Zephaniah 1-3

There will come an end to God’s window of salvation....we need to ask forgiveness and then spread the truth of Jesus Christ and His grace so that all who accept Him can celebrate eternity with the Holy Trinity. Seek God and He will be found. He alone can do what we cannot.......Revive us Oh Lord!

Zephaniah’s message had both halves of the bad-news-good-news equation. His first words were bad news indeed: The day of the Lord was coming and that meant terrible judgment. The Israelites had acted like their pagan neighbors—they had scorned God’s law, worshiped false gods, and sinned without remorse long enough. Now it was time to repent: They had to turn back to their God or face the consequences.

It was the “turn back to God” part of Zephaniah’s message that offered a ray of hope. And to those who listened and responded to his call, the good news wiped out every line of bad. God would restore those who sought Him.

The godly King Josiah led an important revival that affected all Judah. Scripture reports that this revival, though short-lived, delayed God’s judgment, the invasion by Babylon

1a2 to revive, be quickened. 1a2a from sickness. 1a2b from discouragement. 1a2c from faintness. 1a2d from death. 1b (Piel). 1b1 to preserve alive, let live. 1b2 to give life. 1b3 to quicken, revive, refresh. 1b3a to restore to life. 1b3b to cause to grow. 1b3c to restore. 1b3d to revive. 1c (Hiph). 1c1 to preserve alive, let live. 1c2 to quicken, revive. 1c2a to restore (to health). 1c2b to revive. 1c2c to restore to life.

Zephaniah 1-3

1 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.