Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello, my name is Johann and I'm with my s the Brad James. Go Dodgers. I'm Ezekiel and I go to Compass Bible Church and I and the pastors are the best pastors ever. The ex, the opinions expressed by those that you just heard, except for the last one, are their own and do not represent the church as a whole outta the mouth of babies. Let's gone. Those were the voices of the Kim children, in case you didn't know they were here visiting us at the office. And we said, why don't we jump on the podcast? And they were like, yeah, let's do it. And in case you don't know who the kids are, the Kims are one of our precious families that attend our church, right? We've got a great group of families that attend our church. We love them. We love just our whole team. In fact, they're up here, I believe, getting ready for Adventure Club, which is. Getting ready to launch. Yeah. In a couple weeks here, and that's gonna be awesome. That's our midweek program for our elementary aged kiddos our kids ministry aged kids. And it's similar to Awana, but it's taking a systematic theology approach. And we are going to be doing scripture memory and just having a lot of fun with them on Wednesday nights. So if you've got kids in that age range, make sure that they're registered for the Adventure Club. Also, ladies, if you're out there listening to us and you call us your home church. Get registered for the ladies retreat. We're we're ready for you. We got the spots open for you. Registration is active, it's live. And you heard from me on Sunday saying to your husbands, Hey, free them up. Let them go. This is gonna be good and this is a good thing to go do. So ladies if you have not yet registered for the Women's retreat, please do that as always. And we say this across the board almost every event that we do, if there's a financial hurdle or anything. Else like that, that might prevent you from going. Please reach out to us, talk to us. We wanna work with you on that. We don't want that to be a reason why you don't attend. This is gonna be a great retreat. Women in words. Great subject. Great topic, and you are not gonna wanna miss it. So ladies, make sure that you register registration's now open and grab your spot for the retreat that's coming up here in September. It's gonna be a great time. You might be thinking it's it's not until September. September's so far away. It's next month at this point. And Compass Bible Church Hill Country has already signed up. And droves. 60 masses. Yeah. I didn't wanna say the number 'cause I didn't wanna threaten them at all, but man, they have, they're, it's a month beforehand. Yeah. And they're already signed up. I don't get it. Yep. They signed up quite a bit. Ladies get, get get after it. Hit that registration link and sign up for our ladies retreat. It's gonna be awesome. We are in the book of his zephaniah today and this is not one that we covered in the minor prophets, so I'll go ahead and say that before you get a chance to there. Pastor out. I know that you were just chomp I was gonna say anything. I'm just smiling. There's no way you were not gonna say I was not gonna say a word anyways. It's not because I don't like Zephaniah. It's not because I've got anything against the letter Z. It's just. It didn't make the cut as far as the scheduling. Yeah I'll talk to him when I get to heaven because I know he's crushed about this. I think he feels shorted. He's already in the minor prophets. Probably wears that as a stigma and now he's I guess I'm not good enough to be preached during the minor prophet series. I'm sure there's plenty of other pastors that have preaching during the minor prophet series. Hey. Zef and I, there's not a whole lot that we know about. The prophet himself, he prophesied during the time of Josiah. So you remember, we're reading about that in Second King, second Chronicles. Josiah was a good king, and he was one of those good kings that was actually a good king for the duration, except for this end with Pharaoh, Nico, which we're not exactly sure what happened there. But the prophecy that comes during his reign is a little bit interesting because there's not all. Roses and daisies in the book of Zanni. In fact, Zephaniah is gonna be prophesying about judgment. In fact, verse four, right off the bat, he says, I'll stretch out my hand against Judah. And then he talks about the idolatry of Judah in the southern kingdom. There in the next handful of verses, in fact, if you go down to verse nine, he says, on that day, I'll punish everyone who leaps over the threshold. That's a weird saying. We don't often think about that, but it seems that this is likely a reference all the way back to the time of one Samuel chapter five, and in one Samuel chapter five, you had the arc taken cap by the Philistines and they brought it into the temple of their God. The God day gone. And the God Dagon fell down onto his face before the ark and his arms were found on the threshold of the temple there. So it became the tradition of these pagan priests to not step on the threshold as they were entering into the temple of their false gods. And so I