“Therefore wait for me,”” declares the LORD, ‘“for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.”
– Zephaniah 3:8
Hi James and Ellen,
Do your dad and ma have you take a vitamin pill every day? Have you ever had your dad and ma have you take an ‘over’ the counter remedy? Has your doctor ever written a prescription for a medication that he prescribed for you to take? Why do you think that guys, gals and kids are encouraged to take a vitamin pill every day? Why do you think that guys, gals and kids will sometime take an ‘over the counter remedy’? Why do you think that a doctor will at times prescribe a medication for a guy, gal or kid to take? Taking a vitamin pill each day will help a guy, gal or kid stay healthier. An ‘over the counter’ remedy will sometimes help a guy, gal or kid with a non-life-threatening ailment to recoup. A doctor prescribed prescription for a medication is to help a guy, gal or kid to recover from or to stabilize a health issue or to help heal a guy, gal or kid with a life threatening illness. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have taken daily a vitamin pill. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are taking daily ‘over the counter’ remedies. Your grandpaa has for years had ‘shoulder impingement syndrome’ in his right shoulder. Your grandpaa – since when he began to take daily a Glucosamine/Chondrotin capsule, no longer wakes up with a painful ache in his right shoulder after he has lain on it while sleeping. Your grandmaa went to a clinic several years ago because of a very painful urinary tract infection. After your grandmaa began taking a high dose cranberry pill every day, she has not had any more urinary tract infections. Because the blood work that was done – before the recent annual physical that your grandmaa and grandpaa had with their doctor, showed that both your grandmaa and grandpaa have a higher than desired cholesterol count, their doctor prescribed Lovastatin – which is a cholesterol pill, for your grandmaa and grandpaa to take daily to lower their cholesterol counts. Because your grandpaa’s blood pressure numbers are higher than what the established systolic and diastolic standard is – which is 120/80, your grandpaa’s doctor prescribed Lisinopril – which is a high blood pressure pill, which your grandpaa is to take daily to lower his blood pressure.
If there are things that guys, gals and kids can take or do to help them to stay physically healthy, do you think that there are some things that guys, gals and kids can do to help them to stay spiritually healthy? God sent through Zephaniah – who was one of His prophet spokesmen, an indicting message about 2,600 years ago to the Israelite people group guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem. Zephaniah 3 culminates God’s message to the Israelite people group guys and gals that strongly condemns them for having fallen into spiritually sick lifestyles. What would you say are the symptoms of a spiritually ailing guy, gal or kid? What do you think leads a guy, gal or kid to become spiritually incapacitated? Who do you believe causes spiritual diseases? A terminally spiritually ill guy, gal or kid has a Doctor Who can cure him or her of his or her spiritual malady or infirmity. A guy or gal who goes to Satan thinking that Satan is the doctor who will prescribe a spiritual peace pill will find out what the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem found out when God – through Zechariah, told them what He expected them do so that a purification/sanctification/healing remedy could give them peace to them. A guy or gal who goes to Satan for his ‘medical’ expertise to appease his or her internal self-indulgencing viral infection, will have Doctor God diagnose the guy or gal with suffering from the poisoning effects of rebellion, debasement, being untrustworthy, arrogance, treachery, pride, profanity, violence, corruption and haughtiness. God’s diagnosis when He finally about 2,600 years ago made a house call to the city of Jerusalem was that the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem needed through His operating skills go through an acute spiritual intervention.
Because the city of Jerusalem – which your grandpaa is comparing to a guy, gal or kid in a figurative way, was following Satan’s pernicious lifestyle prescriptions that Satan knew would lead the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem to experience spiritual erosion instead of leading to spiritual strengthening, God finally decides to enforce His preplanned remedy for a spiritual renewal among His specially chosen guys and gals. Verse 8 is the cure and therapy that God has for the guys, gals and kids who are poisoned by Satan’s wiles, “Therefore wait for me,”” declares the LORD, ‘“for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.” When God finishes His purification/sanctification/healing of all of His chosen and elected guys, gals and kids, there will just be meek, humble guys, gals and kids remaining on planet Earth – guys, gals and kids who have become trust driven Christ-followers. Doctor God has the ability and desire to save. Quack Satan does not have the ability or knowledge to save. Doctor God takes delight in saving the guys, gals and kids who He especially chose and elected before He created and precisely placed planet Earth in His cosmos. Quack Satan takes delight in guys, gals and kids who wallow about in his dark, dank sin constructs and machinations. Doctor God will use love to quiet the trembling heart of a guy, gal or kid who He especially chose or elected. Quack Satan will use evil to destroy the vacuous heart of a guy, gal or kid who is his. Have you been listening to a Doctor or to a quack?
Zephaniah 3 (1038)