Our God Reigns Over All
Notes
Transcript
The last part of verse 3 indicates hope for God’s people, those who seek the LORD, who humbly carry out His ordinance, seeking righteousness and humility. Leading into verse 4-15, the judgment of God will fall on Judah’s neighbors: the Philistines to her east, Moab and Ammon to her west, Ethiopia to her south, and Assyria to her north. These four compass points represent the nations of the world that surround Judah, who will be judged on that great and terrible day of the LORD.
First, we will see that
I. God will judge the nations justly, 2:4-15.
I. God will judge the nations justly, 2:4-15.
A. He will judge those who persistently attack His people, 2:4-7.
A. He will judge those who persistently attack His people, 2:4-7.
What God pronounces is judgment against four of the five city-states of the Philistines, starting from the south and moving north:
Gaza — will be abandoned
Ashkelon — a desolation
Ashdod — will be driven out at noon ( this will happen when it is least expected.)
Ekron — will be uprooted.
The geographical background of the Philistines is the nation of the Cherethites, located in the Aegean Islands and Crete.
“The word of the LORD is against you” — God is not a spectator, sitting on the side of history, anxiously observing the world. His laws and requirements are just as relevant to the Gentiles as they are to the Jews in the OT.
Though the Israelites did not totally remove these from Canaan, the promised land, the LORD will destroy them; they will be devoid of population.
God’s promise to His people, specifically for the remnant Judahites:
the seacoast will be pastures, with places for shepherds and their flocks.
the coast will be for the remnant of Judah, who will pasture on it.
They will live in the houses of Ashkelon, lying down in safety at night.
The LORD will care for them and reestablish them. God himself intervenes for them and restores to them the ,and once held by the Philistines, Jer. 23:3
“Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.
B. He will judge those who freely insult His people, 2:8-11.
B. He will judge those who freely insult His people, 2:8-11.
Next is the judgment pronounced upon Moab and Ammon, blood relation to Judah through Abraham’s nephew Lot, Genesis 19:36-38
Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.
… yet now they Have historically had a tumultuous relationship with the children of Israel.
The LORD of hosts is aware of all that goes on in the nations of the world. Nothing is hidden from Him. He states that He has heard the taunting, the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the sons of Ammon, having made themselves great against Judah and as a result grown in their arrogance. Their attack on God’s people was to attack the God of Israel . . .
The certainty of God’s judgment is stated: “As I live,” declares the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “surely ...
Moab — like Sodom
Sons of Ammon — like Gomorrah. More specifically, they will be ...
Possessed by nettles.
salt pits — evaporation pans for salt “harvest.”
a perpetual desolation.
The remnant of God’s people (the weak) will plunder them
They (the weak) will also take over their territories, Isaiah 11:14
They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; Together they will plunder the sons of the east; They will possess Edom and Moab, And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.
Their pride has earned them their judgment, Isa. 16:6
We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride; Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury; His idle boasts are false.
“Make him drunk, for he has become arrogant toward the Lord; so Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will become a laughingstock.
Their taunting and arrogance against the people of the LORD of hosts will bring His terror on them, removing them from the face of the earth, no longer able to offer the sacrifices to feed their gods— what kind of gods are these who can be starved? Their Gods are revealed to all as impotent, nonexistent! They are nothing before the LORD of hosts!
And what is true of Moab and Ammon will also be true of those nations who freely insult God’s people. All the coastlands of the nations will bow down to the LORD in worship, right where they are. They will not have to go to Jerusalem to be worshippers of the LORD.
C. He will judge those who seem far away from His people, 2:12.
C. He will judge those who seem far away from His people, 2:12.
Biblical Ethiopia is the southernmost nation that the people of Judah knew of. Ethiopia then consisted of today’s southern Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and northern Ethiopia. The LORD knows all about each nation and the brief statement that the Ethiopians “will be slain” by the LORD’s sword was a just judgment. See Isaiah 18-20; Jer. 46; Ezek. 29-32. The hand holding the sword is the LORD— The instrument (sword) the LORD uses is the king of Babylon in 586 BC, shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. None would be able to escape God’s judgment.
