Zephaniah 1.6b-The Lord Will Severely Discipline His People Who Don't Study His Word and Don't Pray to Him
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 16, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 1:6b-The Lord Will Severely Discipline His People Who Don’t Study His Word and Don’t Pray to Him
Lesson # 17
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. 6 And those who have turned back from following the LORD, and those who have not sought the LORD or inquired of Him.” (NASB95)
“And those who have not sought the LORD or inquired of Him” provides an explanation to the previous prophetic statement recorded in Zephaniah 1:5 which is in addition to the first explanation recorded in the first prophetic statement in Zephaniah 1:6.
“Those who have not sought the LORD” is composed of the following: (1) relative pronoun ʾăšer (אֲשֶׁר), “those who” (3) negative particle lōʾ (לֹא), “not” (4) third person plural piel perfect form of the verb bāqaš (בָּקַשׁ), “have sought” (5) object marker ʾēt (אֵת), which is not translated (6) masculine singular proper noun yhwh (יהוה), “the Lord.”
The relative particle ʾăšer means “those who” since it is functioning as an independent relative pronoun referring to Jewish believers who had entered into a covenant relationship with God as a result of being declared justified through faith in Him.
The verb bā∙qǎš means “to seek after” since it pertains to a person attempting to learn information about an object implying diligence in the procurement of the information.
The verb’s meaning is emphatically negated by the negative particle lōʾ which functions as a marker of emphatic negation.
It is emphatic since the Lord is asserting that He will violently remove these Jewish believers from Jerusalem because of their idolatry which He would not do unless they were unrepentant about their apostasy.
Therefore, the verb bā∙qǎš indicates that these apostate Jewish believers “never sought after” the Lord in the sense that they never searched His Word in order to discern and perform His will.
The piel stem of the verb bā∙qǎš is iterative referring to a habitual activity or one that is done repeatedly.
Therefore, this indicates that these apostate Jewish believers were by no means making 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.
The perfect tense of this verb is a stative perfect expressing a state or condition indicating that these apostate Jewish believers existed in a state of by no means making it their habit of seeking after God’s will through a study of His Word.
Once again, we have the proper noun yhwh (Yahweh) “Lord” which is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with God’s covenant relationship with the Jewish people.
The proper noun yhwh contains the figure of metonymy where seeking after the Lord is put for seeking after His will.
“Or inquired of Him” presents the result of the previous statement that certain apostate Jewish believers living in Jerusalem were by no means making it their habit of seeking after the Lord’s will through a study of His Word.
“Inquired” is the third person plural qal perfect form of the verb dāraš (דָּרַשׁ), which means “to petition, to present a formal request, to make a request in prayer.”
The verb’s meaning is emphatically negated by the negative particle lōʾ which functions as a marker of emphatic negation.
It is emphatic since the Lord is asserting that He will violently remove these Jewish believers from Jerusalem because of their idolatry which He would not do unless they were unrepentant about their apostasy.
Therefore, the verb dāraš indicates that these apostate Jewish believers “never made a request of” the Lord in prayer.
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. 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.” (My translation)
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.
Consequently, 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.
Both can mean “to seek after” and “to make a request.”
Both can speak of the believer seeking after the Lord in the sense of learning His will through a study of His Word.
Both 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.
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.
It 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.
This resulted in a failure to pray according to His will.
A study of God’s Word prompts the believer to pray to God and 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.
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.
In fact, Antichrist will kill those who do not worship him (Revelation 13) and Daniel 11:36-40 and Second Thessalonians 2:3-10 teach that the Antichrist will exalt himself above every god that people worship.
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.