Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Don't you love it? You know, First Thessalonians, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. This is more of that idea that he's invited us as guests to the banquet table if you would.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reflects on the forgiveness God offers to all those who seek redemption from sin.

Brett Meador: He's not appointed us wrath to obtain salvation through Jesus who died for us. If you're a believer, you are not appointed unto his wrath. The wrath that was meant for you, Jesus bore on Calvary, and that's the end of that discussion. Praise the Lord for that.

Guest (Male): The prophet Zephaniah presented a dark and depressing message about what will happen to Israel because of their sins. And in it, we see some frightening parallels with our own day. However, as Pastor Brett Meador shares in today's word from the book of Zephaniah, we'll also see God's graciousness in his ultimate plan for Israel and the mercy he likewise has made available to us.

Brett Meador: Turn to Zephaniah chapter one. This book's a dark and gloomy book to a lot of people, but there's always in every book of the Bible the hint of goodness and glory. And we'll see that in chapter three. Chapter one and two speaks of trouble that's coming, even sad and brutal and gloomy days. And chapter three starts to introduce the day of redemption or the day of joy, and we'll see that in chapter three.

So let's dive right into it. Here we start in chapter one, verse two. He says, "And I will utterly consume all things from off the land," saith the Lord. "I will consume man and beast. I will consume the fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked. And I will cut off man from off the land," saith the Lord. "I will also stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of Chemarims with the priests."

The keywords here is the Lord says, "I will consume, I will consume, I will cut off, I will cut off." He says that both of those twice, consuming and cutting off. And remember, when we talk about the day of the Lord, which I already told you that's kind of the theme of this book, the day of the Lord, there's a lot of this kind of language. And the question you have to ask yourself is, is he talking about the near application of this prophecy or the far application, the future, the end times? Or is he talking about both? That's what you kind of have to ask yourself as you're reading this prophecy of Zephaniah because it's a dual fulfillment of prophecy.

And you can see how both will happen. Did the Lord cut off man and beast from Israel? The answer is yes, it did happen historically. After, you know, the Babylonians came and crushed Jerusalem. Even after 70 years of captivity and rebuilt and restored Israel and Jerusalem, there were so many years where it was just in desolation.

But it's going to be perhaps even worse if you would, during the second iteration of this prophecy of the day of the Lord. "I will consume man and beast," he says. "And I will cut off the priests of Baal, the remnant of Baal." And the Lord says, "I'm going to cut those guys off."

Well, verse five, "And them that worshiped the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship and swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham." Now, those that are worshiping the hosts of heaven, those are the guys, studying the astrology charts and up on the rooftops, looking at the stars, astral deities that they believed in in those days. It was paganism through astrology.

And then Malcham is another name for the God that we've talked about many times before in our study. Malcham is also called Moloch. And the reason that one's so dastardly to us is because that's the one that they would build this big iron statue of Moloch or Malcham. And his arms would be outstretched like this. But if you went to the backside, there were these hollowed out areas where they'd stoke up these fires so hot that the iron arms would get to be almost like incandescent red hot.

And then they would think that they would please Moloch, the God, by sacrificing their babies on the arms. They'd place these newborn babies on the arms of Moloch or as it's called here, Malcham. Isn't it interesting that these people swear by the Lord? And the word Lord there, notice, it's all capital letters? That means it's the word Jehovah. So these guys are two-timers, man. They're worshiping Jehovah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great. We worship the God of the Jews. But we're also worshiping Malcham. And this is breaking some of the most fundamental things, "Thou shalt have no other god before me."

Verse six, there's two people described here in verse six. "And them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him." There's two people. There's the people that are backslidden. They were once walking with the Lord, but they turned away from the Lord. And then the second group is those that had never sought the Lord or inquired of him, the sort of the atheists that never believed. The Lord says, "I'm going to cut all those people off."

Verse seven, "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice; he hath bid his guests." So now we have the first of seven mentions of the day of the Lord by Zephaniah, the prophet. He's talking about the destruction of Israel, but also the day of the Lord in the end times, both. Now, the big question here is, you'll see different commentaries talk about who the guests are that are being invited here in verse seven. "The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests."

And you'll hear two totally different interpretations. One is these guests are people that are Jews that are his guests that he's calling to be the sacrifice. And it's kind of a sinister, brutal interpretation of that, but in some ways, you can see that in the book of Zephaniah. The Lord's saying, "I'm going to wipe out some of the Jews who have been these pagan, Baal worshiping, Moloch worshiping people." So it's like the Lord's inviting the guests so that they can be the sacrifice.

