Another one whom I just don’t recall ever having studied or read, back in the day. Zephaniah was a contemporary of Jeremiah, and his prophecies all center around the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Most of it is about, let’s see… oh yeah, corruption and injustice that presages doom and downfall of the city-state. Are we going to see anything new here? Given that the name Zephaniah means “hidden by God”, how does that square with being a public prophet? Enquiring minds and all that.
- God appears to Zephaniah and tells him, “I’m going to destroy everything on the face of the earth! Okay, well, maybe just Judah and Jerusalem. Really, though, more specifically, the people who’ve started to follow Baal, that upstart god. And you know, maybe just the people who say that I’m not going to do anything about it because I’m powerless against Baal. And, thinking about, just to be fair, you know, I’ll wait until the next day of a big sacrifice to Baal and see who actually participates…”.
- Well this is either very prescient to modern day, or just indicates for how long this conflict has been going on (I’m betting on the latter). God’s had enough of the wicked, useless folk of, well, the places he names are basically now the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, and southern Syria, and plans to eliminate them down to the last non-believer, letting Judea, i.e., Israel, take over their territories, and allow the desert to bloom and their people to flourish.
- God’s still going on, mostly about Assyria now, but Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon are still in the mix, as he swears that the day will arise when he will unite all the nations of earth against them, and in support of Israel. I can’t not think about wondering if he’s going to show up in modern day to weigh in on this issue.