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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome, welcome to the Harvester podcast.
We are happy that you are able to join us today.
Season number five, episode number 10.
And this season has been called majoring in the minors, the minor profits that is.
And today we can't wait to take a look at Zephaniah in a little bit of detail and
practical application.
I am one of the hosts, Brian Kenyon, and with me are...
Forrest Antemesaris
Steven Ford.
and we are happy to bring these lessons to you on the minor profits and uh...
we're going to kind of get back to a regular thing that i don't think we mentioned last
couple episodes least not much but zephaniah's got a lot to say about the day of the lord
and so steven we're gonna ask you to come lead us in this study as we go through this
minor profit
Yeah, Zephaniah is a tremendous book of the Bible among the minor prophets.
think it is, it has some beautiful themes in it.
It's just kind of some historical context.
Looking at verse number one, he gives us kind of some of his lineage, which is rare that
we would get so much.
This is kind of not common.
You know, you may have, I'm the son of this person, I was during these kings, but he gives
us a little bit more.
He says, we're the Lord.
which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushiah the son of Gedaliah the son of Amariah the son
of Hiskiah and the days of Josiah the son of Ammon king of Judan so he gives us this long
line of uh successive parentage and we can kind of trace him back uh this book was written
probably in the early 600s BC based on the content and he's uh contemporary with Jeremiah
And this is just before the content that we know of in Naam and Habakkuk.
So uh we covered in our last couple of episodes those books of Naam and Habakkuk and what
Zephaniah is going to present, kind of precedes those a little bit.
So let's kind of jump in and uh see what he's got to say.
He starts off in verse number two, like many of the prophets, this is going to be a kind
of a burden, if you will.
This is a judgment being poured out.
which most of the minor prophets, God is pronouncing judgment on his people and various
other nations.
He says, I will utterly consume all things from off the land says the Lord.
know, when you start off a book like that, and it's like, where do you go from there?
You know, almost, I can almost imagine with the hearers, you know, what is the Lord gonna
say to us now?
What's the Lord gonna say to us now?
And the first words are, I will utterly destroy or consume all things from off the land
says the Lord.
That's quite the hook, isn't it?
When you're writing a sermon and you got the hook to like draw people in.
device
absolutely.
And he fleshes that out in verses three and five, and says, I'm gonna consume man and
beast.
I'll consume the fowls of heaven, the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the
wicked.
And I will cut off man from off the land, says the Lord.
And at least in my mind, I have this imagery of Genesis chapter six and following where
God is like, I'm gonna destroy everything.
The wickedness is so great.
And so when I,
look at these words of Zephaniah and I'm thinking about the people, how wicked did they
have to be for God to say this?
You the last times that we can see God saying, I'm going to just utterly destroy the land,
the things that jump out of my mind are uh Sodom and Gomorrah, which are gonna come up in
this book.
know, everything's gonna be destroyed.
Genesis chapter six comes up in my mind.
You know, that whatever's going on is so great that God's like,
I'm not just gonna send somebody to warn you.
I'm not just gonna send an army to fight.
God is saying with this imagery, everything has to go.
I don't want anything left, I don't want any remnants of this sin that you guys have going
on.
To me, it demonstrates that God doesn't tolerate sin.
I can't, for me, I can't look at that.
and say God doesn't tolerate sin in other people, which is a easy kind of fallback, God
doesn't tolerate sin in me or in other people for that matter.
Yeah, I sometimes you need to be reminded of the consequences, you know, and how like the
weight and the gravity of sin and I see I know this sounds weird, but I see about the
Lord's Supper like You have a weekly reminder really of the gravity and the weight of sin,
know in the Lord's Supper that like hey This is no small matter.
I think that's part of his episode Zef and I have saying here the Lord's saying through
him Like this is really what?
God wants to do because of this, you know
absolutely.
And so some of the things that were kind of happening at a bird's eye view, you know,
there was uh idolatry in the land, he says in verse number four, I'll also stretch out my
hand upon Judah and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place in the name of Chimurims from the
priest or with the priest rather.
And then they worship the host of the heaven upon the rooftops or the housetops and then
they worship
and that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcolm.
And so it seems to maybe be all these different versions of idolatry, even those who are
trying to maybe do a little bit of both, you know, saying, we'll serve the Lord, but we're
also going to kind of worship these other things.
And so whatever was the case, whatever sort of or brand of idolatry was going on, God was
not going to tolerate and the people were guilty of, he says in verse six, and them that
are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for
him.
So any sort of partial to uh negligent allegiance, God was coming for.
Which shows that God doesn't like fake affection.
He will not tolerate a rival, uh nor will he tolerate partial uh sort of worship.
It's gonna be all or none with our allegiance to him.
immediately right off the bat it it shows us that why are they in such a condition because
they have partial allegiance because they go to idolatry and so uh...
i mean that the very thing that he describes is a very reason why they got is gonna
utterly destroy them because we can't we can't dabble around and play around with god and
if if he's not sovereign in our lives and he's not sovereign
and the only way he can be sovereign is to follow him and do what he says.
That's it.
It's all or none.
God wants total allegiance.
In verse seven comes, the first, one of the first mentions of this phrase that we'll find
in this book a few times, as well as in the mind of prophets several times, he says, hold
thy peace at the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand.
And this is kind of maybe a call back to what we talked about or mentioned is present in
our last episode.
with Habakkuk where he says, you know, the Lord says his holy temple, there should be
quiet.
And he says in verse seven here, hold your peace at the presence of the Lord.
So uh this is not a time for uh arguing with God or, uh you know, talking back at God,
reasoning or any of those sorts of things.
This is judgment time.
He says the day of the Lord is at hand.
The Lord is prepared to sacrifice.
He had hid his guests, or he, excuse me, he had bid his guests.
And that she'll come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the
princes and the kings, children and all such that are clothed with strange apparel.
And the same day also I'll punish all those that leap on the thresholds and which fill
their masters' houses with violence and deceit." So he kind of starts up at the top.
ah Nobody's going to be able to escape.
It's not that he's going to get people who are outside of the royal household.
It's going to be everybody.
So there's going to be none to get to escape.
And he can kind of speak on that with authority, because he's Hezekiah's
great-great-grandson, and would have even been, if I'm not mistaken, like a distant
relative of the current king, Josiah.
So, like, he has probably maybe some inside knowledge of, like, of course he's inspired by
the Lord, but what's going on in the king's court?
Like, hey, y'all, it's from the top down, you know, and Josiah, you know, enacted a
reform, but that doesn't mean that...
Just because you make a reformer doesn't mean people's hearts change, And that's what the
Lord's trying to get to here.
Oh absolutely, having that kind of behind the curtain kind of a peek to know that God's
judgment is coming and having those relationships as you just brought up kind of a neat
point, having those relationships gives him this ability to remember that God's present
even in the King's house, so there's not, I don't know what to say, there's no exemptions.
So you can't be in this high position and think well the King's house will surely be
exempted.
God shows no partiality.
None whatsoever.
And coming to like verse 12, I love how this is word here.
says, and it shall come to pass at that time, I will search Jerusalem with candles and
punish men that are settled in their leaves, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do
good, neither will he do evil.
Therefore, their goods shall become as booty and their houses as desolation.
They shall also build houses but not inhabit them.
And they shall plant vineyards but not drink the wine thereof.
The great day of the Lord is near.
It is near and it hastes greatly.
Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
When he's talking about this, verse number 12, how he's gonna search out the land,
there'll be no hiding place.
ah Even the shadows won't conceal you.
He's gonna search it out with a candle.
There's gonna be nowhere to go where God won't see you.
where God won't find you.
So the judgment is going to get into every corner of the land.
He's judging those who are complacent, you that idea of settling on the lease or you know
the ESV actually translates that idiom as what does it say?
Those who are complacent and I think that really is I mean you might think complacency is
not that big of a deal it absolutely is like that is a Huge thing and I think I mean this
is my opinion,
I think it's one of the biggest problems in the church in America in the 21st century is
complacency and kind of just, like everything's okay.
Like go along to get along.
We're just keeping the shop open.
Like we're not zealous.
I don't think, when I hear stories about the fifties and sixties and stuff, you know, like
there's, there's a zeal sometimes that seems to be missing and we are comfortable just
kind of like with the bare minimum, you know, and it's
in this because we are so comfortable like we are we got everything we want and
everything's going good and all this different stuff you know and kind of just like you
know like laodicea the same thing where it's just like that lukewarmness because we have
this idea of self-sufficiency
Absolutely, I very firmly believe that ease and plenty are poison to the soul.
They are nice, it is nice to have stuff, to be able to kick back, but left unchecked, they
are a poison.
