Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations
3:1 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
3 Her officials within her
are roaring lions;
her judges are evening wolves
that leave nothing till the morning.
4 Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests profane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
6 “I have cut off nations;
their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
without a man, without an inhabitant.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
8 “Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
“for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
all the earth shall be consumed.
The Conversion of the Nations
9 “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.
10 From beyond the rivers of Cush
my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
shall bring my offering.
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
12 But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
13 those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
Israel’s Joy and Restoration
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord. (ESV)
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
When Jesus saves, its definitely LegiT! the Ultimate analogy: I-switched-my-resume-with-Jesus’. doesn’t mean that someone’s a “good” person that they’ll be saved; it is only when they truly accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, is when the actual saving takes place. We’ll still be in sin after being saved, cuz nobody’s perfect except for Him! but compared to before being saved, the sin that we’d have trouble w/ alot, much hatred will be poured down that we wouldn’t want to do it over and over.
Yes, great comment Janiel! like you said, we still sin…in our earthly bodies, before we were saved we had no power to overcome sin, now through the blood of Jesus we have the power to stand in God against sin.Thank you Jesus! only through YOUR death on the cross and resurrection, could we be freed from being enslaved to sin! :0)xo
Great analogy! :)
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
This book of Zephaniah has spent much time talking of the judgment that will come down on the nation of Israel. However, towards the end of this chapter, God brings up how he will spare some and come to later restore Israel. For in the land, not all are wicked and seek after idols, for some are righteous, upstanding people seeking to live for the Lord. And speaking of sparing some, Zephaniah calls out that God has taken away his judgment regarding them and he will clear out the enemies of Israel. And the verse leaves that the people have nothing to fear. And in all of this, the Lord proves that he is mighty to save. He rescues his chosen people.
While I am not in the same situation as the people of Israel, I still have some pretty similar circumstances. God’s judgment is coming soon and the majority of people will feel his wrath unleashed. However, like the portion described above, I have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, one of God’s redeemed people. And I know that I have done absolutely nothing to make myself deserving of being saved. In and of myself, I am a sinful mess, not worth saving for anyone. It is the Lord who has saved me, for he is mighty to save! I need to praise the name of my God for how he has saved me from his judgment and the fires of hell! I was fully guilty yet he chose to save me from the penalty my sins deserve! Praise his name!
Encouraging comment Steffen! I especially can indentify with this statement you wrote! “I have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, one of God’s redeemed people. And I know that I have done absolutely nothing to make myself deserving of being saved. In and of myself, I am a sinful mess, not worth saving for anyone. It is the Lord who has saved me, for he is mighty to save!” AMEN!
Great Comment Steffen!!
-Amen
9“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
God personally is excited and has a joyful (siiick) divine celebration when His people:seek,follow,rejoice and trust in Him!
Hoooot! its a celebration…seeking God!
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
Those who fear God, will accept correction. That straightforward message stood out to me in this passage today. As a Christian, it is telling how much I fear the Lord, by my response to correction. Do I allow myself to be convicted by the sermons and apply God’s Word to my life? Do I listen to the words of a friend who confronts me with sin in my life? My responses to these things reveal how much I fear the Lord. Is obedience to His Word my priority or have I grown too comfortable with my sin? Fearing God is extremely important in our fight against sin. I need to make sure that I am seeking to know more about God’s character and have a high view of Him. I will be more obedient to God’s Word as I gain a biblical understanding of who God is and develop a greater fear of Him.
right on! Katie, this is so important, this exposes our heart condition,
if we are able to take exhortation in love from the body of believers.
Awesome comment Katie! I was thinking the same thing!
Katie, awesome questions in your comment! :D
Excellent comment Katie!! Very eye-opening, especially in the questions you asked!! :)
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
God is proving that he is a loving God and that because of his son we are clean of sin if we repent and have faith in Christ Jesus.
yes! sir Studebaker
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
This verse stands in stark contrast to the ones about the intense destruction that is ahead for those who disobey God and live lives apart from Him. It is a wonderful reminder that when I obey God, serve Him, and love Him that it will be well worth it! To think that God will rejoice over my obedience so much that He will bust out singing is a great picture in my mind. Right now I am in a trial where I am tempted to be anxious and not trust God for the outcome. This verse reminds me that I need to persevere and turn to God in thankful prayer when I am anxious. If I do not sin in my trial, but continue to trust God and give Him the glory He will rejoice! Knowing that my obedience brings joy to God is overwhelming and an encouragement for me to live for Him with my whole heart.
I enjoyed your comment Beth! thank you Jesus!
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
accepting correction is really hard sometimes, but this is because I am thinking only about me and not God. I should know that God is always right and I am always wrong.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
I really liked this verse because it reminds me of how heaven will be. Like it says in this verse all evil will be taken away, we will never sin again! In heaven we will be free! Its so hard to believe it because we really are not at all used to it. Sin is a constant habit in the lives of humans. Though we are made sinners, it is impossible to be sinless but it is possible to sin less. -Pastor Mike. People constantly look at sin and think well either way its impossible for me not to sin, so why should I try not sinning. This in someway is true, but we should always strive to sin less. Its true we will always fall short of the glory of God, but God wants us to keep trying to be more like Him in every way possible. And in Heaven we will be like Him! Perfect, and without sin. I dont know about you but Heaven is a place I hope I will go soon!!! MARANATHA!!! :)
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
God is never to blame for our problems! So many misunerstood people in today’s society believe that God is punishing them for something all the time and that means they get to be mad at Him and blame Him for everything that’s going wrong. However, God is good all the time! He is not to blame when I mess up and fall into sin. He is to blame when I am amazingly forgiven of these sins because He sent His son to die on the cross for us because He loves us! God is not the problem in our lives, sin is. God is righteous, loving, holy, caring, perfect, shows no injustice, but we show no shame in our sin. We try to find excuses for the reasons we are afraid and lie and steal and hurt others and hate people. None of these things have excuses, but all of them can be forgiven through Jesus Christ’s blood on the cross.
God I pray that you would show me the sin in my life and show me my heart when it is wrong but also to help me realize none of that sin came from you, you are perfect and holy and the forgivness comes from you. God please humble me when I am blaming the sin on worldly excuses because I know it is only me giving in.
God is not the problem in our lives, sin is. AMEN!
Great comment Shossa! Amen — “God is not the problem in our lives, sin is.”
She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
So I was driving just yesterday in Dana Point going to the beach when I pulled up to a small SUV in front of me. The driver had covered the back of the car in bumper stickers of her favorite band, funny sayings, and even where she went to college. But the sticker that stuck out to me was one displayed smack dab in the middle of her rear window that said in bold faced letters “Jesus is my Co-Pilot”. WHAT?! If Jesus is your CO-PILOT you have problems! You better get out of the drivers seat…FAST! But it made me think how many people think thats true, and as i thought even more i realized even I before i truly became a christian was letting Jesus sit next to me as i controlled my own life. We NEED to let Jesus drive! To draw near to him and put our faith in him knowing that he is always in control.