D. He will judge those who exalt themselves over God and His people, 2:13-18.
D. He will judge those who exalt themselves over God and His people, 2:13-18.
Assyria, who always attacked from the north, would be judged. He will stretch out his hand against … a metaphor for judgment.
He will destroy Assyria the nation
He will make Nineveh a desolation
Once well watered, it will become parched like the wilderness.
Birds and beasts of the land will find residence there— not people.
Its desolation is soon to occur; all that demonstrates her wealth and trade will rot away. 612 BC is the year of Nineveh's desolation, with what was left of the Assyrian army, allied with Egypt, was utterly destroyed in 605 BC at the battle of Carchemish on the upper Euphrates River.
The once powerful nation, its capital boisterous and proud, which exulted itself over all others and thought herself invincible, was brought low in her desolation, fit for animals to rest in. Her arrogance, and self-deification has been silenced.
She will get no pity from everyone who passes by, rather hissing and the contemptuous wave of the hand will be her gain. This the ultimate disgrace in the Near East for anyone.
Our God is a just God who does punish iniquity, but in His great anger against sin, He does remember mercy and gives hope to His remnant. To reject His mercy and hope is to reject the giver of mercy and hope.
II. God will judge Jerusalem justly, 3:1-7.
II. God will judge Jerusalem justly, 3:1-7.
A. Judgment of the disobedient with a message of hope, 3:1-5.
A. Judgment of the disobedient with a message of hope, 3:1-5.
1. God’s people will be judged, 3:1-2.
1. God’s people will be judged, 3:1-2.
The woe is pronounced against Jerusalem
a. God’s people are defiled because of their rebellion, 3:1.
a. God’s people are defiled because of their rebellion, 3:1.
rebellious — mutinous, disobedient toward God
defiled — polluted, bloodstained, unclean in their religious practices
tyrannical — repressive, bullying, crushing in her relationship toward fellow humans.
b. God’s discipline did not compel His people to obey, 3:2.
b. God’s discipline did not compel His people to obey, 3:2.
They disregarded God’s messengers, the prophets,
They did not heed or respond to the prophet’s message from the LORD,
They depended on their treaties and alliances rather than trusting in the LORD, and
They preferred to draw near to the Baals, Ashtoreth, Chemosh, Milkon, their priests and even the astral deities rather than her God.
2. The leaders of God’s people will be judged, 3:3-4.
2. The leaders of God’s people will be judged, 3:3-4.
Her princes — ready to pounce on the weak and helpless to satisfy themselves;
Her judges — in the darkness take all, leaving nothing.
Her prophets — irresponsible, apostate, promising what the people want to hear, and
Her priests, who have profaned all that was holy or sacred by disregarding the Law to please the people in their midst, yet in contrast is God ...
3. God will judge justly in righteousness in spite of the unjust, 3:5.
3. God will judge justly in righteousness in spite of the unjust, 3:5.
He is in their midst, righteous and just in all His dealing with mankind.
God’s moral standards are plainly visible to all; He never fails.
Yet the unjust “knows no shame.” As their excesses grow, the people become incapable of being affected or disturbed by what they do.
B. Judgment of all nations with a message of hope, 3:6-8.
B. Judgment of all nations with a message of hope, 3:6-8.
Nations before Israel have appeared and then disappeared in history. How? It is directly related to their moral collapse and disregard for the basic principles of righteousness taught in the word of God.
The most recent example close to home for Judah: the northern kingdom of Israel!
The Lord gives His people a warning, but they are described as “eager to corrupt all their deeds.
The LORD calls for His people to wait for Him. He has a a plan and will act om their behalf, though they may not deserve it.
Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
The LORD Himself purposes to gather all the nations of the earth together so that He might execute judgment against all of them. They have failed to keep His moral laws, they have failed to execute justice, and they have failed to believe in Him. This day is coming when the LORD our God will reign over all on this earth. Make sure that you are one of His or face His burning anger against sin.