Zephaniah Week 2
We are working our way through Zephaniah, a shorter book. And just like Micah had 3 cycles of Judgment and salvation, Zephaniah has two cycles - Judgment and Hope. We’re on the second one today and will conclude the book.
2:4-7
This section deals with the Philistines and will require our favorite segment: MAPS! You’ll notice there’s 4 cities mentioned and they go from South to North. Let’s circle the name Philistines in vs 5
They lived along the coast here so you see why the word “seacoast” pops up three times in our text
The Philistines are one of the famous enemies of the Israelites. David battles them. Samson battles them. They just keep coming back.
The Philistines as a people group aren’t native to Canaan. They immigrated. Scholars believe they came across the sea from the island of Crete sometime around perhaps 1200 BC and they conquered this area, stealing it from Egyptians or others settled here.
Their earliest run in with Israel is with Samson. He actually marries a Philistine wife, but then her father gives her to another man later enraging Samson and he kills a bunch of Philistines. Later, you remember Delilah? She was potentially a Philistine as well. But Samson battles them a lot.
Later during the life of Samuel, the Philistines attack Israel and steal the ark of the covenant. The ark gets passed around these towns before being returned. Shortly after the Philistines attack again and God saves Israel - so Samuel sets up a stone called an Ebenezer - famous for its involvement in the song Come Thou Fount.
David famously defeated Goliath who was a Philistine from Gath. When David becomes king he is able to subdue the Philistines and they are no longer a threat to Israel.
Eventually over time they lose all influence, they assimilate into surrounding cultures and just disappear. So we see this prophecy come true as there are no inhabitants left.
Significant in this section is verse 7. Why is God removing these people? It says that the Lord is mindful of them and is restoring their fortunes. Whose fortunes? The remnant of the house of Judah. Put a box around “the remnant of the house of Judah” and another box around “For the Lord… their fortunes”
Judah and Israel have gone through rough times and the promises that God made to them do not seem like they’re coming to pass. But God says, I will restore them. Let me read to you Exodus 23:31 “And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates”. When God begins to take them to the promised land, he tells them this is how much land they will receive as part of his blessing. Now he is restoring that blessing by expanding the land back to these borders. Write. Ex. 23:31 - next to this verse.
Put a line between verse 7 and 8. We’re going to see how he hits all 4 points of the compass to restore the fortunes of Israel. This point is the WEST. Write WEST next to vs 4-7.
2:8-11
Go ahead and put a line between verse 11 and 12. This section is going to be the EAST point on our compass, so next to 8-11 you can write EAST.
You’ll see the two locations being addressed in verse 8 - Moab and the Ammonites. You can circle both of those.
The reference to Sodom and Gomorrah here is meaningful to these nations. Sodom and Gomorrah were famously destroyed by God raining fire and brimstone from heaven. First, you’ll see that those two cities are here in the same region as Ammon and Moab. But also do you remember who was living in Sodom when God destroyed it? Abraham’s nephew Lot! Lot is the father of these two nations. Through rather scandalous relations, Lot has a son named Moab and a son named Ben-Ammi who becomes the Ammonites. So this isn’t a random reference, it’s connected to them very specifically.
Why are these two nations being destroyed? Look at the second half of verse 9. Because the remnant of my people shall plunder them. And the survivors of my nation shall possess them. Put a box around those two lines.
But then God gives us a second reason that he’s destroying these nations. Not only is he restoring the blessings for his people. But look at verse 11. He’s conquering all the other gods so that all the nations of the world will bow to him. The word famish could mean starve to death. He’s going to starve the other gods of all their worshippers so that they die off. Put a box around 11 also.
We talked about last week how God was going to sweep away everything on the earth so that he could be rid of all the sins that hide even in the deepest recesses of men’s hearts. We compared it to mold that sticks around even when you wash the surface. Now we see God sweeping away anyone who worship a false god so that he can rid Israel of these false gods that have plagued them for so long.
2:12
This place only gets one verse. Put a line under verse 12. They represent the land to the south so write SOUTH next to verse 12.
