Normally people in the ancient world identified themselves by their name and by the name of their father. Zephaniah is unusual in that he goes back four generations. Why is this? Because his great, great grandfather was King Hezekiah.

This same verse gives us the date of writing. It was in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah (Zephaniah 1:1). Josiah was the king who led the Israelites back to the worship of the Lord. It was during his reign that a copy of the Scriptures were found in the temple and taken to the king. He called for fasting and prayer and national repentance.

Zephaniah came on the scene only slightly before Jeremiah. While Jeremiah prophesied over a space of many years, the book of Zephaniah is only three chapters. They both speak of the judgment that is soon to befall Jerusalem.

Zephaniah foretells the destruction of Nineveh. That event took place in 612 B.C. This means that event had not yet taken place at the writing of this book.

The book of Zephaniah is chiastic in style. The centerpoint of the book is the call to repentance that takes place in Zephaniah 2:1-3.

From the very beginning Zephaniah says that judgment is coming against the land. He tells us that the Lord is going to remove all things from the face of the earth. In poetic fashion, he then lists those things upon the face of the earth that shall be removed. His list calls to mind a reverse listing of that which was described in the six days of creation.

The problem is that, even with the reforms of Josiah, there continued to be a remnant of Baal (1:4) as well as idolatrous priests (1:4).

Notice the title that is used for the nation of Judah. She is called the "nation without shame." This is the language of non-repentance. It is a description of those who are still in their sin and who are proud of it.

This is the pivotal and central point in the book. It is the "so what?" of the passage. It is a call to repentance. It is expressed in the three commands of verse 3:

• Seek the Lord
• Seek righteousness
• Seek humility

The restoration is seen, not only in terms of God's burning anger, but also a time when people are given "purified lips" that they may call upon the name of the Lord.

Where do we see this fulfilled in Scripture? I believe that we see this fulfilled in Acts 2.

• People are gathered from around the nations.
• God gives the sign of tongues -- purified lips.
• As a result, they call upon the name of the Lord
• From there, the message of the Gospel goes out to the world.

In verses 11 and 12, we see the results of God's saving work in the lives of His people:

In verse 1 of this chapter, Judah was described as a people without shame and that was a bad thing. But here we see a picture of God's redeemed people and they are also without shame. But this time it is for a different reason. They are without shame because their sin has been removed. This is not shameless pride. Rather it is the absence of shame of one who has the Lord as his refuge.

• God used the Babylonians to bring severe judgment on Judah and many other nations for their sins.
• Humbly seeking God provides hope for protection from harm.
• The destruction of other nations would one day be to Israel's advantage.
• God will purify Gentiles and Jews and grant them magnificent blessings after his judgment is complete.

The book contains no historical narrative. Because of this, we know virtually nothing of Joel or his readers.

Several other observations can be made regarding this book.

• Joel makes no mention of the northern kingdom of Israel as a separate entity.
• When he does speak of Israel, he uses it in a sense where it seems to refer to a united covenant people of God.

The truth is that we do not know when the book of Joel is written. The Bible is not specific to tell us when it was written and that means it is not really important for us to know the date of writing.

Joel doesn't say anything about God reaching out to the Gentiles. You can read about God's program toward the Gentiles in some of the other prophetical books, but not in Joel. He is speaking to those who are family.

As can be seen from this chart, the centerpoint of Joel's book it the call to repentance.

This verse tells us virtually everything that we know about Joel. It isn't much. We don't know who Joel was and we don't know who Pethuel was. His name means "Jehovah God" and he was a prophet of God.

C.S. Lewis described pain as God's megaphone. That is true on the personal level and sometimes it is also true on the national level.

The story of the Old Testament is a story of the people of God falling away and then being judged for their sins and then coming back in repentance. It happened again and again in a repeating cycle.

If you are a parent, then you understand this process. We went through it when we were raising our daughter. She would be warned of the consequences of disobedience. Then she would disobey. And then would come "the Day of the Father."

The church experiences the same thing. God warns and sends His prophets and eventually He says, "Enough is enough."

Judah went through her period of prosperity where stocks were up and everything was prosperous and when pride built up to new levels. And then God took a little bug and demonstrated His power.

The event that began Joel's prophecy was a plague of locust. That doesn't mean too much to us today, but in that day this sort of thing could be devastating. It was an agricultural economy and a locust invasion meant that everyone who starve.

If you do not read this chapter through the eyes of faith, then you will only see bugs. But if you look to see what is really happening here, you will learn that these locusts are really the army of God. They are to be a lesson to future generations.

I did not live through the Great Depression. But my grandmother and my wife's grandparents did and they told me what it was like. Joel tells people to do the same thing. They are to ask whether there has ever been a time as bad as this.

In describing the plight of the people, Joel breaks into alliteration of the same type that we saw in the book of Hosea.

This is the chant of a funeral dirge. It brings the same picture of the successive waves of plagues that we saw at the outset of this prophecy.

The rending of ones garments was the culturally accepted method of demonstrating deep emotional grief. As such, it was an appropriate method of showing repentance. But the problem was that the people had made these sort of outward signs without any real repentance on the inside.

This is a call, not only for personal repentance, but also for national repentance. God comes in a mighty way when the congregation of His people turn to Him. Jesus said that. He said that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18:19).

The passage continues following the close of the chiasm:

Peter quoted this passage on the day of Pentecost. He concluded that what was taking place in his day was that which Joel had promised.

Peter identifies what is happening with a prophecy from the book of Joel. It is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord. Peter quotes this prophecy. Notice the elements of the prophecy.

• God's Spirit to be poured out.
• Sons and daughters to prophesy.
• Dreams and visions.
• Blood and fire, and vapor of smoke.
• The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.

How are we to understand this prophecy? How much of this was fulfilled in Peter's day? I want to suggest that ALL of it was fulfilled in Peter's day.

• God's Spirit was be poured out.
• Sons and daughters - Jewish men and women - prophesied.
• Dreams and visions were given.
• The blood of the Son of God had just been shed and now tongues of fire appeared over the heads of the followers of Christ.
• The sun had been darkened at His crucifixion.

The point of these prophecies is that they were given as signs. They would take place before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come (2:20). What is the "Day of the Lord?" The phrase is used throughout the Old Testament to describe a day of JUDGMENT.

The Day of the Lord is not always in the future. Jeremiah, the writer of the book of Lamentations, describes the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. as being a fulfillment of the Day of the Lord.

Does the fact that the Day of the Lord was fulfilled in 586 B.C. mean that there are no other fulfillments? No, it does not. Peter saw a fulfillment in his day. And he elsewhere described another fulfillment which is still to come.

The Day of the Lord is that time when God's hand enters history in judgment. It came in Peter's day. And it will come again in the future.

Joel looks forward to a time of the judgment of the nations. It is a time when Judah and Jerusalem are restored and when the Gentile nations are gathered for judgment.

The reference to the Valley of Jehoshaphat hails back to an event from Judah's past history. The story is found in 2 Chronicles 20. It tells of an invasion of an alliance of all of the enemies of Judah.

Jehoshaphat did that which Joel was instructing the people to do. He called for a national time of fasting and prayer.

As they were praying, the Lord sent His Spirit upon one of the leaders with a prophesy. They were to march out toward the enemy, but it would be the Lord who would fight the battle.

Trusting in the word of the Lord, Jehoshaphat marches out, placing in his front ranks neither infantry or archers, but rather the temple musicians and singers. They come to the place of the battle and they find that it has begun without them.

The alliance had fallen apart and those who came to fight against Judah had fallen to fighting amongst themselves. As a result, the enemies of Judah literally destroyed themselves and when Jehoshaphat and his army came upon the scene, it was to look out upon a valley full of corpses.

The name of Jehoshaphat took on a special significance that day, for it mean, "Yahweh who judges." This valley of judgment along the shores of the Dead Sea was renamed by the people of Judah, the Valley of Berachah because it became a place of "blessing" the Lord.

That story became a meta-narrative and a paradigm for describing God's future work of judgment and protection for His people. He says, "I'm going to do it again. I will again arrange the affairs of men so as to cancel out the threats of nations and restore my Kingdom."

Obadiah writes to the nation of Edom in the same way that Jonah and Nahum prophesied against Assyria.

DATE: Written around the time of the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar (587/6 B.C.). Edom would be tempted to gloat over the defeat of Jerusalem and the plight of the Jews. This book is a warning against such gloating.

