Covenant Restoration (Zephaniah 2:1-15)

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So all right, with that, you can open up to Zephaniah chapter two. Zephaniah Chapter Two as we continue in our series here in Zephaniah. So Zephaniah chapter two, as you turn in there, it was one of those days where it wasn’t just raining, but it was torrential downpour, and it happened so quickly that the water was pooling in places. So on my way home from here and I got to go across salt Creek, which can be dangerous, of course. I went, it was one of those low spots in the road where it was just a lake, and so, you know, I pulled up to it and kind of thought, like I got two options here. It looks like it’s about eight inches deep. I can kind of just go through or it’s a long way around to go the other way. And I thought, all right, no big deal. I’m just going to push my way through. Car was worth less than the puddle at that point, anyway. So whatever, we’re gonna risk it, right? And so I get in, and I’m driving through very slowly, very cautiously, driving through, and it’s deeper than I thought it was, and I could, I could tell. And so I had that moment that we often have in, you know, different life situations, where I’m thinking, I should turn back, shouldn’t I? Like, now’s the time to put it in reverse. Of course, I didn’t kept going through it, and car survived, by the way. Okay, so it worked, alright. But you understand that that feeling it can be so hard to stop, like, admit you’ve made a mistake, and turn around, go in the other direction. It was like this little living parable of a proverb that my daughters and I talked about not too long ago in our nightly proverbs. Time. Proverbs, 22 verse three says, The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty, fried car, something like that. Well, I bring this up because if you were here last week, you know that the nation of Judah, God’s people, have driven straight into the puddle, and it is a lot deeper than they were expecting the cars about to get fried. What will they do now that they’ve had this prophet call them out. Will they turn or will they just keep going into destruction? And Zephaniah, in that little analogy, he’s the guy on the sidewalk shouting at them, like, now is the time to turn around. And that’s actually exactly what he’s going to say. In our passage this morning, you’re going to say, Turn, turn, turn. Now stop, okay, kind of thing, and then give some additional encouragement to turn around. So that’s why we got kind of these two halves the the roof, you know, go ahead and turn. And then here’s why, kind of thing. So let’s take them. These two halves, not at all equal in terms of length, but very equal in terms of weight, at least. So first part, Zephaniah is coming out from the sidewalk. Seek the Lord. Chapter two, verses one to three. Let me read it for us. Chapter two, verses one to three, gather together. Gather yourselves together. You shameful nation, before the decree takes effect and that day passes like wind blown chaff, before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you before the day of the Lord’s wrath comes upon you. Seek the Lord all you humble of the land. You who do what He commands, seek righteousness, seek humility, perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger. So judgments coming again. That was all of chapter one. Judgments coming. The warning lights are flashing. What are you going to do? Is the the questions Zephaniah is asking and and he tells them what to do. He says, gather, you know, almost translate this idiomatically into into English. You know, get yourselves together, guys like, that’s what’s being said here, although it’s a really interesting. Word that’s used for gather, because it’s only ever used of straw, like hay bale kind of stuff, stubble. So it’s this really derogatory word. Actually, there’s this reminder, like you guys, at this point in your worth no more than straw. You’re just kindling for the fire. And so it says humbling image to begin with, which is then reinforced immediately because he then calls him a shameful nation, shameful, if you’re looking in different translations, it might say not longed for or not desired, or something like shameful. It’s because it could be either one of those words. They’re spelled exactly the same way, so not desire to make sense, but shameful. The word there actually means not pale. Why? Because when you’re caught doing something and you’re ashamed, the color drains from your face. Well, they were caught doing something and they don’t care in the slightest. They got all their colors, so they’re not pale. That’s shameful. But worse, they’re a shameful nation. And you’re like, Well, how is that worse? Of course, they’re a nation. No, Israel is not supposed to be a nation. This is the people of God. This is a kingdom of priests. Everyone else is the nations. In fact, it’s actually one of those Hebrew words. You might know the Hebrew word for nations is goyim, which is all of us Gentiles, or really pagans. And so the fact that Israel, Judah is getting called, the people of God are getting called, basically pagans, says something about who they are and how they’ve been living. Of course, we saw last week, they’re worshiping Baal. They’re worshiping the stars. They are. They are pagans at this point. So get yourselves together, you pagan nation, respond to the threat of judgment and do it quickly, because the day of the Lord, the day of his coming wrath, is approaching quickly. Do you notice in verse two, three times it says before, like get yourselves together