“Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city! She has not obeyed His voice, she has not received correction; she has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God. Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning. Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.” Zephaniah 3:1-4.
Verses one and two above were covered in the post entitled, “The Tyrannical City” on 7-31-20. Verse three was covered in “The Tyrannical City, Part 2A posted on 8-3-20. They have been included here to maintain context. We begin then with verse four.
“Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.” Zephaniah 3:4.
Other translations give the word “light” instead of “insolent”. That is to say, “Her prophets are light…” I like both words; however the word light here is defined as; lacking truth, gravity, or steadiness.
One commentator added these to the list of characteristics of the false prophets, good for nothing, worthless, of no value, light in knowledge, no brains, empty headed, these have also been called proud.
The false prophet is proud; they look down on the unwashed masses and teach them things contrary to Scripture, lording it over them, separating them from their money, and valuable goods, and then dragging them off to hell with them. This would certainly justify calling them “insolent”
Here are the words of the Pharisees who were supposed to be teaching the word of God to the people of Israel.
“But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” John 7:49.
Joseph Smith started Mormonism; Brigham Young was another Mormon false prophet, Mary Baker Eddy, the mother of Christian Science, Charles Taze Russell the false prophet who set the foundation for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, another false prophet who also claimed to be Christ. This is a short list of false prophets that you may know of.
It is safe to say that all liberal theologians are false prophets because they will deny the virgin birth, deny that Christ is God incarnate, and deny the sin nature.
Liberal theologians will allegorize nearly the entire Bible, many deny that God is real at all, and many live sensual, sinful dissolute lives.
Many seminaries today have these hypocrites teaching theology to young men and women making shipwreck of their faith and message.
“The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.” Ezekiel 22:25.
The false prophet will tell you that Christians should be prosperous; yet, it seems that the richest of all are the false teachers. Jesus promised us peace in the heart, not money in the purse.
“Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’” Luke 6:20.
“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” James 2:5.
This does not mean that those who serve God will sit on a dung heap and beg for bread crumbs.
“Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches – feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:7-9.
“I have been young, and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.” Psalm 37:25.
God is faithful.
“…pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18.
“…her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.” Zephaniah 3:4b.
“Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.” Ezekiel 22:26.
Priests polluted the sanctuary by not treating it as holy. In Jesus’ day they actually allowed vendors in the temple to sell animals to sacrifice, and exchange money.
“Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, ‘Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!’” John 2:13-16.
There was nothing wrong with what these men were doing. They were just in the wrong place. These merchants used to be on the way to the temple but somehow they managed to work their way inside.
It was the fault of the priests who should have withstood such advances and reminded them that this was a holy place, not a bazaar.
Imagine, if you will being inside your church on Sunday, trying to pray or read God’s word while the clamor of sellers and noise of animals (not to mention the smell) was going on in the lobby, you will have a good idea of what this was like.
Many of these priests were not believers, just folks who worked for the job, for the money, prestige, and power. They polluted the sanctuary too because they did not teach truth to the Israelites. In fact people like this pollute the sanctuary by just being there.
Priests today pollute the sanctuary in the vilest way when they molest little boys, murdering their souls. And the church pollutes itself by hiding these filthy acts and moving these perverts to other areas where they can continue their abominable deeds.
Do not be fooled into thinking that these holy men, priests are going to heaven because they are in the church. They are going straight to hell for eternity.
All child molesting is rape, I repeat, all child molesting is rape! Children are not sexual until they are destroyed by a pervert, pornography at a young age, or through another child victim.
There is a push to normalize pedophilia, well and good for the pervert, but what about the victim.
You cannot normalize being painfully raped by someone who is in authority, is trusted, and, or, usually outweighs the child by one hundred pounds or more.
This is a vicious crime, never ever be sympathetic to the pedophile’s cause.
Society has normalized the killing of babies; do not for a moment think that they cannot normalize this, the worst of perversions.
Have you noticed, it is always the helpless child who winds up being victimized?
“Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.” Zephaniah 3:4b.
These priests have done violence to the law of God. They misrepresented the law of God and gave their own interpretation, if they taught the people at all.
Later, in Jesus’ day they taught from oral traditions and rabbinical writings which clashed with the law. The following was Jesus’ response to the perversion of God’s Law.
“Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, ‘Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men – the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.’ He said to them, ‘All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.’” Mark 7:5-9.
Men will always try to adorn the church with their own legalistic ideas, making God appear to be a very austere person sitting on a golden throne who has no time for anything. But He will have time to take your money, which, by the way, often seems to stay in the pockets of the church.
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:1-2.
All who have accepted Christ as their savior are children of God and nothing can separate us from His love; certainly not officious roaring lions, greedy judges, lying self centered prophets, or apostate priests, pastors, ministers, or elders.
The Tyrannical City, Part 2B taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-3-17, updated on 8-6-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.