Title: Judgment Day/Zep 1:1-2-3
Contents 1. Judgment Day
Zep 1:1-2-3
“Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who keep the ordinances of the Lord; seek justice and humility, for perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger” (2:3).
There is not yet, nor will there ever be any scholars who can answer the times when the prophet Zephaniah lived or who Zephaniah was.
It is very difficult to find because it is a past history.
However, at the beginning of the text, Zephaniah is recorded as the great-grandson of Hezekiah, the great-grandson of Amariah, the grandson of Geliada, and the son of Kushi.
Hezekiah was the king of Judea at the age of eight in 639 B.C., and after reigning for 30 years, he was killed in a war in front of Pharaoh named Nicole of Egypt.
He proudly said that Zephaniah was the son of Hezekiah, to show that he was of noble origin and royalty.
Looking at Zephaniah's mention of the destruction of Nineveh (2:13), it can be inferred that he was a prophet who prophesied while the king was alive in the reign of King Hezekiah 612 years before the destruction of Nineveh.
The fact that he lived in the time of Josiah and that he was a great descendant of Hezekiah can give us a rough idea of the background and circumstances of that time.
1. The Day of the Lord Comes
“I will destroy everything from the face of the earth, saith the Lord” (1:2).
The text continues to focus on the Lord's Day, the Day of God's judgment.
The flow and theme of the important message in the minor prophets is also God's judgment.
If there is one thing that is missing in our church in this age, it is a warning about God's judgment.
Many people have emphasized that God is a God of mercy, a God of justice, a God of forgiveness, a God of blessings, and everyone likes to hear it, so that's the only way people gather.
However, the content of these enormous volumes of prophets continues to emphasize and present to us is that the day of God's judgment is near, and unless we repent, we will be judged.
2. Avoid Judgment
“I will destroy man from the face of the earth, saith the LORD” (1:3b).
Because God is angry, He foretells judgment.
“I will annihilate man from the face of the earth. I will exterminate man and beast, and the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks and the wicked; I will annihilate man from the face of the earth.”
He says that a terrible judgment will come, in which humans will suffer damage to other creatures because they sin.
The text is simple if read normally.
It is said that those who commit such sins will be judged like this, and those who commit such sins will be judged like that. If you reverse this verse and understand it, you can take it from a different angle by saying, “If you want to live, you must do this.”
1). Turn to yourself and seek righteousness.
“When you repent, return quickly, repent quickly, and now seek some righteousness. How long will you pursue only evil?” What kind of righteousness is it and how to find it? Chapters 1 and 2 list the crimes of Israel and the sins of society at that time.
To summarize, these are the sins of idolatry, adultery, and betrayal.
①. A stone grows from two hearts
“I will stretch out my hand over all the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will destroy the remnant of Baal there” (1:4a).
Do not have a double heart to serve God and worship idols, and get out of this double heart as soon as possible (verses 4-5).
You must give up your idols.
The sin that God struggles and does not want is the sin of serving idols.
The person who set up his statue now is the one who set up the idol in the cave.
The outside world seen from the cave is only the size of a well.
In Korean, it means frog in the well.
It is similar to the horse of a Western or Eastern person, an idol in a cave, or a frog in a well.
This is your idol.
I can't get rid of the skin there, and I live in it, pursuing my own world, but it's pitiful.
“You who live, ignorant of God and ignorant of your neighbors, and forsaking the will of God, cast away your idols and return to God.” Following and serving creation is idolatry (verse 5).
Even today, you become an idol, your family members and loved ones become your idols, your material possessions and your honor become your idols, and you do not follow your idols even when you do not want them. You will have to turn from idols to God.
②. Turn away from indifference
“I will bring an end to those who have turned away from the LORD and have not followed the LORD, and those who do not seek or seek the LORD” (1:6).
“Turn away from the coldness that is indifferent to God and usurp the glory that is due to God, and return to God.” Those who do not pursue, neither seek nor seek God from the beginning are traitors.
Those who live in ignorance of the one who created them
It's less disappointing that the child came in at night and didn't buy food from his elderly parents and came in. A child who waits all day and doesn't say hello, is happy and happy with each other, and his parents aren't interested in where they feel uncomfortable or what they need.