Such a great comment! We need to let Jesus take charge in all areas of our lives:)
WHAAT!!!…CO-PILOT! urgh. AMEN, “Jesus take the wheel!”- Carrie Underwood
Amen!Fall at the feet of God on His THRONE.
Great comment!! Thank you for sharing that :D
Awesome comment Regan!! So, so true!!!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
God paints such a black and white picture here. The destruction of the evil and the promise of the righteous. It is so important to remember that God is GOD, we cannot just say, “oh, I’ve been saved so I can do whatever I want.” If we are truly saved, we will be living for God, seeking to get near to God, rather than just shrugging it off. Because His grace and mercy deserves so much more than a shrug. He loved us so much that He sent His son to die so we could be with Him.
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
This is an Awesome verse because it saids “Rejoice and exult with all your hear” I can not tell you how much i love this part!!!!! :) Because not just before Revival X, or at Revival X but now that i’m back at home I’M Praising the Lord Everyday by listing to the same songs that sang at Revival X on my Ipod!!!!!! God is Always Right! I am ready to try to bring REVIVAL into Orange County and my high school Aliso Niguel!!!!! Who’s with me to Bring REVVIVAL to High Schools and anywhere else!!!!!!
Great comment Lucas! I’m with you :)
Thank YOU!!!!!!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgements against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.
Wow this is such a beautiful picture. I mean wow. (I just said wow twice). When you think of the fact that there are others who will be destroyed and will have all this hardship thrust upon them (as we read in earlier chapters and books) I realize how lucky I am that God has brought me close to Him. It makes me extra thankful how not only do I get to bypass that torture, but I get to experience eternal life in heaven with all my brothers and sisters in Christ!!! I am SO unworthy!!! And Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, took all the blame so that now, we can experience eternal life. I am soo THANKFUL! I had this inner debate with myself about how if by grace we are saved, what’s the point of doing anything? What’s the point of trying if it will never get us anywhere? I saw my youth leader and we talked about it for a while, and finally I realized that we are following Jesus out of thanks! Sure, it won’t change anything but we are showing Him that we are thankful and that we don’t take for granted what He did for us.
Amen!! I used to struggle with that too, and then I realized what your leader helped you to! God deserves our servitude because OF the grace we have received! Wow…(:
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
The first two chapters of this book seem to emphasize the Lord’s powerful and just character, while this chapter seems to do the opposite. It is amazing that the Lord can be so high and above us but also love us and know us so intimately. This verse is talking about how God is going to restore Israel and save them. He is with them and is rejoicing in their obedience. How incredible is that! I am so thankful for a God that loves and is mighty to save. That makes me want to love Him with my whole heart and obey Him all the more!
17 The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save
He will take great delight in you
he will quiet you with his love
he will rejoice over you with his singing
God is mighty to save. He shows that through sending his one and only son to this earth to be mocked, whipped and crucified just so that I can be saved from his wrath.
That’s astonishing! There is no greater love than laying down your life for your friends (John 15:13). The ironic thing is, we’re not even God’s friends, we’re his creation. God could have just sent us all to hell, and that would have been perfectly just of him to do so. However, out of his love, he sends Jesus down to earth to rid me of my sin.
I am still astonished at this great plan of redemption God has set up. This verse claims that we will be quieted by his love. I stand in awe at the love of God. He takes great delight in me. He loves me. He died for me. And I can’t wait for the day where I see him face to face, seeing him rejoice over me with his singing!!(:
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
Our Lord always keeps his promises, always! How exciting is that?! Nobody but Him can claim that. He is perfect in every single way. And if He is in us we will strive to do the same, sin should disgust us. We should not be able to choose anything over him! Yet so many people put him aside. It’s amazing how people think that God, who has saved us from sin, isn’t the most important thing. That’s why we need to spread the gospel. I’m praying for everyone :)
3:1 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
Gooood Morning!!! :D this is such an interesting verse. This city is turned away from God and is doing exactly what it wants to do. they dont care about what God thinks or what they are supposed to do the just do what they want to do and will do anything to get what they want. it is so important that people in charge of cities and countries need to be living for christ otherwise the city will look just like this one and will be judged righteously. as a nation now we need to work on seeking God before we worry about other things like the economy and going green. also in house holds it is important that we make sure that families are God centered. this verse was one that really stood out to me because it was exactly the way i was before i became a christian. i would not listen to my parents and always do what they say because i though that i alway knew best. and i didnt draw near to God but the exact opposite, i wanted to do what i wanted to do so i drew close to this would and the pleasures in it. and i did not accept correction with a good attitude at all i hated to be corrected and told what was right and what wasn’t. but after revival i have had a totally attitude and have been the exact opposite and am all ready seeing fruit in my life. MARANATHA!!!!!!! :D
Solid comment Josh! Keep it up :)
Great comment Josh! So excited that you have become a Christian and are now listening to correction! Praise the Lord!
Amazing to see the reward of the grace you’ve been given!! :D
Great comment, Josh. Our God who is mighty to save!
That is sooooo awesome that you got saved bro! Keep living for Jesus no matter what the cost or how hard it gets!
Great post, Joshy!!! You were totally changed at Revival X, I love it!!!!! Keep up the spectacular posts. I will miss you while I go to The Edge summer camp. I leave today, I am soooooooooo excited!!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! Love you. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
2 “She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.”
Verse 2 stood out to me, not just because of the content, but because of the fact that it says “she”…when I read the Bible & it says that “he” blahblahblah, it doesn’t stand out to me as much…I think just because I can relate better to a woman. But when I read verse 2 and it said SHE listens to no voice, SHE accepts no correction, SHE does not trust in the Lord, and SHE does not draw near to her God..that freaked me out! I don’t want to be that girl who does all of that. Ever! Its really good for me to read all of the Bible as if God is talking to me, but this verse was already written in that context. Verse 2 really stood out to me because of what it said, and how it was said. Its verses like these that shove me towards the reality that I don’t deserve eternity in Heaven…for what I’ve done I don’t deserve this awesome & beautiful ending..or beginning I guess.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
Verse 7 reaaally stood out to me because it is God speaking. Especially reflecting back to verse 2, it seems to say that if I do the things it says in verse 7, NOT verse 2, I’ll have eternity in heaven & enjoy the rest of my life, now and forever, with Jesus Christ. I want to do exactly what verse 7a says so that I wont have to deal with 7b. Zephaniah has been really enlightening, even though I never planned on reading it, its really opened my eyes to some extremely important points.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
Mmm..after reading verse 15 I just wanted to fall to the ground & praise Him because it is the most amazing, reassuring, and comforting verse I’ve read in a loooong time. The Lord has taken away the judgments against ME! He’s cleared away MY enemies!! I will never again have to fear evil, because Christ died on the cross for my sins, and he cares for me each and every day. :) I’m so blessed by the gift from the Lord Jesus Christ, and reading through verse 15 reminded me of the absolute gift I have received.
