Transcript
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The last time we met,
we had our introduction to Zephaniah.
To set the the background in the in the
context for his prophetic oracle. And in
that introduction,
we learned
that he wrote during the late 3rd of the
7th century BC
while Josiah
was king over Judah and is also
that he was the first or second prophet
to write in quite some time since the
prophetic words seems to have gone
mostly silent
since the 8th century
BC prophets like Micah, Amos, and and
Isaiah.
Now, without doubt, what brought
God to utilize a prophet again was the
terrible reigns
of Manasseh and his son Amon
over Judah.
When Zephaniah writes,
the northern kingdom of Ephraim Israel
had been gone
for between 90 and 100 years.
So, Judah was all that remained
of the former
larger and unified kingdom of Israel
during the reigns of David and then
Solomon.
King Manasseh
thoroughly corrupted the Hebrew faith
by adopting pagan gods, pagan worship
rights, forgetting God's commandments,
and his appointed times.
And although late in his life, he
repented,
and he began to reform his own
idolatrous policies, his son
Amon returned Judah to the earliest ways
of his father.
When Amon was after only a couple of
years in office,
Josiah followed.
And he was installed as king when he was
only 8 years old.
Some years later, when he was old enough
to actually formulate policy,
Josiah began to reform Judah's worship
practices.
But it was not until
a hidden Torah scroll
was found in the temple.
And then it was read to him that
sweeping reforms
to return Judah to the ways of the Torah
and to to the end of the pagan practices
began.
Now, very probably, it was around the
time that the Torah scroll discovery was
made that Zephaniah received God's
calling and then began
writing his prophecy.
Now, it's important to remember
that Zephaniah, as with all prophets,
did not receive the entire divine oracle
all at once.
So, he didn't write about it all at
once.
It came in sections. It was written down
over time.
Prophets might add new messages to their
prophecies in as little as a few months.
Other times,
it was over several years.
So, it seems that the first writings of
Zephaniah probably began around 630 BC,
the final parts a few years later, but
all of it under the reign of King
Josiah.
Now, what God did
through Zephaniah
was to tell Judah
about
not only themselves, but also the fate
of the Gentile nations that he was going
to punish by his angry wrath.
And so much of what was said
certainly applied
to coming events of the ancient world,
but equally
it applies to the end times.
And what Zephaniah spoke had clear
connections
to the book of Genesis,
some of the Psalms,
to other unnamed wisdom literature, of
course, including thoughts, if not
direct quotes, from earlier prophets, as
was typical of prophets.
And although there is some element of of
Hebrew poetry that is
present in in in Zephaniah, it's not the
ultra-complex kind like Nahum used.
Fact, it's done in a unique style.
Nevertheless, we must always keep in
mind
that to one level or another,
words spoken and written in poetic style
are chosen for effect,
for expressing emotion,
for rhythmic, rhyming, or word count
reasons,
not so much for precision.
That said, Zephaniah is not particularly
difficult reading,
except in spots.
Now, in the end, Zephaniah is about
God's judgment
on the world and on Judah,
but also about differentiating Judah
from the world.
This happens by means of a promise
for a later restoration for Judah.
But also a promise of a more complete
and permanent destruction for the world.
We open chapter 1, didn't get very far.
Completing our
previous lesson at verse 3.
So, open your Bibles to Zephaniah
chapter 1 and we'll read it all.
Zephaniah chapter 1.
This is the word of Adonai that came to
Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of
Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of
Hezekiah during the reign of Josiah, the
son of Amon, king of Judah.
I will completely sweep away everything
off the face of the land, says
Adonai.
I will sweep away humans and animals,
the birds in the air, the fish in the
sea,
also the wicked and what makes them
stumble.
I will wipe humanity off the land, says
Adonai. I will stretch out my hand over
Judah, all those living in Jerusalem. I
will wipe out every remnant of Baal from
this place, the idol-serving priests,
even their names, those worshipping
heaven's army on the roofs,
those who worship and swear by Adonai,
but swear by Milcom as well.