before, before, before, there’s this sense of urgency in it all. The decree is going to take effect soon. The time between the announcement of this judgment, what Zephaniah is doing right then and there, and the execution of his judgment is going to be very short. It’s going to pass by like chaff on a windy day. It’s me gone in an instant. So there’s this urgent need to respond, to turn away from danger. So how, how should they do that? Verse three, we get another three fold repetition here of the word seek, which is actually interesting because chapter one, verse six, we saw last week, one of the things they weren’t doing was seeking the Lord or inquiring of him. So that’s what they need to start doing. So they’re supposed to seek, seek. What? Though this is so typical of the Bible, the first thing there to seek is the Lord Himself. The first move is always towards God Himself, which is interesting, if you think about what’s being talked about, Zephaniah is saying you’re about to go under God’s wrath. So your problem the coming storm, is God. And so if you want to get away from this storm, you need to run toward God. That’s interesting. We flee from God by fleeing to God. And if that’s confusing to you, I would submit that you have not understood the central message of Christianity yet, because that’s the gospel in a nutshell. As r c Sproul put it, the glory of the gospel is this, the one from whom we need to be saved is the one who saves us. We flee from the storm of God’s wrath by hiding ourselves in Christ, God’s Son, God Himself, who came as a sacrifice for our sakes to take the punishment we deserved on himself. I say that this is interesting because every other religion starts at the other end of the process. You get your act together. First, you start doing the things you’re supposed to do. First you become righteous, first, then you can approach deity. But God knows we can’t do that. That’s not happening. We’re not going to get our acts together, because our hearts are messed up the fundamental level. We are bent inward. So the first thing we have to do is turn to Him, and we’re transformed then in the turning. Now, who is turning? This helps us out understanding this process. It’s the humble right seek the Lord all you humble of the land. Well, it’s gonna have to be the humble who turn to him, because it’s the humble who recognize, who know that they can’t. Make themselves righteous, they can’t do what God expects them to do on their own. So if we’re not gonna be able to be righteous on our own, then we need somebody else to give us their righteousness. And of course, that is the message of the gospel again. And this is how Jesus whose righteousness we receive when we turn and trust in Him. This is how Jesus encourages us to come to humble. Right? We did the Sermon on the Mount not that long ago. We had the Beatitudes. And how do they begin? Blessed are the poor in spirit, the
humble. In other words, blessed are those who mourn. They’re not grieving death, not there, not in that context. They’re mourning their sin. They’re mourning how they fall short of God’s standard. Blessed are the meek, right? The one, not the bombastic, not the proud? No, the meek. So basically, you could sum all three of those up. But blessed are the humble. Blessed are the humble. And there, as Jesus said, is the kingdom of heaven, and they will be comforted, and ultimately, they will inherit the earth. So that’s how we come, exactly how Jesus tells us to come, how Zephaniah tells us to come here. And that humble coming to the Lord manifests in keeping his commands. Because, of course, that’s what the humble would do. The humble are happy to let God direct their lives, to listen to him, as opposed to insisting on their own way, which was the sin of Adam and Eve in Eden. You’ve got this command. We know better, right? That’s the opposite of humility. That’s pride. And so the humble say, No, we will do what you tell us to do. Now, you who do what He commands. Reads literally you who do justice. You who do justice. That is you who do what is right in any given situation. What is due another, whether that’s what’s due to the Lord, as we worship him, or do to our neighbor, whatever is owed them in different circumstances. So this might mean providing for the needs of the most vulnerable in society, just like God does, by the way, providing for us spiritually, even when we’re at our most vulnerable, or it may mean forgiving someone and being willing to reconcile with them even though they treated you poorly, because, again, God reconciled with us even when we treated him poorly. So true humility, true humility, which truly apprehends grace and mercy inevitably leads to true transformation. It is the proof that you truly have taken hold of grace, and that’s basically what the next two seeks. Say, right seek righteousness. Again, righteousness is a a right relationship between two parties. So right relationship between us and God, and then a right relationship between us and our neighbor, again, that’s kind of all scripture asks of us. Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as your self. And so that righteousness, then having that right relationship manifest in right relating to each other, humble, obedient worship of God and then doing justice to those around us to have that right relationship. Of course, you can’t put yourself first. Humility before God always leads to that willing self denial that Jesus talked about. Deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow Me. Now, if we do all that, and that was a lot, right, that we’re supposed to do, so you humble yourself, and then you do what God commands, and you you live lightly towards others and towards God. But if we do all that well, then God is obligated to deliver us, right? Not a chance. Not a chance. Did you notice how it ends? Seek righteousness. Seek humility. We’ve already sought the Lord. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger. Perhaps you’ll find shelter from wrath. That word, perhaps, is so important because it’s a reminder that this is all of grace. We cannot do anything to make God owe us salvation. Now, some of you are looking very uncomfortable at this moment, rightly so, I might add, because you’re like, well, then where is gospel assurance, which we sometimes sing about blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Well, is he perhaps? Well, here’s the answer to that. I don’t think this strips gospel assurance from us by any means. I love the way one commentator put it. He says it like this. He says, perhaps that word perhaps safeguards God’s sovereign freedom. I. But the fullness of who he is relieves this, perhaps, of any anxiety or uncertainty. So on the one hand, we don’t say, of course, he owes us this now. But on the other hand, we know who God is, and so we know he is merciful and just and loving and gracious. And so of course, he will accept us when we turn to him, it just means and quoting the commentator, again, from the side of man, God’s forgiveness should not be misused as cheap grace. That’s all that’s being said here. If we confess our sins, Will said for us earlier, from First John one, verse nine, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. That’s who he is. He is faithful and just, and he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness, but we don’t presume upon grace. We come with trembling humility, knowing what we deserve and what we’ve been spared. We come with trembling humility, especially when we consider what happens to those who don’t seek the Lord turn from sin or lay hold of grace, and that’s where we go in the rest of the chapter. So seek the Lord first, but see the nations, verses four to 15. Now let me give you just a brief introduction, because we’ll take the nations one at a time. Verse four there actually begins in Hebrew with the word for it’s untranslated in the NIV, which is fine, but in other words, this is an explanation. So verses four to 15 explain two things that we’ve seen already. First of all, it explains the worldwide judgment that was pronounced last week in chapter one. You can see it even there at the end of the chapter, verse 18, 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. So we’re going to explain this worldwide judgment, but it also is an explanation of why we should seek the Lord, seek humility, seek righteousness. Like this is extra weight of why we should stop. Turn around. You know, go back the other way. Don’t keep driving through the puddle. It’s interesting. Also, these four nations that are mentioned come from the four points of the compass, from Judah’s perspective, at least. So you’ve got the Philistines in the West, and then Moab and Ammon are in the east, and then we move to Cush in the south and Assyria in the north. So we get the four points of the compass that’s intentional. So it is meant to be the whole earth that we’re talking about here. We’re just giving specific examples of what is a global issue so it justifies God’s worldwide wrath. This would be like an irate mom early on in the summertime, when she had told you to clean your room, and you say it’s clean, and she comes in and she says, I could look in any direction and find something that isn’t clean. Look at your desk not clean. Look under your bed. You just kick your I’m not going to open the closet, right? So that’s what’s happening here. I could look in any direction the Lord says, and my anger at sin would be justified. So with that, let’s dig in. First Nation, we’re looking to the west here to Philistia. Let me read verses four to seven. Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins. At midday, ashtad will be emptied and Ekron uprooted. Woe to you who live by the sea. You Cheryl people, the word of the Lord is against you. Canaan land of the Philistines, he says, I will destroy you and none will be left. The land by the sea will become pastures, having wells for shepherds and pens for flocks. The land will belong to the remnants of the people of Judah. There they will find pasture. In the evening, they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon, the Lord their God, will care for them. He will restore their fortunes. So neighbors to the west, of course, Gaza, you all have heard of it’s in the news a lot. That’s the west coast of what is today Israel, Palestine, the Philistines at the time, these were a seafaring people. They actually come originally from Crete, which is why they’re called Cheryl fights. You can kind of see all the same letters there in this passage. Usually have a pretty amicable relationship with Israel, with God’s people, kind of after the time of David. Not so much under Samson, Samuel David and stuff. But after David defeats them, they hang out. They’re fine. Why? Because the Philistines love the water, and the Jews did not care for the water. So they symbiotic relationship at this point. They don’t overlap much. But now disaster is coming upon the Philistines, and specifically the four major cities of Philistia are mentioned here. And why is disaster coming on them? It’s the center of verse five that tells you it the word of the Lord is against you, so God’s word is against them. You.
