Judgment and
punishment was to fall upon Judah and Jerusalem for their apostasy
from the LORD and His ways, and Zephaniah was one of the prophets
chosen to deliver the news. “The great day of the LORD”
was near, and it would bring “wrath, trouble, distress,
wasteness, desolation, darkness, gloominess” and “a day of clouds
and thick darkness”. It was to be a “day of the trumpet
and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers”,
and in chapter one and verse seventeen of his prophesy Zephaniah
shared how the LORD would “bring distress upon men” and
how “they shall walk like blind men” where we read:
And I will
bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because
they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured
out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
The
verse begins, “And I will bring distress upon men, that they
shall walk like blind men,...” Zephaniah began with the phrase,
“And I will bring distress” which is all one Hebrew word
“tsarar” which means “to bind, be narrow, besiege, be
straightened and be bound” “upon men” which included
“mankind or human beings” “that they shall walk” or
“come, go, proceed, move or depart” “like blind men”
or “literally or figuratively like those who cannot see”. When
the judgment of the LORD fell upon the people, they would be bound
and blind in their ways, and no one would be able to deliver them.
The
verse goes on to say, “...because
they have sinned against the LORD:” Zephaniah
went on to say, “because they have
sinned”
which is one Hebrew word “chata'”
which
means “missed the way, went wrong, incurred guilt and forfeited”
“against the LORD”
or “Yehovah or Jehovah who is the existing One and the proper name
of the one true God”. The reason the people would face the
“distress”
and “walk like blind men”
was because they “went wrong and missed the way” of God.
Finally
the verse says, “and their blood shall be poured out as dust,
and their flesh as the dung.” Zephaniah added, “and their
blood” or “which is the life giving source of the body”
“shall be poured out” which means “spilled or shed”
“as dust” or “dry earth, powder, ashes, ground, mortar,
rubbish and debris” “and their flesh” which literally is
“their intestines or bowels” and refers to “physical bodies”
“as the dung” or “excrement”. We can only imagine the
horror and suffering these people were to endure in their souls,
minds and bodies when the judgment of the LORD poured out upon them.
When
we meditate upon Zephaniah's words, we may wonder why anyone would
not repent when they heard these horrific things. We should remember
that judgment had not fallen upon them at this point, and they could
have turned back to the LORD at any time. We know from history, they
did not. When we consider these things from our own perspective,
would we react in the same manner to the LORD's prophesy? Would we
not heed the warnings of God and realize that should we continue on
our apostate path, we too will walk in “distress” and “as
blind men”? May the LORD reveal to us any area in which we are
fallen away from Him, and if we have abandoned Him completely, let us
repent before Jesus of our sins before it is too late.
Next
time Zephaniah shares how neither
“silver nor gold” will be
able to deliver them, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow…there is more…
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com
; http://www.barnesandnobles.com
; download to e-books, and find it locally at
http://www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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