Disobedience Has a Deadline – Part One

Included amidst twelve Old Testament Minor Prophets is the last of nine pre-exilic books, Zephaniah, written as a warning before the Babylonian exile. Jerusalem had become decadent, profligate, and degenerate. Zephaniah listS four descriptive prevailing conditions. See if there is a parallel to modern America.

Of Jerusalem Zephanian wrote using “She has not” four times: “Jerusalem, the wicked city. Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city!

-She has not obeyed His voice, (she heard it, but did not obey it).

-She has not received correction; (she received correction, that is, she interpreted it instead as undeserved discipline and hence rejected it).

-She has not trusted in the Lord, (she did not trust God, but rather man).

-She has not drawn near to her God (she did not repent and return to God).

Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning” (Zephaniah 3:1-4). The brackets are my added description of what is meant by each of the four depictions of Jerusalem.

Have our princes, ruling class that is, undertaken our destruction?

Have the judges of America become evening wolves? As predators wolves often hunt in the evening. Are our courts turning on us?

Let us pray, live, and serve that the “not” be removed from the four and that the expression might then be applied to us personally, and to America in general.

She has . . . obeyed His voice.

She has . . . received correction.

She has . . . trusted in the Lord.

She has . . . drawn near to her God.

To obey His voice would mean to establish a Bible based morality.

To receive correction would involve turning away from existing immorality.

To trust Him means to rely on Him and take His word as our will.

To draw near to Him would entail a sweeping spiritual revival.

Now, stand by those standards as your personal “wall height meter” to measure your spiritual height. Do you need to personally adjust in any area of your life to meet His standards?

Jesus is the personal standard. The old WWJD is still the standard for our lives. The question is a simple guide to help us think, talk and act like Jesus. In the life you live, either you are guided by the word of God or by the world. By the world, it means the standards set by human beings. The standard set by people is sinking sand. God’s word is a reliable standard for individuals and nations. It acts like a mirror (James 1:22-25) and gives us the right perspective of who we are and who we ought to be. Take a look in the mirror.