The
LORD through Zephaniah the prophet said, “Hold
your peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD
is at
hand” and proceeded to share upon whom this
“day” of judgment
would come. He said He would “punish”
“princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with
strange apparel”, “servants”
and “merchants”
who would “cry from the fish gate, and an
howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.”
In chapter one and verse eleven of His prophecy, Zephaniah shares
specifically of the “merchant people”
in “Maktesh” who
would be “howling inhabitants”
where we read:
Howl, you
inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down;
all they
that bear silver are cut off.
The
verse begins, “Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all
the merchant people are cut down;” Zephaniah
began with the word, “Howl”
which means “wail or make a boisterous yell” “you
inhabitants” or “dwellers,
remainders, sitters and abiders” “of Maktesh”
which means “a mortar or deep hallow and was a valley near
Jerusalem” “for all the merchant” or
“Canaan lowland” “people” or
“persons, members of one's people, compatriots and country-men”
“are cut down”
which means “ceased, cut off, destroyed and perished”. When the
judgment of God was to fall upon the merchant people who lived in the
“Maktesh” valley,
there would be a “boisterous yell and howling” among them.
The
verse continues, “all they that bear
silver are cut off.”
Zephaniah went on to add, “all they
that bear”
which is one Hebrew word “nĕtiyl”
which means “laden or burdened with” “silver”
which is a “precious metal from which money, shekels and talents
were made” “are cut off”
or “cut down or out, eliminated, killed, destroyed and taken away”.
The idea was that not even those who carried the merchants' money
were to be left during the punishment from the LORD.
When
we meditate upon Zephaniah's words, we can use our imaginations to
see these businessmen and market people as they bought and sold each
day as though nothing was going to happen to them. The LORD's words
through Zephaniah was they would “wail” when they were
“cut down”
and all their barter and negotiations were eliminated. The apostle
James wrote in his letter in chapter four and verses thirteen and
fourteen:
Go to
now, you that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and
continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas you do
not know what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even
a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
No
doubt these “merchant
people”
were living in the same manner as described by James, when the sudden
punishment from the LORD came upon them and this judgment made them
“howl”. In light of this, let us examine our own lives and
discover whether we have become more dependent upon our personal
resources and commerce rather than the LORD. The problem with these
“judged” “merchant
people”
was not their “businesses”, but rather their reliance and
dependance upon them instead of fully relying upon God. May the LORD
Jesus Christ bring this truth to our minds, and may we always
understand, we would not even exist nor have ability to trade if it
were not for Him.
Next
time Zephaniah tells about those who are “settled on
their lees”, 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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