Zephaniah 2.3a-Faithful, Humble Jewish Believers are Commanded to Continue to Diligently Seek After the Lord
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 31, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 2:3a-Faithful, Humble Jewish Believers are Commanded to Continue to Diligently Seek After the Lord
Lesson # 37
Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the LORD’S anger. (NASB95)
“Seek the LORD” is composed of the following: (1) second person masculine plural piel active imperative form of the verb bāqaš (בָּקַשׁ), “seek” (2) object marker ʾēt (אֵת), which is not translated (6) masculine singular proper noun yhwh (יהוה), “the Lord.”
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Zephaniah is employing the figure of asyndeton in order to express the solemn nature of the command here in verse 3 to seek the Lord.
This figure is designed to get the faithful Jewish believer to meditate upon this command for the purpose of personal application.
The verb bāqaš means “to seek after” since it pertains to a person attempting to do something with a certain amount of intensity and speaks of diligently seeking something or someone.
The first time that the verb bāqaš occurs in Zephaniah 2:3, it is echoing its usage in Deuteronomy 4:29 where Israel is commanded to seek the Lord their God and as a result they will find Him if they search for Him with all their heart and all their soul.
Here, in Zephaniah 2:3, the subject of this verb refers to faithful Jewish believers and does not refer to apostate Jewish believers or the non-believer since Zephaniah describes these individuals as humble and the Scriptures teach that non-believer and the unfaithful are arrogant.
Therefore, the second person masculine plural form of this verb means “all of you” referring to these faithful Jewish believers and is also used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every one of you” emphasizing no exceptions.
Therefore, this verb expresses the idea of these faithful Jews diligently seeking after the Lord’s will through the study of His Word and making every effort to obey His Word and to seek after the Lord would also involve seeking the Lord’s will through prayer.
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 faithful Jewish believers were to continue 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 and seeking after it through prayer.
The imperative conjunction of this verb of course is expressing a command requiring these faithful believers to continue to submit to this command seeking after the Lord through a study of His Word and prayer.
“All you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness” is composed of the following: (1) collective singular construct form of the noun kōl (כֹּל), “all” (2) masculine plural construct form of the adjective ʿānāw (עָנָו), “you humble of” (3) articular feminine singular form of the noun ʾereṣ (אֶרֶץ), “earth” (4) relative pronoun ʾăšer (אֲשֶׁר), “who” (5) masculine singular construct form of the noun mišpāṭ (מִשְׁפָּט), “ordinances” (6) third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû (הוּא) (who), “His” (7) third person plural qal active perfect form of the verb pāʿal (פָּעַל), “have carried out.”
The adjective ʿānāw means “humble” since it pertains to a person who possesses a quality of sincere and straightforward behavior, suggesting a lack of arrogance and pride.
It speaks of a person who has been humbled by suffering whether underserved or deserved.
It speaks of a person who has learned to submit to the will of God as a result of experiencing suffering in life.
They are also characterized as humble because they are faithfully obedient to God’s Word.
The noun ʾereṣ means “the land” and refers to the land God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The articular construction of this word distinguishes the promised land from other places on planet earth.
Prophetically, this word refers to the geographical location of the kingdom of Judah in the seventh century B.C. as well as the geographical location of Israel during the seventieth week of Daniel.
The verb pāʿal means “to practice, to fulfill” since it pertains to meeting requirements in a particular relationship by habitually performing these requirements.
Here it specifically refers to faithful Jewish believers meeting their relationship requirement with God which is habitual obedience to His Word.
The noun mišpāṭ denotes a law or regulation in the form of a spoken or written command or prohibition, which is to be obeyed and results in a penalty for non-compliance.
It is in the singular and means “law” in the sense of a rule of conduct or action prescribed in written form recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority.
It is used in a collective sense referring to the various commands and prohibitions in the Word of God in the sense that it refers to various rules of conduct in the Word of God which are prescribed by God for His people and are binding and enforced by Him who is the sovereign authority over His people.
It speaks of the entire body of rules and regulations or commands and prohibitions in the Word of God.
For the Jew living in the seventh century B.C., it refers to the various commands and prohibitions found in the Mosaic Law and for the Jew living during the seventieth week of Daniel, it speaks of the various commands and prohibitions found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Zephaniah 2:3 Continue making it your habit of diligently seeking after the Lord’s will each and every one of you humble people of the land who are fulfilling His law. (My translation)
Zephaniah 2:3 contains three commands and all of which are directed exclusively at the faithful Jewish believer which is indicated by the fact that those who are to obey these commands are described as humble and who obey the Word of God.
The Scriptures teach that only those who are faithful believers are humble and obey the Word of God.
Nowhere do they describe the unfaithful believer or the non-believer as humble and obeying the Word of God.
Rather they are described as arrogant and proud.
Prophetically, all three commands are directed at the faithful Jewish believers living in the seventh century B.C. and those living during the seventieth week of Daniel.
That they are all directed at those Jews living in the seventh century B.C. in Zephaniah’s day is indicated by several factors.
First, the commands found in Zephaniah 2:1-3 are directly tied to the proclamation of judgment recorded in Zephaniah 1:2-18.
Also, Zephaniah 1:4-6 and 8-13 is a description of Jerusalem and its inhabitants which could have only been fulfilled in the prophet’s day.
That these commands are directed at those Jews living during the seventieth week is indicated by Zephaniah 1:2-3 and 18 which assert that this judgment will be universal or will engulf the entire world.
God’s judgment of the earth through the Babylonian invasions did not engulf the entire world but only the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean regions of the world.
However, His judgments during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week will engulf the entire world.
Also, Zephaniah 3:8-20 contain references to the restoration and regeneration of the nation of Israel and millennial reign of Jesus Christ which immediately follow the tribulation portion of Daniel’s seventieth week.
Nowhere in Judah or Israel’s history was Judah or Israel regenerated with their Messiah living in their midst rejoicing over them.
The first command issued by the prophet Zephaniah is for each and every one of these faithful Jewish believers to continue making it their habit of diligently seeking after the Lord’s will.
This would involve the diligent study of the Word of God which reveals His will.
The Word of God for faithful Jewish believers in the seventh century B.C. would be the Mosaic Law.
However, for those living during the seventieth week, it would be the gospel of Jesus Christ which appears in the Greek New Testament.
To seek after the Lord would also involve seeking the Lord’s will through prayer.
The faithful believer is a humble believer and seeking after the Lord for them would involve learning the Lord’s will through a study of His Word and making a request of Him in prayer with regards to His will.
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.
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.
Praying according to God’s will is the direct result of learning God’s will through a study of His Word.