2). Seek humility
It is a message to seek righteousness before God, cast off an unrighteous heart and a cold heart, and seek humility from now on.
to be humble
①. We must come from the pride of the pleasures of the flesh
“In the day of the sacrifice of the Lord I will punish princes and princes and those who wear foreign robes” (1:8).
A man becomes proud when he indulges in his pleasure.
If you become arrogant, there is no God and you become ignorant.
He is a person with a high heart.
Those on high, those who wear fine clothes, their princes, and those who wear foreign clothes are people who love the flesh.
②. We must come out of the pride of greed.
“In that day I will punish those who jump over the threshold and fill their master’s house with raisins and chests” (1:9).
These are also those who indulge in the pride of greed.
People become proud when they indulge in pleasure and greed.
③. We must depart from the pride of ignoring God.
“I will punish those who say in their hearts, The LORD will not bring down a hall, nor will he bring woe” (1:12b).
Those who say, “What kind of life-and-death happiness does God claim, no, I do it” are also arrogant people.
If we do not depart from this pride, God will bring a terrible judgment, and he will cause a wailing from the gates, a cry from the second district, and a sound from the hills falling down (verse 10).
We must turn away from all this pride.
3). do the right thing hastily
“Do it quickly, very hastily. The time has come to do good in haste.”
①. The time is urgent.
“The great day of the LORD is near; it is near, and it is exceedingly fast, the voice of the day of the LORD” (1:14a).
I don't know if I should masturbate, thinking, "What a sin this is, I just need to repent slowly and change slowly, but it's getting better."
But he said the time was near.
I was told it was very fast.
God's great day, the day of judgment, is near and fast, so please come back quickly.
②. You run into an unexpected situation.
“I will bring suffering upon men, that they may walk as blind” (1:17a).
You never know what will happen suddenly.
“Repent and come back quickly, because unexpected difficulties may come, and come back quickly before that day comes.” It is unknown how many accidents happen in this world right now.
In the world we live in right now, how many people live and die in the right way? If you go to a cemetery and ask if you have lived your lifespan, how many people would say that you lived your life the way you did? “I am sorry. It is cylindrical. Had it not been for that accident that day, I would have lived longer.”
People's lives change in an instant.
We never know what will happen to us.
There is a newspaper article that I still vividly remember.
At a certain family, after leaving work in the evening, receiving dinner and eating dinner with their children, an explosion occurred at the Seodaemun subway construction site and the roof of the house away from the road was hit.
After all, is it that house? It's not a roadside house, it's a house inside.
The whole family at dinner perished.
When I saw the newspaper, I was astonished.
Who knew I would die like this.
Would you have run on the highway knowing that a car would crash on the highway? I don't know everything.
We have no way of knowing who dies while walking, who dies while sleeping, who dies while working, who gets sick and who dies suddenly, who gets sick, and the variety of deaths.
“There will come a day when you will be frustrated in unexpected circumstances, so repent and turn to God before that day comes.”
Shame also comes on unexpected days (2:1).
“It's not just physical illness and accidents, but shame comes to you.” Who knew the former mayor of Seoul would suffer such shame, and who knew that the former head of state would suffer such shame. Unexpected days come.
If a sin is hidden and covered up, it seems to pass, but the day will come when it comes out.
③. God's word is unchanging.
“Before the decree goes into effect... let it be” (2:2a)
God's Word is unchanging. “Repent and return quickly to the unchanging Word of God.” God's promise is sure to come true.
The Word of God is the unchanging Word.
“When that time comes, how will God not show mercy and I will not change my heart?” are the words of ten million people.
④. Time goes by quickly.
“In the day of the LORD’s wrath they will be hidden”
Time goes by quickly. A thousand years pass like a day.
We must turn back before the day of Jehovah's wrath comes.
God's word never changes.
The Word of God says that the day of judgment will come.
Let's get rid of idols. Let's get rid of pride. Let us walk humbly before God and before men.
Us; Let us all so be saved from all the afflictions that come unexpectedly.
Let's do the good hastily.