me of the events happening this week at the annual
convention for the Episcopal Church …
On Sunday, they elected a woman to lead the church, Katherine Jefferts
Schori, sort of a “pope” of the American Episcopal church.
On Monday, the gal was interviewed by CNN and asked if it was a sin to be
homosexual. Her response recorded in a Reuters
news article:
"I don't believe so. I believe
that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world
with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us
joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said. "Some
people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the
same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at
people of the other gender."
On Tuesday,
a resolution was made to the voting body concerning the Lordship of Jesus
Christ.
The resolution was supposed to proclaim the Episcopal Church’s …
"unchanging commitment to Jesus
Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved,"
and it acknowledged evangelism as "the solemn responsibility placed upon
us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, 'I am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me' (John
14:6)."
The resolution was rejected by 70.5%
of the group, a vote of 675 to 242.
On Wednesday, the new head bishop gal led the convention in the “Eucharist”
(communion), where she talked about growing to live in a world without fear,
learning to be better people as Christians, where she said in her message:
"Our mother Jesus gives
birth to a new creation. And you and I are His children."
Lesson
Tolerance?
The word that many Christians are accused of is “intolerant”.
We are told that we don’t love people because we are “intolerant” of their
religious beliefs.
Don’t confuse “tolerance” with “love”.
If you watched your two-year-old crawl across the kitchen, find a bottle of
ant poison, and begin to get the cap off, would you be “tolerant”?
Wouldn’t you stop them from getting poisoned?
All religions do not lead to God.
Those aren’t my words, those are the words of Jesus.
(John 14:6 NKJV) Jesus said to him, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Peter said,
(Acts 4:11-12 NKJV) "This is the 'stone
which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'
{12} "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
When we back off in the name of “tolerance”, it’s like allowing your child
to drink ant-poison.
:7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; For the day of the LORD is at
hand, For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.
Be silent –
Illustration
the day of the LORD – we’ve seen
this phrase used in Ezekiel (13:5; 30:3), Joel (1:16; 2:1,11; 3:14), Amos (5:18,20), and Obadiah
(1:15).
It speaks of a time of God’s judgment.
There are two targets that this phrase is aiming at:
1) The upcoming Babylonian invasion
2) The time of the end, the Great Tribulation, when God’s wrath is poured
out in judgment upon the earth.
:8 "And 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.
princes and the king’s children – remember that Zephaniah was a part
of this family.
foreign apparel – there were certain things that were supposed to be
a part of Jewish clothing, such as the tassels that were supposed to remind them
to obey God’s commandments (Num. 15:38-39)
I would suggest that the way a person dresses reflects the values that they
cherish.
Does your clothing reflect Jesus or the world? Does this mean that men
should wear dark suits and women should wear long dresses?
(1 Pet 3:3-4 NASB)
And let not your adornment be merely external-- braiding the hair, and wearing
gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; {4} but let it be the hidden person of the
heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is
precious in the sight of God.
:9 In the same day I will punish All those who leap over the threshold, Who
fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
leap over the threshold –
This might refer to people who rush into other people’s houses to steal and
plunder.
It might also refer to something else.
Back in the early days of Samuel, the Philistines had fought a battle and
captured the Ark of the Covenant (1Sam. 5). They took the Ark
and placed it as a war trophy in the temple of one of their gods, Dagon, half
fish and half man.
(1 Sam 5:4-5 NKJV) And when they arose early the next morning, there
was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. The
head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold;
only Dagon's torso was left of it. {5} Therefore neither the priests of Dagon
nor any who come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
The suggestion is that this verse in Zephaniah refers to
people who followed the Philistine practice of not stepping on, but “leaping”
over the threshold as part of their worship of Dagon.
:10 "And there shall be on that day," says the LORD, "The
sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate, A wailing from the Second Quarter,
And a loud crashing from the hills.
fish gate – one of the gates of the city of Jerusalem.
:11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut
down; All those who handle money are cut off.
Maktesh – the name of a neighborhood in Jerusalem.
There would be a judgment on the “merchants”.
Perhaps because of their bad advertising campaigns???
Illustration
Like this …
The Coca-cola name in China
was first read as “ke-kou-ke-la”, meaning “Bit the wax tadpole” or “female
horse stuffed with wax”, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to
find a phonetic equivalent “ko-kou-ko-le”, translating into “happiness in the
mouth”.
or … When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico,
its ads were supposed to have read, “it won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass
you”. Instead, the company thought that
the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you
pregnant.”
