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Daily Devotions

Zephaniah

Zephaniah 
Day 
Day 11

"I will search Jerusalem with lamps"

Text: Zephaniah 1:12

WRONG IDEAS ABOUT THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

The sins of Judah had accumulated for years on end. Many did not believe that the Lord would do anything against the nation. They had reckoned wrongly!

“And it shall come to pass at that time
That I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
And punish the men
Who are settled in complacency,
Who say in their heart,
‘The LORD will not do good,
Nor will He do evil.'”
Zephaniah 1:12

1. An incorrect understanding about God’s judgment

a) “The LORD will not do good”
i) Many had grown distant from God.
ii) Others preferred to worship idols.
iii) Still others ended up with unbelief that God would do anything good for anyone.
iv) This was a wrong belief that would lead to destruction.

b) “Nor will He do evil”
i) Some believed that God would never carry out His threat of judgment.
ii) Others believed that He would find an atonement for His people and thus avoid carrying out judgment.
iii) Still others believe that God was too holy and too good to do anything “evil”.
c) They reckoned wrongly.
i) The threat of judgment was not evil.
ii) Judgment confirmed God’s sense of justice.
iii) Divine judgment would come to pass because God would always fulfil His word when people choose to continue with sin instead of repenting from it.

2. One of the worrying causes

a) The problem of “complacency”.
b) Judah had become so entrenched in their complacent ways that they took the Lord’s blessings too much for granted.
c) This foolish sense of complacency led to the neglect of a cultivation of a vibrant faith in God.

3. Thoroughness of God’s searching

a) God will search all over Jerusalem thoroughly.
b) No one would escape the thoroughness of His search for the unrepentant guilty sinners!