God. They are out of step with God’s word. They are not doing what God requires of them, and hence divine judgment will fall on them. But there is this reminder baked in there that the Word of God is the determining factor in all of human history. So we talked a lot last week about God creating us. Well, the God who created us rules us, rules us by His Word. And, of course, rules justly. And so as a result, the land by the sea, Philistia is going to get a new use and a new people we see in verses six and seven. And verse six should be a little bit shocking to us, because we just mentioned four big cities. And so there are these thriving metropolises that all of a sudden become open fields, pasture land, where the Israelites are gonna be able to graze their sheep. And it is not just that the Philistines are going to get to graze their sheep. It’s for Israel. Specifically, these can be Israelite shepherds, the remnants that is the faithful, the true Israel. Those who have not bent the knee to Baal, they’re the ones who are going to possess this land, which is kind of interesting too, because here it means that the humble are inheriting Philistia, and then Jesus expands on us in the beatitude I quoted earlier, the meek shall inherit the earth like that’s what’s happening here on a small scale. Why do they get to inherit this? Because God is faithful to his covenant. That’s why they inherited so we talked last week about the covenant quite a bit. It was, you know, judgment last week, yes, but it was covenant judgment specifically. Well, here we’re dealing with covenant restoration. So in Deuteronomy, and remember Josiah, under his reign, they redo the temple, and they find the book of Deuteronomy in one of the temple pillars. And so they they basically rediscover God’s law. And so they read the conditions of the Covenant, the conditions of Sinai. Here’s what you need to do, and then there are a whole bunch of curses attached to it. If you don’t keep the covenant, then all sorts of bad things are gonna happen to you, like you’re gonna go into exile, all that kind of stuff. And then Deuteronomy 31 to three, which Erica read for us earlier, we read what happens if they turn back in repentance after God disciplines them? So if they turn back and seek the Lord, then it says in verse three, then the Lord, your God, will restore your fortunes, which is quoted there at the end of verse seven. This is covenant gospel, hope. God’s anger is real, but his anger lasts for a moment. Joy comes in the morning. They will experience, and we will experience restoration by grace. And you can see this, feel this even in the shift of images. Because in verses four and five, we get these military images, right? It’s the Lord as a divine warrior going up against those in rebellion against Him. But in verses six and seven, we get these idyllic pastoral scenes, fluffy sheep in green fields, and of course, that would make us think immediately of the Lord as our shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures, leads us beside quiet waters, refreshes our souls. Second nation now we turn to the east, to Moab and Ammon. Let me read it for us, eight to 11. I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites who insulted my people and made threats against their land. Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, surely Moab will become like Sodom the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever, the remnant of My people will plunder them. The survivors of my nation will inherit their land. This is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking the people of the Lord Almighty. The Lord will be awesome to them when he destroys all the gods of the earth. Distant nations will bow down to him, all of them in their own lands. I don’t know if you caught there’s this overwhelming emphasis on Judah as God’s people in these verses. Verse eight, he says, My People. Verse nine, my people again, and my nation as well. And then in verse 10, Zephaniah takes over speaking and refers to them as the people of the Lord Almighty. Now, why this intense focus on on Judah as God’s people? Maybe it’s because we’re dealing with cousins. These are all the descendants of Lot Abraham’s nephew, so they’re closely related to. To Israel. And so maybe the point here is that a near relation is not enough. It would be like someone today being like, well, I’m church adjacent. I’ve got family who go and the point is that’s not good enough, like you need to be a part of the family yourself, or else, will we see what’s coming. They will become like Sodom and Gomorrah, which, by the way, is a bit of a dig at Moab and Ammon because it reminds us of their drunken, incestual origins, which you can read about in Genesis. But what will happen? They will become like Sodom and Gomorrah. They will become not pastures for sheep, but barren wastelands. Why? Because they taunted and insulted God’s people. They made threats like they were going to invade the Land of Israel, and provoked them in their and verse 10 mentions such an important word in their pride and so again, the judgment is just. This is another specific example justifying the general wrath that is coming on the world. If you remember the image from last