Those who turned away from following
Adonai, those who haven't sought Adonai
or consulted him at all.
Keep silent before Adonai Elohim, for
the day of Adonai is near. Adonai has
prepared a sacrifice. He has set apart
those he invited.
And when the time comes for Adonai's
sacrifice, I will punish the leaders and
the sons of the king. Also, those who
dress in foreign clothes.
On the same day I will also punish all
who jump over the threshold to fill the
house of their master with violence and
deceit.
Also, on that day says Adonai, a cry
will be heard from the fish gate.
Wailing from the city's second quarter
and a loud crash from the hills.
Wail,
you who live down in the hollow because
all the merchants are destroyed. All who
trade with silver are ruined. And when
that time comes I will search Jerusalem
with lamps, punish those who are smug
and thick like wine left too long on the
dregs.
Who will say to themselves, Adonai will
do nothing,
neither good nor bad.
For this, their wealth will be
plundered. Their houses will be
destroyed. Yes, they will build houses
but not live in them. They will plant
vineyards but not drink the wine.
The great day of Adonai is near. It's
near and coming very quickly. Hear the
sound of the day of Adonai. When it's
here, even a warrior will cry bitterly.
This day is a day of fury, a day of
trouble and distress, a day of waste and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloom.
A day of clouds and thick fog, a day of
the shofar and a battle cry against the
fortified cities, against the high
towers.
I will bring such distress on people
they will have to grope their way like
the blind
because they've sinned against Adonai.
Their blood
will be poured out like dust, their
bowels like dung. Neither their silver
nor their gold will be able to save
them.
On the day of Adonai's fury, the whole
land will be destroyed in the fire of
his jealousy.
For he will make an end, a horrible end,
of all those living in the land.
The first three verses
of chapter 1 tell us
that those who belong to the kingdom of
God will not be spared
from the results of God's worldwide
wrathful destruction.
God's worshippers
will have a measure of collateral damage
as they and now we we caught up in it.
So in the end times, believers are not
immune
to the consequences of the coming
universal tribulation.
Now happily
it is that way only up to the point
that God takes control of human events
at the beginning of his wrath.
Now I made the point
that tribulation wrath are two different
things
even though the church makes no
distinction.
Evangelical branches especially make the
lack of differentiation as a kind of a
core doctrine.
To briefly review
when the New Testament speaks of
tribulation, it is a common noun.
That is it is speaking of severe
hardship in general.
The church however has added the
definite article t h e
the
before the word tribulation
to turn it into a proper noun. That is
it creates a formal name
for a particular named event.
Now in the Greek manuscripts all New
Testaments are drawn from
interpreters have added in the word tone
in Greek which is equivalent to the
English the.
I'll say it again.
That word tone is not there
in the ancient Greek manuscripts.
Doctoral-minded Christian interpreters
added it much later,
thus corrupting the truth.
It was the church that invented the
concept of an event
in the last days called the tribulation
to be followed by another event called
the great tribulation.
Biblically, this does not exist.
Further, the church describes
both of these tribulation events as part
of God's wrath.
Again, untrue.
Tribulation
is a result of humankind's nature.
It's the consequence of actions of evil
people upon other people.
So, for instance, what Hitler did in
World War II was tribulation. It wasn't
God's wrath.
God's wrath, on the other hand, is
God-directed.
Sometimes wrath can be God causing a
nation to use their evil instincts to
oppress another nation. Or, at a higher
level, it could be by means of a
God-commanded supernatural or cosmic
happenings that are other-worldly,
as in what happened to Sodom and
Gomorrah.
Thus, in the end times, there will be a
progression
of troubles
from
ever-increasing tribulations of man's
inhumanity and evil,
and then God urging nations and their
leaders to do destructive things to
other nations for his purposes,
and then finally devastations
upon nations of a cosmic nature.
