The Lord is “upset” at the children of Israel (Judah) because they have again imported a strange and foreign custom into their worship practices. Our Text verse for today is Zephaniah 1:9. “In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.” The Lord said these words.

The heathen nations surrounding Judah believed that “bad luck” or “the curse of the gods and goddesses” would fall upon anyone stepping on the “threshold” (the doorway, doorstep, entrance into a room or building, especially here a holy building, a temple). They picked this up from the Philistines, as well as others. In 1st Samuel 5:5 an example is given. “Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.”

It sounds silly to us, indeed.

But was deadly serious to them, the ancients.

BUT TO TAKE SUCH WICKED BELIEFS AND PRACTICE THEM … AT THE VERY HOUSE OF GOD … WAS AN ABOMINATION TO OUR LORD!

The verb “leap” means “to leap over” apparently.

Also one study source said that the wicked back in those days believed that “demons” lived on the doorsteps of their temples. So you stay away (do not step on, thus leap over) such places as you go to worship your god!

And the people of Judah (some of them anyway) “fell” for this stupidity!

So … God will “punish” them. “In the same day also will I (the Lord) punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.”

The noun “violence” is spelled “hamas” in Hebrew! HAMAS! Violence against God, apparently! The only True Master!

And “deceit” is twice translated in the King James Version “falsehood.”

Treating God’s Temple as if it were a mere idolatrous house of worship!

Let me say this in closing. Today in many Churches such “strange” practices have overtaken old-fashioned worship of Almighty God. Or at least have been “mixed” with the remnants of what used to be genuine worship.

Syncretism, it’s called. It’s precise definition: “the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.”

Paul, in 2nd Corinthians 6:17-18, wrote: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Wow!

In our last lesson the Jews were (sinfully) wearing strange apparel.

This lesson they’re worshipping according to strange customs, superstitions!

Again, Paul: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” 2nd Corinthians 6:14

Let us take not.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

So far the Book of Zephaniah has been a “mirror” on the sins of Judah around the year 600 BC, a veritable cultural expose! Today we learn of another act that has “upset” Almighty God.

“Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.” Zephaniah 1:7-8

The command “hold thy peace” merely means “be quiet!” God is about to judge the land! In Hebrew “hasah” means “SILENCE!” No more “back-talk,” no more “sassing!”

Zephaniah even seems to employ a “word picture” here, a “metaphor.” God has prepared a meal, a sacrificial meal where the slain (animals, normally) are being eaten. In a ritual type observance. But, surprisingly, almost shockingly, the rebellious people of Judah here seem to be the “main dish!” The “guests” seem to be a soon approaching army, the Babylonians likely!

This is dramatic!

The verb “punish” is spelled “paqad,” meaning “to number, to visit (chastening), to commit,” and 3 times in Scripture, “to empty!” Payday has come!

And those especially labeled for “punishment” here are the “top echelon” of society! Those (wealthy and spoiled grown-up “kids”) who normally “buy” their way out of any trouble!

The “princes” (in Hebrew “sar,” the “rulers”) and the “king’s children,” future members of the royal administration … these will face God’s wrath.

The wealthy especially.

I say that because of the specific sin mentioned, their transgression again the Lord.

They “are clothed with strange apparel.”

But what does that mean?

They have begun to dress like the “heathen” around them! The adjective “strange” means “foreign.” And “apparel” means that which “clothes” a man or woman, is “wrapped around” them. Its the root verb is “labash,” first used in Genesis 3:21 where God “clothed” a naked Adam and Eve with “coats of skins.” It is used once in the Book of Judges too, where the good Holy Spirit  “wears” Gideon! “But the Spirit of the Lord CAME UPON Gideon ….” Judges 6:34, translating “labash.”

Wow!

These people, the elite of Judah, instead of wearing GOD … chose to wear THE WORLD! Expensive, gaudy, but “chic,” politically correct! Popular, fashionable, very contemporary!

But obviously displeasing to the Lord!

Yes, in instances God did tell the Jews how to dress. And how not to dress. Including a little “blue border” around their robes. “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders A RIBBON OF BLUE: and it shall be unto you for A FRINGE, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring. That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” Numbers 15:38-40, one’s very clothing being a reminder of one’s God, of obeying His Word!

Sound like a “little thing” to you?

But it was important to God, a point upon which He would judge His people.

Amazing!

His (the Lord’s) thoughts are higher than our thoughts, for sure. (Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.)

More Zephaniah Monday morning, the Lord willing.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Any Prophet is going to denounce sin.

Just as God instructed Isaiah: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and SHOW MY PEOPLE THEIR TRANSGRESSION, and THE HOUSE OF JACOB THEIR SINS.” Isaiah 58:1

The godly Zephaniah is no exception. But in today’s Paragraph God is really the One speaking! Zephaniah just relays the Message! A litany (list) of wrongdoings!

The whole Text, 3 pungent verses: “I (the Lord) will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; and them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.” Zephaniah 1:4-6

Wow!

God KNOWS their acts of rebellion and compromise!

Psalm 139:2, David acknowledging this very fact. “Thou (Lord) knowest my DOWNSITTING and mine uprising ….” And Psalm 69:5 too. “O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and MY SINS ARE NOT HID FROM THEE.”

The Jews of Zephaniah’s day (even under the reign of godly King Josiah) had become egregiously idolatrous!

Look at this list of errors, sins.