And I think that's why you'll find in Proverbs 30 verse seven in following it says, two
things have I required of thee, deny me them not before I die, remove from me vanity and
lies, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be
full and deny thee.
It's possible to get to a place of comfort, ease, plenty, relaxation where you're be like
the man with the barns.
You know what man?
I'm gonna just sit back now.
I'm gonna kick my feet up, relax and just chill until the Lord comes back.
What about preaching the good news?
What about uh helping those in need?
What about reaching out, being a compassionate shoulder for someone?
Those things, but it's like, man, hey look, I've done it all.
Right.
And I'm gonna just kinda sit back and retire, go get my gold watch and, you know, rocking
chair.
It's like, no man, for the believer, the retirement is heaven.
Right.
Not here.
Yeah, and there's I mean there's don't get me wrong.
I mean there's brethren who really give it all for the Lord's body But there's also I mean
people who put in the sort of effort toward the church that if they did that at their job
They'd be fired.
You know what I mean, but the elders can't fire them, know, it's kind of just like hey
like You got to take like why aren't we taking this seriously,
Yeah, and that's a very good point with, South Florida Avenue, we try and find teachers
for the next quarter, right?
It's always a challenge.
Always hard to find teachers that want to teach.
And of course, really anything in church work and people say, well, you shouldn't ask, you
should just go tell them.
And maybe that's the way the secular world does it.
Maybe you can get teachers that way.
I don't know.
But that's not the way God would want it.
I want people to want to do it to write to do
I just haven't told people no.
Right.
Hey, we already filled that spot.
Right.
Three, four people who are like one to teach.
Wouldn't it be great if the problem is saying, listen, we gotta find something else for
these 14 people that want to buy a tier right now.
Have a new class.
unfortunately, that's not what it is.
But that's why we do what we do.
We teach, we inform, we encourage.
And so with this kind of motif of the day of the Lord coming, he says the day of the Lord
is near in verse number 14.
He continues, he says, day of the Lord is near, it hastes greatly, even the voice of the
day of the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
says the day of, oh excuse me, that day is a day of wrath.
And so he's saying it's near, it's coming, it's certain, but here's what it is, it's a day
of wrath, it's a day of trouble and distress, a day of wastes and desolation, a day of
darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and.
thick darkness today of the trumpet and alarm against the fence to cities, against the
high towers.
And so I have this vision of just like mayhem.
That there's just, you know, if you see like an uh invading army sacking a city, there's
people running everywhere, there's fires over here, there's noise over there, there's
nowhere where you can run and just say, hey, I'm gonna just sit in this corner until
everything's over.
Everywhere there's going to be desolation and waste.
So there's gonna be no hiding out from God.
as Zephaniah is pronouncing this judgment on, again, who's he talking to?
Verse number four, go back to chapter one, verse four, Judah and Jerusalem.
And when you think about that these are the people who are supposed to be this beacon of
goodness in the world, this beacon of showing God's holiness in the world, this is the
group of people who's been living in such a way that God says, man, I just gotta utterly
destroy you guys.
That is uh just a tremendous indictment on God's people.
And as we're just, I mean, talking a minute ago about getting volunteers and things like
that, while that may not be the outer limits of things wrong, it's still to say that
there's, even with God's people, there'll always be things wanting.
There's always room for improvement.
And we should be diligent, diligent looking within all the time to say, look, not like
just my congregation where I worship.
Me, like my family, yeah, my congregation, yeah, but like me.
Like where do I have some room?
Because this could easily have been written to me at various times in my life.
Anyway, so he says that all this alarm is going to come.
He's gonna bring distress upon men and uh they'll walk like blind men because they have
sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh shall
be as dung.
Neither silver or gold shall be able to deliver them the day
of the Lord's wrath.
And that is something that Paul kinda talks about, people who have faith in their
uncertain riches.
It's not gonna do any good.
The people who in our world, I wanna use the word insulate, but think that they're
insulating themselves from spiritual things with their money or financial power or
political power.
None of that's gonna matter.
There is no dollar amount that God's gonna be like, man, I just.
I just can't get to this guy.
know, political allegiances or military might where God's like, how do I get in?
You know, there's no war plan.
It's just here comes destruction.
It's not like any of that can matter to an all-powerful spiritual being.
Right.
And that's the thing with money, like it can be a false hope, you know?
And then there are things that happen, like it really doesn't matter how much money you
have, you know, because you can't, you know, there even some natural calamities, you know
what I mean?