This progression is what we're reading
about so far in Zephaniah.
Now, before we continue,
I want to make a couple of comments
about my sources.
All right, cuz I'm
regularly asked such things.
I rely on the Masoretic texts
as my Hebrew sources for the Old
Testament.
Now, the reason is
that the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls validates
that what we read in the Masoretic texts
is aligned
with what the bulk of the Hebrews
as far back as the 2nd century BC relied
on.
It's not to say that earlier than that
it was something else.
It's only that this is as far back as we
can prove
what the Hebrews were using as their
Hebrew Bible.
I wanted to make this clear
because there is a competing
Old Testament interpretive text that was
written in Old Greek.
This is called the Septuagint
or in shortened form the LXX.
It was a translation
of the Tanakh
created in Alexandria, Egypt
sometime during the 3rd century BC.
Now, while the LXX and the MT align with
each other reasonably well, all there
are definite differences.
Different English Bible versions choose
between the MT and the LXX as their
source for translating the Old
Testament. I use the MT, the Hebrew
texts
because they were they used the original
source language,
Hebrew,
without the need for translation.
By its very nature, all translations are
edited redactions.
Now, the other matter I want to share
with you is this.
Dating with much precision about when a
prophet wrote
or when most in the other Bible book
author wrote is problematic.
And there is no reasonable way to
present incontrovertible proof.
So, there can be a wide range of
academic opinions. I have
no idea how anyone's opinion will ever
be proved to a high level of certainty.
And as regards our current study, it's
no different.
The good news is
that the variations of opinions about
Zephaniah are within a narrow range.
So, the greater question we should be
asking is not when it was written,
but rather what did it mean
to the audience of Judeans that
Zephaniah was speaking to?
So, a good thing to do
is to figure out the meaning, then hold
it up against
the time period we think it was written
to see if it fits.
In Zephaniah's prophecy, assuming he
wasn't writing a fantasy,
he tells us that he at least wrote the
superscription to to his prophecy,
that's verse one,
during King Josiah's reign.
I mean, it seems clear that other later
parts of his prophecy occurred later,
but in the same king's reign.
This to me might not be absolute proof.
But no other theory of authorship or
date works
when compared to the text and to its
meaning.
Now, when we ended the last time,
I said that we needed to read chapter 1
verses 4, 5, and 6 together
to get the intended meaning and the
impact of its message. So, here's how
that sounds.
I will stretch out my hand over Judah
Judah and all those living in Jerusalem.
I will wipe out every remnant of Bale
from this place, the idol serving
priests and even their names, those
worshipping heaven's army on the roofs,
also those who worship and swear by
Yahweh, but swear by Moloch as well,
those who turned away from following
Yahweh,
and those who haven't sought Yahweh or
consulted him at all.
So, in this passage and throughout
Zephaniah and most prophets as well,
we're going to see what almost seems
like overboard usage of God's formal
name,
Yahweh.
It has bothered me so very much
that English Bibles will eliminate
almost entirely the use of God's name.
There's no reason for doing this
except agenda.
Now,
in doing this, I see a violation
of the third commandment
to not take God's name in vain.
You should think about this.
Okay? See, like all of God's laws, there
is an omission
as well as a commission side to it.
It's one thing to misuse his name. It is
another to sub- substitute some other
word or name for it.
Both cases
involve trespassing against that third
commandment.
Now, there are probably a number of
reasons why we find God's name used so
frequently, roughly 6,000 times,
in the Old Testament.
Perhaps the outstanding reason is due to
the cultures of the ancient times
that surrounded Israel.
All of which had pagan god systems.
Each of these gods had names.
And pronouncing their names explained
what areas of life each god was given
credit for
addressing or controlling.
And I said long ago, one can only know
who God is in two ways.
His formal name and his attributes.