13 those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
“There will be a day, where sin will be no more.” There will be no more pain, sin, lying, violence, or fear. I think this verse is referring to the New Jerusalem? It will be a perfect place, with no injustace, and we will serve God in an untainted and perfect way.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
Yesss! It is so good to know that the Lord is with you all the time! Its even better knowing that He will rejoice over you, and quiet you with his love… So I wouldnt want to forget that God is with us :)
8 “Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord, “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation,
all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.
This is a scary picture to fathom. There will be a day when all the nations of the world will be destroyed by Gods wrath. His anger will burn up all the sinners who stayed stubborn in their ways and refused to acknowledge the grace of God. Since we know the destruction of the world is coming, we need to preach non-stop about repentance and faith. Do you want your unsaved loved ones to be part of this destruction? Since we know of what God has in store, we do not know when this will happen! We need to spend each day like our last telling EVERYONE about the Gospel and Gods grace through Jesus Christ, so that peoples who’s hearts are hardened today, may repent and be spared on the day when God destroys the world! God is a right God!!!
She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
It’s not just sinning that’s bad; when you sin, get correction, and then don’t respond, your sin compounds. I find it interesting that this is one of God’s main charges in this passage against Jerusalem. It’s not just sinful, it doesn’t repent when it sins. This is the complete opposite of how Christians should be, yet how many times do we find it so hard to hear correction? It strikes at our pride. But the Lord gives grace to the humble. I need to be living all out for Jesus Christ, but also be humble enough to receive correction when that becomes necessary. I know I’m not perfect, so why should it surprise me that I need correction?
The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
Over these past couple of days the chapters have been all about how God will punish all the sinners and leave them with nothing but pain and regret, but this chapter was a little different. Now we start getting into what God will do for His people. We will be awarded eventually for our good works as Christians. God doesn’t only punish, he also rewards! We should be so motivated by this and want every minute of our lives to be devoted to serving the Lord, and we should but realistically that is pretty difficult. Still, we should try our hardest everyday to serve the Lord in every way! (that rhymed :) haha) MARANATHA!!!
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
These verses tell us of how God’s grace has cleared us of our sins and this is an amazing and merciful gift that God gave to us even though by no means we deserve it. So this is something to rejoice the Lord always! We can rejoice in the Lord in many ways, 1 by singing praises to him, 2 by the way we live our lives and keeping his commandments and let God be in control of your life, also we can be in prayer and in God’s word.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
I love the idea of everyone fearing God! But sadly, we all know that not everyone does fear our Creator. I can’t wait for the day when every knee will bow and when every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord! God said they will accept correction and then their dwelling would not be cut off. But still, they didn’t care but chose themselves over God. And it’s sad how they think that is the better choice because it just leads them to destruction. They are separating themselves from God for eternity! God gave them a chance to accept correction and turn to Him, but they still did corrupt deeds. Fear God and not the world!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
Almost the whole chapter, as well most of Zephaniah, is devoted to God and His anger towards sinful nations. But tucked within His condemnation God reminds us that His desire is to save. Even in the midst of wickedness, God does not want to destroy everyone, even if they deserve it, but desires to save many people.
How much more should we be excited to go evangelize if we know that God is a God, who although is glorified through His justice, is also made happy through salvation?
And I myself, saved by the mercy of God, am evidence, as well as all at True North, that God delights in salvation and is mighty to do it.
Praise the Lord! True North tonight!
Great Comment! !!!
I love it Spence! It should give us confidence to share the gospel, because if we know that God will save, then we know that our efforts will be received to those who God has chosen! We, as believers, are all evidence to God’s mercy.
im really pumped up to evangelise now! :D that was a really good comment! :D
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
Those are pretty incouraging words. It is awsome to have a God that can do such amazing things like this. :)
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
I especially like what Janiel said about this verse. When Christ saves us, He does not immediately make us perfect. He says that I “shall not be put to shame” because of my sins. Christ won’t hold them against me and cause me to be thrown into hell. My former life of sin is forgotten, and every sin after that is covered by His grace. I’ve repeated this hundreds of times before, but I’ll say it again: this is not a license to sin. This is a promise by God that once I am saved by His grace, He will continually work on me until my future perfection after meeting Him.
mmmmmmmm great comment duhduhduhduh!:D
mhmm! solid comment Dominic:]
I think this is an awesome comment Dominic. So often it can feel like we need to be perfect and blameless without sin. We need to realize that this isn’t possible. Again, like you said this is no excuse to sin, but it should give us comfort that while we are being sanctified here on earth, His grace covers us until the day we become perfect.
Great comment for an awesome verse.
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
God is the one that controls what we do wrong and right in our lives. He decides when we sin, because He has control of our lives. He is always with us, everyday of the week. He does not punish those who have done nothing wrong, cause they have the righteous God in their souls and hearts. But those who sin terribly, or don’t know Jesus feel no shame in their sins. Isn’t it great that someone actually has control over us, when we have no idea what the right or wrong thing to do is? Amazing!!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
God is going to be glad that we are glad!! He’s going to calm us with His love, and He’s going to fill us with an extreme amount of happiness with singing. Even when He comes, we will still be rejoicing, and worshiping the mighty God!! I’m so excited for this!! Praise God! MARANATHA!!! :D
Nice comment!! :D
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
This verse made me think of what we had thought about at this past beach night. I need to praise God not just in the good times but also in the tuff times and trials. God has a plan and I need to remember that and I need to give Him all the glory so that others can see that He is the ONE TRUE God! :]
See you tonight at True North! :]
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
In the beginning of this book, God is telling how he is going to punish those who don’t obey Him, who don’t seek Him, who ignore Him, who don’t listen to Him, people that are not His. But then, in the last part of the last chapter, He makes sure He lets HIS people know, that He is still their God and He is mighty to save those who truly love Him. He has taken away their judgements…And ours, just like He promised. He is in our midst; He is WITH us! Everyday of our life He is right there with us, I never think about that and I pray that I will remember this and thank Him and be reassured by that. Because he is with us and on our side, we never have to fear evil again. Never. God is so good. All the time.
Maranatha!
Amen!
