NOT JUST JUDAH (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted My people and made threats against their land. Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,
“surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever.”

“The remnant of my people will plunder them; the survivors of my nation will inherit their land. This is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking the people of the Lord Almighty. The Lord will be awesome to them when He destroys all the gods of the earth. Distant nations will bow down to him, all of them in their own lands.”

“You Cushites, too, will be slain by my sword.”

Zephaniah 2:8-12

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, we found where the Israelites of Judah wouldn’t be the only ones facing God’s judgment as the scriptures drew our attention to Philistia, the land to the west of Judah which bordered the Mediterranean Sea. We saw where the Lord not only promised that His punishment which would bring destruction and desolation but that the Israelites would be the ones who would occupy the vacated land after they returned from their seventy year exile to Babylon.

As we turn to today’s verses and our continued study of Zephaniah, Chapter 2, we see the Lord turning His focus to three other lands – Moab, Ammon, and Cush - who at one time or another had opposed Israel. Look again at His words here:

“I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted My people and made threats against their land. Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever.”

“The remnant of my people will plunder them; the survivors of my nation will inherit their land. This is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking the people of the Lord Almighty. The Lord will be awesome to them when He destroys all the gods of the earth. Distant nations will bow down to him, all of them in their own lands.”

“You Cushites, too, will be slain by my sword.”  Zephaniah 2:8-12

Look at a map of the regions around Judah during the days of Zephaniah and you’ll find Moab directly to the east while Ammon was above Moab and northeast of Judah. As we read the words of the Lord, we see where neither of these nations was especially congenial when it came to their relationship with the Israelites. In fact, we find God calling out the Moabites and Ammonites for insulting and taunting His people as they “made threats against their Land”.

How angry was God over this?

So angry that He assured Moab and Ammon that they would experience a judgment similar to Sodom and Gomorrah, cities utterly destroyed by God for their blatant, willful sinfulness in His sight. Raining burning sulfur down from the heavens on the wicked cities, God made Sodom and Gomorrah a wasteland forever,  and Moab and Ammon were next as the Lord vowed they would become like “a place of weeds and salt pits”. The scriptures tell us this coming annihilation would be what Moab and Ammon deserved for their pride and the mocking and insulting they dished out to the “people of the Lord Almighty”. We also find God adding Cush to the list of nations facing His wrath, expanding the locality of His judgment to west of the Red Sea (the area we know of as Egypt and Ethiopia today).   

Note that the destroyed nations would not remain deserted and uninhabited. For God was going to hand over all three regions to His own people who would first plunder and then inherit the land. He would destroy all the gods of the earth and drive out all who had placed their trust in those gods, clearing the way for the Israelites to move in and set up shop, worshiping the one true God who had blessed them with restoration and allowed them to flourish once again, even in lands outside their own.   

Yes, Judah would face God’s judgment and in a big way but as we see in the last two devotions, God wasn’t allowing any of the pagan nations around Judah to get off the hook either. Tomorrow, we add Assyria to the list.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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