Zephaniah 1.5b-The Lord Will Violently Execute As Criminals His People in Apostasy
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday February 10, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 1:5b-The Lord Will Violently Execute As Criminals His People Living in Apostasy
Lesson # 15
Zephaniah 1:4 “So I will stretch out My hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests. 5 And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, and those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom.” (NASB95)
We have textual problem at this point in the verse.
The Masoretic text reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the LORD.”
However, the original form of the LXX does not translate the articular masculine plural hithpael participle form of the verb ḥāwâ (חָוָה), “those who bow down” a second time in the verse.
It may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line.
“Those who bow down” is the articular masculine plural hithpael participle form of the verb ḥāwâ (חָוָה), which means “to swear an oath to someone, to bind oneself to fulfill an obligation to someone” since it pertains to putting oneself under obligation to someone.
Thus, the word actually speaks of swearing allegiance to someone.
Here it is used of those living in the city of Jerusalem taking an oath in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel in the sense of binding themselves to fulfill their obligation to the Lord or in other words they bound themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord.
“And yet swear by Milcom” is a temporal clause which denotes simultaneous action indicating that in Zephaniah’s day there were Jews living in the city of Jerusalem who bound themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord “while simultaneously” they repeatedly prostrated themselves before Baal.
“Swear by Milcom” is composed of the following: (1) articular masculine plural niphal passive participle form of the verb šābaʿ (שָׁבַע), “swear” (2) preposition b (בְּ), “by” (10) masculine singular noun melek (מֶלֶךְ), “Milcom.”
The verb šābaʿ means “to swear an oath to someone, to bind oneself to fulfill an obligation to someone” since it pertains to putting oneself under obligation to someone and thus, the word actually speaks of swearing allegiance to someone.
Here it is used of those living in the city of Jerusalem taking an oath in the name of Baal in the sense of binding themselves to fulfill their obligation to Baal or in other words they bound themselves by a promise to remain loyal to Baal.
The participle conjugation of this verb šābaʿ is indicating simultaneous action with the first use of this verb in the verse indicating that while certain Jews in Zephaniah’s day bound themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord, they simultaneously did the same with Baal.
The masculine singular noun melek actually means “king.”
Zephaniah 1:4 “Furthermore, I will surely stretch out My hand against Judah as well as each and every one of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. Specifically, I will bring about the violent removal from this place the number belonging to Baal, the well-known pagan priests. 5 Also, those who repeatedly prostrate themselves on their rooftops before the multitude of celestial bodies belonging to the stellar universe. Likewise those who bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord while at the same they bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the king.” (Author’s translation)
Zephaniah 1:5 contains a second prophecy in that the Lord predicts that He will also violently remove from the city of Jerusalem all those who bind themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the Lord while at the same time binding themselves by a promise to remain loyal to the king.
In this prophecy, the masculine singular noun melek does not mean “Milcom” or “Molech” but rather “king.”
Some English translations such as the NEB, NASB, and NRSV prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” which was the name of an Ammonite god.
This follows some LXX MSS, Syriac, and Vulgate while some like the NIV and NLT render the word “Molech,” which was a god to whom the Israelites offered their children.
Despite the fact that many of the English translations render this word “Milcom” here in Zephaniah 1:5 seems unlikely that this is the meaning of melek.
Although Milcom was one of many gods who the Israelites worshipped (Judg. 10:6), this god’s popularity does not seem to have continued after the days of Solomon according to 1 Kings 11:5, 33, which possibly could have been due to the hostility between Ammonites and Israelites (cf. 2 Chron. 20:1-26; 27:5; Isa. 11:14; Jer. 49:1-6; Amos 1:13-15).
It could have been the result of the overshadowing presence of Baalism and the fertility religion of Canaan (cf. 2 Kings 17:16-17).
Furthermore, the context and specifically Zephaniah 1:4 strongly suggests this rendering since it pits the worship of Yahweh against Baal and the false rites associated with him, including the syncretistic blending of Baalism with the worship of Israel’s God.
So the noun melek here in Zephaniah 1:5 refers sarcastically to Baal who was worshipped in the city of Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day according to Zephaniah 1:4.
In Zephaniah 1:5, the term yhwh, “Lord” 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.
This word thus 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 did not have a covenant relationship with Him but only believers.
Therefore, this 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 and refers to those have been declared justified through their faith.
If they lived during the church age, we would say that they are regenerated.
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.
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.
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.
Believers in apostasy undergo divine discipline whether they lived during Old Testament dispensations or during the church age or during the eschatological dispensations.
The second prophecy which appears in Zephaniah 1:5 makes clear that these believers in the city of Jerusalem will be disciplined by Him.
In fact, they will suffer dying discipline because they fail to repent from the first two stages of discipline.
There are three categories of divine discipline (punishment) for the disobedient child of God: (1) Warning (Rev. 3:20; James 5:9) (2) Intense (Ps. 38:1; 2 Th. 2:11). (3) Dying (Jer. 9:16; 44:12; Phlp. 3:18-19; Re. 3:16; Ps. 118:17-18; 1 Jo. 5:16).
This second prophecy which appears in Zephaniah 1:5 indicates that these apostate Jews living in Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day had developed a syncretistic form of religion, blending the worship of Yahweh with the worship of Baal.
They were compromising meaning that they were divided in their loyalties.
Believers in every dispensation are prohibited from doing this.
There are many examples of believers compromising in their relationship to the Lord (Aaron and the Exodus generation (Exodus 32:12-16), and Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-11).
Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (NASB95)
James warned Jewish Christians in James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (NASB95)
In Luke 9:23-25 and 14:25-27, the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to be totally and completely devoted to Him otherwise they were not really His disciples.