AWESOME COMMENT GIRL!!!! <3 It's so inspiring to see your growth in the Lord! :D
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
I love the first part of this verse how it says he has taken away the judgements against you…like how he has died for us and all that he has done. and the end is comforting of how with the Lord you shall not fear and to me that makes me just love him more and more <3
The last section just put tears in my eyes. God truly is my joy and comfort and I wouldn’t have either of those things without Him. Praise the Lord that He is redeeming His people and that we may one day be praising Him in Heaven! God is our savior, He saves people every day, how exciting is that? Revival is happening all over the world, but am I out there bringing the revival to others enough? I would say nooooooooo! I pray that it will be God’s will that I go evangelizing tonight with my true north homies and that God will bring a revival to all those who don’t know Him. I want to see others have the joy of the Lord! :) Maranatha.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.
That’s some powerful stuff!!
I mean, to have His judgement lifted off of a whole nation?
And for them to no longer have enemies?
AND they won’t have to fear evil anymore because God Himself is among them??
That’s awesome!!
Our God is so merciful and loving, even towards those who really do deserve His wrath.
And that’s, well, everyone on earth.
I’m so thankful I don’t have to fear evil any longer. He is always with me and I have no need to be afraid anymore!
I’m so grateful and proud to be a child of God, I wanna scream it everywhere!!
God is so good!!
AWESOME comment Michaela! :D
The last section of Zephaniah here in 3:9-20 is referring to a time that is still in the future. It is talking about what we call “the millennium” when Jesus Christ will reign on the earth for 1,000 years. It is pretty awesome to think of Jesus, the King, being right in our midst but this is exactly what we are going to experience. This should get us excited like when we learned about heaven at Revival.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
My brother Ben told me about a sermon he went to not long ago, where the groom sang a song for the bride. This is the picture here. As the church, we are the bride of Christ and someday Jesus will sing a song over us. We will get to experience the fullness of his love. I am looking forward to seeing Jesus face to face! As Ben’s song says, “We will be with the Lord!”
If we know we are going to be with Jesus like this in the future, our desire should be to seek him today! That’s what we are talking about at True North this weekend! Hope to see you there!
Great Comment Pastor Bobby!!!!
I cant wait for this weekends sermon(: Great comment!
Slaughtered
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
My God is so amazing and so holy and he saved me? An imperfect human being, unworthy of him? How amazing is that!!? All his wrath and his judgment has been taken away from me because i have put my trust in Christ and now i dont have to fear evil at all!! Yes, evil can destroy my physical life, but only God can destroy the eternal body, which is why only now i need to fear him!! Because i love Christ and fear him, its awesome that i want to stay as far away from sin and only do the work of the Lord!!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
The Lord should be our guidance every day of our lives. This verse reminds me of this because it says that He is in our midst and therefore He is with us. This is a crucial thing to remember because if we constantly have the mindset that God is right here next to us and standing all around us than it will affect everything we do and we will be able to live for Him much more throughly.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
Like Katie, this verse definitely stood out to me this morning. Those who truly fear God will repsond rightly to correction. In this verse God is telling them that accepting His correction by changing their ways and fearing Him is the way out of their destruction. God truly does not want to punish people, but has to because of His justice and intolerance for sin. Sadly, these people were only concerned with gratifying themselves by sin and did not have any desire to change. God’s reproof is there to show us the sin in our lives so that we will quickly repent and turn to Him. Everyday, I am faced with God’s correction flat out blaring the sin in my life at me, so how do I respond to it? Through the Bible, sermons, my parents, friends, leaders, etc., are just some ways in which I receive this correction and I want to be ready and responsive to change in these areas so I can fight the sin in my life that God hates so much!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
I think this verse can totally be backed up by the revival that has broken out in True North! God saved many at Revival X, proving that He is indeed in our midst and a mighty one who will save. Notice that this verse says “will save”. It is a guarantee! The Lord WILL save people! But it is our job to get the gospel out! I know that at times I am doubtful that my evangelism will be effective. But as Pastor Mike preached on a few weeks ago, effective evangelism doesn’t depend on us, or them, but only on God! And we know that God will save! This verse needs to encourage me to pick it up in my evangelism. I don’t need to fear that God won’t save anyone. I’ll be praying that I will be bolder and more and more confident in God because of this verse, and that God will save more people as a result of the True North ministry!
I agree Cameron! God is mighty one who WILL save!
8 “Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
“for the day when I rise up to seize the prey…
This is a very scary analogy. God is comparing these nations’ fate to that of a gazelle dangling from the mouth of a lion. Judgment is coming at a moment when nobody expects it, and many will be caught off-guard. But not because they’d never heard about it. Gazelles know about lions, and they’ve seen some of their own herd devoured before. They know that the threat is real. Sadly, many people today do not realize the enormity of the danger they are facing by continuing in their sin. If they believe in God, they believe that He is loving and would not judge them, or that they’ve done enough good to cover the bad. As a Christian, I need to be bold in bringing them the message of the Gospel, telling them about the lion that is coming – and the escape that has been provided through Jesus Christ!
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
I am excited for this day! When Christ comes back to Earth and makes His city, the New Jerusalem, everyone with Him will be singing aloud praises. God has taken away the judgment against me!! No longer will i spend eternity in hell, but instead i will be wth Him! God will be with me in PERSON!! There’s no way to express how amazing that will be and how grateful i am that Jesus made it possible for me to be there and not in hell!! : )
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
We always need to listen to God, He ALWAYS has the right thing to say. Not listening to God is like turning against Him, we should never turn against God and we should always put our trust and faith in Him. This verse reminds me of how I acted towards God before I repented and put all of my faith in Him. Becoming part of Gods family has changed my life dramatically in so many great ways!!!
you shall never again fear evil.
//once we except Christ, it will be easy to say no to temptations and not be afraid of sin. we have God in our lives and He will help us through hard times and things that we wont be able to do alone. the Lord is their always to help us in our time of need. thank you Lord for everything you have given me and showing me the light. now i am following You and i know where i am going! amen. see youu all tonight at church:)<3
Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
3 Her officials within her
are roaring lions;
her judges are evening wolves
that leave nothing till the morning.
4 Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests profane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.
When i read these first two stanzas of the chapter i immdiately though of the United States. We are depraved, heading in this direction–and from the rest of the passage, the judgement and wrath that will fall upon the dwellers of a region like this is incredibly intense. These are my thoughts about this nation: we started this nation with the blessing of the Lord, he oversaw our entire origin and upbring, he has kept us safe, and his provision has been on us. However, currently we are killing God in this nation–crucifying him (so to speak) as the Isaelites did. However, it seems just like this nation is going down, like israel was, I want to see this nation saved like Israel in its last hours. In the end of the passage, it shows that israel will change and the Lord will save them–I want to see a huge change in this nation, that is probably my biggest desire..Leaders are needed for the Lord and boldness is desired for the Lords Purpose…even if your just evangelizing in the streets your doing Gods Work–Lets Get on it as we seek the Lord for ourselves!
