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És gazdagságuk prédává lesz, házaik pedig pusztává. Építnek házakat, de nem lakják, és plántálnak szõlõket, de nem iszszák azoknak borát.
Sofoniás 1:13
Exploring the Meaning of Zephaniah 1
Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff
Zephaniah’s prophecy is said to have taken place in the days of Josiah, the king of Judah. Josiah was a good king, walking in the all ways of the Lord, but both his sons were evil. He was the last king of Judah before Nebuchadnezzar's army conquered Jerusalem, and took many of the Jews captive to exile in Babylon for 70 years. (See the last four chapters of 2 Kings for Josiah’s story.)
The first chapter of the book of Zephaniah, in Zephaniah 1:1-3, begins with a prophecy that God will consume all things. We know that this isn't literally what was going to happen; consuming is not something that God does. Instead, it's something we do to ourselves when we depend only on our understanding of truth and ignore what is said in the Word. It means the perishing of our understanding of that truth.
The people who lived at that time were becoming totally external; there was no more affection for truths. Random thoughts about truths were gone, even the most outward truths of the stories were not considered worthy of thought, and any difficult truths were ignored. The church was becoming only a matter of rote external motions.
In Zephaniah 1:4-6, Baal, the stars and moon and sun, and Malcam, are false gods. Again it seems as though the Lord will punish Judah, but actually, by having “turned back from following the Lord,” the people of Judah has turned to false gods have no real power.
In Zephaniah 1:7-8, nevertheless the lord will have mercy on those that turn back to Him and can sit at His feast. But as in the parable of the wedding supper, (Matthew 22:11-13) only those who have the right clothing are welcome. Why this rule?
Garments mean evident truths that a person “wears”. Princes and kings mean ruling truths or falsities that a person believes and uses to guide ones actions. When these are not from the Lord’s Word they lead one astray.
In Zephaniah 1:9-11, the text refers to areas of Jerusalem, where of all places God’s Word should be revered and believed and used to gain wisdom. Yet even there, there is mourning and wailing.
Maktesh means a mortar for grinding flour, and so perhaps a neighborhood of bakers. Merchants are traders, and are used to mean those who trade news of truths that they have heard. The whole idea here is that known truths are being defiled in the very place they should be honored.
In Zephaniah 1:12, 13, the idea has come about that either there is no God or that He doesn’t care. The houses and vineyards, the truths they live with and the new truths that they can drink in are gone, there is no more truth in the church.
In Zephaniah 1:14-17, there first is a prophecy of the Lord’s coming, “The great day of the Lord is near”.
We need to realize that words in the story that regard quickness or haste mostly mean sureness and importance. God doesn’t have a calendar; all time is the present with Him.
Then comes the reaction for those who have falsified His truth and turned away from his commandments -- ignored Him. They will be judged, and they won’t be happy about it.
In Zephaniah 1:18, the “truth” they honor -- the silver -- will be seen to have no value, and the appearance of good they put on -- the gold -- to be only paint.
Matthew 23
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Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
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Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
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All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
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For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
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But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
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And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
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And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
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But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
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And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
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Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
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But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
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And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
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But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
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Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
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Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
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And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
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Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
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Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
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And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
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And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
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Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
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Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
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Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
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And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
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Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
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Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
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Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
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Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
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That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
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Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
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Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
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For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