:12 "And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search
Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who
say in their heart, 'The LORD will not do good, Nor will He do evil.'
search … with lamps – Josephus records about a later invasion of Jerusalem
where the wealthy aristocratic people had been hiding in the sewers and they
were dragged out of the sewers.
I think it’s a picture of bringing things to the light
We may think that God can’t see what we’re doing, but we’re wrong. God sees
everything.
Illustration
One professor said,
“Faking it for a class session is one thing. But it’s so
easy to find ourselves making faking it a lifestyle. We fake it with others. We
fake it with ourselves. We fake it with God. This summer I saw a bumper sticker
that said: ‘Jesus is coming. Look busy!’”
In our own lives, we will do much better if we stop trying to hide our
failures and simply learn to bring them out into the light.
settled in complacency –
(KJV) settled on their lees:
“Lees” or “dregs” were the pulp, the sediment in wine. Before the days of
filtering, wine was allowed to settle for forty days, then it was poured from
vessel to vessel to eventually eliminate the sediment. If not removed, the
sediment sweetens, then thickens, then eventually spoils and ruins the wine.
The picture is that they were too lazy to do what was necessary to perfect
the wine.
They were too lazy to filter out the crud from their lives.
:13 Therefore their goods shall become booty, And their houses a
desolation; They shall build houses, but not inhabit them; They shall plant
vineyards, but not drink their wine."
:14 The great day of the LORD is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The
noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out.
near – there is great value in living each day as if Jesus could
come back tomorrow.
Even if the Rapture doesn’t come tomorrow, we might still meet Him. People
often die unexpectedly. And they open their eyes to see …
: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, A day of clouds
and thick darkness,
:16 A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the
high towers.
:17 "I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind
men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out
like dust, And their flesh like refuse."
:18 Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In
the day of the Lord's wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire
of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the
land.
You can’t buy your way out of hell.
Zephaniah 2
:1-3 Judgment or repentance
:1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation,
:2 Before the decree is issued, Or the day passes like chaff, Before the
Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the Lord's anger comes
upon you!
Repent before the things mentioned in chapter one come to pass.
:3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day
of the Lord's anger.
As
Matthew Henry so appropriately stated, Zephaniah intended “not to frighten them
out of their wits, but to frighten them out of their sins” (Commentary on
the Whole Bible in One Volume, p. 1168).
God has a pattern for repentance:
(2 Cor 7:9-11 NLT) Now I
am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to
have remorse and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his
people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. {10} For God can use
sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will
never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind
that results in death. {11} Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you!
Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such
alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish the
wrongdoer. You showed that you have done everything you could to make things
right.
Repentance isn’t just feeling sorry. The prisons are filled with men who
feel sorry – sorry they got caught.
Repentance is a sorrow that leads to action. It leads to a change in
behavior. A serious change.
:4-7 Philistines
:4 For Gaza shall be forsaken,
And Ashkelon desolate; They shall drive out Ashdod
at noonday, And Ekron shall be uprooted.
The Gentile nations around Judah
would also be judged.
: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."
Cherethites – an ancient name for the Philistines. The Cherethites
originally migrated from the island
of Crete.
It’s interesting to note that a group of men in David’s men were known as
“Cherethites”. It seems that while David spent time hiding from Saul among the
Philistines, he developed his own following of Philistines.
If you do a search on “Gittite” (an inhabitant of Gath),
you will find another group of possible Philistines who were friends with David.
(2Sam. 6:11; 2Sam. 15:19)
:6 The seacoast shall be pastures, With shelters for shepherds and folds
for flocks.
:7 The coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah;
They shall feed their flocks there; In the houses of Ashkelon
they shall lie down at evening. For the LORD their God will intervene for them,
And return their captives.
A small remnant of Jews would return from Babylon
to live in the land.
Ashkelon – a Philistine city
:8-11 Moab
and Ammon
:8 "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.
:9 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 saltpits, And a perpetual desolation. The residue of My people
shall plunder them, And the remnant of My people shall possess them."
:10 This they shall have for their pride, Because they have reproached and
made arrogant threats Against the people of the LORD of hosts.
:11 The LORD will be awesome to them, For He will reduce to nothing all the
gods of the earth; People shall worship Him, Each one from his place, Indeed
all the shores of the nations.