week, when God goes through with the with the lamps to do this, make this thorough investigation like that’s what he’s done here. Okay, the judgment is just, I’ve checked there is real sin. Not only is the judgment just because they sin, but it’s also just because the punishment fits the crime. Moab wanted to seize Israel’s territory, and so instead, Israel will get to seize Moabs, which is rightfully theirs anyway, because it was given to Abraham, and Abraham was just generous and offered it to his nephew Lot when their people got to be too big. So there’s this strong note of hope for God’s people, even in the midst of these judgment passages, justice will be done. And that is good news, but it is good news. It is news of Hope only for the humble. And again, we see why we need to seek humility. Because verse 10, look at what God does to the proud. We see it over and over again in Scripture. In fact, this very phrase is repeated multiple times in God’s Word. God opposes the proud, but gives grace, shows favor to the humble. And what is humility? Well, it’s what we see in verse 11. Humility is acknowledging the awesomeness of God, and not just that he is awesome, but that he is singularly so, that there is only one true God. And so that’s what happens in verse 11. This awesome Lord destroys all the gods of the earth. Destroys in the sense that he proves their powerlessness and ultimately their non existence, destroys the gods of the nations as he toppled their kingdoms one by one. And so what results from this will distant nations worship Him and worship Him, even in their own lands, by the way, fulfilled here in this room at this moment, because here we are in a distant land, many nations represented even worshiping the one true God. This is interesting, though, because there are other places the New Testament where it talks Testament where it talks about the nations streaming to Jerusalem in order to worship God in the temple. And in a sense, of course, that is true. All of our salvation goes through Jerusalem and through the true temple. Who is Jesus himself? As Jesus Himself said, salvation comes from the Jews. Yes, but that salvation is worldwide, and we worship. I mean, Isaiah 19 says, There we an altar in Egypt, and we read passages like this. And again, what we’re living. We see here what becomes reality, final reality in Revelation, chapter seven, which we studied not that long ago, when God is drawing individuals from every tribe and language and nation and people. It is a multi ethnic people of God, a multi ethnic New Israel. But that verse 11 reminds us that God’s judgment
and the suffering that accompanies it, which is real, has purpose. Has purpose accomplishes good, even in our lives. I mean, think of the purpose of judgment. I mean, think of three retribution, which is what we usually think of when we think of justice being done, deterrence and reformation. And that last one is a very positive purpose. So imagine you had two sons, young sons, close together in age, both of whom are very wicked. All hypothetical. Okay, I’m not talking about anyone you know. This next part actually is hypothetical, though. But imagine that one of them, you know, they both get ice cream cones, and one of them. In a fit over age, knocks the ice cream cone out of his brother’s hand and it is ruined. How does mom, in her kindergarten teacher voice respond? She’s gonna take, we’ll call him Callum. She gonna take, take Callum’s ice cream cone and give it to Amari. Why? Free purposes, retribution. Okay, you, you ruined his ice cream. No, he doesn’t get ice cream because you, you don’t get ice cream now, deterrence, next time around, Callum, hopefully will think differently, but ultimately, the hope is reformation, that this discipline offered in love leads to change in Callum’s heart, so that in future, he doesn’t attack his brother like this. And so that’s what’s happening here, just on the global scale, as punishment happen as nations fall under the judgment of God, that people would wake up and seek him in the end, by the way, think of the wonderfully careful perspective that that gives us as God’s people, the wonderfully careful perspective of this passage, because there are two truths that we hold in tension. On the one hand, we are confident that God will fight against our enemies, and that is good news. In a dark world, we are confident that God will fight against our enemies, but at the same time, we long to see God save our enemies, because we know that God saved us when we were his enemies, and so we might then be praying that God would bring justice for an evildoer, so that he would bring an evildoer to justice. But that’s not the end of our prayer. We pray that he would bring an evildoer to justice and then bring that evil doer to Christ while he’s in prison. That’s the tension that we have here and that we need to live in our own lives. Then we look to the south cush verse 12, you could almost miss it. You kushites too will be slain by my sword. Very brief, not at all poetic, by the way, actually messes up all the beautiful poetry in Zephaniah, kind of interrupts the flow. Why? Well, we gotta hit all four points of the compass, of course. But cush is also a distant nation. Cush was