Prophet Studies

ZEPHANIAH  1-3

   A book dealing with eschatology and end-time events.

 ¹ The word of the Lord that came unto Zephaniah, son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah.
   [Hezekiah was born in 740 BCE and he was 25 years old in 716 BCE when he started to reign for the next 29 years until his death in 687 BCE. There were two regnal-countings for Hezekiah, one started the same year that Ahaz took the throne and could be because Ahaz went in that year to Damascus to see the Assyrian throne in 727 BCE. The other counting is of course in 716 BCE when he actually ascended the throne at the age of 25 years old. It appears as if Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah was 12 when his father died in 687, thus Manasseh was born in 699 BCE. From the birth of Manasseh in 699 BCE to the ascension of Josiah is 69 years, thus 630 BCE. Four generations must be fitted into these 69 years to have Zephaniah’s father as Cushi, and his grandfather as Gedaliah, and his great-grandfather as Amariah who was the son of Hezekiah, probably born after Manasseh in 699 BCE. If Amariah is younger than Gedaliah and he was born in 697 BCE (postulated) then if he married at the age of 18 and have a son Gedaliah, it would be in the year ca. 678 BCE and if that son Gedaliah married at 18 he could have had a son Amariah in 661 BCE. If Amariah was ca. 18 when he married, then Zephaniah could have been born in 643 BCE and in 630 BCE when Josiah took the throne, Zephaniah could have been 13 years old. Josiah was 8 years old when he became king and he ruled for 31 years (2 Kings 22:1). Thus in 630 BCE he was younger than Zephaniah and in his 18^th year Josiah carried out a reform according to the book of Deuteronomy, thus in 612 BCE (verse 3). He was thus 26 years old and Zephaniah would have been 31 years old. According to Rabbi Redak of the Middle Ages, Zephaniah prophesied before the repentance of Josiah in 612 BCE. He was thus younger than 31 years old. According to Rabbi Kara of the Middle Ages, Zephaniah prophesied after the repentance of Josiah, thus later than 612 BCE. Even though Josiah was perfect as 2 Kings 23:25 stated “Now before him there was no king like him . . .” yet God did not nullify the exile decree for the evil that Manasseh did (2 Kings 23:26-27).
   

² I will totally destroy everything from what is upon the face of the ground, says the Lord.
    [This statement is very eschatological. It does not fit into history that everything is destroyed. At the Flood of Noah in 2523 BCE, everything was destroyed, except the animals and people in the ark. This is a decision to destroy everything a second time, this time, we submit, with finality]

³ I will totally destroy man and beast, I will totally destroy the fowl of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man from the face of the earth, says the Lord.

[In this future scenario, there is no space for environmentalism in any of its forms. The destruction is final and complete and no human attempt to preserve or sustain will help. It is directed against man, beasts, birds, fishes, actions of the wicked. What we learn from the text is that Hell will be totally destructive of all on the old earth, man, biology and zoology].

⁴ I will stretch out My hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, the name of the idolatrous priests  with the anciliary priests.

For all practical purposes it sounds that the punitive actions was at a place in the days of Zephaniah and against people from those days. But, there are some problems here. The destruction in the past was never total. One is faced with two extremes here, either it is in Zephaniah's day but not total or it is total but then how does people of the past fit into the picture? The answer is simple. It is in the eschaton and then either by special resurrection or continuation of the sins of these people in the same way that similar actions by different people later can qualify under the same as "name of Baal, name of idolatrous priests with anciliary priests". The other option means one has to discard some part of the text as myth, legendary, metaphor, symbolic, overreaction. But that is not in God's style to say things He does not mean to do. Since the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible He will not allow false aspects, or unreal aspects, or irrealities to be presented as going to happen. Therefore a preteristic reading of the text is out of place here. From verse 4 to 9 a list is presented of people that God will deal with in the eschaton or Hell. We learn very soon that God is speaking here of the Day of finality for evil. That is what Hell in the Bible means. A Day of reckoning or executive judgment. Verse 4 is telling us that God will stretch His hand over Judah and over the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Basically, in biblical language this is in the eschaton when Hell will destroy the evil. The remnant will be safely in the New Jerusalem, we learn in Revelation 20 and we also learn from Joel that the evil attempt to attack on the Day of the Lord. So the remnant is indeed safely since the Hand of the Lord is over them in the city of the New Jerusalem that will come down in midair on the Day of reckoning. It is Zion of the book of Joel. While the remnant is safely in the city, the Warrior Lord moves out to fight the enemy or evil. In a spectacular way, this is described in Psalm 46 all the way through. But as this is happening, God will cut off a number of entities or people. 1) remnant of Baal, 2) the name of the idolatrous priests, 3) the anciliary priests, 4) those who prostrate themselves on the roofs of the host of heavens (verse 5) and more.

⁵ and those who prostrate themselves on the roofs of the host of heavens, and those who prostrate themselves, who swear by the Lord and swear by their king.