Cushites are from the land of CUSH. Circle Cushites. Which is the area of east Africa that we would call Ethiopia. Although perhaps at the time it was a bit closer to Egypt and was surrounding the upper Nile just south of Egypt. So this is way down below our map on the other side of the Red Sea.
Within a couple hundred years the Persian would defeat Egypt and Cush and might be what this prophecy is signaling
2:13-15
Put a line under verse 15. This section concludes our circuit around the compass. You can write NORTH next to vs 13-15.
Here the nation addressed is our good friend Assyria with its capital city of Nineveh. You can circle Assyria. Now you’re probably thinking, “We sure keep threatening Assyria. Will God ever deliver on this promise?” It’s true. Jonah went to Nineveh, but they weren’t destroyed. Micah mentions Assyria being destroyed. The entire book of Nahum we learned is devoted to their destruction. Even Isaiah which we haven’t studied mentions Assyria’s destruction, now we have it mentioned here again in Zephaniah. When will this finally come to pass? I promise you it’s coming. In our next book Habakkuk, we’ll see the end of Assyria take place.
But notice something in verse 15. He tells us that Nineveh lives securely and says in her heart “I am and there is no one else”. Underline that phrase. This isn’t the first time we’ve had someone speak to themselves in their heart in this book. If you remember chapter 1:12, we read, “Those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill’”.
This phrase “who say in their hearts…” pops up in different places throughout the Bible, but it always exposes someone’s secret beliefs. They might act or speak one way outwardly, but what they say in their hearts is what they truly feel. We’ve seen these two examples in Zephaniah. Another familiar example is Psalm 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’”. He may act one way on the outside, but inside he doesn’t believe God exists. Or this one is my personal favorite. After giving the people the law in Deuteronomy and the people all agree to keep it and they make a covenant with God, Moses warns in Deuteronomy 29:19, “Beware lest there be any among you who when he hears the words of this sworn covenant in his heart says, “I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.” They hear the words of the Lord and they have outwardly agreed, but secretly they believe it doesn’t matter if they keep God’s laws or not.
So we see here in 2:15, that the Assyrians attitude is that no one can topple them. They are stronger than all. There is no one else. God always sees the heart. God always responds to humble people’s hearts.
He’s going to talk about one more city here in this section, but he doesn’t explicitly name it. We’ll have to look at some clues to see who it is.
3:1-7
Put a line right under verse 7 there.
What city is this? Well let’s look at the clues. In verse 2, the LORD is referred to as her God. In verse 4, the priests have access to holy things and to the law. In verse 5, the LORD is within her. All the clues seem to point to God speaking against Jerusalem here.
This makes sense because we’ve seen this move in the minor prophets before. The last time I pulled out a map was in Amos, because Amos starts by making a big circle around Israel saying, I’m going to judge all the other nations, but then the bullseye of the circle is Israel itself.
What is it that Jerusalem is guilty of? Let’s underline a bunch of things. Verse 1. Rebellious. Defiled. Verse 2. Listens to no voice. Accepts no correction. Does not trust. Does not draw near.
How deep is the problem? Let’s circle some things. Vs 3 officials. Judges. Vs. 4 Prophets. Priests.
We’ve seen this before in Jerusalem in other passages so I won’t dwell on it, but look at vs 5. The Lord hasn’t changed. Every morning he shows forth justice. Each dawn he does not fail.
Illustrate - sometimes you hear about a couple who are no longer in love and the wife might describe the husband as having changed. He used to be so sweet and considerate, but now he’s lazy and mean. He doesn’t treat me the same. Well that argument cannot be used against God. He has been consistent all along. It is the people who have changed and wandered far from him.
Vs 6-7, God says, I thought that if I destroyed those around them, they would get the picture and they’d come back to me, but they didn't, they sinned all the more.
