Tag: zephaniah

  • Because the days are evil – Prepared for Judgment

    Because the days are evil – Prepared for Judgment

    Stand in silence in the presence of the Sovereign LORD,
    for the awesome day of the LORD’s judgment is near.
    The LORD has prepared his people for a great slaughter
    and has chosen their executioners.

    Zephaniah 1:7 NLT

    Not so Prepared

    Where is my hope now? What will happen to the one who has not anticipated the inevitable and prepared for the day of judgment?

    We claimed the Lord; then life proceeded with so many unexpected turns in our narrow path of faith. I was prepared for life, yet never expected death.

    “I will sweep away everything
    from the face of the earth,” says the LORD.

    “I will sweep away people and animals alike.
    I will sweep away the birds of the sky and the fish in the sea.
    I will reduce the wicked to heaps of rubble,
    and I will wipe humanity from the face of the earth,” says the LORD.

    Zephaniah 1:3 NLT

    “I will consume man and beast… And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked… says the LORD.” Why did I not believe the word of the Lord? Were my eyes blinded to the scripture before us?

    הַרְנִ֤ינוּ גֹויִם֙ עַמֹּ֔ו כִּ֥י דַם־עֲבָדָ֖יו יִקֹּ֑ום וְנָקָם֙ יָשִׁ֣יב לְצָרָ֔יו וְכִפֶּ֥ר אַדְמָתֹ֖ו עַמֹּֽו׃ פ

    “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people;
    For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
    And render vengeance to His adversaries;
    He will provide atonement for His land and His people.”

    Deuteronomy 32:43 WLC;NKJV

    Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

    Romans 12:19, quoting Deuteronomy 32:25

    But we knew this.

    Why then were we not prepared?

    Zephaniah

    12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps
    and punish those who are complacent,
    who are like wine left on its dregs,
    who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing,
    either good or bad.’

    Of course, the Lord executed judgment against Judah. For his chosen ones, a nation set aside as holy before the gentiles, fell back into their sin of idolatry – the worship of gods who are not the LORD!

    14 The great day of the Lord is near—
    near and coming quickly.
    The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter;
    the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry.
    15 That day will be a day of wrath—
    a day of distress and anguish,
    a day of trouble and ruin,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and blackness—
    16 a day of trumpet and battle cry
    against the fortified cities
    and against the corner towers.

    17 “I will bring such distress on all people
    that they will grope about like those who are blind,
    because they have sinned against the Lord.
    Their blood will be poured out like dust
    and their entrails like dung.

    camp fire in CA homes burning

    In the fire of his jealousy
    the whole earth will be consumed,
    for he will make a sudden end
    of all who live on the earth.

    Zephaniah 1:18b NIV

    That was then — in another land at another time. This is now, here. Yet we flee the inevitable!

    Has the Lord not reserved His righteous Judgement on the earth and its idolaters for a Day to come? Will the trumpet not sound?

    Ignoring the deep darkness

    I knew a brother who sat on a bench in the graveyard, speaking to his departed loved one measureless hours as if this lost soul had never departed. In charred remains of a building nearby roamed restless souls tormenting the faithful, tempting the saints.

    I feel your presence, he laments. Why have you not departed this scorched earth for the waterless places where souls are not quenched?

    You, blinded flesh who must see the unseen in the darkness of sin – you do not believe. Yet unseen powers would lure you and me into the pit of destruction. For the dreams of the prophets you have never believed.

    Psalm 82

    Deliver the poor and needy;
    Free them from the hand of the wicked.

    They do not know, nor do they understand;
    They walk about in darkness;
    All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

    I said, “You are gods,
    And all of you are children of the Most High.

    But you shall die like men,
    And fall like one of the princes.”

    קוּמָ֣ה אֱ֭לֹהִים שָׁפְטָ֣ה הָאָ֑רֶץ כִּֽי־אַתָּ֥ה תִ֝נְחַ֗ל בְּכָל־הַגֹּויִֽם׃

    Arise, O God, judge the earth;
    For You shall inherit all nations.

