Zephaniah 1:1-3

What a month! My Facebook account was taken over by RUSSIA. Crazy. I cannot access my account but truthfully I have not missed it. Spiritually I have been warned that this Trump National worship is not of God. We need to be very careful in our dealings with him. Is he a form of the anti-christ and the beast that allows him to operate the extreme factions of the Republican Party?  

December 3rd was Timmy’s 73rd Birthday a day to celebrate with his only wish...a chocolate layer cake with chocolate frosting. Wish granted! 

Then a week later the unexpected news of my mother’s baby sister in the hospital. Aunt Sandy was 4 years older than I am. Within a few days she passed. I am still trying to internalize it. With COVID rampant and Tim and my mothers’ health concerns I did not get to attend the funeral. My brother and I were allowed into the locked down Primrose Memory Care to tell my Mother.  At times such as these memory loss can be a blessing. 

Within a week of Sandy’s passings Timmy started experiencing major abdominal  pains. Little did we know that this would end in a week long stay at FMC with a ruptured appendix. If we had waited one more day.....He is now home but recuperating slowly. Thank you God that you had been warning me of all that 2020 would encompass and that I had the wisdom of Holy Spirit guiding me to follow. If Timmy had COVID on top of the operation I shudder to think what the outcome would have been. I am so very thankful that I have such a praying Christian family that covered us!

In the end times even the elect are subject to fail.

Zephaniah 1:1–6 (NKJV):

The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 “I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land,”Says the Lord; 3“I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens,the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land,”Says the Lord. 4“I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—5 those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom;  6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord,

Zephaniah’s genealogy is the longest of the writing prophets. The writer includes this lengthy genealogy to show that Zephaniah was the great-great-grandson of King Hezekiah. Zephaniah’s royal lineage makes him a distant relative of King Josiah, during whose reign he prophesied. The prophet’s position in the royal family provided him with an ideal opportunity to witness the apostasy of Judah’s leaders firsthand. Signaling complete destruction of all who do not worship Yahweh. Faithlife Bible.

The messages of the OT prophets did not arise from the prophets’ own will, but from God Himself. Zephaniah means “Hidden in the Lord,” a name that relates to the principal message the prophet presented. The names of the prophets were often significantly associated with the message that God gave them to present to the people. Hezekiah most likely refers to the notable king of Judah. Thus Zephaniah the prophet was related to King Josiah. The message of Zephaniah begins with a pronouncement of universal judgment. These words not only introduce the particular judgment that would be pronounced upon Judah, but they also speak of the final judgment that will usher in the kingdom of God on earth (Revelation 19). Stumbling blocks here refers to idolatry, or substitutes for God in the life and affections of a person. Because there is nothing in the universe that really may be compared to the Creator, God abhors all forms of idolatry. Says the Lord: this phrase added gravity to the prophetic oracle and assured the hearer of the source of the message. NKJ Bible.

Hosea 4:3 | Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away.