Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Zephaniah 3:12: “I will leave in the midst of thee afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.”
Zephaniah was the great grandson of Hezekiah, he was of the royal family and most likely held a very high position in the government. He served as an advisor to King Josiah who was a dedicated reformer and was a contemporary with Jeremiah.
Josiah was the last of the Godly kings. The Northern kingdom had already fallen to the Assyrians and the ten tribes were scattered throughout the world, with a remnant of the followers of God migrating to Judah. This was a time of peace and prosperity for Judah. The Assyrians were now in decline and no longer a threat to Judah. The Babylonians were beginning to rise as a world power but was still in the early stages and not a threat to Judah. Josiah became King of Judah at the age of 8 years of age in 641 B.C. Under the wise Godly teaching of his mother and the advice of Zephaniah, Josiah proceeded to purge the nation of all the idolatry that had crept into the land. There was a great corruption of moral values, the temple worship was greatly compromised with pagan religions, especially the cult of Baal and Astarte. Astarte, also known as Isis, is famous for the worship of a mother/child (Horus) cult which competed with Christianity at the time of Constantine. Astarte dates back to the time of Ugarit and appears in Ugaritic text as Anat. I recalled translating a Ugaritic text in graduate school that told of the goddess Anat have a sexual relationship with a mortal man. The worship of Astarte gave creditability to sexual freedom of the day. Baal worship has a broad range and it is hard to really focus on any one particular form of worship. It is suggested that Baal worship at this time focused on a Hedonistic life style and the worship of prosperity and pleasure.
Briefly, King Josiah purged the land of Idolatry, and brought about a great revival. However, after 32 years of rule, The Egyptians and Assyrians, fearing the power of Babylon, united to destroy Babylon and were to meet for a great battle in Meggido. They were blocked by King Josiah who sided with Babylon as he feared a restored Assyria would do to Judah what it did to Israel. II Chronicles 35:20-27 tells the story. The Egyptian ruler, Necho rebuked King Josiah for getting involved and even reminded him that this was opposing his God by blocking them. This was true and as a result of this sin King Josiah was killed by the Egyptians. For 32 years Josiah followed God, brought about great reform and then at the end of his life just could not trust God and allowed fear to rule him such that he massed his army against the Egyptians who, it turned out, was God’s instrument to protect Judah. Go figure.
After Josiah’s death, the following rulers brought all the pagan worship back to Judah, Babylon became a world power and the people turned to Egypt for help. It was too late. 23 years later Judah fell into captivity to Babylon, the one that Josiah thought would protect them.
But God had a remnant in Judah, they were an afflicted and poor people. An “ani and dal people. “Ani” does mean afflicted but also humble. The context would suggest a humble people but it is a humility brought about by a disaster. It is one who was once powerful and proud and then having been stripped of all his power comes before God in submission. “Dal” means poor but it is again a word used to show one who was once rich being reduced to poverty. This is not a picture of God punishing His people but of reducing them to a level where they can be stripped of all their trust in themselves so they the world can see that their trust is in God alone. Hence the last part of this verse: “and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. II Corinthians 4:7-12.
One last thing. For those who put their trust in God after the devastation cames, verse 13 tells us: “for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
Recent Comments