2011
I’m with you Neakzaad. America as a society is in rebellion against God. We need repentance and revival!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Pastor Bobby had a great comment. This verse just gets me more excited about seeing Jesus. I’m really excited because i know that the moment i meet Him it’ll be better than every awesome thing that’s ever happened in my life, combined. Even though life is hard, i’d still say that i’ve had plenty of great times here on earth, and i’m very excited to see all of those get blown out of the water by Jesus!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
I must do the opposite of this verse. By listening to Gods voice, accept correction, trust in the Lord, and draw near to the Lord. THis verse makes me wonder why i wouldn’t trust in the Lord. He says in his Word that he will always answer to us and he will always be there for us. Why would i rely on myself over the Lord when i am a sinful, weak person. God is all mighty and he is my Creator. It would be foolish for me not to trust in Him!
8 “Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
“for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
all the earth shall be consumed.
We must be patient for God’s return. This verse explains the kind of anger God has. All of his burning anger will be released on the earth. All of his jealousy will be released and the earth will be consumed by God’s anger. Thats intense!! It will be a good day for some and a bad day for others.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
WOW. This verse is SO cool. I love the part where it says “He will quiet you by His love” There are poeple in our lives that can sort of quiet us down when we are upset and things like that. But God quieting us down with His love… I can’t wait for that. Even right now that makes me relax. Also thinking about God rejoicing over us is something I don’t really think about… but He will be rejoicing, we will be a new creation made by Him!! God is SO good!!
awesome! :)
Love that you’re posting from Italy Grace! Praying for you guys!
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
mhmm good chapter. It shows the wonderful characterisitics of God and how He cleanses and purifies them from sin. John MacArthur says that ” the Lord will purget he proud/ungodly from among them, leaving a meek and humble people. Material prosperity and peace will accompany them as well, allowing them to enjoy the rich blessings of God undisturbed.” I thought that was really cool seeing this theme in the minor prophets especially how it’s in the New Testament with seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness( Matthew 6:33) It’s also really encouraging to see in later verses like vs. 17 where God is in our midst and is the one who saves us.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
This verse is SO awesome, but my favorite part is the third line: “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst”. Woah! We will be with Him! No matter how many times I hear someone say that we will be with our Lord someday, I still get uber excited. MARANATHA! (:
Zephaniah 3:5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
Israel has already been exiled, and now it is time for the Lord to judge its sister country, Judah. Here it is specifically addressing the city of Jerusalem. God makes it clear to these people that only HE is unchanging and will always be the same righteous God. Unlike their human leaders, God is consistent in being a perfect leader and a righteous God. He does no injustice, and each morning he shows forth this justice. The Lord sees that all people be given fair treatment because he is a just and powerful God. It says about the Lord “each dawn he does not fail.” The Lord is not like us humans who fall short time and time again of the “perfect” mark. He does not fail ever! This is what really stood out to me in this verse. We as humans cannot even come close to the consistency of our amazing God. He is something that will always be the same, and nothing can alter Him! This is what we need to be putting our trust in, something that we know will always be consistent. How can we trust in something that changes with the seasons or the passing of time? We need a solid foundation for our faith and God is that foundation.
My prayer is that I will be putting my faith in the Lord, and that I will be really trusting in him. Although the city of Jerusalem was evil and wicked, the Lord was righteous within her. And in the same way, even though we live in an evil world where temptations pop up around every corner, our God is the solid foundation of righteousness that we can always know will be there. He needs to be what we put our trust in.
Amen!!
20 At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord.
This is a great verse. This verse should provide such peace for us Christians. There will be a day when GOD will come and destroy the unrighteous, but at the same time he will save all those who have repented and put their faith in JESUS CHRIST. He is coming. MARANANTHA.
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
God is saying that anyone who has put their trust and life in Him, they will not, “Perish but have ever lasting faith in Him.” (John 3:16)
Yes David that is right its good to see you posting cuz
Hi, David! It’s great to see you on here, bud! I’m glad I met you at Revival, too, by the way :)
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
This verse really stood out to me because it really made me think. If you fear the Lord, you will be willing to listen to Him and correct yourself. God does not truly like punishing people but He is a just God. How much do we really fear the Lord? Do we take in all the advice, corrections and sermons we are given and just throw them away? Or do we take it all in and really think about how we can use this help to change and grow more as a Christian. I remember talking at Revival X about your conscience. We all start off hearing our conscience when we are thinking about making a not so smart decision. The more we keep sinning and repeating the same bad decision our conscience begins to shrink. For example, say you really want a cookie but your mom told you no, but you really want one! When she leaves the room you think back and forth if you should take a cookie. YOU ARE FIGHTING WITH YOUR CONSCIENCE. So finally you decide just to take one. Then the next day you think.. well I took a cookie yesterday and I didn’t get caught so then you take one again and so on. Soon, it doesn’t feel like it is a bad thing going behind your mom’s back so it is a continuing sin. This was a little example but soon later it could turn into even a bigger decision. We all need to be ready to listen to our corrections !
Great comment Kylie! I like what you said about the conscience. Very well thought out and altogether awesome comment :)
Was it just me, or was it really hard to just pick ONE verse to comment on? The entire chapter was super amazing!
“8. Therefore wait for me,” decalres the Lord, “for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my warth on them-all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.” NIV
That’s one scary verse. The Lord is saying how He will let out His cans of wrath and when He does, it won’t be pretty. He says the whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger. That sentence alone is so strong and powerful! The entire world will experience the heat and the jealous anger that will pour like a waterfall from the Lord. But only the ones who have truly repented and put their faith in Christ, we’ll experience Salvation in Him. As for the rest of the wicked world who goes about their ways as if nothings wrong, the wrath and torment of God is upon them in the future.
Our job is to share the Gospel and tell them the Good News so that God can do a change in their hearts and they will spend eternity with God also.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
This verse stuck out to me because it’s a reminder to me of the good things that I should be thankful for. He sent His own flesh to die on the cross to save us from our transgressions and an eternal death. He is glad to have us as His sons and daughters in Christ and because of this His love for us is never-failing and never-ending. This is humbling to me because sometimes I take this for granted when I know I should be thanking God every day for these wonderful things He does for us.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
THis verse makes me think about how great God is, and how merciful he is. We deserved Hell but it says, “The Lord has taken away the judgments against you.” I just cant get over it how God who is so great and so powerful would save a sinner like me who has done nothing to deserve it! God is so great !!!! It says the King of Isreal is in our midst That blows my mind to imagine that I will be with the God of the universe In perfect hormony living with our Creator and worshipping him FOREVER and we shall never fear evil again because it will be just perfect existence with God!!!! This passage also gets me pumpe up to get more people there, if this is where we are going when we die then we need to get out there and tell other people about the hope that we have in Jesus christ, Maranatha LORD come now!!!!!!!
i love this one it is cool
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
This was a real eye-opener for me!! It says that we need to accept correction. When a friend comes up to me and tells me I’m doing something unbiblical, how do I respond? When a teacher tries to help me with a hard math problem I got wrong on a test do I get frustrated? When I get in trouble with my mom for disobeying her, do I accept the consequences? Recently, a friend came up to me and told me something that she had noticed that was a big sin in my life, and unfortunately, instead of accepting her words knowing that they were true, I got upset at her because I was too prideful to admit it. I need to be praying that I will be able to accept correction, especially if it’s godly correction, because I know that it will help me with my walk with Christ and will make me closer to Him.