think this is an illusion to, again, I don't. Idol worship and idolatrous practices having crept into the nation of Israel the southern kingdom there chuah. But yeah this is not all roses. And again, it's a reminder to us that even though things are good and we might be obeying and we might be walking in faithfulness to the Lord, it doesn't mean that there won't come consequences and judgment upon us or against us for some of the sins that we committed in the past. I'm reminded of Romans 11, verse 22 that says, note then the kindness and severity of God. Here in Zephaniah chapter one, we see a lot of God's severity. He's unhappy with sin. He doesn't like it. He's going to do things in response to it, and those responses are not positive, happy running through the fields with butterflies and rainbows responses. This is God's angry side. Not that he has a side, he's singular in his expression. But this is important because f and I reminds us God is not to be trampled with, we keep on saying this a lot through the minor prophets but it's a recurring theme for a reason. God wants us to recognize that we can't only think of him in terms of positive aspects. Or at least positive to us. We have to understand the totality of who he is. As someone once said, it takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian, and that's why we read stuff like this because it rounds out some of the holes in our theology about God. Yeah. The judgment part of the severity is seen in the eschaton and that's picking up in verse 14, that the great day of the Lord is near. This is pointing to that time of the end time. So we've talked about this before already in the minor prophets, and it's important to remember that this is not a singular day. So even the. In verse 15, it says, A day of wrath is the day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom. The day of the Lord, as we understand it, is going to entail all of the tribulation, period. It's actually gonna even stretch through the millennial kingdom, and then culminate with the great white throne judgment in the very end. And that is the pinnacle, that's the peak of God's wrath as the dead are brought before the great white throne, and they're ultimately assigned to the lake of fire for all of eternity at that point. So the day of the Lord is. The judgment that's impending for Judah is meant to remind 'em of an even greater judgment that's going to come in the end during the day of the Lord. I think what's even more interesting to me is trying to figure out where chronologically these things are taking place because you have under Josiah's leadership this incredible revival. He's leading the charge and he's causing the nation to respond to Yahweh appropriately. So I think what's scary for me is that Zephaniah, along with, who else did we read recently that we, that was also a small, minor profit Zef and I was one of them. Nhem. Oh, nhem. Not really though. Anyhow, what I've found interesting is that. Even though they had all the externals going on, it seems like there is a real substantial part of the population that was only going through the motions because f and I accuses them with using the words like the name of the Lord and swearing by him, and yet swear by milam in verse five. And so consequently, his response of righteous judgment is because in the secret place and in their hearts, they're actually not fully devoted to the Lord. In fact, some of them think that he's complacent. Verse 12. The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill. The Lord is just watching things unfold. And the Lord is saying that's entirely untrue. In fact, you see something similar in the book of second Peter, right? You have people, critics who are saying, where's the day of the Lord? I thought he was gonna be coming soon. And then Peter says, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years. And he delays not because he's lazy or he's. Unable to, but because he cares. He's giving you a chance to repent and here it's much the same. Zef and I is crowd. Same idea. They think God's unwilling to do something or unable to, and he's saying not at all. He's actually angry and he's going to bring his just judgment. Yeah. I wonder too, Zef and I took the throne at eight years old and it wast until I am. Yeah, sorry, Josiah, and it wasn't until he was 16 that he began to really in earnest seek the Lord there, or until the 16th year. So I guess he was 26, so he had 16 years between eight and 26 that he was still growing up as a young boy. So it's possible, even it was during that time prior to his reforms, and maybe this is part of what led to his reforms is the. Confrontation from from Zephaniah and the other prophets during this time? That's a fair guess. Chapter two is a sandwich of some good news in between the rest of the book here, because he's going to turn the attention to the judgment that's gonna come, not just against the people of Judah, but also on. On God's enemies. And this is an extension of the vision of the day of the Lord. And he's gonna now begin to bring in visions of the millennial kingdom here. For example, in verse seven, the seaco shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah for the Lord their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes. And then he talks about the tons of Moab. And so in chapter two, he's weaving in hope for the people of Judah that there's this restoration coming. There's good times that are gonna come during the millennial kingdom. And also pronouncements of judgment against their enemies like the. Philistines earlier in chapter two, or like Moab in verse eight, or like the cushite in verse 12, Assyria in verse 13. God is encouraging the people with this message of hope that there is a restoration that will come. In other words, he's not gonna make a complete end. That's a common refrain that we're gonna read in, we're about to get into the book of Jeremiah, God talks a lot about that in the book of Jeremiah, yet I will not make a full end. And it's just a reminder of God's mercy. And we find that here in the middle. Of the book of Zephaniah before he returns to the theme of rebellion and judgment in chapter three. Yeah. I guess one note as you're reading through chapter two, I don't think he gets to the enemy nations until verse. Three, certainly at verse four but at least verses one, two, and perhaps three are speaking in my understanding about Judah. So chapter two's title, if you're reading from an ESV, says, judgment on Judah's enemies. And that's true because you do have those four nations that are represented there. Philistia, Moab, Kush, and Assyria, but at least in verses one and two, and I think in verse three, this is Judah. Would you have any thoughts about that? I guess I didn't read that, read it that way, but I'm open to that. I see that. Yeah. I have no. No disagreement with that. Yeah. I don't disagree with the editors very easily, but I think that he's talking about ju to here. Fair. Yeah, I can see that one. Chapter three. He certainly does return to the focus on Jerusalem and and her situation. Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled. She does not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near to her God. And I think that's what we're to take away from. So much of this is we read this through the eyes of Christianity and we read this through the eyes of course, we're supposed to trust God and God is sovereign and why wouldn't we trust God? And we know the stories in the Old Testament and this is meant to cause us to, to be. Shocked that here God's people are saying we're not gonna trust in him. We're not going to turn to him. We're not gonna put our confidence in him. The prophets and the priest as the chapter continues, have been corrupted. And so that's another common theme with the people of Judah and how God is gonna bring judgment against them. Is they are corrupted. They are doing wrong by what they should do. They're ignoring warnings. They're not fearing the Lord. Verse seven. Verse eight. He pronounces, therefore wait for me, says the Lord. And that's not a wait for me, like a good thing. Hey guys, wait for me. This is wait for me because I'm about to come in judgment. And he's going to unleash that against the people. But I. Again, the Lord will not make a complete end. Beginning in verse nine you even get hope for the nations, which for us gentiles again is good news and and the focus of other things. How about verse 15, though the King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. So here he's talking clearly about the millennial kingdom. He says The King of Israel, and then it's Yahweh is in your midst. That's, that jumped out to me this time because this is the Messiah. That he's talking about here, the King of Israel. And then he gives a further description. The Lord Yahweh is in your midst. And so a lot of times we'll ask ourselves the question, should the New Testament era, Jews have expected a divine Messiah? And I think passages like this should. Caused us to think, yeah, to an extent. They should have expected this. They should have expected that, yes, the Messiah would claim to be God. So that when Jesus makes the bold claims to be one with God, before Abraham was I am other passages like that we read about in John, it shouldn't have come as such a drastic shock to them if they knew passages like this one in Zephaniah. Yeah, I would agree with that. I would only add one caveat and that's that God used that kind of language also with the tabernacle. With the with the cloud of fire and the pillar of smoke. True. So it's not uncommon language, but you're right. I think what they should have expected and what God delivered on were probably in the same category, although different intensities where maybe they thought, oh, God's gonna show up in the temple, or he'll be part of the tabernacle. But really God's no, I have a better plan. I'm actually gonna be there. I'm gonna show up in, in body and flesh, and I'm gonna blow your mind. I, one thing, speaking of things that blow my mind I just can't get over it in verse 17. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. I just don't imagine God singing at all often, right? And yet here you have this famous passage, which I don't think it's enough en enough press. God sings over his people. Now he's talking about Israel here, so he's not talking about the church. Per se, but I don't think it's a stretch to say if God's sung over his people under the old covenant, is it not a stretch to believe that he sings over his people under the new covenant? Now, we don't have anything that says that, but I think the fact that we are singers, the fact that we are told to sing and make melody tells me that music comes from God. Singing comes from God, I think, and therefore, I'm not surprised on the one hand. On the other hand, I'm shocked. I'm flabbergasted. On the other hand, how many hands do we have on the third hand? On the third hand, I'm saying on the other foot. Exactly. I'm starting using other digits now. I'm surprised and I'm not surprised. This is such a cool analogy. It's a such not even analogy. It's just a way to talk about how God thinks about us. He is not just a. Passive in his affection for us. He's active and such to the point where he sings over us. I think that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Music has always been a part of human society. You go back to, even in Islam the call to prayer is a musical call to prayer. You go to some of the other. Religions, even in Native American society, there was a musical tradition to the Native Americans here. That was part of their culture from before anyone came. This was not something that was brought over with Western culture or anything like that. God is, has created us to be that way. And it seems here that he is a musical God himself. I love that He will quiet you by his love, but he will exalt over you with loud singing. God's gotta have a baritone voice, I would imagine. You think so? I'd imagine, have you ever heard that Mongolian throat singing where they can hit different frequencies at the same time? No, you haven't heard that. It's fascinating. It's really, yeah. I can't do it, obviously, but I think it's really cool that they can hit two notes at the same time. That's nuts. Which is bizarre. Yeah. And yet the way they do it, it makes sense. It's, anyway, my point is if that's capable from a human perspective, I wonder what God is able to do in terms of what. Sounds he can produce for sure. And the way that he does it, he doesn't have throats like we do. He doesn't have vocal chords like we do. At least not God the Father or God the Spirit, right? God the Son does. But all that to say, I bet it's gonna be phenomenal and amazing, bigger and better than what we experience here, by the way. Genesis 4 21 is the first mention of a musical instrument. Jule is the father of all those who play the liar in the pipe. So early on in our creation's history God designed people to be musicals such that this guy named Jule is producing instruments. He's inventing things for people to play songs on. I think that's really cool and interesting. So you're right, it's part of what it means to be human in different cultures and different tribes and nations, but it comes from. The origination. The creator. The creator. Yeah. The creator. The God who gave us those things. Yeah. In fact, that's one of the ways that we can share the attribute of creation with God, that is, is God as creator, is not an unshared attribute because he's allowed us to be able to create things like music and to engage in that artistic endeavor, which in more than artistic endeavor, to your point it's how we image God, part of the way we image God. There you go. Everybody go out and invent an instrument and write a song. Please do. And if you do, send it to us. A AI just wrote a song for us at some point. I'm gonna play it for you guys. Yeah. It's called, I agree with everything that you said. Yeah. You know what, everybody's been asking me, everyone's been asking who the person is at the end of our podcast. His name is Bernard. It's one of the AI voices that we have on the platform that we use. Yep. I think he sounds a little bit like Morgan Freeman and Pete Burner. There you go. If those two guys put their voices together, this is what you would get. And I think it sounds just like him. There you go. That's who it is. Let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we are grateful for our church family. Even just the voices, the little voices that we heard at the beginning of the podcast this morning is just a reminder to us of your kindness to us of the people that we are here to serve. As we even talked about last Sunday, that ministry is about people. People are the ministry. And so we are so thankful to have a good church family that we love, that we get to labor for even doing this. This is a labor of love for us. We don't like to just sit in the office and talk to each other that much, but hey, you know what? We do this into these microphones and talk about the. Bible because we love our people and we hope that it conveys that to them. So we thank you for this time that we're able to do this, for the equipment to do this. We pray that it would continue to bear fruit. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep in your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye bye.

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