    Psalm 82:8 Masoretic Text; NKJV

    Inevitable death, Inevitable Judgment

    Isaiah 14: excerpt

    9 “Hell from beneath is excited about you,
    To meet you at your coming;
    It stirs up the dead for you,
    All the chief ones of the earth;
    It has raised up from their thrones
    All the kings of the nations.

    “How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Lucifer, son of the morning!
    How you are cut down to the ground,
    You who weakened the nations!

    Isaiah 14:12 NKJV

    13 For you have said in your heart:
    ‘I will ascend into heaven,
    I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
    I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
    On the farthest sides of the north;
    14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
    I will be like the Most High.’

    15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
    To the lowest depths of the Pit.

    And I ask you:

    Is this the one over whom you revel, the unseen spirit of darkness you celebrate this night?

    For by his deceit he would pull you easily down to the pit with him.

    By the sweat of your brow you have eaten the bread of a difficult life, but remember you are dust… and to dust you will return.

    The days are evil and sin clings near to the dying flesh. Have you not prepared for this time, rather than reveling in a brief respite from a quickened failing flesh?

    Prepared for Judgment

    Have you put on your armor of light? Do you bow down to the Lord God and Christ Jesus, who IS and will return to judge all mankind?

    The angel of darkness may deceive you into believing any lie, but God IS and in Christ the Lord’s mercy is offered to sinners.

    Perhaps you believe his lie that you will return to dust and then that’s it… nothing more… no accountability before God for what you have done in this brief life in the flesh.

    Would a good God not judge those who have wronged the righteous? Shall evil triumph over good?

    Not at all. For the Lord is good, full of mercy and love for His created ones. Therefore He sent His only Son to the world and out of His great mercy paid the great price of sin on the Cross so that those who love the Lord could be saved. Justice is served by the grace of Christ Jesus, sacrificed for us.

    Hebrews 9:

    He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

    Prepared by faith

    Hebrews 11:

    Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

    3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible…

    6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

    7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

    What is your verdict?

    Knowing that your end will come, knowing that the end of the world as we know it will come; have you, like Noah, prepared for these dark days by faith? Do you seek the Lord Jesus who will return on the clouds as promised by scripture?

    The LORD has prepared a way of escape from your sin, though Jesus Christ. By his holy sacrifice for our sin God the Father has redeemed the chosen and restored our hope in these last days.

    The days are evil – you see it – and ever so brief by comparison to all eternal time beyond the judgment.

    Have you prepared to meet your Maker — to bow before the Throne of Judgment of your eternal soul?

    Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He has prepared a new body for you for a new heaven and earth.

    So also has the Lord prepared a place of punishment for Satan – a horrific place of punishment and torment for fallen angels, fallen men and fallen women who chose evil over good. The verdict is the same for all sinners:

    GUILTY!

    Yet by the grace of Christ Jesus, will you accept God’s love and forgiveness?

    Prepare… for the days are evil and you do not know the hour or the day of your death and then … your judgment.

  • The Beginning of the End – A Burden of the Prophets – 4

    The Beginning of the End – A Burden of the Prophets – 4

    Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

    Remember the predictions of the holy prophets

    Previously: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3
    

    The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

    Think back beyond your years and perhaps you may recall an event  just two generations past in the days of your grandfather. But who can understand the times a hundred generations before us, even the lives of those living when Christ was born.

    Even before Christ the impatience of man questioned the patience of the Lord. Early Prophets like Amos had been long forgotten by the time some promises had been fulfilled by the birth of a Messiah.

    Just as now the unexplored landscape of our new world would have been completely unimaginable to Columbus, men in the days of the first century did not remember Moses or David or the Prophets with any contemporary context of understanding. Yet in each generation before Christ men and women of those days could hardly imagine the promise of the Messiah to come.

    Each century between the Prophets and Christ would have seemed unmeasurable with the century’s beginning unfamiliar to the generations of its completion. Think about each hundred years of history as if today you looked back upon the just ending World War I [November 11, 1918], then multiply our forgetfulness of the promise by 21 centuries since the manger of Bethlehem.

    Promise of a Messiah a long time away

    How far away could you imagine the promise of hope spoken by a Prophet of the LORD in each of these centuries, so many generations ‘Before Christ?’