like saying the ends of the world at this point, it was the end of the known world. And so is this reminder that there will be not just justice for neighboring nations, but to the ends of the earth. And so it’s this short, quick, poignant reminder that there is no escape for any people, no matter how distant from the wages of sin. And then lastly, Assyria, to the north, verses 13 to 15, he will stretch out his hand against the North and destroy Assyria, leaving Nineveh utterly desolate and dry as the desert. Flocks and herds will lie down there, creatures of every kind, the desert Owl and the screech owl will roost on her columns. Their hooting will echo through the windows. Rubble will fill the doorways. The beams of cedar will be exposed. This is the city of revelry that lived in safety. She said to herself, I am the one, and there is none besides me. What a ruin she has become, a layer for wild beasts. All who pass by her scoff and shake their fists. So lastly, God stretches out his hand, which we talked about last week, to the north, against Assyria. This, by the way, is the fulfillment of Isaiah 10, where God promises to punish the wickedness of his instrument of punishment of wickedness against Israel, the northern kingdom, which Assyria sacks and destroys and carries into exile because of their sin, well after the death of Ashurbanipal in 622 which is right around the time that we’re writing right Assyria is in decline, so it would not, even though this was the world empire at this moment, it would not have been difficult to predict its fall. It’s like predicting a losing season for the White Sox this year. Like, did not need to be a prophet here. Okay, just got real. I just lost half the church. Sorry, Joe. I’m sorry, Joe, but they know. The White Sox fans know I’m not saying anything. They don’t know, right? So that’s it. So as so everyone knew this was coming, but it’s still there’s this deeply ironic and, like, amazingly historical fulfillment of this prophecy, because it says it’s gonna be desolate. Nineveh was gonna be desolate and as dry as a desert. Nineveh was built on the Tigris River and had a tremendous system of canals. So this idea that it would just be gone and barren like it did, like it doesn’t even make sense. And yet, Nineveh was so thoroughly destroyed by the Battle of. Empire in 612, BC, that in 401, when the Greek historian Xenophon visited the site, he could find no trace of it. It was gone desolate. There are no ruins even to look at. And so the people move out at this moment, because they’re conquered. And what happens? The animals move in. You remember when we’re all on lockdown and COVID, and there was like deer walking down? Walking down Broadway? Like, that’s what happened? Well, the people are gone. We’ll live here. I guess that’s kind of the picture. But there’s more to it than that, because this is like creation, reclaiming what was taken by sin. I love the way Alec was here. Well, my favorite Bible commentator, says it. He says, creation always sides with the Creator against the rebels. So this isn’t just it’s barren now so we can move in. This is like, Nope, we are reclaiming enemy territory. He goes on to say that creation grudgingly sustains sinful humanity, like the Tigris, had no choice but to provide water, but it did not like doing it, not for this empire, and it will not do so forever. Mateer says God’s world will not forever support God’s enemies. So Assyria is this warning, especially against, well, pride, right, self sufficiency. It’s the counterpart to Moabs pride. So Moab was proud, but their pride turned outward in threatening and denigrating Israel. A serious pride turned inward in smug self satisfaction. This is the place of prosperity, safety, uniqueness, superiority. Just worth pointing out. What nation does that sound like today? This is just America of the seventh century, BC, that same smug self satisfaction, because we’re on top, at least for the moment, much like Assyria and so Assyria doesn’t see or acknowledge the gift of God in their ascendancy. What did they do to create the mighty tigress? Does he answer nothing, less than nothing, yes, even the fact that God raised Assyria up to be his instrument against Israel. We saw this in Daniel God’s the one who determines what kingdoms rise and what kingdoms fall. It had nothing to do with Assyria. And so the way they speak about themselves actually turns into blasphemy. Right? When it says, I am the one, and there is none besides me. Who does that sound like? Like God in Isaiah? Honestly, he’s the one who actually can say that I am God, and there is no other I am God, and there is none like me. Isaiah 46 verse nine. You can read anywhere in the Isaiah 40s, and you’re gonna read statements like that. And so their blasphemous self exaltation leads to this pitiful humiliation where everybody who passes by makes noises at them. It’s translated scoffs. Here could be hisses. Could be whistles. I don’t really know what’s going on. And then I’m not sure shakes fist is right either, because there’s nothing really to shake your fist at. I think it’s much more condescending. I condescending, like that’s what’s happening. Just kind of wave their hand up Bye, bye. See ya Syria. You don’t talk so tough. Now, do you like that’s the image here. So what do we learn from this? And this is a big question, actually, because I think, and we can be honest here, that’s fine. We can talk the problem that a lot of us have when we read the prophets is these long judgment oracles on the nations. Even if it’s a judgment Oracle, if it’s against Israel or Judah, at least, we’re like, okay, it’s against God’s people. And we, the church, are God’s people. So I understand that this is kind of speaking to me, but Moab,