Here Zephaniah or the Lord is listing more people, namely, astronomers who pray to the stars, and those who prostrate themselves to the Lord but equally also to the ruler of their country. These are those who mix politics and religion and they are paying respect in equal way to the Lord and to their government. This mixture of religion with politics is greatly discounted by Zephaniah and the Lord.

⁶  and from those who turn away from behind the Lord and those who did not seek the Lord and not inquire about Him. [This is a complete list of the rivals against the Lord. They are following Him like He is their Shepherd but then they stop and decide not to follow Him any longer and turn away. Then there are those who do not seek Him for their troubles, their condition of sin, their salvation, their healing. Another group does not research about Him. They do not investigate what this situation is about God seeking to communicate Himself to man and longing to help humanity with their problems. The ignorant prefer to remain ignorant].

⁷ Be silent from before the Lord Lord, for near is the Day of the Lord. For the Lord has prepared a slaughter. He has made holy His called ones [The first thing that strike the reader is the announcement that the Day of the Lord is near. The Advent is near. The Advent hope or nearness of the Lord hope, was explained in the days of Zephaniah already. It was a common theme by many Old Testament prophets. The Day of the Lord is His second Coming. The disciples mixed the two events and thought that it was to happen only once in history but they were separated. The priestly service of the divine God on behalf of man was to be accomplished before the Warrior-Kingly Messiah come in His glory. Humility and suffering was to precede the glory aspect that was to come later. We are still waiting for that glory aspect to be revealed. Zephaniah says that the Day of the Lord has two aspects. A slaughtering is prepared for the evil. But for His remnant, the called ones, He will make them holy. There is an aspect here in the original that is missed by readers. The term hiqdish qeruai is a hiphil form of the root qadosh that means holy. The hiphil form of the Hebrew verb is translated as “made holy” and similar phrases. The other word qeruai is “His called ones”. This is the most literal translation of the phrase and a translation like “He has invited His quests” is far from the original and should not be accepted. The reality is that Holy Making of His remnant will take place near the Second Coming of Christ in biblical eschatology. In fact, chronologically it is placed just before the Time of Trouble of which Daniel 12:1 speaks just preceding the Second Coming of Christ or Michael there. When Christ completes His heavenly sanctuary service as High Priest, since 1844 in the Most Holy function where an Investigative Judgment scene is taking place according to Daniel 7, the Door of Mercy closes, Christ lay down His priestly function and take on His kingly function given to Him by His Father. At that time He will perfect the saints since Atonement is no longer necessary. The last scenes of the Time of Trouble will be swift. It is at this point in history that the called ones will be made holy. The Middle Age Rabbis were confused by this phrase. They misunderstood the context. Rabbi Rashi translated the phrase as “He prepared His armies for the appointed day”. Rabbis Redak and Kara explained that it is the fowl of the heavens who will be the guests who come to devour the corpses (Deuteronomy 28:26), but how can that be, Zephaniah 1:2-3 explains very explicitly that biology and zoology will all be totally destroyed. This is a reference to the saints as separated from the evil who will be dealt with in that Day.

⁸ And It shall be on that day of the slaughter of the Lord, and I will visit upon the princes/leaders and upon the sons of the king, and upon all the garments worn by strangers [God is not interested in human fashion, but His metaphor for garments is to be clothed in His righteousness. The parable of the Wedding-garment by Jesus is an illustration of this. In the Day of Reckoning, after the Investigative Judgment declared that the man did not have the required Wedding garment, Executive judgment followed for that man. It is the same here. It will be still in that order. Investigative Judgment, Door of Mercy closes, Time of Trouble occur, Second Coming and later Executive Judgment final. The biblical writers are not confused or perplexed. They know what they are writing and do not cross each other. It is us who are confused and perplexed and we are to harmonize what they are saying.

 ⁹ And I will visit upon everyone who leaps over the doorpost, on that day, those who fill they house of their master, violence and deceit [From the prophet Habakkuk 2:17 it seems as if in the end-time, the have-nots will be the World Order, replacing the current First World World-order and this will be the Time of Trouble. They will land-grab, they will leap over the doorposts of their employers, they will fill owners houses with violence and deceit. These action are not acceptable to God no matter what the rationalization is. The Bible says that it is not correct to kill even a tyrant as ruler since the rulers are all placed on their position by God. We know Habakkuk is speaking of the end of time for that is what Habakkuk 2:3 made clear. Judaism in the Targum Jonathan to the prophets, tried to see the Israelites as the ones leaping over the threshold of the Philistines. Nearly all Rabbis used 1 Samuel 5:5 to explain the action as Israel running after Philistine habits. But this is not what is in mind here. The word Israel is not used here and neither is it implied. In fact it is canceled by the making holy action of the Lord of His called one supra. They are the spiritual Israel who were called and listened. They are not the wayward ones and leaping ones. This window of Zephaniah is rather about a world situation that will exist at the end of times, following the making holy of the called ones, thus in the Time of Trouble after the Door of Mercy closed.