Zephaniah 1.6-The Lord Will Severely Discipline His People Who Don't Study His Word and Don't Pray to Him (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday June 14, 2026

Zephaniah Series: Zephaniah 1:6-The Lord Will Severely Discipline His People Who Don’t Study His Word and Don’t Pray to Him

Lesson # 12

Zephaniah 1:6 “Yes, those who turn themselves back from following after the Lord. Specifically, those who never make it their habit of seeking after the Lord’s will. Consequently, they never make it their habit of making a request of Him.” (Pastor’s translation)

Zephaniah 1:6 continues the description of the individuals described at the end of Zephaniah 1:5 who were said to bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord while at the same time they bound themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the king which is a sarcastic reference to Baal.

This is a description of Jewish believers in apostasy who had entered into a covenant relationship with God as a result of being declared justified through faith in Him.

This is indicated by the term yhwh, “Lord” which emphasizes that God has a covenant relationship with these individuals living in the city of Jerusalem who were attempting to worship Him and Baal at the same time.

Therefore, the second prophecy which appears in Zephaniah 1:5 speaks of those who have trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel and are a part of the covenant people Israel.

However, this prophecy declares that they are in apostasy because they are not remaining faithful to Him because they are attempting to worship the Lord while at the same time they are practicing idolatry by worshipping Baal.

Zephaniah 1:6 continues the description of these apostate Jewish believers living in Jerusalem by describing them as turning themselves back from following after the Lord.

This assertion in verse 6 defines the previous assertion in verse 5 in the sense that when these Jewish believers bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to both the Lord and Baal they are actually turning away from obeying the Lord.

They are committing apostasy by doing so since the Lord demands that they worship Him and no other gods.

This verse also contains the proper noun yhwh (Yahweh) “Lord” which again indicates that the Lord through Zephaniah is speaking of those who have trusted in Him and are believers since in Old Testament Israel non-believers do not have a covenant relationship with Him but only believers.

So the Lord in Zephaniah 1:6 is stating that He will violently remove these apostate Jewish believers living in the city of Jerusalem because they turned themselves back from following after the Lord by practicing idolatry through the worship of Baal.

These individuals were thus practicing idolatry in that they were worshipping the creation of God rather than God Himself and thus they were worthy of death because they disobeyed the first and second of the Ten Commandments.

God warned Israel about this practice but Manasseh led Israel into this perversion according to 2 Kings 21:3, 5 (cf. 2 Kings 23:4-5).

Zephaniah 1:6 makes another assertion regarding these apostate Jewish believers living in the city of Jerusalem, namely that they never make it their habit of seeking after the Lord’s will and thus, they never made it their habit of making a request of Him in prayer.

This assertion identifies specifically how these apostate Jewish believers in Jerusalem were turning themselves back from following after the Lord.

This assertion contains the verbs bā∙qǎš and dāraš and both can mean “to seek after” and “to make a request” and both can speak of the believer seeking after the Lord in the sense of learning His will through a study of His Word and can speak of the believer making a request of God in prayer.

The problem is resolved when one understands the relationship between the study of God’s Word and knowing God’s will through a study of His Word and making a request of Him in prayer according to His will.

First of all, in order to make a request of God, it must be according to His will if He is to fulfill the request.

The believer learns the will of God by a study of God’s Word and the Spirit reveals the Father’s will through the study of the Word of God and God will not fulfill a request which is not according to His will.

Consequently, the believer must first learn God’s will by studying God’s Word in order to present a request to the Father in prayer which He will fulfill.

Therefore, based upon this understanding the verb bā∙qǎš is speaking of seeking the Lord’s will through a study of God’s Word whereas dāraš speaks of presenting a request of God in prayer.

Praying according to God’s will is the direct result of learning God’s will through a study of His Word.

So Zephaniah 1:6 describes these apostate Jewish believers living in Jerusalem as those who never made it their habit seeking after the Lord’s will through a study of His Word, which means that they never searched His Word in order to discern and perform His will.

