Sunday
Morning Bible Study
July
6, 2014
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it
build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Regular: 2900 words
Communion: 2500 words
Movie Night on Thursday
Theme
The main theme of the book of Zephaniah is the “day of the LORD”
He will talk about this concept more than any other Old Testament prophet.
He will talk about it as “the day
of wrath” (1:15), a “day of trouble” (1:15), or simply “the day” (3:8).
The concept of the day of the LORD
has two sides to it.
There will be judgment for those
who reject God.
There will be restoration for those
who follow God.
The concept of the “day of the LORD” is a day when God “shows up”, often to
bring judgment.
We’ve talked before about the nature of prophecy,
and that there can be more than one fulfillment of a prophecy.
Some of Zephaniah’s prophecy will be fulfilled
with the coming Babylonian invasion.
Other parts look far into the future, when Jesus comes back.
1:1 Introduction
: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.
:1 Zephaniah …the son of Hezekiah
:1 Cushi – “their blackness”
:1 Gedaliah – “Yahweh is great”
:1 Amariah – “Yahweh speaks” or “Yahweh has promised”
Zephaniah has an unusual lineage
for a prophet.
Zephaniah traces his ancestry back to King Hezekiah, one of the best kings
of the nation of Judah.
Note for Bible Students – you might have thought that wicked king Manasseh
was the only son that Hezekiah had.
There was another (Amariah).
We often think that Hezekiah only
had one son, the wicked king 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.
We often think
that Hezekiah was so desperate in his prayer for healing 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.
Zephaniah’s
lineage tells us that Hezekiah did have another son (Amariah),
perhaps before or after Manasseh, we don’t know.
The oldest son of
a king didn’t always become king. Solomon was not the oldest, yet he was the one David chose.
Perhaps Hezekiah
had the throne pass to Manasseh as a token of honor to God for having allowed
him to have another son during this time of his life extension.
:1 in the 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 was the worst of all the kings before him and all the kings after
him (2Ki. 21:1-16). He brought idolatry and
wickedness in like a flood, even having pagan gods worshipped in the very 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 (Isaiah’s daughter Hephzibah was married to Hezekiah)
(2 Kings 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.
Manasseh would eventually repent of his wickedness (2Chr. 33), but by then
it was too late.
The nation’s heart was too caught up in wickedness, and they didn’t want to
change.
When Manasseh’s son Amon took over, the nation went full on wicked once
again. When Amon was assassinated, his
son Josiah became king at the age of eight.
Zephaniah’s prophecies were written some time during the reign of King
Josiah.
When Josiah was sixteen, he turned to the Lord and began to make changes, trying
to undo all the damage brought by Manasseh.
(2Chr. 34:3-7)
(2 Chronicles 34:3–7 NKJV)
—3 For in the eighth year of his reign,
while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in
the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the
wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. 4
They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were
above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the
molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it
on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5
He also burned the bones of the priests
on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6
And so he did in the cities of
Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes. 7
When he had broken down the altars and
the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all
the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
When Josiah was eighteen, the priests made an important discovery while
working to clean and restore the Temple – they discovered something that had
been lost during the reign of Manasseh, they discovered a copy of God’s Word.
Though some of the people responded to Josiah’s reforms, the majority of the
people weren’t really into it.
After Josiah’s death, the people went fully back to their
sin and eventually the nation was taken into captivity by the Babylonians.
We think that Zephaniah’s prophecy is written sometime after the discovery
of God’s Word (since he quotes from it several times), after 622 BC.
This means that Zephaniah was written after
the partial revival of Josiah’s day.
The prophet Jeremiah also wrote during
these days, letting us know that even though there had been some change in the
nation under Josiah, for the most part the people were still caught up in
wickedness.
Zephaniah also mentions Nineveh (2:13), so we think he wrote before the
destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC.
(Zephaniah 2:13 NKJV) —13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north, Destroy Assyria, And make
Nineveh a desolation, As dry
as the wilderness.