1. Baal worship! “I (the Lord) will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place ….” A heathen god, baal, whose very name means “lord, boss,” even “husband!”
2. Tolerating the “Chemarims!” Again: “I (the Lord) will cut off … the Chemarims.” These seem to be … false priests who promote idol worship. The name means “black,” perhaps a hint of the color robes they wore in their sinful rituals. Another (deeper) root meaning is “hot,” as in “fervent.” They are “on fire” for their false gods!
3. Worship of stars and planets! “I (the Lord) will cut off … them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops.” Star-gazing for astrological purposes, forbidden throughout God’s Law. (Part of Deuteronomy 4:19. “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them ….” Wow!)
4. Then is a practice mentioned that’s today called “syncretism.” Essentially it’s a “mixing” of religions, some of this one and a little from that one, with some of a third one included too! And so on. Watch … they are worshipping both the LORD and Malcham now. God is still going to “cut them off!” Zephaniah 1:5, yet part of our Text today. “And them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham ….” Malcham is the same god as “Molech,” a chief deity of the nearby wicked Ammonites.
5. Then is listed general “lukewarmness” concerning the real God of heaven, Jehovah Himself. “They are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.” Once “turned back” is translated “backslider” in the King James Bible. “Sought” occasionally has the idea of “begging!” God likes it when we NEED Him that much, literally craving Him!

What a list of iniquities!

And yet, as a Nation, we in America are now guilty of them all. Probably even more so than Israel (Judah) of old.

As David once lamented, “Oh, how the mighty are fallen!”

God, help us.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

I think I must “speed up” in our journey through the Book of Zephaniah! If not, we’re going to be here two months! Not that such would be “wrong.” It’s just that I usually try to cover a different Text each month or so.  Most often, in a verse by verse manner.

But this Old Testament Prophecy begins so “fiercely!” God is angry, and rightly so! Judgment is coming. Jeremiah 1:3, today’s verse, clearly illustrates that fact: “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.”

Sounds widespread, doesn’t it?

Even worldwide!

Two more times here “suf,” a Hebrew verb (first used in yesterday’s lesson, verse 2) meaning “to bring to an end, to cause to perish,” appears. In fact, it’s the first word in the Hebrew sentence, verse. That fact alone gives it priority of emphasis. Our King James Bible translates “sup” as “consume.”

The third verb is parallel to the verse’s two “consumes” (“suf”), that being “cut off.” This is “karath” in Hebrew, “to destroy, to hew, to cause to fail.” Blatantly dramatic!

One Preacher thinks this verse sounds like a “reversal” of Creation week! Just as Genesis 1 and 2 depict God making the fishes and birds and beasts (animals) and then man. Here God takes them all away, in the aforenamed categories too!

The only question that remains is what are “the stumblingblocks of the wicked?” One Biblical thinker believes the phrase means something like “anything that causes others to sin.” The “traps” the wicked lay for good people. Another teaches believes it refers to “idols,” which were so prominent in Judah in those dark days. In our Bibles “makshelah” means “ruin” once as well. Yes, the ungodly do eventually “ruin” a nation, “perpetrating” further sin upon its often unsuspecting people.

This is one of the most sweeping statements of total judgment in the Prophets. Especially when considered as being preached in the days of (good) King Josiah!

But tomorrow’s verse will add even more “light” to our discussion.

I’m enjoying learning about this small Bible Book. Each Prophet of Scripture certainly has his own personality. Zephaniah being no exception.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

In our last Lesson (yesterday) I mentioned but failed to emphasize the fact that our Prophet Zephaniah ministered “in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.” Zephaniah 1:1, an important fact. King Josiah, a good man, reigned 31 years. So, the totality of Zephaniah’s Work for the Lord occurred during that block of time, as far as his personally serving God. (In contrast the Prophet Isaiah preached under the reigns of 4 different Kings, a much longer span of time. “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AHAZ, AND HEZEKIAH, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken ….” Isaiah 1:1-2, with the Kings’ names being capitalized. This is chronologically earlier than Josiah.)

Also I need to add this interesting fact. Since Zephaniah labored during the time of King Josiah, he likely would have been a contemporary (at least part of that time) of Jeremiah the much better know Prophet as well. “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of JOSIAH the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” Jeremiah 1:1-2, with Jeremiah then preaching all the way to Judah’s last King, Zedekiah. I mean last simply because of the intervening Babylonian Captivity. (Remember, King Jesus will some day rule on that Throne, too!)

Did Zephaniah and Jeremiah know one another?

That’s a piece of information on which the Bible is silent.

Maybe they did.

Now let’s look at Zephaniah 1:2. “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.” Quite blunt, isn’t it?

Yet this verse sets the “tone” for much of this little 53 Verse Prophecy!

It is a Book of Judgment!

Yet, as most Scripture, it has periods of “Grace” sprinkled into its content. And it ends with one of the Greatest Messages of Hope and Love in all the Bible!

The verb “utterly consume” involves two Hebrew words, “asaph suf.” The first term is similar (and related) to the Old Testament name “Joseph,” which means “adding.” And “suf” means “to cease, to come to an end!” This is an on-going action on God’s part, too. This is a judgment which is progressive. And which (it seems) incrementally grows as time passes!

The noun “land” is unusual. It is spelled “paniym,” the “face” of anything. Probably meaning the geographical area before the faces of the (then backslidden) Jews.

The judgment being mentioned (promised) specifically concerns the impending attack of Babylon on the Land of Judah. That happened in 606 BC and again in 597 BC and finally (total destruction) again in 586 BC. God kept His Word! Because Judah did not repent!

But this paragraph with which Zephaniah begins goes far beyond the Babylonian episode, I believe. It has “Tribulation” implications, for sure!

A lot of Bible Prophecy has a two-fold fulfillment. One more local and immediate … the other more far-ranging and ultimate, its realization more remote. Wow, a principle of hermeneutics right here in the opening section of Zephaniah!

And, as usual, more tomorrow …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell