A Future for All

Zephaniah 1-3

Introduction:

Zephaniah, the second in this triad of 7th century BC prophets.

He prophesied in 630 BC right in between Nahum and Habakkuk.

And as I said last week, each has a particular theme, and a different style of writing.

As with Nahum, Zephaniah is also concerned with judgment, but his judgment is more broad in scope and introduces the universal theme of the Day of the LORD.

Although he does mention Assyria and Nineveh, yet only in a broad list of other nations.

His prophecy of judgment is for every wicked deed and everyone who lives unrighteously.

He prophecies judgment upon every nation including Israel and Judah.

Then he speaks of a coming time when the Israelites will be gathered back into their own land and the nations of the earth will honor them.

This is yet to be fulfilled, and speaks of Israel being gathered under the presence of the Messiah.

I. The Day of the LORD.

Zephaniah was not the first minor prophet to write about this event, as Joel’s prophecy was saturated with it.

But it is this topic (The Day of the LORD) that determines the timing of the second part of his prophecy which deals with the restoration and redemption of the nation Israel.

This event mentioned twenty six times throughout the scriptures, is almost always associated with the final judgment of God upon the earth, though some have allegorized its meaning.

A few examples:

Isaiah 2:12 NKJV

12 For the day of the Lord of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up— And it shall be brought low—

2 Peter 3:10 NKJV

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

As we can see, there is no reason to accept Peter’s words as anything but literal.

If we accept this event and every mention of it as allegory, then what is to stop us from doing the same to every other theme of the Bible, and even salvation?

The day of the LORD has not come as yet, and when it does, it will be an event that no-one could possibly mistake.

I believe that the plagues John writes about in Revelation are the events of that day.

Once he is finished with the plagues and judgments, he says this…

Revelation 21:1 NKJV

1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

Peter said the old heavens and the earth will be burned up.

Isn’t that what we see in Revelation?

As was in the day of Zephaniah, there is every reason for us to prophecy of the coming of Christ in judgment, for that is the day of the Lord.

His second coming is not going to be some mystical arrival, when He comes it will be a day of reckoning for the world.

How can anyone look at the ways He dealt with sin in the past, recorded for us in the pages of historical writ, and think for a moment that He will do it again or worse?

Do people think they will just reason with Him when He comes?

Do they believe their own hype that somehow they are good enough to be spared the wrath to come?

There will be no place to hide.

There will be cave deep enough to crawl into.

There will be no-one to advocate for you.

There is but one way to avoid what is literally coming, throw yourself upon the mercy of God at the foot of the cross!

We preach Christ as the only remedy for the sickness of the world and its sin.

But, there are today many who will not accept what I am saying.

Those that hold to Covenant Theology which I’ll speak more of in the next point, as well as Preterists (the belief that the Day of the LORD was accomplished in 70 AD, which also means accepting an earlier dating of the writing of Revelation which is lacking in comparison to the later dating of the book).

A bit of history concerning Preterism:

If the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation were fulfilled in the first century, why is there no evidence in the early church writings that the church understood things in this way?

There is zero indication from known, extant writings that anyone understood these teachings in this way. No early church writings teach that Jesus returned in the first century.

Not until the post-Reformation period did Preterism begin to show up on the church’s radar. The first clear preterist was Spanish-Catholic Jesuit Luis Alcazar (1554–1613) in his Investigation of the Hidden Sense of the Apocalypse.1 Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) of Holland was “the first Protestant recruit to Preterism.”2 Grotius was “extremely liberal in his religious views” and took a critical approach, called “the historical-philological method,” to interpreting Scripture.3 Grotius was ecumenical in spirit.

I find much of this belief today in the church.

The modern church boasts of a great wealth of collective knowledge, yet lacks humility.

It’s like the scripture says, every man is right in his own eyes.

I rather think it’s like Festus said to Paul, “Much learning has made thee mad”.

But, you can believe whatever you like. Everyone has the right to be wrong!

We now come to second theme of Zephaniah’s prophecy:

II. The salvation of the nation Israel.

Zephaniah 3:14–20 NKJV

14 Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more. 16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. 17 The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” 18 “I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, Who are among you, To whom its reproach is a burden. 19 Behold, at that time I will deal with all who afflict you; I will save the lame, And gather those who were driven out; I will appoint them for praise and fame In every land where they were put to shame. 20 At that time I will bring you back, Even at the time I gather you; For I will give you fame and praise Among all the peoples of the earth, When I return your captives before your eyes,” Says the Lord.