This dates Zephaniah’s prophecy around
622-612 BC.
The big enemy of Israel at the time
was not Assyria, but Babylon.
Lesson
True Repentance
It’s not enough to just change the laws of a country. That’s what Josiah did.
The hearts need to change as well.
Often Christians fall into the trap of thinking that what our country needs
is more Christian politicians so we can see more Christian laws passed.
There is value in this, but that’s not the real answer.
What our country needs is a change in the people’s hearts.
If we change the laws of our country without the people’s hearts changing,
all you do is force people to do what they don’t want to do.
If we as a nation, as individuals, turn back to God and
allow Him to change our hearts, then we will see things go in the right
direction.
I know that some of us are a bit
upset that our nation’s courts are overturning one after another the various
states’ laws against gay marriage.
But here’s a bigger challenge to us
as believers – are we so upset about gay marriage, while we allow ourselves
access to pornography on the internet, or watch immorality on TV without even
blinking an eye?
We tend to focus our anger against
homosexuality, yet there’s a sense in which homosexuality is just one of many
forms of immorality.
All immorality
(sex outside of marriage) is wrong.
Legalism vs. changed hearts
You aren’t made right with God by obeying His laws.
You simply aren’t going to be able to do it by yourself.
You are made right by being born again, allowing God to forgive you of your
sins and putting His Spirit inside of you.
Jesus Christ died on a cross in order to pay for your
sins.
You aren’t going to be able to meet God’s standards for
entrance into heaven without Jesus’ help.
When you say “yes” to Jesus, God gives you a spiritual
“birth”, making you “born again”, birthed by the Holy Spirit.
After you have been born again, God wants you to learn to
yield to God and allow Him to change you from the inside out, teaching you how
to do what is right.
1:2-28 The Day of the Lord
: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.
:2 I will utterly consume everything
God promises that one day everything will be destroyed. The entire world.
That’s what happens after Jesus comes back and there is a new heaven and
earth.
This happened once before, in the
days of Noah. (Gen. 6:7)
(Genesis 6:7 NKJV) So the Lord
said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both
man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have
made them.”
:3 the stumbling blocks along with the wicked
The stumbling blocks are the things that cause men to worship other gods.
Ezekiel wrote after Zephaniah,
talking about the things that caused men to stumble:
(Ezekiel 14:3 NKJV) —3 “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their
hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity.
Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?
: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—
:4 against Judah … Jerusalem
Now we see God focus the coming judgment specifically on Zephaniah’s
immediate future for the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem.
There will one day be a judgment on
the entire world, but there is an aspect of the judgment that will be closer to
Zephaniah’s day, aimed at God’s chosen people.
:4 cut off every trace of Baal
Baal was the god of the Canaanites.
He was the male god of storms, who
was worshipped with his female counterpart Ashtoreth.
While King Hezekiah had removed the Baals (2Ki.
18:4), King Manasseh had brought it all back (2Ki. 21:3)
(2 Kings 18:4 NKJV) —4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred
pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that
Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to
it, and called it Nehushtan.
(2 Kings 21:3 NKJV) —3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had
destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king
of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
King Josiah’s reforms had once again removed the worship of Baal (2Chr.
34:4)
(2 Chronicles 34:4 NKJV) —4 They broke down the altars of the Baals
in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut
down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke
in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those
who had sacrificed to them.
Yet it seems that there were still “traces” of Baal left in the land, and
God’s goal is to remove those “traces”
:4 The names of the idolatrous priests
Or, “the names of the Chemarim”
from kamar – to yearn, be kindled, grow warm and tender, be or grow hot,
become emotionally agitated, “black” (the black garments they wore)
These were the priests that Josiah
had removed from their duties (2Ki. 23:5).
Now their very names won’t be remembered.
(2 Kings 23:5 NKJV) —5 Then he removed the idolatrous
priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the
high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and
those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the
constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
(Hosea 10:5 NKJV) —5 The inhabitants of Samaria fear Because of the calf of Beth Aven. For its people mourn for it, And its priests
shriek for it— Because its glory
has departed from it.