Thus, by knowing
the God of the Bible's name,
Yahweh,
then no other god, by means of their
name,
can be given credit for our God's
attributes, nature, and commands.
And by knowing what Yahweh commands,
what he describes as his own nature, we
can differentiate him
from all other god claimants.
For instance, in our modern era,
many church people have been trained to
think
that the Muslim god called Allah is
really just another name in Arabic for
Yahweh or even Yeshua.
This is easily detectable
as a false association
because Allah is his formal name.
And when in the Quran,
Allah describes his nature, it lays out
his commands, they're very nearly the
opposite
of Yahweh's.
In more ancient biblical times,
identifying one's God or gods and
declaring allegiance to them, that was
everything.
The Israelites spent more time than not
in worship of pagan gods to their
worship of Yahweh. This is called
syncretism.
So, when in English Bibles, Yahweh's
name is virtually exiled,
and instead replaced with the word
Lord, which is a generic word,
it makes fuzzy
just which Lord is being talked about.
Listen.
The Canaanite word Baal
also means Lord in English.
The further back in time we go,
the more critical it is to identify gods
by their names.
The prophets, all the Bible writers,
used God's formal name
for the purpose of identification. This
present purpose hasn't ended because
we're in the 21st century.
See, this passage we just read
highlights why God's name cannot be a
casually eliminated
or replaced with something else.
It is essential
for our proper understanding.
In our current passage, there There an
issue of Yahweh versus Moloch, sometimes
also called Milcom.
And at other times, it might be in
reference to Molech.
Names matter.
And when God says in verse 4,
that he will stretch out his hand or
could be translated as arm,
it means to take action
over whatever he has stretched out his
authority over.
More typically, it's a matter
of God working for liberation and
protection of his people, but not
always.
First,
it is being made clear
that the threatened actions, which have
been decided and so will happen,
are to be credited to Yahweh, not to
some other god.
Second, this time his target is Judah
and her capital city, Jerusalem.
When we look closer,
we see that it is the ungodly
that are his target.
Yet because this is to be a national
judgment,
then even those who are righteous shall
be afflicted by association.
The intent is to wipe out every vestige
of Bale worship
from Judah.
Now,
to get a little more nuanced
understanding of what's being said,
we need to slightly amend
the more popular readings of verse 4 to
the literal
Hebrew meaning, where we read, "I will
wipe out every remnant of Bale."
What it really says,
"I will really what will wipe out every
remnant of the Bale.
This widens the scope.
In that this is now referring to objects
or practices associated with Bale
worship.
Further in reference to this remnant God
speaks of
the Hebrew word sham
precedes it.
And essentially it goes untranslated
in our Bible as though it's not there.
Sham
usually means name.
But
it also has a wider range of meanings.
It can refer to the memory of something
or any reference to something or a
manifestation of something
or the essence of something.
So what it's really being said is
I will wipe out every memory object
reference even the basic essence of Bale
worship from Judah. It will be as though
it never existed.
That's the idea of it.
Then God will also wipe out those who
perpetrated Bale worship
on the people of Judah.
Their priests.
Yes, these are the Levite priests
who have integrated aspects of Bale
worship and pagan gods into their
practices and rituals and consequently
they teach the people of Judah
to believe, to think and to do as they
do.
God's word is replaced
with whatever these priests conjure up.
And then they tell the people that what
they teach is righteous and it comes
from Yahweh.
The common people are none the wiser.
And the truth is
there weren't alternative sources for
the common people to go to in order to
challenge the priests.
There weren't Torah scrolls available to
the people.
There weren't alternative teachers.
The people only knew what the priests
taught to them.
People in our day,
we have no such excuse.
Everyone
has access to the truth.
So, the common folks of today bear far
more responsibility for what they think,
believe, and do
than for the ancients.
Verse 4 continues the thought that these
idolatrous
idolatrous priests' names
will be eliminated. Their names
are generally referring to their family
bloodlines.
Their offspring, meaning their
individual families in general.
