Zephaniah Chapter Two, The Fate of Philistia

Zephaniah 2:4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon desolate; they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be uprooted. [5] Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines: “I will destroy you; so there shall be no inhabitant.”

The resultant Day of the Lord’s lens turns to the coastland and the inveterate enemies of Israel, the Philistines. The Philistines are said to have hailed originally from the land of Caphtor, and were previously referred to as Caphtorim, see Genesis 10:14, Deuteronomy 2:23. Caphtor is most commonly believed to have been the island of Crete. This I find to be an interesting revelation, and does something to reveal to the reader a little about the Philistines’ culture from an outside perspective.

Zephaniah Chapter Two, Hidden By God

Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

Our Lord once said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” Matthew 5:5. In this same utterance, Jesus added, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” Matthew 5:6. Our Lord attests that the meek will be the inheritors of the earth, and that those whose desire is for righteousness (as God defines the term), it shall be sated.

Zephaniah Chapter Two, Commanded To Seek

 Zephaniah 2:3a Seek the Lord,

In verse 1 Yahweh instructed His people to gather before the day of the Lord arrived. Now gathered, He tells them to seek Him. This seeking is more than just an intellectual ponderance of the reality of God. It begins here, as it must. But the realization of God’s existence heightens a growing and condensing search that craves defined (and definable) answers as to the nature and person of the being we attribute the title of God to.

Zephaniah Chapter Two, Undesirable Nation

Zephaniah 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, [2] before the decree is issued, or the day passes like chaff, before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you!

God issues a command for Israel to gather together; they are the undesirable nation, the nation “not reckoning itself among the nations,” Numbers 23:9. The prophet Joel proclaimed a similar command, writing, “Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord,” Joel 1:14.

For Shame!

The Biblical concept of shame is, in my own opinion, one that is sorely needed for today’s cultural milieu. In the Pilgrim’s Progress the character Faithful encounters a peculiar man wrongly named Shame. In the discourse they share after Faithful’s conversion, Shame says this to him: