Call to Repentance
To understand the times we need to understand the gods that were and are being worshiped. The behavior of a people in large part is tied to the gods they serve. King Hezekiah's son Manasseh became the king of Judah and ruled for almost fifty years. He brought the pagan gods of the heathen nations to Judah and set up statues in the temple in Jerusalem and made groves and high places for worshiping the gods, such as Baal and Molech. Idolatry, wizards, star gazing and the worship of the planets, sun and moon were done in this wicked time. Judah had left their true LORD God and the LORD was about to judge them and the surrounding nations. Manasseh was captured and taken to Ninevah and during this time he repented and returned to the God of Israel. He was returned to be king for a year. He took down the idols and statues from the temple in Jerusalem and repaired the altar. The next king was Ammon who returned back to the idols. He reigned for two years and then his son Josiah began to reign. Josiah brought reforms and the law was read once again. From this time of revival Daniel was taught.
The God of America is the God of Israel. We worship him and come to him through faith in his son Jesus Christ who died to remove our sins and who is risen from the grave. We serve a living God. There are other gods in the world. The god of Islam is not the God of Israel. There are gods of pleasure, entertainment and hedonism in our nation. Secular humanism puts a human as god. The environmentalists have the goddess gaia, a mythical Greek god. This is the godess mother earth.This goddess is of those who believe in evolution combined with pantheism. The Goddess mother earth is seen as a living organism with humans seen as parasites or germs to be controlled. Laws are passed that are bad for humanity including the killing of babies, abortion, and same sex marriage that undermines the healthy family structure. This explains the various laws for the environment that are against jobs and the betterment of humanity and the foundational Christian values.The laws of God are ignored and removed from public life and the constitution that was inspired from God's laws is being ignored. Judgment would come and will come to those who turn from the true God of Israel and follow other false gods. The Day of the LORD is a time of wrath on the nations who sin against God. It is time for the humble to trust in the true God who will keep them from the day of judgment. Let the LORD God be your hiding place from the Day of the LORD.
Gather
Zep 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
Zep 2:2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger come upon you.
Gather together for prayer you who have no shame or desire for God. In Josiah's reign there was a revival. A copy of the Torah , perhaps the original, was found in the temple and by reading the law they knew that they were transgressing and needed to repent.
2 Ki 22:8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
2 Ki 22:9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD.
2 Ki 22:10 And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
2 Ki 22:11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
Gathering together in prayer had saved Judah when King Jehoshaphat called the people to assemble when surrounded by the Assyrians.
2 Chr 20:4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.
2 Chr 20:5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
2 Chr 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
Seek the LORD before the Day of wrath when the chaff shall be burned.
Mat 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Seek the LORD
Zep 2:3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.
The LORD is calling the humble to seek him; seek righteousness, seek meekness, to be hid in the LORD. Zephaniah means "the LORD has hidden."
Psa 105:4 Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
No wrath to those who trust in the LORD God of Israel. We come to him now through Messiah Jesus. In our time we look for the rapture of the church.
1 Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1 Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Judgment against the surrounding nations.
The west - Philistines
Zep 2:4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.
Zep 2:5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.
Zep 2:6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.
Zep 2:7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.
Cherethites, settlers from the island of Crete.
Jer 47:5 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
Jer 47:6 O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
Jer 47:7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.
b> The east - Moab and Ammon
The cursed children of Lot's daughters were as Sodom and Gomorrha.
Zep 2:8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.
Zep 2:9 Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.
Zep 2:10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.
Zep 2:11 The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
The LORD God will be exalted in all the isles of the heathen.
Mal 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
The south - Ethiopia
Zep 2:12 Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.
Ezek 30:4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
Ezek 30:5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.
The north - Assyria
Assyria had repented following Jonah's proclamation years earlier. They were a cruel people.
Zep 2:13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
Zep 2:14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.
Zep 2:15 This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.
For 60 miles around Nineveh a 100 ft high wall surrounded the city. They thought that they were invincable.
Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isa 14:25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
Isa 14:26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isa 14:27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Babylon would deport people from Judah in 605 BC. In this group was Daniel and his friends who were loyal to the laws of their God having been in the revival during Josiah's reign. The second deportation was 582 BC with a few of the poor remaining in the land. They had watched their sister, the northern kingdom of Israel as she was taken by the Assyrians a hundred years earlier. They did not learn from this but they too fell into idolatry and indifference. Will we as a people follow in their ways? Are we as they were, at ease in Zion, ignoring our covenant with the LORD God of Israel?
Zephaniah 3
Zephaniah 1
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