Now this theme has been interpreted very differently throughout the church age, but as I showed with preterism, the bulk of various interpretations has come on the heals of the reformation.

There are those that advocate for replacement theology called supersessionism, which believes that the church has replaced Israel and the old covenant made with Israel (Exodus 19-24) has been replaced by the new covenant (Luke 22:20).

They also believe that the church is the new Israel, replacing the old.

Such interpretations have led to widespread anti-semitism, and was used by Adolph Hitler to justify persecution of the Jews during World War II.

Covenant Theology is similar in that it believes the church has not replaced Israel, but is the fulfillment of Israel.

It becomes more or less a matter of semantics.

Passages like Romans chapters nine through eleven have been used to promote this, yet, when the apostle Paul speaks of believers as spiritual Israel, he is not advocating replacement theology. He is however making reference to the spiritual idea that we in Christ have been brought into that blessing that was once withheld from the gentiles except through proselytization.

When Paul speaks of the Jews in Romans chapters nine through eleven, he makes it quite clear that he is speaking of the nation Israel in distinction to believers in Christ.

If the distinctions are not maintained, confusion erupts and hypotheses are made into doctrines that divide the body of Christ.

Such verses like Romans 11:25 show that their is a blindness upon the nation of Israel until God has finished with the Gentiles.

Romans 11:25–26 NKJV

25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

The two qualitative words in this passage are “Blindness” and “until”.

They were blind through unbelief and have remained in that state as a nation.

But they will remain that way only “until” the fullness of the Gentiles has come.

Let’s take a logical approach to understanding this passage:

“Blindness in part has happened to Israel..”

Forget about everything for a moment and concentrate upon that word Israel.

What Israel is he speaking of?

Well, it can’t be the fulfilled Israel of Covenant Theology, because that would make no sense. Why are they blind?

So to suddenly make the Israel of verse twenty six to be the fulfilled Israel of Covenant Theology, again makes no sense.

It’s as though we need to just pull it out of a magic hat.

In fact there is no change between a literal nation of Israel and some spiritual Israel.

God is qualifying his promise to the nation of Israel, whom He will save through Christ.

Today, well intentioned people, preachers, Bible teachers, etc., comfort themselves by taking a stand upon some theological position.

Not to say we don’t have theological preferences, but to hide behind them because such and such a scholar or author takes the same position is cowardice.

Many today believe what they believe because of such associations.

My friends, that is how cults are formed!

Does thou have a mind?

Then you are responsible to think for yourself!

A. Supersessionism and God’s promises.

In replacement theology, the church now accepts for itself all the promises that were made to the nation Israel.

Several times in the Old Testament God makes promises to Israel and says that He will keep His promise forever.

Exodus 31:17 NKJV

17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever…

In all the many passages like this one, Israel is not a spiritual or religious entity, but the very prodigy of Jacob, hence - “children of Israel”.

God’s promises were made to the very offspring of Jacob, to attempt to replace them with the church would make God a liar.

B. Supersessionism and Eschatology.

The New Testament has one prophetic book, the book of Revelation.

As most Supersessionist are also preterists, they tend to relegate the book of revelation to nothing more than a history of the church up until 70 AD. which is remarkable seeing the evidence for John writing it was around 96 AD.

If we are to believe he wrote the book prior to the fall of Jerusalem, then that would mean that John wrote some crazy allegory of past events.

The book of Revelation is incredible in several ways:

First, it is very Jewish in it’s formation.

After chapter three verse fourteen, there is no mention of the church again.

It is the only book in the New Testament that names all twelve tribes of Israel.

The majority of the content deals with the final judgment of the world (“Day of the LORD”) and the salvation and restoration of the children of Israel.

The Lamb and the Lion of the tribe of Judah, are presented as forms of the Jewish Messiah (Rev. 14:1).

At the end of the book, there is a joining of Israel and the church as one under the rule of the Lamb. In Revelation twenty one, the bride of the Lamb is described as a city (the holy Jerusalem) having twelve gates (each of the twelve tribes of Israel), and twelve foundations (the names of the apostles).

Conclusion:

I agree with the Apostle Paul, I don’t believe God is finished with Israel. They are precious to Him and His plan for their redemption will have its day.

But in the mean time, you and I are here to tell them and all people about the hope that is found only in Christ.

For there are Gentiles and Jews, right now that are dying without Christ!

Who will go and tell them?

We will.