One question which is often asked is this: How can prophecies like those of Zephaniah, spoken over 2,600 years ago, possibly refer to our time? Weren’t these prophecies already fulfilled long ago? While some of Zephaniah’s prophecies were fulfilled, or at least partially fulfilled, their complete realization is still to come, possibly even in our own lifetime. Let us never forget that these prophetic words culminate in the coming of the Messiah and the dawn of the Messianic Age, something the world has yet to witness.
There is a chart we may call a double reference chart as it shows how these prophecies are divided into different periods of time. What is a Double Reference prophecy? For most of the prophets, their predictions were divided into two categories: now and later. So what prophets were seeing were events from their own time as you can see in the first block, while seeing events touching, either, the First Coming of Yeshua, or the Day of the Lord, or the Millenium. Some were even given insight into the Eternal State. It is such a gratifying study when one searches the Scriptures to try to figure out which time the prophecies were referencing. We may call this the Telescopic View of the prophets.
Zephaniah’s prophecies are very concentrated and selective. He chose particular places and countries among many. At first, he situates the time of the gathering of Israel, not for the Messianic Times but rather a gathering in unbelief for the preparation of the land and for the Second Coming. We read this in Zephaniah 2:1 God speaking to Israel saying, Gather yourselves together, yes, gather, O nation without longing. This is in reference to the gathering of Israel from the nations into the land, something we have witnessed beginning in the late 1800’s which finally culminated into the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948.
The regathering is not a complete one, but it is one done in unbelief, that is disbelief and rejection of the Messiah Yeshua. In Matthew 24, when Jesus spoke about the return of Israel in 1948, He spoke of the Fig Tree giving leaves and not fruits. When Ezekiel spoke about this gathering, in the Parable of the Dry Bones (chapter 37), he was surprised when he noticed that while the bones were joining each other there was no spirit in them, that is, the spirit of belief, the spirit that Israel was called to manifest in order to be the priestly nation.
Israel today is the product of this gathering but this national assembling which Ezekiel prophesied about said it would be done in wrath and not in peace as it was then, and even today in Israel; we read in Ezekiel 20: 34-35, “I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out.” In history we can recognize this wrath in the way the Jewish people suffered during the Nazi Holocaust which was an attempt to annihilate them. This threat was not in Europe only, but it was a global threat.
We might ask why this threat of Jewish annihilation occurred at this point? It is because they were about to go back to their land, in preparation for the Second Coming of the Messiah. The war ended in 1945, and Israel was born in 1948. The Nazis did not succeed.
It was at this time when Zephaniah turns to the east and his attention is brought to another people, those living in the West Bank and Jordan, which he calls in chapter 2, Moab and Ammon. This is what he says in verse 8, “I have heard the taunting of Moab and the revilings of the sons of Ammon, With which they have taunted My people and become arrogant against their territory.”
Who are Moab and Ammon? These enemies of Israel where there even before the Philistines, being the direct descendants of Lot. Ammon is from where the capital of Jordan, Aman takes its name. Its biblical name is Rabbath Ammon meaning chief city of Ammon. It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and from the time of Moses, the people of Amman were always at odds with Israel. This city is very close to Jerusalem, about 100 km away.
Moab is his brother, both were descendants from Lot, Abraham’s nephew and both were a thorn in the flesh for Israel throughout her history to the point where the LORD decreed that, “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 23: 3. And the Lord gives the reasons for this in verse 4 saying, “because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt”. Abraham, after all, was very good to Lot and he even saved him from captivity, but his sons despised Israel. Both will be seen in the end times, like it is today, taunting Israel.
But see what they say about Israel in the West Bank and the Palestinian cities and villages of the land. Zephaniah tells us. We notice the words; taunt, reviling arrogance, and against what it says is their territory, that is Israel’s territory which they constantly claim as their own when God had repeatedly said He gave to Israel. The Hebrew word for taunting, חֶרְפָּה (ḥerpā), conveys a profound sense of contempt and disgrace, a word that reflects not just mockery, but deep-seated scorn and humiliation. The other words are synonyms; the reviling of Ammon גָּדַף (gādap) speaks of defamation, abuse even blasphemy. Israel should know this, and it is not new, as it was prophesied by God Himself over 2200 years ago.
But God Himself pronounced a judgment on those who would treat Israel this way; this we can see in the first promise He gave to the yet-to-be-born-nation in Genesis 12:3, “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.” Those who bless Israel will be blessed, however, see how personal to God it becomes against those who curse Israel. And see that the two words for curse in the same verse are not the same in the original Hebrew. The first word קָלַל (qālal) really means to belittle, to call worthless. We read, And him who dishonors you I will curse. This second word for curse אָרַר (ʾārar) means to vehemently curse and insult, to bind with a spell.
Israel today, as it was in the Diaspora has often been belittled and reduced to a hindrance. To this God will answer. He will curse the one who dishonours His people. And especially today as the media portrays Israel as such an evil nation, killing babies and destroying hospitals; however, have we checked the origin and the validity of these news reports? Most come from Hamas which our very government, here in Canada as well as that of the U.S. have both deemed a terrorist organization.
God is on the look out for words and abuse and arrogance against Israel. It is written in Zechariah 2:8, For thus says the Lord of hosts, “After glory He has sent Me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. We are told that the original text used to say the apple of Mine own eye, but the Sopherim, the Scribes altered it to His eye because they regarded it as too belittling for the majesty of God. But the original grammar is so much stronger.
How then could God speak of the apple of His eye? He wanted to transmit, through the most powerful illustration, that He will not keep quiet when His people are persecuted. This passage is about Israel; can we say that anti-Semitism, in any of its forms, is like touching God’s eyes? That does not mean that a Christian today should always agree with all that the Israeli government does, but we do know that the Lord is behind Israel to protect it from the abuses, like those of Moab and Amon which we read in Zephaniah.
Click Here for the Video: Zephaniah, Part 5: The Middle East in Zephaniah