If you got a mansion, there's earthquake.
Now you have a broken mansion, So, but even more so in the judgment of the Lord, the day
the Lord, you know, you can't buy God off, you can't bribe him, you can't do anything.
No, there isn't, and even in a regular, worldly, carnal, physical sense, those fires that
happen out in California or Hawaii, you got these million dollar homes, and they burn up
just like a hundred thousand dollar home.
Or, whatever else is laying out in the street.
dog house.
Yeah, the dog house, absolutely.
They all burn, the garbage can, the garbage can burns just like those million dollar
mansions.
And so,
We cannot, you know, can have cyber security, you can have real security, you can have all
that kind of stuff, but like if God is going to get you, there's nothing that you can do.
So how dreadful is it to fall into the hands of the living God, you know, when you think
of passages like this.
ah
Especially when you think you're okay, which I think is part of what Zephaniah is getting
here to.
Exactly.
Some people are like, oh yeah, know.
But no, you thought you were good, and turns out not so much.
I guess that probably would be the worst part too though.
Because you think like if you know you're getting it and you know like hey look man I know
I'm riding, I'm gonna be riding, I know what's coming to me.
But to think like hey you know what man I think I've secured myself, I'm good.
And then you're like oh I'm not good.
And nothing that you experience, nothing that you have is gonna help in that day.
It's like with those natural calamities, might think you've got hurricane-proof windows
and all this stuff, but when the storm is going through, ripping through your house, or
the fire, or whatever it might be, you find out you didn't, and there's nothing you can do
about it now.
Right.
you're right in the midst of the flames.
I'd rather be on God's side and the house is on fire than trust in my house while my house
is on fire, you
Absolutely.
And that's one of the things that my family learned in a very real sense in real time.
When we first moved to Florida in 24, we had this hurricane.
I forget the name of it, but it was a hurricane.
was like a category two by the time it reached Lakeland.
And we're sitting in the house and we knew there was nothing in the world that we could
do.
So if it decided to like kick up and get worse and more fears, we were just going to be.
at its mercy carried away whatever so i'm sitting in house with my girls and i and they're
looking to me daddy what are we going to do it i'm trying to be
Why aren't we in Arkansas right now?
Yeah, you know, they're like really dad you brought us down here to be swept away, you
know And so i'm kind of trying to encourage them and telling hey babies, it's going to be
okay But in my mind i'm like lord help us, you know, we're playing and all that kind of
That one and it got me and so we bought all this stuff man I got this butane cooktop and
candy goods toilet paper.
I don't know what to buy I'm just buying all this random stuff.
None of that stuff helped right?
I mean it made me in a sense feel Prepared.
Yeah, but there was nothing in the world.
I mean what if
what if the garage was swept away and all that stuff is gone?
what's it gonna do?
And even if it helped for 24 hours, then what?
And so it really, that storm helped me to see just how helpless we are with a storm.
But what about when you oppose yourself against God?
You know, there's nothing.
So he continues in verse chapter 118, but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of
his jealousy.
for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
And we think about God being jealous.
It's not the way that we look at the attribute among people.
know, I want what you have or I wish I had what you have, that sort of a thing.
But God's is, he will be the only one to be in number one place.
He will not share that.
And so when we think of him being a jealous God, it's not that he is envious of other
people.
more so than he will have all the glory for his own and won't share that.
So anybody who won't recognize that, they will be devoured by fire and he'll make a, I
like that, we don't use that term, riddance.
Good riddance.
He'll make a sudden end to those that dwell in the land.
And then as chapter two comes in, we get a little bit more of this same uh phrasing.
about the day of the Lord in verse number uh one.
let's get into one.
says, gather yourselves ah together, O nation not desired, or not desirous, he says,
before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as a chaff, before the fierce anger of
the Lord upon you, before here it is, the day of the Lord's anger come upon you.
And again in verse three, seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his
judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness, it may be.
ah Ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." And so again, you have this idea that
the day of the Lord, not necessarily a day as in like, hey, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
but there will be a uh period where God's wrath comes out.
There will be an occasion where his wrath comes out.
And so the people are being warned, but as we've mentioned in other books, these minor
prophets, you find these moments of hope.
And you find these moments of God's compassion where he's saying, listen, seek the Lord.
it's, man, in my mind, it's just like this utter, utter, utter hopelessness.
And then through these thick clouds of doom comes his hand outstretched.
It's like, look, come, come and be saved.