:5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship
and swear oaths by the Lord,
But who also swear by Milcom;
:6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord, And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”
:5 who worship the host of
heaven on the housetops
People would worship the stars from
their rooftops and build altars of incense on their rooftops, making every home
an idol sanctuary.
This practice was called Sabeanism.
Moses warned:
(Deuteronomy 4:19 NKJV) —19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and
when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven,
you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the
peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
:5 swear …by the Lord
…by Milcom
Milcom – another name for Molech the god of the Ammonites.
(1 Kings 11:33 NKJV) —33 because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the
goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh
the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the
people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in
My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father
David.
Molech was the god worshipped by heating the idol
up in the fire, then placing a living baby in the red hot arms of Molech.
Jeremiah recorded that this is
exactly what people were doing in the days of Zephaniah. (Jer. 32:35)
(Jeremiah 32:35 NKJV) And they built the high places of Baal which are in
the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons
and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech,
which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do
this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’
There were people who thought they could follow Yahweh AND follow other
gods as well.
There is no other “god” than Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
God wants you to follow Him and no other.
The other “religions” will only lead you to hurt and confusion.
:6 Those who have turned back
Some people had turned to Yahweh
during the reforms of Josiah, but had not begun to fall away from worshipping
God.
: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.
:7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God
Since God is going to bring judgment, you ought to learn to be quiet before
Him.
This could be a sense that we ought
to just shut up and be quiet out of reverence to God simply for who He is.
It also seems to carry the idea
that since God is going to bring judgment, you need to be quiet.
Habakkuk said the same thing.
(Habakkuk 2:20 NKJV) “But the Lord
is in His holy temple. Let all
the earth keep silence before Him.”
This last year I’ve gotten to watch several judges at work, and they don’t
tend to put up with mouthy defendants who have no respect for the law.
I’ve watched wise guys learn to
shut up as they faced a small, petite judge who has the power to throw them
into prison.
If we ought to show respect to earthly judges, how about before God, the
ultimate judge?
When John is about to describe the last, worst part of the Great
Tribulation period, he records…
(Revelation 8:1 NKJV) When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence
in heaven for about half an hour.
:7 the day of the Lord
This is Zephaniah’s first of 19 references to this “day” of God’s judgment.
I found this high quality, professional illustration
showing the double fulfillment of Zephaniah’s prophecy.
In Zephaniah’s near future, it will speak of the Babylonians taking the
nation of Judah away in captivity and wiping out the city of Jerusalem.
Ultimately, the phrase is used to speak of the future, final judgment of
God.
(Joel 1:15 NKJV) Alas for the day! For the
day of the Lord is at
hand; It shall come as
destruction from the Almighty.
(Obadiah 15 NKJV) —15 “For the day of the Lord
upon all the nations is near; As you
have done, it shall be done to you; Your
reprisal shall return upon your own head.
:7 a sacrifice … guests
The sacrifice in view here will be the disobedient nation of Judah.
The “guests” will be the Babylonians, in a sense the “priests” conducting
the sacrifice.
Habakkuk struggled with the concept that God would be using a pagan nation
more wicked than they to bring judgment on Judah.
Judgment is going to come on the nation of Judah.
: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.
:8 princes … clothed with foreign apparel
Judgment will fall on the royals who were moved by foreign influences.
Remember that Zephaniah had royal blood in him as well.
All of Josiah’s sons would ally themselves with various other nations to
try and avoid judgment.
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 Peter 3:3–4 NKJV) —3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging
the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—4
rather let it be the hidden person
of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet
spirit, which is very 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.
:9 who leap over the threshold
This could be talking about those who worshipped the Philistine god Dagon.
During the time of Samuel, when the Ark of God had been captured and placed
in the temple of Dagon, the god Dagon kept falling over in front of the Ark
until Dagon broke in pieces on the threshold.