that’s not a thing anymore. So what relevance does this have for our lives? In the slightest, I think there are some important lessons that we can learn here, because this is for us. Let me give you three. You’ll probably come up with more. First of all, there is the reminder that Yahweh, the Lord, is the Lord of the whole earth, and He has plans, spiritual purposes for all nations, which is Revelation seven, again, right? I mean, that’s the great commission, go to the ends of the earth. He’s got plans for all nations. That changes how we read the newspaper. If any of you read newspapers anymore, I would say changes how we watch cable news, but I can think of no good reason to watch cable news, so I’m not even gonna say it, okay. Changes how we interact with history. Though, is my point, because it means what we’re seeing and what we know we’re seeing is the unfolding of God’s good purposes in real time, and that gives us a confidence and a hope and an all surpassing peace, even when all hell is breaking out like it is in the Middle East right now, right? We know Who holds history in his hands. That’s one that would probably be good enough right there. That’s worth reading seven. I just to get that second so God rules history wisely and justly, yes, but this God who rules history is acting for the sake of His people. God’s people are central to his plans. The church is the most important institution on God’s earth. Why is God? Are God’s people central to his plans? Because God is faithful to His promises. He won’t break his covenant, and so that means we will not suffer mistreatment in the end, which is what promised Judah here that enables us to endure suffering and mistreatment now, because we know how the stories end and story ends, and we talked a lot about that in Revelation, so that we can repay the sorts of mocking and taunting and insults that we read about here, not with evil, but with good, with blessing, with love, like Christ told us to Third. Third lesson, and one we all have to learn, is that God wages war against human pride, because it is stealing God’s glory like Assyria in assuming that we are enough, that we can do it on our own. So seek humility now the judgment on the nations prophesied here is an early warning system for us. What we should take away from this is, if God does this to the nations, why would they we think that he wouldn’t do it to his own people, who should know better. So this reinforces verses one to three. Why are we going to humble ourselves? Why are we going to turn from our sin, get out of the puddle and run back to God? Because we know what happens otherwise. That’s kind of the whole point of the nations section, right? Because it shows us the seriousness of our sin, the inevitability of judgment and the possibility of grace. So the big idea pulling the two halves of this passage together in reverse order. Read the times. Repent in time. That’s what’s being said here, read the times like understand history, learn lessons from it, so that you repent in time before it is too late, especially because these prophecies have been fulfilled. That’s why you don’t know where Moab is. It doesn’t exist anymore. So the big questions Zephaniah would be asking is, would these prophecies move Judah to respond and repent? It was a future question, but these are past acts, past facts for us, and so we have all the more reason to heed the lesson. Why are we so slow to read the times? We have abundant proof in history that God punishes sin but holds out the offer of grace. So Turn, turn, get out of the puddle, turn around before you fry your car. We have a big problem. In this passage, we have a big problem. God punishes sin. He punishes the proud who exalt themselves and seek to usurp his place by living according to their own laws. But we have an even bigger solution, and that’s the good news, because the God who punishes sin forgives sin, even our sinful pride, when we repent, when we turn from our sin and trust in Him. The culmination of this prophecy is Second Corinthians, 521, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus gets all of our sin, all of our pride. He takes it on himself and receives the punishment promised here in our place, if we trust in. Him, and what we get instead is the righteousness we could not earn on our own. It’s this beautiful exchange. So when God says, seek righteousness in chapter two, verse three, he’s telling us to seek Christ, in whom our righteousness is found, and to lay hold of his righteousness. When God tells us to seek humility, he’s reminding us that because we couldn’t do it, he sent Jesus to do it for us and in our place. Remember that glorious truth. Read the times, repent in time. Let’s pray.