Zephaniah 3.7c-Apostate Jews Living in Jerusalem Obstinately Persisted in Disobeying God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 7, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 3:7c-Apostate Jews Living in Jerusalem Obstinately Persisted in Disobeying God
Lesson # 72
Zephaniah 3:7 “I said, ‘Surely you will revere Me, accept instruction.’ So her dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed concerning her. But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.” (NASB95)
“But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds” is composed of the following: (1) adverb ʾākēn (אָכֵן), “but” (2) third person plural hiphil active perfect form of the verb šākam (שָׁכַם), “they were eager” (3) third person plural hiphil active perfect form of the verb šāḥat (שָׁחַת), “to corrupt” (4) collective singular construct form of the noun kōl (כֹּל), “all” (5) feminine plural construct form of the noun ʿălîlâ (עֲלִילָה), “deeds” (6) third person masculine plural form of the pronominal suffix hēmâ (־הֵמָה), “their.”
The adverb ʾākēn means “but, however” since it is being used here as a marker of an emphatic contrast meaning it is introducing a statement which stands in contrast with the previous statement that God is threatening to inflict suffering against the citizens of Jerusalem as punishment for their unrepentant sinful lives.
The noun kōl pertains to the totality of actions or activities performed by the citizens of Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C.
The construct state of this word means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the noun ʿălîlâ means “actions, activities” since it pertains to what is done as an activity or an action.
The genitive relation between these two words is an enumerated genitive meaning that when the word in the construct is a number or unit of measure, the genitive specifies what is counted or measured by the construct noun.
Therefore, this indicates that the noun kōl is a number and ʿălîlâ is specifying for the reader what is the number.
The construct state of this noun ʿălîlâ means it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is third person masculine plural form of the pronominal suffix hēmâ, which means “their” referring of course to the citizens of Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day.
The genitive relation is possession indicating that these activities are performed by the citizens of Jerusalem.
The verb šākam literally means “to get up early” but the idiom is that of being eager to engage in sinful behavior.
The third person plural form of this verb is referring to the citizens of Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C.
The hiphil stem of this verb is causative which expresses the idea of the citizens of Jerusalem causing all their activities to be eagerly performed or engaged in.
The perfect conjugation is a complete-action perfect which describes a past action or event as a complete whole.
In other words, it is a constative perfect which is describing in summary fashion the action of the citizens of Jerusalem causing all their activities to be eagerly performed.
The verb šāḥat is in the hiphil stem and means “to be corrupted” since it pertains to a change of state from conduct which is result of obedience to God to that conduct which is the result of disobedience to God.
The hiphil stem of this verb is intransitive since it does not take a direct object and describes the subject as exhibiting a particular state.
Here it expresses the idea of all the activities eagerly performed by the citizens of Jerusalem exhibit the state of being corrupted.
The perfect conjugation of this verb speaks of a present state resulting from a previously completed action.
Here it speaks of the corrupted state of the actions of the citizens of Jerusalem after they have performed these activities.
Zephaniah 3:7 “I said, ‘Surely, she will respect Me! She will accept correction!’ Consequently, her dwelling place would never be violently destroyed in accordance with every type of suffering for which I am threatening to inflict as punishment against her. But in fact, all their activities they were eager to engage in are corrupted.” (My translation)
Zephaniah 3:7 ends with an emphatic adversative clause which stands in direct contrast with the statement that God is threatening to inflict various types of suffering against the citizens of Jerusalem as punishment for their unrepentant sinful lives.
This clause states that all the activities of the citizens of Jerusalem in Zephaniah’s day in the seventh century B.C. which they were eager to engage in were corrupted meaning that their activities or actions went from a state of being the result of obedience to God to that which is the result of disobedience to God.
This implies that Zephaniah is addressing the apostasy of those Jews living in the city of Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C.
These are Jews who were in a covenant relationship with God as a result of being declared justified by God through faith in Him and once lived their lives in obedience to Him but are now living their lives in disobedience to Him.
This adversative clause thus speaks of the obstinacy of these unfaithful Jews.
Zephaniah 1:5-6 describes the activities of these Jews which manifested their apostasy and Zephaniah 1:8-13 continues the description of the activities of these apostate Jews living in the city of Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C.
So 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.
Zephaniah 3:7 makes clear that these believers in the city of Jerusalem will be disciplined by Him.
In fact, they will suffer dying discipline because they failed to repent from the first two stages of discipline.
There are two categories of divine discipline that are an expression of God’s love: (1) Negative: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense that He “punishes” them when they are disobedient to His will. (2) Positive: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense of “training” them when they are obedient to His will and in fellowship.
Both categories of divine discipline are designed to keep the believer on track in executing the Father’s will by becoming like Christ.
The Word of God is employed in both positive and negative categories of discipline.
Hebrews 4:12 The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart. (NASB95)
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NASB95)
The Holy Spirit disciplines the disobedient child of God by rebuking them with the Word of God as it is communicated by the pastor-teacher in the local assembly and the purpose of such rebuke is to conform the believer to the will of his heavenly Father, which results in blessing and true happiness.
Jeremiah 32:33 “They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction.” (NASB95)
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting adversity, trials, and irritations to come into their lives that are beyond their capacity to handle in order to get their attention and to focus upon their number one priority in life as children of God, which is to conformity to the Father’s will.
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting them to reap the fruits of their bad decisions so that they might learn that conformity to His will is the only way to true joy and happiness and blessing in life (Ezek. 16:43; Gal. 6:7-8).
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).
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to build the believer’s confidence in his relationship with God and to get him to depend on God for his security and protection rather than money and human relationships.
He disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to demonstrate to the believer the sufficiency of God’s Word in handling any problem or difficulty in life.
The Lord Jesus Christ disciplines the believer in the sense that He rebukes, punishes and trains the believer because He personally and affectionately loves the believer (Revelation 3:14-19).
Revelation 3:20-22 teaches that the Lord disciplines us not only because He loves us and but also because He wants to reward us and just as any good father disciplines his children because he loves them, so God the Father disciplines His children because He loves them.
If God did not train us when we are obedient and punish us when we are disobedient, then we would be illegitimate children, thus divine discipline in the sense of punishment and training is the mark of a child of God (Hebrews 12:4-13).
Hebrews 12:10 teaches us that ultimately, God disciplines us because He wants us to share in His character and integrity, which is meant by the phrase “share His holiness.”
We are not to get angry or bitter when God disciplines us through the Word, or adversity and underserved suffering but rather we are to listen to what God is trying to say to us and to learn the lesson that He is teaching us so that we might acquire the character of our heavenly Father (cf. Ecc. 7:14; Prov. 3:11-12; 15:32-33; Job 5:17).