Others say, "No, no, no, it's the opposite." When you look at the word guest there in the original Hebrew, the Hebrew word is his called ones or people that were called or bidden. And so you might say, and this is what some people say, "These are actually the people that are doing it right. These are the people that are repenting during this time of judgment." Now, you can make that case because we know the way the day of the Lord's going to roll out. When the tribulation kicks into gear, the Jews will be saved in the middle of that tribulation when the abomination of desolation happens. Remember the coming world leader is going to set himself up to be worshiped in Jerusalem. And then the Jews will say, "We've been duped," and they'll flee to the mountains of Moab, which is probably Petra. So some say the tribulation saints along with the Jews are the ones that'll be sort of invited or called to the Lord. So there are two very different interpretations, and I'll leave it to you.

I like to lean on, anytime I can think about the graciousness of the Lord, because that's something the Bible says over and over again. The Lord is merciful, his mercy endures forever, his grace is sufficient. So I do whenever I can, I'm going to try to think, "Okay, he's talking about the bidden guests. Those are the ones he's inviting to be saved that would turn and follow the Lord." The problem is during Zephaniah's time, there weren't a lot of those people at all in the Babylonian invasion part. But in the tribulation time, there will be a lot of those who will turn to the Lord, and they'll have the seal of God in their forehead. Remember that?

But verse eight says, "And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." So it furthers that first notion of chapter one, verse seven, that he's inviting the princes and the kings to be part of the sacrifice because of their evil. He's going to punish them for that. So some would connect verse seven and eight that way. But the princes there are the judges or the political leaders of Israel, is the idea, along with the princes, the king's children, and what have you. And the Lord says, "Those that are clothed in strange apparel."

What's that? Where are they shopping? Well, who knows. But it means that they're probably more into their apparel than they are in the Lord. That's kind of the idea. That they're dressed and they're more about their clothing and how they look than they actually care about their relationship and situation with God. So these fancy garments, the strange apparel, probably speaks of their wicked deeds and their sinfulness and what have you.

And by the way, don't you love it? You know, First Thessalonians, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. This is more of that idea that he's invited us as guests to the banquet table, if you would. He's not appointed us wrath to obtain salvation through Jesus who died for us, whether we wake or sleep, should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even also as you do. So even when we're reading these horrible things about the wrath of God and the day of the Lord, don't forget, we are not appointed to this. So if you're starting to get a little uneasy and your blood pressure is rising as we're reading some of these, "the Lord's going to, you know, punish all these people." If you're a believer, you are not appointed unto his wrath. The wrath that was meant for you, Jesus bore on Calvary. And that's the end of that discussion. Praise the Lord for that.

Well, it goes on in verse nine, it says, "In the same day also, will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their master's houses with violence and deceit. And it shall come to pass in that day," saith the Lord, "that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down, all they that bear silver are cut off. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil."

Interesting person the Lord hunts down here at the end of verse 11 and 12, the person that's sitting around, "Ah, the Lord's not, he's indifferent or apathetic. The Lord's not going to do good or bad." There are people that kind of take that attitude with the Lord, "Oh, who cares? The Lord's never done anything in all these years, so he's not going to do anything." And the Lord's saying, "I'm going to hunt those people down." That's this idea of settling on your lees. That's a figure of speech. The people that made wine, the way they did it is they'd pour the wine into pots and they'd let the lees in the wine settle to the bottom. The lees would cause the wine to sort of get bitter. If you just left them there, they would get bitter and the wine would even get if you left it long enough, sort of syrupy.

So what they would do is they'd pour the wine into a vessel, let the lees settle, and then they'd pour into another vessel, and then let the lees settle in that one. And then they'd pour from vessel to vessel and that was their way of purifying the wine to keep it clear and also not bitter, taking on the taste of the lees. And so there's a phrase that's used in the Bible of resting on your lees or settling on your lees. In fact, the idea of settling on the lees is talked about in Jeremiah 48. The same phrasing, same idea of, you know, what Jeremiah says is the same thing that Zephaniah is saying. The Lord does not intend apathy. And men say, "Ah, the Lord's indifferent. He's not going to do anything." That's the heart of a lot of Christians today. "Ah, things have gone on the way they've gone forever and the Lord's not going to do anything." "Why pray? Why sing praises? Why go to church? It's all the same." That's an apathetic attitude. And here the Lord says, "I'm coming after you." That's what he says in verse 12.