That is so humble of you to realize that! I need to work on that too, thank you for pointing it out!
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
I love this verse! I guess it stood out to me because of how we talked soo much about God being a just God at revival. Everyone who deserves any punishment or reward will get it. That’s really scary and super comforting! It should make me not want to sin because like Dominic said, Jesus is not a little card I carry around in my wallet that reads “License to Sin” He is the Son of the living God who died for me!! Purely out of grace and love. How am I able to even want to keep on sinning when I know that?? Well it’s because I am human, but I have to be careful when I say that because it doesn’t mean my sin is ok. It just gives me more and more reason to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean on Him when I fail and not get discouraged when i do something wrong but run straight to Him… He is coming, and I want to be ready when He comes.
MARANATHA.
2 she listens to no voice; she accepts no correction. She doesn not trust in the Lord; she does not draw near to her God.
To me one thing stood out. to draw near to God you have to trust him, you have to accept his corrections, and you have to listen to him when he calls. that is the definition of being a christian and growing in Christ. you cant just pick and choose what to listen to, or what to accept. its an all or nothing kind of thing. Like the sermon awhile back about whether you’re in all 100 percent or just partially. just partially isnt going to cut it. because in the end, after God has left ,” a people humble and lowly” who “shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD” (v 12) all their trust is in Him. That is what God is working on us for. That we should be able,” to graze and lie down and none shall make them afraid” (v 13) for everything they had, and we should have today, is all in the Lord. and everyone knows, God is bigger than any boogey man.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
This verse makes me think about how loving and incredible God is. He put His son through hell for all of us sinners so that we could live in eternity with Him. That is huge! I can not wait until the day when we will be in the presence of the Lord. In verse 15 where is says “He has cleared away our enemies” is super awesome to me. Even though none of us deserve anything but death, God is preparing a place in heaven for us. Maranatha!
Zephaniah is now prophesying about God redeeming the remnant of Israel (I say remnant and not whole because of Zephaniah 3:13 that speaks of “those who are left in Israel). It always seems to me that whenever the Prophets speak of God’s redemption of the Israelites they leave out important facts. The fact that most bothers me is the fact about how a good and just God can forgive the sins of sinners or in other terms, how can the God of Justice acquit the guilty? Obviously, people tell me that through the blood and works of Jesus Christ we are acquited because of Christ’s imputed righteousness (in lamen’s terms: we get Christ’s righteousness without doing anything). But, I honestly am hard-pressed to believe that Zephaniah and the other prophets had Jesus in mind when they speak of the Israelites not receiving the judgments of God: “you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me” (Zephaniah 3:11). But, I know that God cannot sin because it goes against His nature, and unlike us (christians who go against their new nature everytime they sin) God always acts perfectly from His nature. And His nature is multi-faceted: love, goodness, mercy, patience, steadfastness, anger, justice, wrath, etc. So, how does this fact that God seems to relent from justice towards His people. A just God must punish evil and reward good. To me, I see it this way. God relents from His wrath various times in the Bible (Judges, Jonah, Noah, etc.), but that does not mean He will not ultimately judge them. God’s judging, just like His grace, comes in two different forms: common and special. God’s common judging of the world is the fact that all die (Genesis 3:19, Romans 6:23) but His special judging is the judgment after death. God judges all without distinction. For those who do not call on the name of the LORD God will judge them and they will be sentenced the infinite punishment of the lake of fire. However, this judgment does not reach the elect (those that God had saved) because our sin isn’t judged because Christ on the cross paid our debt and now we have Christ’s righteousness. This is best seen in II Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. The Great Exchange as Martin Luther calls it. That’s how God relents from His judging. He doesnn’t allow them to die, but everyone will be judged and those that will have their sins overlooked are those that have faith either before or after Christ (cf. Hebrews 11).
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God
What stands out to me in this verse is the fact of not trusting in the Lord and not drawing near to the Lord. Before we are Christians we are obviously doing these two major things, which is exactly what satan wants us to do. He wants to reject God. Rebellion is such an issue in my family and in the world which we live. I know just from seeing my older siblings and how they live that rebellion to God and our parents is a serious issue. If we didn’t accept correction we would never repent of our sinful ways. If we didnt trust God then why would we repent? And if we didnt want to draw near to God then we would clearly not trust him. To me i see a chain of one thing leading to another which is so evident in our lives. When we don’t listen to what God tells us it effects our whole lives and a part of Gods plan. Just look aat Jonah, he thought ignoring God was fine and he got eaten by a fish. So, none the less it is of the utmost importance to listen to God and not rebel against his Word.
12 But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
13 those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
I love this chapter!! It’s great to know that one day I will be surrounded by people who TRULY are living for the Lord and every single thing they do is pleasing to him! And it’s awesome to know that God is just and he will not allow any injustice into his kingdom! It’s still crazy to me to think that everyone going to heaven is going to be perfect! I cannot wait!!!! These verses inspired me to start living for that day and for what is going to be eternity with the Lord! I need to live for the next life now so when God returns I know I will be ready and won’t regret my life in hell.
MARANATHA!!!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
I really like this verse! The Lord is soooo powerful and he will save us from his wrath like he promises. This paints an awesome picture of how He will respond to us when become one of His children. He displays his love and joy toward us when we deserve absolutely nothing; all we deserve is eternal wrath.
GOD IS GOOD :)
So what can I say sotd just keeps getting better and better. On verse seven it talks about we shall fear the Lord. Which is a good thing since he does decide where we go after this life and the power of his wrath. Since we deserve it and nit his son, but that shows us how much God loves us. But we don’t see much people out in the streets fearing our God very much. God made us so we can learn about him and share the good news of what he has done. We should not be afriad of what people will think or do to us. Math.10:28 the worst thing they van do is kill. That might sound bad but what is worse is God destroying both body and soul in Hell. So we are all good.
Tonights sermon we talk about are we thirsty for God. We should make time in our day to be with and talk to him. Singing to him to show we car about him. For the people who went to Revival we should remember bow we were living for God and singing to him at the top of our voice so that the next day we could barely speek. It was an awesome week, but we shouldn’t stop there we should be living like that each day. Going into the high school year ready to share the gospel and take it to a whole new level. Just asking God for a free refill each day cause he has the water to provide eternal life with him forever.