This was their lifestyle or habitual activity because they never made it their habit of seeking after the Lord in the sense of studying and learning His Word so as to determine His will for their lives and this was a continual state they were living in and consequently, they never made it their habit of making a request of the Lord in prayer.

As a result of never making it their habit of seeking after the Lord’s will through a study of His Word, these apostate Jewish believers never made it their habit of presenting prayer requests to the Lord.

They did not present prayer requests to the Lord as a result of never making it their habit of seeking after His will through a study of His Word.

Consequently since they did not know God’s will because they did not know His Word which reveals His will, they could not present Him prayer requests which were according to His will.

So Zephaniah 1:6 is describing the apostate condition of these Jewish believers who were living in Jerusalem who entered into a covenant relationship with God as a result of being declared justified by Him through faith in Him.

This apostate condition was manifested in their failure to learn God’s will through a study of His Word and this resulted in a failure to pray according to His will.

A study of God’s Word prompts the believer to pray to God.

This is illustrated in the book of Daniel who was reading the prophecies of Jeremiah as recorded in Daniel 9 which prompted him to pray to God to fulfill His Word through the prophet Jeremiah.

During the church age, when we use the term “apostasy” we are using it exclusively of the Christian who is living in habitual disobedience to the will of the Father which is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God and this in turn results in God the Father disciplining this type of Christian.

During the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, when we use this term we are using it exclusively of those Jews who have been declared justified through faith in Yahweh and are in a covenant relationship with Him.

This term means that they are living in habitual disobedience to the will of Yahweh, i.e. the Father which is revealed by the Spirit through the Old Testament Scriptures.

Whether during the Old Testament dispensations or during the church age, the term “apostasy” refers to a believer justified by faith in the Lord initially habitually obeying the Word of God but then doing a 180 and are now going in the opposite direction by living in habitual disobedience to God’s Word.

Zephaniah 1:6 makes clear that these believers in the city of Jerusalem will be disciplined by Him and in fact, they will suffer dying discipline because they failed to repent from the first two stages of discipline and thus they failed to repent of their apostate condition.

The description of these apostate Jewish believers living in Jerusalem as recorded in Zephaniah 1:5b-6 was fulfilled in the prophet Zephaniah’s day in that they were killed in the Babylonian invasions led by Nebuchadnezzar.

They are not related to the tribulation portion of Daniel’s seventieth week.

We must remember that Zephaniah 1:5-6 is connected to the prophecies recorded in Zephaniah 1:4 which contains two prophetic declarations which are not related to the tribulation portion of Daniel’s seventieth week which will end with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

There are two reasons to support this.

First the worship of Baal took place during the days of Zephaniah and secondly Antichrist will be worshipped during the tribulation portion of Daniel’s seventieth week and in fact Antichrist will kill those who do not worship him (Revelation 13).

Daniel 11:36-40 and Second Thessalonians 2:3-10 teach that the Antichrist will exalt himself above every god that people worship and thus because Zephaniah 1:4 was fulfilled through the Babylonian invasions of Jerusalem Zephaniah 1:5-6 was as well since these verses are tied to the prophecies in Zephaniah 1:4.

So these prophetic declarations recorded in Zephaniah 1:4-6 were fulfilled in a near sense through Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon sacking Judah and the city of Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar’s armies did kill the majority of those practicing idolatry in Judah since Nebuchadnezzar’s armies destroyed the city of Jerusalem during his third invasion of this city in 587 B.C.

He killed those apostate Jewish believers who had entered into a covenant relationship with God as a result of being declared justified by Him through faith in Him.

This king also killed those Jews who had never entered into a covenant relationship with Him as a result of never trusting in Him.

Nebuchadnezzar’s attack of Jerusalem in 605 B.C. during the third year of Jehoiakim, Judah’s king resulted in the first of three deportations of the Jewish people (Daniel 1:1; 2 Kings 24:1-2, 13; 2 Chronicles 36:5, 6, 7).

Nebuchadnezzar captured the city of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. and in 587 B.C. destroyed the city and the temple.