Zephaniah - Zeph. 3:9-11 DailyBibleStudy.Org

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Zeph. 3:9-11

Lesson # Zeph. 3:9-11
Study Material - Zeph. 3:9-11

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Zeph. 3:9-11

9 For then will I turn [haphak] to the people [am] a pure [barar] language [saphah] , that they may all call [qara] upon the name [shem] of the LORD [Yahovah] , to serve [abad] him with one [echad] consent [shakem] .
10 From beyond [eber] the rivers [nahar] of Ethiopia [Kuwsh] my suppliants [athar] , even the daughter [bath] of my dispersed [puwts] , shall bring [yabal] mine offering [minchah] .
11 In that day [yowm] shalt thou not be ashamed [buwsh] for all thy doings [aliylah] , wherein thou hast transgressed [pasha] against me: for then I will take away [cuwr] out of the midst [qereb] of thee them that rejoice [alliyz] in thy pride [ga`avah] , and thou shalt no more [yacaph] be haughty [gabahh] because of my holy [qodesh] mountain [har] . KJV-Interlinear

9 'For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder. 10 'From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed ones, Will bring My offerings. 11 'In that day you will feel no shame Because of all your deeds By which you have rebelled against Me; For then I will remove from your midst Your proud, exulting ones, And you will never again be haughty On My holy mountain. NASB

Lips from which words follow, are preceded by thoughts which are now no longer deceitful and sinful, but full of worship of God and His Word.

This is an event which will occur after the Second Advent and the total destruction of all evil on the planet, 'For then ..,' future tense. This state of the world will follow all of the events which have been previously listed.

Isa. 66:20
20 'Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,' says the LORD, 'just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. NASB

A remnant of people will come from all over the world. There will be survivors (believers in Christ) in Jerusalem, and from all over the world. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia is a reference to the very far and distant lands as Zephaniah would have observed the world in his day.

We already know the destiny of Asia. It will become a huge wild life safari park with absolutely no human life within its boundaries. Zephaniah does not elaborate on the outcome of the rest of the world, other than mentioning that remnant believers will come from distant lands.

From this, Isaiah mentions their condition of poverty and physical health. People will come using all forms of transportation. Many will be injured, yet they will travel great distances by whatever mode of transportation they can find. There won't be anyone along the way to hinder their travel since all evil is now dead, and such will be the travel scenery that people will see during their trip. They won't see beautiful scenic views. They won't stay in posh hotels. They will see carnage, worldwide as has never before existed in human history.

The captivity (the brutalities of the Tribulation) will reduce people to total poverty. But, now that the old world has ended, they will travel with no fear, and they will travel with one united purpose, and that is to get to Jerusalem where Christ is located.

Why does Christ not instantly bring people from across the world, to Jerusalem? Why doesn't Christ instantly heal them all? Because these opening moments (following the Second Advent) are crucial for setting the stage for history for the next 1000 years.

Impressions are being set in the minds of the people who are traveling for hours, for days, for weeks to get to Jerusalem.

Their lips are being purged. Their thoughts, their attitudes, their whole view of life is being straightened out or purified. They have survived the Tribulation (the last half of which we haven't yet studied). But suffice to say that they survived the last 3 1/2 years of the most brutal and stressful living conditions ever. You would expect them to be thoroughly exhausted, yet now they are to go to Jerusalem - and they do.

A new form of humility will replace the view that evil mankind has had regarding himself. With a common purpose (shoulder to shoulder), humanity (the remnant that survives) will no longer look to their own human abilities and their own human viewpoints.

When the pressures of life are off, when things are going pretty smooth, then people have a tendency to drift away from God and the correct view of life. When negative volition is at its maximum, then you have people like the terrorists who believe that they can do anything to anyone and justify their actions. And you say, 'I would never do those kinds of things.' Yet gossips burn down forests with their tongues everyday. Sin is sin. And the penalty for sin is thorough destruction.

Don't allow yourself to rationalize that you are not as bad as another. There are no degrees of sin. The pattern of Satan's policies has the same destiny - destruction.

Note that herein Zephaniah describes the remnant. This is not a majority of the human race. Remnant means just that. We have already seen in Revelation, that during the first half of the Tribulation ¼ th of the worlds population will die due to the economic policies that are tried. Government controls will reach their all time maximums and people will suffer dearly for it.

Then will come the many disasters of the bowl judgments from God. This will remove another 1/3 rd of the earths population. That is a total of half of humanity who will die within a seven year period. One would think that people would begin to wonder about life and things in general by now. But people will still reject God.

And then the Armageddon wars will come, and then the Second Advent and most of the remainder of the earths population will die. That leaves virtually no one alive - only a remnant. Cities are gone, all industry is gone, mountains and islands and everything that humanity held dearly to his heart is all gone. There won't be any newspapers running the day after headlines. There won't be any TV specials. There won't be any radio. There won't be any protests or marches for 'no more war.' Nothing but total destruction - worldwide. All the worlds arrogance of attitude and human opinion will be gone. Mankind will be thoroughly humiliated, in total poverty, incapable of taking care of himself, and now totally dependent on God - and ... finally recognizing that fact.

There will not be a sense of sorrow or sadness however, but of relief and freedom. All the sins which have caused man to suffer will be lifted from the shoulders of those who remain. And those sins of mankind, by the way, are what got man into this fix in the first place. Sins follow the rejection of God. There is nothing else to replace God with in ones life.

Zephaniah further clarifies that all evil, all those who rejected God, all the unbelievers as described by those peoples to the West, and to the East, and to the South, and to the North of Jerusalem, will be forever destroyed, never to recover or perpetuate their kind. Of all the believers who have challenged God, who have tried to live their lives with compromises, who have tried to intertwine their own views with those of God, will also be long gone - dead.

The remnant will be mature believers only. Those who have been faithful to God. And it is those folks who will enter into the Millennium and repopulate the world. Prosperity will come to them and to no one else.

So now, as for you and me. If we pursue our spiritual lives as God intends for us, then we will be the mature remnant who will repopulate heaven and will be the recipients of those 'beyond imagination' blessings that other believers, who have not seen their spiritual life as something of value, will not receive. Heaven will be full of people obviously. And believers only will populate heaven (with God and elect angels of course), but only the mature believers will be the recipients of the best of the best of blessings.

Last, in this passage, Zephaniah states that there is but one opinion which counts in this universe, 'Gods Holy Mountain.' This is representative of the Word of God. A mountain is vast and deep and wide and high. And Gods Word is that. Humanity has tried to superimpose all manner of human views upon Gods views. With false religions, false philosophies, false agendas, false beliefs, false interpretations of life, of history, of literally everything imaginable. Mankind is on a path of total destruction and it will not be until God returns in all His glory and power and rescues the last remaining few on earth, that people finally get it.

Today we all have the scriptures, and the opportunity to understand where we will fit in history. We can be historical filler (worthless filler), or we can be champions (spiritually by Gods grace), and champions which God will form us into, out of His molding doctrine (we cannot do it on our own). This choice of destiny is always there until the last moment of your life. Then it will be gone.

Now is the time to post a prayer.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.

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