These idolatrous priests
will come to the end of their family
line. And in that era, that threat may
be the most terrifying of all threats
because it was believed that one's
ongoing afterlife was manifested in
one's offspring.
So, this is essentially the equivalent
of eternal death.
Therefore, from a spiritual
aspect,
those idolatrous priests versus the more
faithful Levite priests will be
separated and differentiated for
spiritual elimination
versus spiritual restoration.
But, that doesn't mean that their
earthly physical fates will also be
completely separated and dealt with.
These priests will be dealt with as a
single group
due to their ongoing association
to the priest cult on the one hand,
but on a higher level they will
be dealt with individually
depending on whether they are idolaters
in their individual hearts or not.
All the priests are going to suffer very
negative consequences of one kind or
another.
>> [snorts]
>> Now verse five begins
with addressing those who bow down to
the host of heavens on the rooftops.
This host of heavens does not mean God's
angels.
Okay, this is referring to the worship
of the sun, moon, and the stars, all
astrological bodies.
See, this ancient practice
of worshipping the bodies in the sky
goes back centuries, millennia,
really,
with its birthplace in Mesopotamia.
It wasn't just the ancient priests
representing the various gods that
did this,
but rather ordinary people.
See, the typical Middle Eastern house
had for so many centuries flat roofs
with access from the outside.
They were used as a household space
for any number of reasons. On hot summer
afternoons, it was a place of rest in
the shade shelter that was built atop
it.
On those hot summer nights, well, it was
cooler to be elevated and outside those
mud brick or stone houses that held so
much heat in their walls.
Sometimes it was used as guest quarters.
Here, this is speaking of people using
those rooftops as places to see the
skies
so they could worship what they saw in
them.
Moses warned against this.
Deuteronomy 4:19
For the same reason, do not look up at
the sky
at the sun, moon, and the stars, and
everything in the sky
and be drawn away to worship and serve
them.
Yehowah, your God, has allotted these to
all the peoples under the entire sky.
The prophet Jeremiah
spoke of the same thing Zephaniah did.
He put it this way. In Jeremiah 8,
starting at verse 1, "At that time, says
Yehowah, these enemies will remove the
bones
of the kings of Judah, the bones of his
princes, the bones of the Kohanim, the
priests, the bones of the prophets, the
bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
from their graves.
They will spread them out
exposed to the sun, the moon, and the
entire army of heaven
whom they loved
and served, and walked at, and sought
after, and worshipped.
The bones will not be collected or
reburied, but be left lying on the
ground like dung.
So,
it will be Israel's enemies
that will desecrate the graves
of kings and priests and commoners of
Judah and expose their skeletons
to the elements.
These are the dead
that had idolatrously worshipped the
objects of the skies.
So, ironically, their grave desecration
will wind up having their bones lay
exposed to what they worshipped
before they died.
As if
they were doing this on the rooftops.
Now, this worship was in the Middle East
called Sabeism.
It was nearly ubiquitous throughout the
Near and Far Eastern Asian simply Israel
simply could not resist it.
Well, the final half of verse 5 is and
those who worship and swear by Yahweh
but swear by Malcom as well.
Now, to swear by a god is to swear
loyalty to that god.
So, it is a divided loyalty
to swear to both Yahweh and Malcom.
However, the complete Jewish Bible
mistranslates
when it says worshipping and swearing.
It's not worshipping, it's bowing.
The Hebrew is shaha
and it does not mean worshipping. More
correctly, it is bowing and swearing
with both being standard actions of
demonstrating loyalty.
So, there are two classes of worshipers
this passage has addressed.
First, the star worshipers. Second,
those who insisted on creating a hybrid
worship of Yahweh as well as bowing down
titles and other gods. Now, in verse 6,
a third class of worshipers is added.
Says, "And those who turned away from
following Yahweh and those who haven't
sought Yahweh or consulted with him at
all."