"Howl, ye the inhabitants of Maktesh." What's Maktesh? The word Maktesh is actually the marketplace. And also, people that were wealthy with silver, they're going to come into play here in a second. Will the silver and their money, their gold help them during this time? We'll see about that in a second. But the idea is the fish gate here is also known, does anybody know what's another name for the fish gate in Jerusalem? Anybody? The Damascus gate, which is a major gate in Jerusalem even to this day. The Lord says, "I'm going to be there at that fish gate or the Maktesh marketplace." And the Lord says, "I'm going to deal with those, punish men that are settled on their lees."

By the way, are you one who settles on your lees spiritually? Just say, "Ah, the Lord's going to do what he's going to do." I hear that honestly when people say jokingly, and I know they're probably well meaning, but when it comes to Bible prophecy, they say, "Oh, Bible prophecy. You're a pretribber. There's other post tribbers." I'm a pantribber. "Well, what's a pantribber?" "Oh, it's just all going to pan out." If you're a pantribber, repent, because the Bible doesn't say, "Be ignorant about the end times." The Bible says one of the things in two of there is, "Do not be ignorant about the end times." And it's funny how people just sort of laugh. And I think that apathetic attitude, actually, the Lord actually does not like that at all.

Don't be apathetic when it comes to spiritual things, like, "Ah, who needs to prayer? God is sovereign, so we don't need to pray." Well, the Bible says pray and it says, "You have not because you ask not." So you're missing something there if you're saying prayer is not important because it's all going to work out and God's going to do what God's going to do. That's this attitude of these people, and the Lord says, "No."

But we should be stepping out in serving the Lord and not being resting on our lees and just saying, "Ah, whatever." We need to actually be busy about the work of the Lord and doing what the Bible says. I'm reminded of Proverbs, you know, that talks about how where no oxen are, the crib is clean. But much increase is by the strength of the ox.

In other words, you can sit around and do nothing and have a clean crib and everything seems rosy, but you won't have any increase or profit. Profit comes by sometimes being able to make some messes and get into it. Get into the work. Don't be the people that are just sitting around resting on their lees. I love it when people make leaps of faith and do things that are outside of their skill set and then watching what the Lord does, how he intervenes and steps in and he blesses. But all that to say, the Lord indicts these people who are just resting on their lees.

Verse 13, "Therefore, their goods shall become a booty, and their house is a desolation. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof." So you can do all this stuff if you want to, but somebody else is going to live in your house. Somebody else is going to take your gold and your silver, and somebody else is going to drink your wine.

Verse 14, "The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble, a day of distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness." Well, he goes on in verse 16. "A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers." Now, pause just for a second. So the trumpet in Zephaniah's time would be that of signaling of war and troubles coming, the trumpet.

But in the end times, there are the trumpets. We talked about trumpets in the book of Revelation. Now, some people say, "Well, Brett, you're a pretribber and the trumpet is going to sound, and then we're raptured." Right? And I'll say, "Yes." "But in the book of Revelation, you got the six trumpets being sounded. That's why I believe the tribulation or the rapture is going to happen during the trumpets of the book of Revelation." You got to make sure you understand there's a big difference between the First Thessalonians 4:17 trumpet and the Revelation 6-19 trumpets. What's the biggest difference?

Who blows the trumpets in Revelation? Angels. Who blows the trumpet in First Thessalonians 4? The Lord. It's the trump of the Lord that is blown in the rapture of the church. And then the judgments that are going to be poured out in the book of Revelation 6-19 tribulation period, that's going to be the trumpets of angels being blown. Big difference. So don't confuse them. That's the problem when people confuse those kinds of things. The Bible gives us very clear distinction. But the day of the Lord, which starts with the tribulation period and goes through the millennial kingdom, it's called here, "a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers." So both in Zephaniah's time, the local application, they would blow the sound of the trumpet, but also those angels in the book of Revelation are going to blow the trumpets of judgment there in tribulation period.

Verse 17, "And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath. But the whole land shall be devoured by fire of his jealousy. For he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land."