:12 Ethiopia
:12 "You Ethiopians also, You shall be slain by My sword."
Note that judgment comes on “Ethiopia”,
southern Egypt.
:13-15 Assyria
:13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north, Destroy Assyria,
And make Nineveh a desolation, As
dry as the wilderness.
Assyria would be destroyed in 612 BC.
as dry as the wilderness – unusual since Nineveh
had a network of canals, and it was built on a river. Yet it happened.
:14 The herds shall lie down in her midst, Every beast of the nation. Both
the pelican and the bittern Shall lodge on the capitals of her pillars; Their
voice shall sing in the windows; Desolation shall be at the threshold; For He
will lay bare the cedar work.
:15 This is the rejoicing city That dwelt securely, That said in her heart,
"I am it, and there is none besides me." How has she become a
desolation, A place for beasts to lie down! Everyone who passes by her Shall
hiss and shake his fist.
The Assyrians were a bunch of bullies.
They held the world together through terror.
Billy Graham wrote,
“We have our peace movements, and all we want is peace abroad and at home. But
if by peace we mean appeasing tyranny, compromising with gangsters and being
silent because we haven't the moral fortitude to speak out against injustice,
then this is not real peace. It is a false peace. It is a farce and it is a
hoax.”
Zephaniah 3
:1-7 Jerusalem
judged
:1 Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city!
Jerusalem was the rebellious
oppressing city. Jeremiah saw it …
(Jer 23:14
NKJV) Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit
adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that
no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her
inhabitants like Gomorrah.
:2 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.
:3 Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening
wolves That leave not a bone till morning.
evening
wolves – We saw this in Hab. 1:8 – extra hungry because they did not find
anything to eat all day, now it is night and they attack.
:4 Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; Her priests have polluted
the sanctuary, They have done violence to the law.
:5 The LORD is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every
morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails, But the unjust knows no
shame.
We live in a world that is filled with injustice. God will change all that.
:6 "I have cut off nations, Their fortresses are devastated; I have
made their streets desolate, With none passing by. Their cities are destroyed;
There is no one, no inhabitant.
Watching other nations be destroyed ought to have been a warning to Judah.
:7 I said, 'Surely you will fear Me, You will receive instruction'; So that
her dwelling would not be cut off, Despite everything for which I punished her.
But they rose early and corrupted all their deeds.
:8 Armageddon
:8 "Therefore wait for Me," says the LORD, "Until the day I
rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations To My assembly
of kingdoms, To pour on them My indignation, All my fierce anger; All the earth
shall be devoured With the fire of My jealousy.
There will be a final gathering of the nations and God will pour out His
wrath in judgment on them.
(Rev 16:13-16 NKJV) And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs
coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out
of the mouth of the false prophet. {14} For they are spirits of demons,
performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole
world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. {15}
"Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his
garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame."
Zephaniah records God saying “wait”. John records the command to “watch”.
{16} And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew,
Armageddon.
:9-10 Gentile Blessings
:9 "For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they
all may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one accord.
pure – barar – to purify, select, polish, choose, purge,
cleanse or make bright, test or prove
language – saphah –
lip,
language, speech
Lesson
Pure worship
At the tower of Babel
man’s language was confused because of man’s rebellion.
After Jesus returns there will be a “pure” language.
What will that language be? I find it interesting that until 1948 the
language of Hebrew was for the most part an unspoken language except for
religious services. Yet with the reestablishment of Israel,
the Jews have “reinvented” a modern form of Hebrew and it is the national
language of Israel.
God will “restore” pure language in order to produce pure worship.
Sometimes it is a bit hard to find the right words to express your worship
to the Lord. When you get caught up in God’s presence – in the wonder, the awe,
the majesty, the power, the purity of who He is – words are at times difficult.
I think that this is one of the values of the gift of tongues – that the
Holy Spirit gives you a “heavenly” language, and it seems that the primary
purpose of this language is to worship God.
(1 Cor 14:2 NKJV) For he who speaks in a tongue
does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the
spirit he speaks mysteries.
(1 Cor 14:16-17 NKJV) Otherwise, if you bless with the
spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say
"Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what
you say? {17} For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
My worshipers, The daughter of My dispersed ones, Shall bring My offering.
Ethiopia
– southern Egypt.
Here there are blessings coming from “beyond” Ethiopia.
(compare w/ 2:10)
(Isa 66:20 NKJV) "Then they shall bring all your brethren for
an offering to the LORD out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in
litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem," says the
LORD, "as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into
the house of the LORD.