Now, this verse is not difficult, not
tricky
to make sense of.
Says, "God will destroy those of any and
every social status
who used to worship Yahweh
but they stopped
as well as those who never had sought
after God or consulted him in in prayer
at all." See, here's what we need to
understand and bring into the 21st
century.
Christianity says that upon Yeshua's
advent, all that's changed.
First, they say there's no such thing as
a Christian who at one time worshipped
and followed Christ and but later
renounced him.
Second, even if a person might do that,
it didn't matter.
If only a move for a moment, just a
moment,
that person declared loyalty to God and
to his son, it simply didn't matter what
happened from that point forward in that
person's life.
Loss of beliefs, belief, behavior that
is contrary to all that God teaches has
become irrelevant.
This mindset, this doctrine goes by a
few different doctrinal names. I think
it's best known as once saved, always
saved.
Clearly, throughout the Old Testament,
it was common
for people to accept God and then later
to turn away from him or so pollute
their worship of him that their belief
counted for nothing.
Turning away from God
means a couple of things.
It can mean renouncing him completely
and devoting oneself instead to another
and different God.
It can also mean, and more often did
mean,
disobeying God, not obeying the terms of
his covenants with Israel.
There's perhaps no more eternally
dangerous church doctrine
than the once saved, always saved that
is the exact opposite of what this
passage explains.
Nowhere in the Bible, Old or New
Testaments, is such a thing claimed
that belief turning to non-belief has
nothing to do with our relationship with
God or our eternal future.
In fact, where examples are given
of accepting Christ and then renouncing
him
or refusing to follow his ways or adding
other gods to the mix are found in the
New Testament, the church response is
that this is either an impossible
hypothetical
or the person who did this was a
pretender
and never did trust on any level.
So, once again, the church is Yeshua
usurping his father's authority
and changing a principle that underlies
the entire word of God.
The next statement about those who
haven't sought after God or consulted at
all is speaking of two different
circumstances.
To seek after God means to learn his
ways and do them.
So, if someone doesn't do that,
it doesn't mean that they're an atheist.
It means a person who claims allegiance
to God outwardly,
but inwardly never bothers to seek him
by prayer, by study of his word.
To follow his ways is but another way of
saying to walk in his ways. It has to do
with knowing his commandments and doing
them.
Goes beyond claiming allegiance.
The next circumstance is speaking of
those who don't accept Yahweh at all and
never have.
Pagans.
And although there was no such thing as
an atheist
in Bible times, it naturally includes
them today cuz atheism is rampant in the
Western world.
Now, those first six verses
of Zephaniah chapter 1 lead us to the
sobering, if not terrifying, statement
that is verse 7. So, so listen
and let it sink in.
Keep silent
before Yahweh Elohim, for the day of
Yahweh is near.
Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He's
set apart those
he invited.
What we read here
is sort of an outburst of
praise
from Zephaniah.
These are his words.
It's his thoughts
after hearing what God has told him thus
far.
Before describing
what the day of Yahweh is about, usually
incorrectly stated in Bibles as the day
of the Lord,
he calls for silence from those who
worship him.
Few different prophets have told their
hearers to be silent
before God
as a sign of respect and awe,
along with humble submission.
This is generally spoken of in the
context of a theophany,
an appearance of God on Earth.
And of the several places in the Bible
where theophany does occur, the people
do not have to be told to be silent.
They just fall silent because they don't
know how to react.
They can't
take in the incredible awe and glory
that is God.
Their mouths go quiet.
They fall to the ground cuz their their
knees just buckle them beneath them.
Zephaniah knows the scriptures
and basically is saying, "You know all
that history about what happened to us
when God appeared. Well, get ready.
He's going to appear again
soon, and you are going to react the
same way your fathers did.
See, words can't form in your mouths.
In my opinion, that's going to exactly
what's going to happen when our Messiah
returns.
Other than gasps,
what is there to say?
