Bible 101: Lesson 34

Zephaniah

The book of Zephaniah was written to the kingdom of Judah during the reign of Josiah who initiated spiritual reforms in 621 B.C. It is addressed to a people who are not sure God exists or notices what is going on in the world. To hedge their bets, they worship a few other gods on the side. To them the prophet brings a thundering reminder of the Day of Judgment, the day when all the consequences of man’s sins will be brought together for a final reckoning. Zephaniah paints a grim picture of what that will be like. But God is also painted as a God of hope and mercy. The prophet goes on to assure the people that God will call their enemies to account and restore them to a future of security, peace, and right relationship with Him.

A very interesting prophecy is found Zephaniah 3:9, where God promises that a “pure language” will be restored to them, and they will use it to worship God. It is interesting to note that Hebrew had largely died out as a spoken language by the time of Christ, and was only used for religious services. After the sack of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the people of Israel were scattered around the face of the earth in what is called the diaspora. For 1900 years they continued to retain their identity as a people, though they spoke the language of whatever country they settled in. When Israel was miraculously reborn in 1948 as a sovereign nation, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy, the Hebrew language was restored to use and is spoken today in the streets of Jerusalem.

God is trustworthy! He brings all His promises to pass.

There are no Messianic prophecies in Zephaniah.

Bible 101: Lesson 33

Habakkuk

This Old Testament book contains the verse that reoriented Martin Luther’s thinking about the role of faith in salvation and contributed to the Protestant Reformation. Paul used the same verse (Hab. 2:4) to introduce the principle of justification by faith rather than works in Rom. 1:17. The commentary on Habakkuk is the most well preserved Old Testament commentary in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and has contributed much to our understanding of the use of quotes from the Old Testament in the New. So this small book has had a disproportionate influence on the development of theology. Interesting, in light of the fact that it is the 33rd book of the Bible.

We don’t know much about the prophet himself, but the book seems to have been written shortly before 605 B.C. when the Babylonians became the superpower of the ancient world. Habakkuk is struggling with understanding God’s justice. He saw all kinds of moral wrongs around him going on without seeming consequence, so he asked God about it. God first gave an answer that bothered him, so he asked again. At that point, God challenged him to wait and trust that everything would become clear over time. Habakkuk accepted this answer and concluded that, given God’s holiness and the requirement of faith (or trust) from us, his questions had been unjustified.

Messianic prophecies in Habakkuk

Earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
OT References: Hab. 2:14
NT Fulfillment: Rev. 21:23-26