:11-20 Jewish Blessings
:11 In that day you shall not be shamed for any of your deeds In which you
transgress against Me; For then I will take away from your midst Those who rejoice
in your pride, And you shall no longer be haughty In My holy mountain.
no shame – I have a hard time imagining this. Sometimes I think that
when we see God we will feel nothing but shame.
When He forgives us, He also cleanses us.
(1 John 1:7 NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanses us from all sin.
(1 John 1:9 NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(Isa 43:25 NKJV) "I, even I, am He who blots out your
transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
(Heb 8:12
NKJV) "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
How could God do this? Because His
Son Jesus paid for our sins on the cross.
:12 I will leave in your midst A meek and humble people, And they shall
trust in the name of the LORD.
Lesson
Brokenness
Remember what God had said about repentance?
(Zep 2:3 NKJV) Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have
upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will
be hidden In the day of the Lord's anger.
And who is left when it’s all over? The meek and the humble.
meek – ‘aniy – poor, afflicted, humble, wretched
humble – dal –
low, poor,
weak, thin, one who is low
A few weeks ago at the Pastors’ Conference one of the pastors, Juan
Domingo, was teaching about lessons he had learned in ministry. He shared how he
once had met a man who had been saved during the great Welsh revival of the
early 1900’s. It was an amazing revival that took place among the coalminers of
Wales. There
was no single extraordinary preacher. It was all about prayer. And this old man
shared with Juan: “If you want to see revival, then pray for brokenness”.
I wonder if we’re willing to pray for that - broken so that you no longer
will trust in anything but the Lord.
:13 The remnant of Israel
shall do no unrighteousness And speak no lies, Nor shall a deceitful tongue be
found in their mouth; For they shall feed their flocks and lie down, And no one
shall make them afraid."
no deceitful tongue – reminds me of our recent study in Ephesians:
(Eph 4:25
NKJV) Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with
his neighbor," for we are members of one another.
:14 Sing, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
:15 The LORD has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The
King of Israel,
the LORD, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.
When Jesus returns, He will rule and reign from Jerusalem.
He will be “in the midst” of His people.
We will see Him.
:16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
"Do not fear; Zion, let not
your hands be weak.
:17 The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will
rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will
rejoice over you with singing."
the song – “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty …”
rejoice over you with gladness … rejoice over you with singing
(Zep 3:17
NLT) For the LORD your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty
savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness. With his love, he will
calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song."
(Zep 3:17
ICB) The Lord your God is with you. The mighty One will save you. The Lord will
be happy with you. You will rest in his love. He will sing and be joyful about
you."
Can you imagine that God would find “joy” by looking at us?
Can you imagine that God will see us and break out singing?
quiet you with His love
What a great comfort it is to be reminded and refreshed in God’s love for
us.
(Rom 8:31-39 NKJV) What
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
{32} He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? {33} Who shall bring a
charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. {34} Who is he who
condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. {35} Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? {36} As it is written: "For
Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter."
This last verse seems so out of place. Paul is talking about God’s great
love for us and then interrupts with this quote about being “killed” like lambs
led to the slaughter. Yet this is the world we live in. We may be surrounded by
God’s great love, but we live in a world that hates us. We live in a world that
stinks. And it’s only by grabbing a hold of God’s love for us that allows us to
survive.
{37} Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. {38} For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor
angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
{39} nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
:18 "I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, Who
are among you, To whom its reproach is a burden.
those who sorrow over the appointed assembly – Jews who wanted to be
able to go to Jerusalem to
celebrate the appointed feasts, but were unable.
:19 Behold, at that time I will deal with all who afflict you; I will save
the lame, And gather those who were driven out; I will appoint them for praise
and fame In every land where they were put to shame.
:20 At that time I will bring you back, Even at the time I gather you; For
I will give you fame and praise Among all the peoples of the earth, When I
return your captives before your eyes," Says the LORD.
Lesson
Hope
We may have plenty of hard times ahead. We live in a fallen world.
But Zephaniah has reminded us about what we’re looking forward to.
God doesn’t want us to forget what we’re aiming at. He doesn’t want us to
forget what He has planned for us.
(John 14:1-3 NKJV) "Let not your heart be troubled; you
believe in God, believe also in Me. {2} "In My
Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I
go to prepare a place for you. {3} "And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you
may be also.