In both cases, I would also add that
just as the angels knew without being
told, so we will all know
without being told to be silent.
For there'll be no
answer to our prayers and pleadings for
God's wrath to be withheld a little
longer. The die's cast.
It's now on autopilot.
Nothing that any human, believer or not,
can say to God that will affect
anything.
And how could one ever express with mere
words
what we are experiencing when God shows
up?
To speak at all is not even appropriate.
Silence, only silence is the right
response.
Now, even though it is the 7th century
BC,
a prophet speaking the day of YHVH is
imminent isn't new.
9th century BC prophets, 8th century BC
prophets spoke of the same thing. And
they were all speaking of the end times.
It's only that they couldn't see it.
Now, to be clear,
the day of YHVH is identical to the day
of judgment or just judgment day.
There have been
earlier judgment days in the Bible, but
they were but shadows
of what the final judgment will be and
will entail.
Those earlier days of
Yahweh were narrow in scope.
Both geographically and to the extent of
the devastation.
The final one in the end times will have
no boundaries
of scope
or extent of catastrophe. It will be
universal.
None will escape.
Yeshua himself prophesied about this
day.
In Matthew 24 starting at verse 15.
So, when you see the abomination that
causes devastation spoken about through
the prophet Daniel
standing in the holy place, let the
reader understand the illusion.
That will be the time for those in Judah
to escape to the hills.
And if someone is on the roof, he must
not go down to gather his belongings
from his house. If someone's in the
field, he must not turn back to get his
coat. What a terrible time it will be
for pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Pray that you will not have to escape in
winter or on Shabbat.
For there will be trouble then worse
than there has ever been from the
beginning of the world until now.
There will be nothing like it again.
Indeed, if the length of time had not
been limited, no one would survive.
But for the sake of those who have been
chosen, its length will be limited.
Well, now we get an unexpected
statement
in the last half of verse seven.
It makes a word play
on the word sacrifice.
Now, the sacrifice
Yahweh has prepared
is Judah.
His own people.
They are the sacrifice and the nations
are invited
to come and partake.
This is how God will gather the nations
for war against Israel.
Now, the word used in this verse for for
sacrifice is is zebach.
It means it in the same way Isaiah used
it
in his chapter 34. And 34:6 says there
is a sword that belongs to Yahweh. It's
filled with blood, gorged with fat,
filled with blood of lambs and goats,
gorged with the fat of kidneys for
Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a
great sacrifice a great slaughter in the
land of Edom.
See, it's also in the same light as when
God sent the plagues
upon Egypt. They were a sacrifice
for the sake of Israel.
So, we have to understand the word
sacrifice in Zephaniah
as meaning it this way
as opposed to a ritual burnt offering.
Israel will be sacrificed
in order that the nations will come and
be slaughtered.
But, most of Israel will also be
slaughtered.
And ironically, from the surviving
remnant of Israel
will come a purified
people of God.
And from those survivors, there will be
a restoration for Israel.
Now, verse 8
begins a four-verse unit
that explains that every rank of citizen
and status of officials in Judah will
have to deal with the judgment
that's going to fall on Judah.
And with equal severity. None will fare
better than another. None will escape
it.
Zephaniah 1:8,
"When the time comes for Yahweh's
sacrifice, I will punish the leaders and
the the of kings, also those who dress
in foreign clothes.
So, at least here in Zephaniah, a new
term
for the day of Yahweh is introduced as
the time of Yahweh's sacrifice.
Okay?
That sacrifice is Judah.
So, the leaders and sons of the king
that are being punished
are sons of Judean kings and the leaders
of Israel, meaning both those with
authority and the elite and wealthy
aristocrat aristocrats,
and often they were one in the same.
Scholars have doubts about this first
because they think
this must be talking about the current
king of Judah.
And since that's Josiah,
he was a bit too young
to have sons or that his sons were too
young to bear any accountability.
