Devotional Commentary on Zephaniah 2
Zephaniah is vividly outlining what
will happen to the wicked at the Hell event when they will be cut off forever.
In this chapter, he wants the faithful remnant to gather together and make life
and death decisions before [betherem] this Day of the Lord arrives (verse 2, 3
times repeated). They need to seek the Lord, seek
righteousness and seek humility (verse 3). The advantage of seeking these three
items is “perhaps you will be concealed on the Day of the Lord’s wrath” (verse
3). Concealed on that day is protection, security, salvation, joy and
happiness. Then Zephaniah said that as you see
the areas of Israel now, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron they all will be
uprooted (verse 4). They received much punishment from the Assyrians in history
in successive attacks. The texts are discussed by someone I
have personally met, Stephan Timm in his book on Moabites. He discussed the
successive attacks of Assyria on these cities between 723-650 BCE and the
cuneiform texts recording these events. But that is not what Zephaniah is
talking about. Zephaniah does not reflect on the past. He is talking about the
future. “I will destroy you so that there shall be not an inhabitant” (verse
5). In the newly created world by God
after the Hell event for the faithful, at the coastland shall be a grazefield
for sheep and shepherds (verse 6). “And it shall be a lot for the remnant
of the house of [spiritual] Judah, whereupon they shall pasture” (verse 7). They shall rest in Ashkelon for the
Lord shall return their captivity and “visit upon them” (verse 7). God walked
in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve before the Fall and was looking for
them after the Fall. God said that He heard the evil words
from Moab and Ammon, which is presentday Jordan, “who taunted My people” (verse
8). Current Israel and the Jews there is
not per se “My people”. It is a faithful relationship that goes through the
Messiah, Christ Jesus and He is the only door to the Father and any future
inheritance. All promises goes through Him. They “aggrandize themselves on their [faithful
Israel’s] border” (verse 8). It is a fact that the Wafk admin of Jordan has
controlled the structures of the Temple area which are built upon a Jewish
foundation built by Herod the Jewish king around the time Christ was born. That
is more than 680 years before the Dome of the Rock was built on this
foundation. There is no proper narrative to explain why Islam and that Caliph
of that year in 684 BCE built the Dome of the Rock on a Jewish holy site. How
should anyone react when a Christian church is built on top of a Mosque? Or a
Mosque on top of a Christian church? Or any of these structures on top of a
pagan temple? The issue becomes very complex now. The issue becomes very messy
when the participants in the debate knows very well the reality of the
background but refuse to admit fault and refuse to give up past errors as not a
proper approach for the future. Jordan or Moab shall be as Sodom,
which was of course burnt with fire (verse 9). The children of Ammon will be
like Gemorrah (also Jordan). Amman is the current capital of Jordan. “Desolation
forever” (verse 9). Not a good picture for the future. “The remnant of My people shall
plunder them and the remnant of My nation shall inherit them” (verse 9). This
is not a reference to a fulfillment what Trump have declared contrary to Wafk
objectives about Jerusalem as capital of Israel. This is in the eschaton after
the Hell event when God creates a new heaven and new earth. That area now known
to be Jordan will be for the faithful in those days after the Millennium. Somehow Jordan has “aggrandized
themselves” over the people of the Lord of Hosts (verse 10). King Hussein of
Jordan was always a friend of Adventists in the Madaba Plains Project and at
Heshbon or Heshban. That is if Adventists are the people of the Lord of Hosts
and King Hussein showing the opposite attitude mentioned here in Zephaniah. Is
this a future attitude of Jordan that we are still going to experience? The Warrior Messiah Christ “weakened
all the gods of the earth” (verse 11). “Every man shall prostrate himself to
Him from his place, all the isles of the nations” (verse 11). This is the whole
world and those faithful from every region of this globe. Cushites will also be the slain in the
Hell event (verse 12). Cushites are Somalia, Sudan who will also suffer. The Lord will turn His hand and the
north, Assyria and Niniveh will be made nothing (verse 13). So desolate they will be that flocks
of wild shall lie down there and owls and pelicans (verse 14). The cedarwork so
wellknown about them would have been destroyed in future. The “Babylon” of all empires: Niniveh
in Assyrian times, Tyre later, Ur in 2004 BCE, Nippur, Larsa, Shushan, Athens,
Alexandria, Rome, Vatican, New York. All of them have one thing in common. They
are the gateways of the “gods” where ecumenism and pluralism and globalism were
cherished as the equality kindness of humanity for everlasting peace slogan. They all said in their hearts: “I am
and there is none besides me”. Kim Jung Un said that he has a button for
nuclear attack on his desk and Trump answered, my button is bigger than yours
and mine works. After the Hell event in the eschaton
all faithful will pass by and ask: “How did it become desolate?” They shall hiss and wave with the
hand. All empires will come to an end then.
Dear God Zephaniah wants to explain to us the
futility of current empires and regimes and that in the eschaton they will
become naught. But worthiness is in You and a relationship with You. Keep us
there in Jesus Name. Amen.