12 But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
13 those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
I really like these verses, theyre so encouraging! For us to truly have trust in the Lord and to really speak to Him, we need to be humbled and meek. We can’t be proud and comfident in ourselves, because we can do nothing!! I can just imagine what it would be like to have every ounce of my trust in the Lord, no matter what happened (if someone tried to kill me or if i was kidnapped or something) i wouldn’t be in the least bit afraid!! Thats what i’m praying that the Lord will soften and mold my heart for me to just put more and more trust in Him everyday of my life.
btw: please pray for me as i leave for maine tomorrow!! im going to be there for a month with no church and no christians around at all and i’d appreciate it if you could pray that i would stay close in my walk with the Lord and keep progressing! thank you! :)
Good comment!! And I’m praying!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible! I often get caught up thinking about the joy God brings me in my life and about how incredible it will be when we’re all finally with him. I sometimes forget to reflect on God’s joy. What an amazing thing to think about our Lord rejoicing over us in gladness. The word “exult” is so powerful! One day God is going to joyfully triumph and He will show His joy over our salvation with loud singing. I can’t wait to sing with my King! Maranatha!
Yeaa Boyd! I love this verse too.
wow what a great comment Boyd!!
i love that verse as well!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
It is so amazing how much God loves us. He sacrificed and poured all His wrath on His perfect son…for sinners!! Its hard to understand how a God as awesome as He is would save people so far beneath Him. And one day in heaven God will rejoice over us, he will sing to us! I am so thankful for God’s never ending love, He gives me so much and I don’t deserve one bit of it! I can’t wait for the day when I am in God’s presence and He is rejoicing over His followers!
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
This whole verse really stood out to me, especially the first part. Jerusalem and the Nations disobeyed, so God said to them that they must fear him, and accept his correction. As Christians, we need to be constantly sanctified, and so god has to correct our sin and give us conviction so we can come to repentance. This is not something we should fear, but embrace! god’s correction is a good thing. yet even after God commands this of them, it says they still went on sinning, trying to make their deeds corrupt. it really shows what a just God he is, he tells them what he wants, and gives them fair warning, yet we see that the nations do not obey. His punishment and wrath he talks about releasing is completely deserved! I like how reading through the minor prophets shows us this, that God is completely perfect and just and fair
12 But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord
Like in yesterday’s chapter, the theme of pride vs. humility is apparent. The humble seek refuge in God, because they realize what they are in and of themselves and the fact that they need God. The proud don’t seek the LORD, or try to find their security in Him, because they think that they will be secure, happy, and fulfilled following their own path. Are they secure, happy, or fulfilled? No. In fact, God is against them, and thus they get none of those good things. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
LORD, please give me a humble heart, one that realizes its need and relies on You, and one that submits to Your way, the only way that leads to anything good!
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
This is a very important verse. It tells that God does no injustice. He sends his people to Heaven and He sends the people that reject Him to hell. I am so glad that I am saved and I know that I am going to Heaven!
MARANATHA!!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
Constructive criticism isn’t exactly the funnest thing to listen to, am i right? Who wants to hear what they did wrong? I know that one of my areas of sin is getting mad when someone wants to tell me what I’ve done wrong. But this chapter says that it is wrong to not accept correction! When people tell me when I am sinning or doing something wrong I need to take it in and apply it to my life, rather than shutting down and being stubborn!
Great comment!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
i really liked this verse because it reminds me that not only did Jesus get tortured and die to take away our sins but he will take away our enemies. We didnt deserve any of this but because of his amazing love for us he did it anyway. Only God could have that powerful of a love.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
Correction is one of the hardest things to take. We are all great at pointing out other people’s flaws to them, but rarely are we willing to accept what others say about us. The most important people we have for developing our relationship with God are fellow believers, and they can’t help build us up if we turn our ears away from what they have to say. It is important to reflect everyday on what we have done, but getting another perspective from a friend helps even more to keep us on the right path. I know this is something I need to work on since in the past I have been the one who turns away from what my friends have to say about my behavior. I should be glad that they care about my walk and also glad that God provides so many ways out of temptation. It reminds me of a discussion about how you aren’t likely to go through with sinning if you are on the phone with a Christian friend asking them for help. This shows 2 things: 1: how much it can benefit to seek help, and 2: even when you aren’t on the phone with a friend but are struggling with sin, just think about how ridiculous that sin is when a mere phone call is enough to overcome it. Man’s judgment-when it comes from a Christian who cares about your direction-can serve as a reminder of what God’s judgment will be like. Listen to the former so you won’t have to fear the latter.
I enjoyed reading this chapter. Some verses stood out to me. Like verse 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
We should be overwhelmed with joy that we have a God that loves us and cares for us. We deserved to be judged and punished because we are all sinners and non perfect. Not only does he love us but he clears away our enemies or he helps us through hard times. He is always with us even if it feels he is not. We should be strong and never get discouraged over things because he is always with us to guide us. Also we should be thankful that we have a God that cares for each and every one of us.
Great comment my friend! Also I had a great time evangelizing with you! See you later.
3:15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
God blows my mind! to imagine a day in heaven when GOD, the CREATOR of the UNIVERSE, the Father of Heaven, and King of Kings will rejoice over me, quiet my soul with his LOVE, and sing for ME!..? im just a sinner! and undeserving of this gift he has given to me.. this LOVE. yet, God loves me. even when i fall, He loves me and helps to pick me up again. when i sin and confess and repent of my sins, he is standing before, welcoming me with open arms… how CRAZY is that!?! only God deserves all of our praise.. and we clearly don’t deserve this LIFE that he has given us. but praise be to God that He is mighty to save! I love these verses in zephaniah and its been such an incredible time reading through this chapters of the Bible i never even thought of reading before! im looking forward to haggai!
Great comment Ryan! It’s awesome having you read through these Minor Prophets with us!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
I appreciate how Bobby tied this into his sermon tonight. God’s love is better than life.
This morning I was with some friends who were babysitting a fussy baby. They did all kind of things (rocking the baby, feeding the baby, singing to the baby, changing the baby) to quiet her. It’s an amazing picture to think about God doing that to us. He quiets us with his love. God’s love truly is steadfast and tender. How could we not thirst for it?
God:
Angry, Jealous, Just.
…but also Forgiving! Faithful and Loving!
All of these qualities define God–not just the more desirable ones. If we don’t come to grasp the wrathful side of God, we will never come to fully realize the side of him that is love.
Knowing that God is just and will punish sin makes the gift of salvation and the image of God’s love so much more beautiful.