These people are going to store up their silver and their gold, but it won't be able to help them. Interesting, because, you know, people do that today. They store up silver and gold, and you can do that if you want to. And maybe before the rapture of the church or if the economy goes really bad, then maybe having gold and stuff, that's great if you invest that way. It's great. No problem with that. But if you've got the mindset, "I'm going to stack gold up so that when everything goes bad during the tribulation, and I'm going to," you know, the post tribbers, a lot of post tribbers are preppers, you know. They're getting their generators and their bunkers and their gold and their Cheerios all stored up. Those people are not going to be able to use their silver and gold during that time. And if you think about it, you can kind of understand why. I think that it's going to be so bad if you read the book of Revelation that your gold and your silver, like Zephaniah says here, it's not going to do any good. Better to be saved and to be raptured before that happens.

Now, with all that said, things can get really bad between now and the rapture of the church, like it has throughout history. And so there might be wisdom. Food, water, stuff like that. Things could go really bad way before the rapture of the church. So some people can store that stuff up if they want to. By the way, if things got really bad like that before the rapture of the church, that's where I think the church of Jesus Christ comes together. And we love on one another and we protect each other. And I think one of the things you can see throughout history is when the church was persecuted, the church became stronger and they stood with one another, and it was kind of an amazing work of God. Persecution is painful and brutal as it was throughout church history, often you'd see great revival happen during those times as well. So that's something to think about is less than, you know, pulling yourself inward and downward in your bunker, maybe saying, "How can we be outward during tough times and loving each other and serving one another as church?"

Be that as it may, their gold and their silver, good luck with that. It's not going to help you according to that verse. Verse one of chapter two, it says, "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, oh nation not desired." Ooh, that's a bad thing to be called, a nation not desired. That's Israel right now. "Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you." So he says, "Gather yourselves together before all this stuff happens." And verse three, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."

Anybody want to take a stab at when this is going to happen? When the Lord's saying, "Hey, seek the Lord, and maybe the Lord will hide you in the day of the Lord's anger." What's that talking about? Anybody want to take a jump on that? Not the rapture, because we're talking specifically to Israel. That should give you a clue when we're talking about the day of the Lord. The last part of the tribulation, some will say that. And where are they going to be hidden? Does anybody remember? They're going to be hidden. So this is, this is talking, seek the Lord. That's after the abomination of desolation. The Antichrist is going to say, you know, "Worship me." And he'll stand there in the temple in Jerusalem. And then the Lord will say, "Seek me, seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth." "Seek righteousness, seek meekness. And it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." That's exactly what's going to happen when the Jews turn to Christ in the middle of the tribulation, and they'll flee to what is called Petra. Jot this down in your notes. Revelation 12, chapter 12, verse 13. Let me just read it to you real quick. "And when the dragon saw," this is in the middle of the tribulation, "When the dragon," which is Satan, "saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the manchild." Who's the woman who brought forth the manchild? Israel brought forth the Messiah Jesus. "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and a half time from the face of the serpent." What's a time, time and a half time? Anybody? Three and a half years. "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." This is going to ultimately lead to the battle of Armageddon, where Christ comes and rescues the Jews from Antichrist. It's quite a dramatic story. But the parallel of Revelation 12:13-17 is Zephaniah, this little section we just read, about them seeking the Lord and seeking with meekness, and then the Lord hiding them and protecting them, and that's in Petra. Isaiah chapter 16, by the way, talks about this as well.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador providing good insight from the book of Zephaniah, pointing first to the already fulfilled judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, but also foreshadowing a future judgment yet to come. And there's more of the conclusion of this study in today's word that Pastor Brett has planned for next time as well. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, today's word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett is joining me now. Brett, I know you've been the pastor at Athey Creek Church since 1996, so this is making 30 years for you.

Brett Meador: Yeah.

Guest (Male): And this church has grown from a small group meeting at a middle school to now being one of the largest churches in the Pacific Northwest. What do you attribute that growth to?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, I really think that it's because of the pastor is so handsome. No, no, actually, quite the opposite. No, I really believe that it's attributed to people are hungry for the word of God. People have told me, Kurt, that I have a radio face. You'll appreciate that. But actually, as it turns out, people are hungry for the word of God. And I think that that's what's drawing people is they're not as interested in my opinions or me trying to talk about even wonderful topical type things. But what does the Bible really say? And we've just found people are really spiritually starving for that.

Guest (Male): That is true. And the Bible is so powerful. Well, if you'd like more information about Today's Word or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Zephaniah, and we'll see how the end judgment gives way to restoration as the Lord rejoices over his redeemed people. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.