(1 Samuel 5:5 NKJV) 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.
It could simply be referring to
those people who would sneak into other people’s houses, stealing from them,
and giving the stolen goods to their masters.
: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.
:11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the
merchant people are cut down; All those who handle money are cut off.
What Zephaniah is describing here is the invasion of Jerusalem by Babylon.
:10 the Fish Gate
This was on the north side of the city, also known as the Damascus gate.
This was the first place that Nebuchadnezzar entered.
It got its name because the fish
market was nearby, where fish from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River was
sold.
:10 the Second Quarter
This area was northwest of the Temple mount.
:11 Maktesh – “deep hollow” or “mortar”
The best idea is that this was a place in the Tyropoeon
Valley, where the merchants did their business.
:11 all the merchant people are cut down
Those who ripped people off in the markets are targeted.
Sometimes merchants can be a bit misleading in their advertising.
Illustration
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 … Microsoft’s “Bing” search engine is translated literally in Chinese as
“defect, virus and disease. They decided
to rebrand it as “Bi Ying” which means “Responds Without Fail”.
: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.’
:12 I will search Jerusalem with lamps
There’s no hiding from God, even in the dark.
Josephus recorded that when the
Romans took Jerusalem, some of the aristocracy were hiding in the sewers where
they were found and dragged out to be put to death.
Perhaps something similar took
place when the Babylonians took Jerusalem.
:12 settled in complacency
settled – qapha’ – to
thicken, condense, congeal, settle, become dense
complacency – shemer – lees,
dregs
The NIV has a more literal translation here:
(Zephaniah 1:12 NIV) …those who are complacent, who are like wine
left on its dregs…
Lesson
Change it up
“Lees” or “dregs” form while wine is being fermented when the dead yeast
begins to settle to the bottom of a vat of wine.
With most wines, the wine is poured from one container to another during
the process of fermenting to remove the lees which ruin the flavor of the wine.
Jeremiah used this phrase:
(Jeremiah 48:11 NKJV) “Moab has been at ease from his youth; He has settled on his dregs, And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, Nor has he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him, And his scent has not changed.
It’s a picture of people who were too lazy to filter out the crud from
their lives.
Sometimes “filtering” things out requires being poured from vessel to
vessel. That sounds like “change”.
Not all change is good.
The “midlife crisis” where a guy buys a fancy sports car,
wears gold chains, and dumps his wife for a younger gal. Not good.
Some change is good.
We ought to be working at living a life that is more and
more pleasing to God, not one where we make changes just for the sake of
change.
Sometimes we need to add a little “spice” to our walk,
change things up a bit… like adding a little mustard…
Video: Grey Poupon
Do you need to change things up a bit in your walk?
Try a new Bible Translation. Get involved in a ministry. Get into a recovery group. Go on a mission trip. Reach out to your neighbor.
:12 The Lord will not do
good
These complacent people are the ones who say that God isn’t going to do
anything, neither good nor evil. Do you
expect God to work?
Peter says that this same
complacency will show up in the last days:
(2 Peter 3:3–7 NKJV) —3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last
days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning
of creation.”
They are saying
that things have been the same since … forever ...
5 For this they willfully forget: that by
the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water
and in the water, 6 by which
the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
Peter says that
these same people seem to forget that there was a real flood in Noah’s day, and
the whole earth was destroyed. And God
will once more destroy the earth, but with fire.
7 But the heavens and the earth which
are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
: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.”
:13 build houses, but not inhabit them
These complacent people who didn’t want to change will find all their
“stuff” go away.
Zephaniah is quoting God’s Word (newly discovered in the Temple) Deut.
28:30
(Deuteronomy 28:30 NKJV) “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with
her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a
vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.
(Deuteronomy 28:39 NKJV) —39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you
shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the
worms shall eat them.
: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.
:14 The great day of the Lord
is near
This is to wake up the complacent.