    A thousand years, ten centuries, uncountable generations from the success of Solomon to the hope of a Savior.

    Challenge: Scroll slowly through the centuries between David and the Son of David, the promised Messiah.
             
           
    * Date estimates by Roger Harned http://talkofJesus.co
          Source: TOW
           
       Period / Century


    Northern Kings – Israel (Samaria)


    Northern Prophets Israel Sararia


    Southern Kings – Judah (Judea)


    Southern Prophets Judah 


    United kingdom under Saul, David, Solomon, c. 1030 – 931


    10th c. B.C.
    Divided kingdom Jeroboam (931-910) Rehoboam (931-913)
    Nadab (910-909) Abijah (913)
    Baasha (909-886) Asa (911-870)
    9th c. B.C.
    Elah (886)
    Zimri (885)
    Omri (885-874)
    Ahab (874-853) Elijah
    Jehoshaphat (873-848)
    Jehoram (852-841) Jehoram (853-841)
    Jehu (841-814) Elisha Queen Athaliah (841-835) Obadiah
    Jehoahaz (814-798) Joash (835-796)
    8th c. B.C.
    Jehoash (798-782) Amaziah (796-767)
    Jeroboam II (793-753) Amos
    Zechariah (753-752) Jonah Isaiah (760-700)
    Shallum (752)
    Menahem 752-742)
    Pekahiah (742-740) Hosea (c. 792-740 B.C.) Uzziah (790-740)  Joel
    Pekah (752-732) Jotham (750-731)
     Israel ruled by other nations Hoshea (732-722) Ahaz (735-715) Nahum
      Hezekiah (715-686) Micah
    7th c. B.C.
    Manasseh (695-642)
    Amon (642-640)
    Josiah (640-609) Jeremiah
    Zephaniah
    Jehoahaz (609) Huldah
    Jehoiakim (609-597) Nahum
    6th c. B.C.
    Habakkuk
    Judah ruled by other nations – Babylonian exile (597 – 538 BC) Jehoiachin (597)
    Zedekiah (597-586) Ezekiel
    Persian Period (539-322 BC) Zerubbabel, governor {538-520 BC) Daniel
    Post-exilic prophets Haggai
    5th c. B.C. Darius I (521-486), king of Persia Zechariah (520-???)
    Nehemiah, governor (445-425) Malachi
    4th c B.C. Artaxerxes II, king of Persia (404-358 BC)
    Hellenistic Period (332-141 BC)
    Alexander the Great Macedonian Greek empire 356 – 323 BC
    Ptolemaic (Egyptian) Seleucid rule in Jerusalem
    Seleucos I (Persian) 321-215
    3rd c. B.C.
    Antiochos III inherited in 223 BCE
    2nd c. B.C.
    1st c. B.C. Herod the Great, Roman appointed king of Judea 37–4 BC

    John the Baptist

    c. 5 BC – AD30

    * Period summary source



    Prophets Predicted Christ

    How long did you consider the generations between the time of David, 3000 years ago and the thousand years until the birth of the Messiah?

    The LORD saved and redeemed a people who in every generation believed that God had forgotten them.

    “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old..

    Luke 1:68-70 ESV

    A short list of Prophecies: Promises of many generations

    Joel 1:

    15 Alas for the day!
    For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

    19 To you, O Lord, I call.
    For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
    and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.

    Joel 2:28  “And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
    your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
    29 Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

    Joel lived about eight centuries before fulfillment of his prophecies.


    Micah 1:

    2 Hear, you peoples, all of you;
    pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
    and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
    the Lord from his holy temple.

    Speaking of ‘Peace’

    Micah 3:
    5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
    who cry “Peace”
    when they have something to eat,
    but declare war against him
    who puts nothing into their mouths.

    Micah 4:

    (Some may recognize this scripture forgotten from the charter of the United Nations at a time Israel was reborn as a nation in 1947.)

    “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
    that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
    For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

    3 He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
    and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
    nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore;

    4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
    and no one shall make them afraid,
    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

    The Place of Birth of the Messiah

    Micah 5:

    But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
    from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
    whose coming forth is from of old,
    from ancient days.
    3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
    when she who is in labor has given birth;
    then the rest of his brothers shall return
    to the people of Israel.
    4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
    And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
    5 And he shall be their peace.