Come and be healed.
Come and be healed.
Seek meekness, you know, it may be.
that ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.
Now we talked about it, that's kind of a contrast from verse 112 where he's gonna search
out the land with candles and then now he's saying, look, God himself will be the only one
that can hide you from his wrath to come.
Yeah I was like to think like that word that always jumps out to me I don't know what the
king james says when the esv says perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the
lord And I always think about like what was it perhaps for them through christ is a
certainty for us You know, I mean like if if you're in not that I don't know if you're
going this in the future But if you're in christ, it's no maybe like no you will be saved
from the wrath of god, you know, right?
In fact, I was thinking about that.
just didn't want to get ahead of him.
Just assure his judgment will come to those who are not following God.
Safety, peace, comes to those who are following God.
Just that certain.
Don't want to get too ahead.
no, it's all good.
It's all intermingles.
It's all good.
there's these, excuse me, there's these other places now that are mentioned that we're
kind of introduced to.
Verse four, Gaza shall be forsaken, Ashkelon a desolation.
They shall drive out uh Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.
You've got uh the Canaanites in verse number five.
You're dropping down at verse number eight.
You've got Moab and Ammon ah in verse number nine.
He says,
Therefore as I live says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall be as Sodom
and the children of Adam and as Gomorrah's this is calling back Every time God's judgment
is poured out and meted out upon me and there has to be this remembrance You know if we
forget the past we're doing the repeated and here God is reminding these nations these
groups of people Don't you remember that this you'll be just like these other groups of
people
and you think of Sodom and Gomorrah and their wickedness that came up before God, such
that God says, I gotta go down and see what's happening in this land.
And then he's like, I'm gonna just destroy it completely, these towns.
so he says, excuse me, he says that these lands of Moab and Ammon, they'll be just like
Sodom and Gomorrah.
And no matter what you think about a city, even today, people even who are, ah
secular in their system of belief and their living, they're familiar with Sodom and
Gomorrah, even if you use it in a proverbial sense, not literal.
If you were to say, man, this was like Sodom and Gomorrah, you know what that means.
There are times that God will say, you'll be like a proverb, and so to use your name in
this proverbial sense to say, these are gonna be just like that.
Imagine being that one.
if he says, I'm gonna.
Somebody says, I'm gonna treat you like I treated so-and-so.
You know, hey man, that's not gonna be good.
If your name is the byword, using that from King James, that over the proverb, you'll be
the remembrance of what destruction looks like.
Yeah, it's pretty serious, man.
There's just certain things that you just don't wanna have associated with you.
uh Certain destruction, when people would say, if somebody would say it's gonna be like
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we know what that means.
We would have a remembrance of it and we wouldn't want to necessarily be associated with
that.
He says, dropping down a little bit, looking at verse 12, says, Ethiopians also, ye shall
be slain by my sword.
And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make
Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness.
And this is kind of introducing something that we talked about earlier in an earlier
episode.
ah that Nineveh and Assyria, they're going to have their, you know, just desert, so to
speak.
They will have their judgment.
ah So God is not forgetting any nation.
And I don't know if that would bring Israel at this point, you know, any kind of a, like a
break, you know, saying, okay, at least he's mentioning some other nations, you know.
ah But there's none that will be kind of left out.
He says in verse 14, all the flocks will lie down in the midst of her and all the beasts
of the nations, both the cormorant and the bitturne shall lodge in the upper lentils of
it, the voice shall sing and the windows desolation shall be, and the thresholds and their
shell, for he shall uncover the city work.
This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly.
They 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?
Everyone that passes her a shell hiss and wag his hand." Think about, like your place
would just be a pasture land.
It'll just be a place where you guys thought things were great.
As we kind of mentioned the church previously, sometimes we do have this kind of idea of
entitled
protection maybe, hey I go to church.
I wear a suit coat on Sunday morning so I'm good.
I'm a Christian so I'm good.
we should feel the greatest sense of ought of any person that we should feel that to God.
he says these people, I like verse first, I don't know if the ESV reads it differently
where he says, this is a rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly.
Does it read any how to say
is the exultant city that lived securely and said in their heart, am and there is no one
else.
New King James has similar to that.
This is a rejoicing city that dwelt securely, that said in her heart, I am it, and there
is none besides me.
ah Talk about that uh false sense of security.