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
What stood out to me about this verse was that God says he will save the lame and gather the outcast. God’s ways are not our ways. We are drawn to the popular and the powerful. We want to hang out with people who are “cool” and avoid those who are not “cool”. But these are not God’s ways. This verse reminded me of 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” I cannot boast because of my salvation. I had nothing to do with it! God chose me. Why? I have no idea. But I need to make sure that I love those that God has loved. I cannot judge them and think they are not cool enough. If God chose them and decided to save them then I need to love them as well.
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
I love how God is ready to forgive us for what we have done as soon as we repent from whatever it was that we did wrong. Israel failed to obey God so many times, but he always allowed the israelites out of their judgement eventually due to the sincerity of a generation’s plea for forgiveness. I love that He’ll never give up on us.
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
I don’t ever want these to describe me! This is someone whose is proud, not thinking they need to hear anything, be taught anything, won’t trust our God who is perfectly trustworthy, doesn’t want to know God. Praying tonight that I would have a humble and teachable heart, a great way I can think to do that is in responding to the sermon about drawing near to the Lord and thirsting for him by getting into his word and spending some time talking to him.
3:1 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
These two verses tell me a few things that would lead to “woe” for me. Being rebellious, defiled, not listening, not accepting correction, not trusting God, and not drawing near to God. I need to be mindful that I don’t let any of these things creep into my life. I may not have a problem now, but if I’m not always on the lookout for them, they might just appear! I don’t want to be a rebellious teenager, fitting the world’s stereotype. Fitting the world’s stereotype is never a good thing.
4 Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests profane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
i love the contrast between these two verses how the first one says how bad the city is that it does violence to the law and profanes holiness in other words they make things that are good bad. but then the next verse comes back to say that even this city is horrible the righteousness of the lord in it still shines in the city.this kind of an analogie between us and god that even though we are sinners and deserve hell that when we meet god, god will only see the righteousness of jesus christ’s blood in us(if we were saved).
9 “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.
As Christians, we should have a desire to serve the Lord! That is the reason why God has created us; to glorify him! We need to be fulfilling our purpose in life for his glory. I need to be serving the Lord more often with not just helping at church, but also sharing the gospel with others!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
Why is God so good to us? What have we done to deserve Him? He is so awesome its incredible! I cant get over the fact that He chose me! No words can express… Anyway in verse 15, there is proof that God is so amazing that He is willing to take away our judgement if we repent. I just wish some of my friends would understand this, that they would understand how awesome it is that God chose to save such sinners as us. We deserve to go to hell, but He’s so forgiving that we get to live eternally in Heaven. So while I’m on the earth as a mortal I want to do all that I can to serve Him! Let us KEEP THE REVIVAL GOING!!!! We need to get that free refill every day!
He is Lord.
Free refills for life! Great comment Justin! Keep standing strong for Christ!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
I thought this verse was cool. It is talking about how great and powerful God is, but the part that really hit me was the forth line. It says that “he will quiet us by his love.” Just trying to comprehend God’s love is mind-blowing. His love is so great we cannot even begin to understand it. To me, quieting someone could either be shutting them up, or calming them peacefully. The second one is most likely the case here. God’s love is so great that we can take comfort in it!
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
as Christians we are called to fear the Lord. I am able to tell if i am fearing the Lord if i accept correction. when i sin i need to realize i need correction from God and be glad that i am being corrected so that i can grow. a lot of times i get frustrated when im being corrected but i fear the Lord which will result in accepting correction. when im corrected from my sins i realize i need to repent from them and i grow in my walk with the Lord. correction and discipline are both great and necessary things. also fearing the sovereign Lord is necessary as a Christian.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
It is so awesome to know that God is always “in my midst”! He is always at my side, guiding me! I love this verse because it not only states this fact but also goes to talk about God’s character and what he will do for me! I’m so grateful that he saved me, and I am praying that he will really restore in me the same joy of my salvation that I had when I first got saved, rather than being slowly less and less enthusiastic about it. I need to be thirsting for him more than I ever have like Pastor Bobby talked about in his sermon tonight instead of getting more interested in things of the world! I think it’s also awesome that it says God will quiet me by his love.. that could almost just mean an astonishment and awe of how awesome his love is! It’s crazy to think that God sings about me, but this is saying he is enthusiastic about me and sings over me! That’s such an incredible thought and makes me realize even more how blessed I am that God chose me to be on his team! We have such an awesome God that is incredible in so many various ways and characteristics!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing
Our God is mighty to save! He loves us so much. He alone created us, and he is the one that sent Jesus Christ to suffer on the cross for all our sin. God gives us everything and saves us from hell, that we deserve. I can’t wait to praise our God in Heaven right there with him. MARANATHA!!!
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
This is really encouraging. It is encouraging to see how God is so faithful. This reminds me that I need to cling to God when I feel temptation or when things get tough, He is my stronghold. I need to be praising His name all the time and thanking him for who he is and what he has done!
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
I noticed that a lot in the minor prophets it mentions God’s wrath. Reading these books empowers me to go do more things such as evangelizing. The Lord can take away people’s sins. As it says in this verse. We won’t have to face the judgement that God has if we repent and put our faith in Jesus Christ. Going evangelizing really opened my eyes at how people don’t even know who Jesus is. Orange County needs to know the gospel! As christians we should have such an over flowing joy to spread this amazing word! Jesus was gracious to us and now it is our responsibility to tell everyone we possibly can!!
MARANATHA!
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
God is mighty!!! I went to evangelism night tonight and some of the people seemed like they were fixed on what they believe and not open to Christianity. This verse shows me That God can change anyones heart and save them. A great example of this is Paul and how he persecuted christians one day then the next he was being persecuted for being a christian. Anyways this verse is just a good reminder to me that God can soften a heart of stone.
Great to have you evangelizing with us Brian! And great comment here on SOTD!
2 She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
AWSOME chapter, i really like verse 2 cuz it says “not” alot like she does not-she does not. and to me what that means is shes not a follower of the Lord, she not does not draw near her God.We were all at that piont one time when we were living for are selfs and not living for God, or seek his glory. We were all headed to hell now thats a scary place to think about huh? but now we are LIVING for the next life and the life to be with Jesus Christ, thats what we are here for…to tell other people about him, and that they can get saved thats why we have saterday nights when we go to spectrum n towncenter to share the gosple, so hopefully in Gods plan that, person that we were talking to can get SAVED, and have a new life living for Jesus Christ.
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail…
God is the ONLY Constant in our lives. He is faithful and just, and He makes no tolerance for sin in His presence. If we ever question Him, His presence or dominion over our lives, or what He is doing, SHAME on us. May we gain HIS perspective and correct our own. May we humble ourselves before Him and see Him for the good, right, and perfect God that He is. He is merciful and loving, and He means to extend compassion and grace. But He requires a truly sorrowful and repentant heart. May we soften our hearts before Him so that He can have His way with us: He as the Potter, and we as the clay.