Yet even if Zephaniah is writing as
late as 612 BC, Babylon won’t be at the gates of Jerusalem for 7 more years
(605 BC) when some of the princes and people would be taken captive to Babylon.
In 597 BC, 10,000 more will be
hauled off to Babylon.
In 586 BC, the city will finally be
wiped out.
The Babylonian judgment of Zephaniah’s time was right around the corner.
When God says it is “near”, it may be a year or two away. Or it could be tonight.
Jesus told a story about a man whose sole aim in life was to make more and
more money. And when he thought he had
“arrived”…
(Luke 12:20 NKJV) But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your
soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have
provided?’
The time…is near.
: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.
:15 That day is a day of
wrath
It is wrath on those who have
disobeyed God.
:15 devasation – show’ah –
devastation, ruin, waste
This is the same word used by the
Jews to describe the holocaust.
But I can’t see the holocaust as
anything akin to God’s judgment on the Jews.
It was a horrendous evil perpetrated by the Nazis.
:15 darkness … clouds and thick darkness
Zephaniah uses the same language that Moses used in that newly found Bible to
describe God’s presence on Mount Sinai when God gave the Ten Commandments
(Deut. 4:11-12)
(Deuteronomy 4:11–12 NKJV) —11 “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain,
and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud,
and thick darkness. 12 And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the
fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard
a voice.
The “day of the LORD” could be seen simply as the day that God shows up.
:16 A day of trumpet and alarm
Trumpets are used for lots of
reasons in the Bible such as warning people, or gathering the troops.
There were trumpets sounding on
Mount Sinai when God showed up (Ex. 19:16)
(Exodus 19:16 NKJV) —16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that
there were thunderings and lightnings,
and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud,
so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
John describes the last part of the
Tribulation period as being contained within “seven trumpets” (Rev. 8:2)
(Revelation 8:2 NKJV) —2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them
were given seven trumpets.
There will be a trumpet before the Day
of the LORD, when the church is caught up into heaven:
(1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 NKJV) —16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. 17 Then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
: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.”
:17 they shall walk like blind men
Zephaniah is again quoting that newly found Bible (Deut. 28:29)
(Deuteronomy 28:29 NKJV) And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in
darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and
plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
: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.
:18 Neither their silver nor their gold
God doesn’t care about how much money you have. If you build your life around getting more and
more money, you are heading for eternal ruin.
:18 the day of the Lord’s
wrath
Lesson
The Big Picture
Like it or not, it is coming.
Illustration
The mighty Niagara River plummets some 180 feet at the American and
Horseshoe Falls. Before the falls, there are violent, turbulent rapids. Farther
upstream, however, where the river’s current flows more gently, boats are able
to navigate. Just before the Welland River empties
into the Niagara, a pedestrian walkway spans the river. Posted on this bridge’s
pylons is a warning sign for all boaters: “Do you have an anchor?” followed by,
“Do you know how to use it?”
-- Paul Adams in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the
editors of Leadership.
Sometimes we act like we’re living our lives fishing on the Welland River, and we ignore the fact that we’re not that
far from …
Are you ready for what’s up ahead? It’s coming one day, whether you want to
think about it or not.
Don’t ignore the big picture of what’s up ahead. Get ready for what’s ahead.
Trust Him
If you want to escape the judgment of God, you need to start trusting Him.
(John 3:16–18 NKJV)
—16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God
did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not
believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.
If you don’t want to be “condemned” in the day of
judgment, you need to start believing in Jesus.
You need to be born again.
Live a godly life
(2 Peter 3:9–11 NKJV)
—9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which
the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore,
since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
you to be in holy conduct and godliness
Our “holy conduct” is not because we’re afraid of losing
our salvation.
Our “holy conduct” is so we might represent Him well.
Listen to what the world is challenging you to do. This next world is coming to you straight
from the mind of an unbeliever…
Video: Prove
It To Me
The world is looking for people whose lives prove that God
is indeed real.