    Micah’s promise of the birth of Christ would not be fulfilled for about 700 years.


    Zephaniah 3:

    16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
    “Fear not, O Zion;
    let not your hands grow weak.
    17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
    a mighty one who will save;
    he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
    he will exult over you with loud singing.

    Zephaniah is the great-great grandson of Judah’s King Hezekiah from the time Micah prophesied. He prophesied during the time of a successful and good King Josiah ( 640 to 609 BC). Zephaniah saw in the day of the Lord the destruction of his country, his neighbors, and eventually the whole earth. Source.


    Malachi 1:

    2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord…

    Should this not be sufficient for worship of the Lord our God?

    Over the centuries and generations Israel repeatedly has turned from the Lord, rejecting God’s love. Yet the Lord is merciful and promises a Messiah, the Savior of the faithful.

    The Messenger of the Lord

    Malachi 2:

    17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

    But you say, “How have we wearied him?”

    By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”


    Are we so different, even in these last days? Has Christ not promised an eternal redemption for our sin? Yet we remain impatient with mortal life.

    Malachi was a late messenger among the Prophets, one after whom a great silence from the Lord would follow until another messenger of the Messiah would appear to announce the onslaught of these last days.


    Malachi 3:

    “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

    The Book of Remembrance

    16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.

    17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

    Malachi likely delivered his message many years after the Israelites rebuilt the temple in 515 BC. The prophet’s concerns mirror those of Nehemiah’s, suggesting that Malachi prophesied to the people while Nehemiah left the city for several years, beginning in 432 BC. Source.


    Generations of silence without prophecy, then the LORD sends a messenger to the wilderness and a Messiah to a manger in Bethlehem.

    Judgment and mercy will be in His right hand. He will be a Savior of the Remnant and Hope to the Nations.

    A messenger will announce the Son of David, the Promised One…

    In the LORD’s time… the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the Nations; predicted by the Prophets, proclaimed by angels, born in a manger, worshiped by shepherds and kings: Jesus, Son of God, Son of man!


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  • In God We Trusted – 5

    In God We Trusted – 5

    The political ‘spin’ has been spun.

    The gradual fall is begun.

    How? lament the People…

    Why? In God we trusted.

    “Lamentations” was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX), and conveys the idea of “loud cries.” The Hebrew exclamation ekah (“How,”which expresses “dismay”), used in 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. However, the rabbis began early to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations” (cf. Jer. 7:29).

    Lamentations 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

    5 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
    2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
    3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.

    Minor-Prophets-Timeline

     Before their cry of How? …while they were yet falling…

    Hosea 14: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
    for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
    2 Take with you words
    and return to the Lord…

    solomons jerusalem

     Micah 6:12 Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
    13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.

    Isaiah 58: “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
    lift up your voice like a trumpet;
    declare to my people their transgression,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
    2 Yet they seek me daily
    and delight to know my ways,
    as if they were a nation that did righteousness
    and did not forsake the judgment of their God

    Zephaniah 3CapLightningNight_sm

    Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    the oppressing city!
    2 She listens to no voice;
    she accepts no correction.
    She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

    margaret-bourke-white-sculpted-frieze-reads-justice-the-guardian-of-liberty-at-entrance-of-the-supreme-court-building

    3 Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
    her judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.

    iou

    Habakkuk 2: “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
    for how long?—
    and loads himself with pledges!”
    7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.

    Obadiah

    The Day of the Lord Is Near

    15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
    As you have done, it shall be done to you;
    your deeds shall return on your own head.

    seige of jerusalem

    Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
    16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!

    19 But you, O Lord, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
    20 Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
    21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old—
    22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

    Remember Israel? Remember Judah? Remember the Nations? Remember Rome?

    Remember Great Britain? Remember America?

    Do the Nations and Empires and Peoples remember God?

    Are we not a falling people in the hands of an angry God (as Jonathan Edwards once warned)?

    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

    Enfield, Connecticut
    July 8, 1741

    Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

    In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. — The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

    [READ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]

    Will it be blessing? Or will we reap curse?

    For once, in God we Trusted.

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