I find that to be a red herring because
no one is suggesting that this judgment
was going to be quite that immediate.
There's also the possibility that Josiah
wasn't mentioned because he's a good
king.
And he walked in the ways of Yahweh.
Now, we know that historically
Josiah's sons
were more like Manasseh.
They were all bad kings.
And each one of his sons seemed to be
worse than the one before.
So, this is likely who's being spoken
about.
As those who will feel God's judgment.
The point of the verse
in the end
is to speak of an entire rank of people
that will face judgment.
Kings, princes, and leaders.
But, what is meant
about being dressed in foreign clothes?
That's It's entirely clear.
Those who dress in foreign clothes are
likely
to mean the elites and the wealthy who
love to wear the very best garments of
the very best material,
unique designs that show off their
wealth.
The fact that it is foreign clothes,
which is a correct translation,
to my mind means they are imported the
garments from pagan enemies.
Because these leaders admired how those
foreign elite dressed.
No doubt this was in lockstep
with the idolatrous behavior of these
same leaders who preferred foreign ways
to God's ways.
And so dressing like those foreigners
went along
with worshipping their foreign gods.
Zephaniah 1:9, "On the same day I will
also punish all who jump over the
threshold, fill the house of their
master with violence and deceit."
Okay.
"On the same day" isn't literal.
In fact, this is probably better
translated as "in that day."
That is this is not speaking of a single
day.
The day of Yahweh is not just one
24-hour period. How long it is exactly I
can't say.
But it'll be
weeks.
However few or many, I don't know.
That amounts to a process of a of
judgment. It's not an all-at-once deluge
of catastrophe.
But what is this about jumping over the
threshold?
Few different solutions have been
offered, but I think Keil and Delitzsch
are the likely winners.
They see it as meaning those who rob and
steal and break into the homes of their
fellow Judeans.
Some were hired thieves
to plunder and bring back certain items
to to their masters.
After all, some expensive items in the
hands of a common person would have been
brought on on suspicion.
But in their hands of a wealthier
person, it might have gone undetectable.
So, this verse is addressing another and
different rank
of Judean society than the previous
verse that was about kings, princes, and
leaders. It is addressing the criminally
lawless.
Zephaniah 1:10, "Also on that day," says
Yahweh, "a cry will be heard from the
Fish Gate, wailing from the city's
second quarter, and a loud crash from
the hills."
Okay.
The Fish Gate is a well-known entry gate
into the walled city of Jerusalem
and was where the fishermen met with the
fish merchants and or
their customers.
This verse is meant to depict the idea
that all parts
of Jerusalem will be affected. The Fish
Gate is placed in the northern part of
Jerusalem. It's now in our time as
what's called the Damascus Gate,
which interestingly is the entry into
the Muslim quarter of the city.
What is called the second quarter is the
area where the Hulda Gate
is is located today. The hills
are the areas of Ophel,
possibly of Zion's Gate, may even
include the oldest parts of the city,
the city of David.
It descends down the bottom part of
Moriah to the Pool of Siloam.
So, this is speaking of the regular,
everyday residents of Jerusalem as yet
another rank of Judah that will feel
God's wrath.
And then verse 1:11,
"Wail, you who live in the hollow,
because all the merchants are destroyed,
all who trade with silver are ruined.
Okay.
Finally, the last rank highlighted are
those that live in the Maktesh.
Likely what in New Testament times a bit
earlier was called the Tyropoean Valley.
This was an area just below the temple,
but before one reached the lower part of
the city. Maktesh uh it just means
hollow or or depression.
This is where the merchants lived. They
like to conduct their business, so
that's what this is speaking about.
They're speaking about the merchant
class
of Judeans and where much buying and
selling occurred.
A great deal of cheating was the norm.
Money exchanging was the focus.
So, these two were involved in idolatry,
and they will be ruined and killed
according to God's judgment.
Okay, we'll pause here.
Begin with verse 12 next time.
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