The section on judgment concludes with verse 8 as a summary of the judgment
3:8
We’re going to notice some things here that will return later in this chapter. It starts off telling us to wait “for the day”. Whenever we see this in the minor prophets, what’s it referencing? The Day of the Lord. It’s the day that God arrives and he does two things - he judges and he saves. Put a box around “for the day”
What is he going to do on this day? He’s going to gather nations and assemble kingdoms. Circle the words gather and assemble.
And who is going to be involved? This isn’t local; this will involve “All the earth” so underline that phrase at the end of vs 8.
Here we have every nation on the earth gathered together by God on the Day of the Lord. And what will happen to them? They will receive his burning anger. We’ll come back to this in a bit.
3:9-13
We see a phrase we’ll definitely put a box around - Vs 9 - “for at that time” That’s a day of the Lord reference. And again vs 11 “On that day”. Put boxes around those two. We’re still talking about the Day of the Lord, but this is the part where God doesn’t do the judging, but rather does the saving
In verse 9-10, you see that God is bringing back people who were scattered abroad. But interestingly it says he will change their speech to a pure speech so they may all call upon the Lord. There’s a good chance this is the undoing of the tower of Babel. Do you remember the tower of Babel, they all tried to build an enormous tower to make a name for themselves? God confuses their speech and scatters them all over the earth. Now their speech is purified and they are returned from being scattered.
Vs 13 - It speaks about “those who are left” the literal translation of that word is the “remnant”. There’s always a remnant! Every time God judges his people, he always sets aside a remnant, those who will be mercifully forgiven. He doesn’t have to do this, but he’s gracious and always does
Vs. 14-17
First there’s another Day of the Lord reference, and we always put a box around the Day of the Lord. It’s in verse 16 “on that day” Box it!
Notice what God’s people are doing in verse 14. They sing. They rejoice. They exult. Underline those three words.God has saved him and they are delighted in him. As you might imagine someone jumping up and down because the king has just defeated the enemy and they are free from their troubles. This makes sense.
But look at verse 17. The Lord himself is right there in the middle of the celebration and what is he doing. We see all three words again just in a different order. He rejoices. He exults. He sings. Underline those three and then put an arrow from verse 17 up to verse 14.
Why is God singing and exulting? It says he is singing over you. You give God incredible delight. This is the only passage in the whole Bible that speaks of God singing. And he sings over you. It’s like the day of the wedding, when the bride is coming down the aisle. She’s so happy to be marrying this man, and the feeling is reciprocated. When the groom sees her, tears fill his eyes and a smile fills his face, because the day he has waited for is finally here. God eagerly awaits that day to be with his people, just like a groom. And just like the married couple sings and dances together long into the night celebrating their marriage, God sings and dances with his people when they are finally united.
Listen to this passage from Isaiah 62:3-5 - “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. . . . You shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:3–5)”
If you think you’re “barely scraping your way into heaven” and that God merely tolerates you because he has to, you’re not thinking biblically. God saves you, delights in you and sings over you.
Vs 18-20
The Day of the Lord has two parts right? God judges and God saves. In verse 8, we saw God gathering the nations to judge. Now we see him gathering the nations to save. Look at the word gather showing up three times. Circle it in vs 18, vs 19, and vs 20.
Where is he gathering these people from? Look at the end of 19 - “all the earth” underline that. And again in verse 20 “all the peoples of the earth” underline that too.
Now draw a line from verse 19 pointing back to verse 8. In verse 8, God gathers up all the earth for judgment. But here he is gathering people up for salvation. He is gathering them to free them from shame and to praise with them.
The Bible has a consistent picture of the last days. All the earth will be gathered before the Lord. Those who love their sin and continue in rebellion are separated on one side. They remain under God’s wrath and are cast from God’s presence forever into hell. Those who Christ has shown mercy to, who have repented and been forgiven are separated on the other side. And they enter into the eternal joy of God.
The book concludes by saying “I will restore your fortunes”. We saw this phrase earlier in the book when he was talking about restoring the boundaries of Israel. But I think this has a more exhaustive nuance to it. He’s going to restore our fortunes like the days of Eden and even more so. We will be with God in his blessed presence forever and we will rejoice with him and he will rejoice over us.