Then chapter three begins, he says, woe to her that is filthy and polluted to that
oppressing city.
ah Thinking about this terminology, there are certain times that God will use language to
describe people that is just like letting you know that you're repulsive.
um
I think about when Jesus is looking at these churches of Asia Minor in the book of
Revelation, he says, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth.
And just how repulsive something has to be for you to spit it out.
And that's thing here, like God in chapter three, verse one is talking about Jerusalem.
You know, and it's like, and there's almost that extra revolting factor because you should
know better of all people of all the cities in the world.
This is the city that's supposed to be serving God and an example of righteousness.
And they're not.
And that's, he, well he can tell, just read it, says, she obeyed not the voice, she
received not correction, she trusted not the Lord, she drew not near to her God, her
princes within her roaring lions, her judges, her evening wolves, they gnawed the bones of
the morning, her prophets are light and treacherous persons, her priests have polluted the
sanctuary, they have done violence to the law, here is every category of person who should
have been doing the right thing.
The priests.
the prophets, the leaders, all of them are corrupt and doing wrong.
So then if the leadership is doing wrong, where's the rest of the people gonna be?
The prophets are wrong, the priests are wrong.
And then I love that kind of in contrast, verse five begins with the just Lord is in the
midst thereof.
He's just in contrast to the way that these individuals are living.
He will not do iniquity.
Every morning,
Does he bring his judgment to light?
He fails not, but the unjust knows no shame.
And these verses, you see that the people here are just completely, as he says in verse
number one, filthy and polluted.
So you you think about filthy.
You know, when I was a little kid, we'd go out and play all day, and I'd come in the
house, my mom would look at our clothes and say, Steven, you are filthy.
grass stains on my knees from playing ball in the yard, dust all over my shirt, my hands
are dirty.
And it's just everywhere, top to bottom, there's just filth.
And this is not the physical filth, this is spiritual filth.
And not only is it filthy, but it's polluted.
This is the outside and the inside.
And the filth is obvious to God.
Right.
Just like your mama, she knows you're dirty.
yeah.
And God knows that we're filthy.
I think there's even more of a contrast there because in a accommodative way, God is there
in the presence of Jerusalem.
so the filth of Jerusalem just is even that more apparent, right?
If everything's dirty, it's hard to tell what's dirty and what's clean.
When you have perfect holy God surrounded by filth, you're like, wow, it looks even worse
now.
That's how bad it got.
It's like those commercials, they show you the cleaning product, the clean shirt next to
the dirty shirt, you know?
And they really, really want you to see just how bad it is.
The holy God in the midst of this land really demonstrates how bad it is.
But as we have noted with all of the, or most of the, well no, all of the minor prophets,
there is a glimmer of hope that begins for us.
There is joy and restoration.
There is this faithful remnant, and it begins around
verse number twelve where in chapter three says, will also leave in the midst of thee an
afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.
So there will be a group of people as we've talked about before and was prominent in the
book of Habakkuk, those that trust in, put their faith in God.
So there's going to be a remnant of people even though this destruction is going to come,
this judgment is going to come, there will be some people that trust in the of the Lord.
The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies neither
shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, or they shall feed and lie down, and
none shall make them afraid.
Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O
daughter of Jerusalem." So there's this, instead of crying, moaning, weeping, gnashing
teeth and all those things, you have this singing, you have this rejoicing.
There's gonna be a remnant of people who trust in God.
Why is all this gonna be happening?
Verse 15, the Lord has taken away thy judgments.
He has cast out thine enemy, the king of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee.
Thou shall not see evil anymore.
And I love that, Forrest, just maybe you were kind of alluding to this a minute ago when
you talking about the uncleanness of Jerusalem.
You almost can see right in the middle, there's the pure, clean, holy God.
But notice how he calls himself the king of Israel, even the Lord.
So he is the true ruler.
He is the true example, he is the true leader.
And so, I just like how that's kind of worded.
And he is right as he says, verse 15, right in the midst, in the middle of them.
Verse 16, says, that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, or fear thou not, excuse
me, and to Zion, let not thine hands be slack.
The Lord God,
in the midst of thee is mighty.
He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy
over thee with singing.
Verse 17 is probably one of my favorite verses in this book because he says in verse
number 14 that they will be doing the singing or the rejoicing rather, they will be glad
in heart.
Yeah, verse 14 begins, they'll be doing the singing.
But then,
looking at their turn, looking at their faithfulness, looking that there'll be no more sin
and evil in the people, verse 15, God is going to sing and rejoice over his people.