Like the book of Habakkuk, the book of Obadiah addresses the issue of divine justice. In this case, the focus is specifically upon the kingdom of Edom and their mistreatment of Judah during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

Here is the question: Why has God allowed Edom to prosper and to mock Judah with impunity? The answer is that God will indeed bring judgment upon Edom.

This language calls to mind the ancient city of Petra. By the end of the 4^th century B.C., Petra would become the capital of Edom. It characterized the words of this prophecy as a city "in the cleft of the rock."

This prophecy was fulfilled quite literally in the days of the Maccabees and the Hasmonean kings. The tables were turned and Judah eventually conquered Edom. You can go today to the ancient capital city of Petra -- a great fortress built into solid rock. But you will be hard-pressed to find the Edomite.

However, if you read this short book and see only the tiny kingdom of Edom, you miss the point of the book. It is that God will judge the nations. In this regard, Edom is seen as a mere representative of all of the nations. What is true of Edom is true of all nations. This is taught in verse 15 where we read: For the day of the LORD draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head.

The purpose of this prophecy is not merely to chastise Edom. It is so that men will repent of their wrongdoing and return to the Lord. It is so that men repent and thereby stop this prophecy from coming to pass.

Prophecy always has that purpose. It is not meant for you to use to draw a futuristic timeline. It is given for you to change your life.

• God cares for his people when they suffer.
• God warns but will eventually judge those who persecute his people.
• God will give victory to his people.
• God's faithful people will inherit the kingdom of God in its fullness: The kingdom will be the LORD's (Obadiah 1:21).

Habakkuk was a prophet with a problem. It was a problem faced by a lot of preachers in 21 century America. It was the problem of "business as usual."

From a strictly naturalistic point of view, things were going well.

• The economy was doing okay.
• Workers were working.
• Peace was prosperous.
• Business was busy.
• The rich were becoming richer.
• And the poor didn't have press coverage, so everyone seemed to be happy.

But is all of this busy-ness and prosperity, the people had forgotten God. He just didn't fit into their busy schedules. And this spiritual forgetfulness led to other problems.

"Business as usual" took on a seamier side. There was oppression and a cut-throat attitude at work. Lawyers were making a bundle by lining their pockets with legal loopholes. People were out to get what they could get while the getting was good. Justice was awarded to the one who had the deepest pockets.

Habakkuk looked out at the nation of Judah and he saw all of this and it drove him to his knees. He set out to pray. The three chapters that make up the book of Habakkuk consist of his prayer diary.

Habakkuk's prayer begins with a question: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL TO CONTINUE?

1. God Balances His Books in His own Time.

• Perhaps he hoped for the best, that God would miraculously change the heart of the king or that there would be a revival as people turned back to the Lord.
• Or perhaps he thought that heaven would open and angels would come forth in judgment, putting down evil and raising up good and setting all things right.

The third chapter of Habakkuk is a song of praise about the wonders of a God who is so great that He moves in history, not only to balance the books in history, but to balance them on our behalf as He saves us from our sins and sets our feet upon firm ground.

And that tells me about what is to be my reaction to this message. What do I do when I come to understand the salvation that God has wrought in a world filled with violence and suffering? I am to believe. And I am to be glad. And I am to sing. Theology is not to remain in the pages of our notebooks. It must sing! And so should we.

The song presented in this chapter is a song of praise. God is pictured in thundering majesty as He comes to act in the affairs of men.

The Almighty is pictured in the most graphic of terms. He is the conquering King who comes with power and radiance and majesty.

The picture of the raging Lord of the universe is a terrifying one until we realize that He is raging on our behalf.

Habakkuk says, "I will continue to praise the Lord, even in those times when I don't see His obvious blessings in my life." We are quick to praise the Lord in the good times, but do we praise Him and pronounce His goodness just as adamantly in the difficult times?

The reference to a "hind" is merely old English for a deer. This is a quote from Psalm 18:34. It pictures a deer in a high place.

The impact of this passage did not come home to me until a few years ago when I had opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon. I was gazing out at that vast expanse when I noted that on a ledge a portion of the way down that yawning precipice stood a deer. She had not fallen. She was not in trouble. She was secure and she had no problem traversing those dizzying heights.

In those times when it looks as though we are going to fall, we can take comfort. It is God who has set us in place. He has directed our paths. Nothing can come our way yet through a nail-scarred hand.