And what does that look like?
to imagine, like we sing praises to God, but God will sing over his people.
What kind of a song is that?
oh To me, just kinda gives me shudder just to think,
man, God looking at his people in such a way that are doing what he wants them to do, he's
so pleased that there is this sense that he is joying over his people with song.
He is expressing that in song.
I guess, you know, singing is probably one of the great ways that men and women have to
express the heights or the depths of emotion and feeling.
And God is gonna do that for his people.
Yeah, I think part of this is like a victory song.
Like God is showing that he has been victorious over our enemies.
He's seeing this song over us and we're calm, right?
I'll quiet you with my love is what the ESV says.
So this idea of knowing that God has won the victory for us, that he loves us, that he's
in the midst of us, you know, we can be non-anxious and we can rest in him and have that
peace.
Kinda reminds you of like how uh a mama would soothe her child, know, everything's gonna
be okay.
She's gonna cradle the baby and sing over it, you know, because she has made things okay
in the same way God has made everything okay.
Yeah, and it looks like just the opposite of the first part of the chapter, woe to her who
is rebellious and polluted, then you have this calming and the rejoicing, which I think
illustrates the great love of God.
His grace, His love, not willing again that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.
He loves us, He wants what's best for us, and He's done everything on His hand to make
that happen.
But we rebel and we go against Him, and so it's a great rejoicing, and this perhaps a good
illustration of
great rejoicing in heaven over one center that repents over ninety nine just persons who
need no repentance
There are so many that get this false conception of God that in the Old Testament God was
mean and just and just doling out punishment and he's just kind like the grumpy old man.
But in the New Testament, oh, he's so much different.
No, it's the exact same God, has exact same attributes and demonstrates it in the same way
through great love, long suffering, patience, mercy, kindness, renewal, all those sorts of
things.
He says in verse 18, I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who
are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee.
I will save her that halts and gather her that was driven out, and I will get them praise
and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
At that time, when I bring you again, even in that time,
that I gather you for I will make you a name and a praise among all people in the earth
when I turn back your captivity before your eyes says the Lord." And there's this utter
reversal of all of this judgment and all of this shame and all of this hurt and all of the
punishment and everything is like again calling back to like the prodigal son.
You you imagine this kid who is filthy, who stinks, who is in shame.
who's embarrassed, who's impoverished, who's starving.
And now this kid comes home, the dad runs out to meet him, the dad dresses him, the dad
restores him, the dad feeds him, the dad celebrates him, and it has nothing to do with the
merit of the son, but it's all the great love of the father.
And here are these people who just decide to return to God.
And God says, I'm not just going to let you be a servant.
You know, the young man in that account in Luke 15, this is dad, let me just return as a
higher servant.
Cause I know even the servants have read enough in the spare.
He's like servant.
And I love that the father doesn't even address the kid's argument.
He doesn't say, well son, I'll tell you what we'll do.
You know, we'll give you 90 days to serve.
Then when you come on back, it's like he just ignores it.
It is ridiculous.
And his thing is, why would I do that?
You are who you were when you left.
You are my son.
and now you're just back where you belong and I'm gonna give you everything that I have.
Which is just so amazing that God, even in this text, that there's his judgment and he
says over in chapter three as it begins, you're filthy, polluted, you've got this kind of
disgusting view of them and their sin and that is how we or any person looks in our sin.
But when we are with God, there is joy, there is restoration, there is peace, there is
wholeness, and then there is rejoicing.
on God's part, not just on Israel's part, which is expected, but that God rejoices when
his people are back at home with him.
So anyway, ah the book of Zephaniah is a favorite and I would encourage every person to go
back.
And it's very short, three short chapters.
um Don't know the exact word count, but it's relatively short.
It can be a great read a few times throughout the week for any person looking to kind of
enrich and enhance their spiritual lives just to remember God's great love.
God is just, absolutely.
God is holy, absolutely.
ah He will pour out his vengeance on those that are disobedient, but God is loving.
God desires all of us to be saved, and he wants to rejoice with us when we do.
and as we see throughout this is was the other profits god is always extending that hand
for us to repent because he wants to save us he wants to for us to be with him forever
alright we appreciate that lesson on zephaniah and join us next time we'll get into the
post-exilic profits with hangar zack ariana and malachi but we'd like to hear your
feedback we appreciate though you listening season five
and this episode we just concluded number ten we look forward to being with you next time
as we continue majoring in the minors