“Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “until the day I rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations to My assembly of kingdoms, to pour on them My indignation, all My fierce anger; all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.” Zephaniah 3:8.
What we have seen thus far in Zephaniah chapter 3 is as follows.
Verses 1-4 describe a Jerusalem which is completely corrupt and filled with greedy men in places of power sucking the life out of the poor, and the helpless.
Their judges are rapacious men who adjudicate for money or favors, their prophets or teachers are treacherous, and their priests are ungodly swine who have done violence to God’s law and His word.
Verse 5 speaks of God’s presence and constant witness within that city.
Verses 6-7 give Jerusalem and all of Judah examples of God’s judgment upon other cities, and nations; warnings which they ignored.
Verse 7 gives Israel’s response to the examples spoken of above and her rejection of the many punishments that God had already inflicted upon them. Without hesitation, they continued in their evil ways, Israel was faithful to God in word only.
There is an implied time gap between verses 7 and 8 this gap was touched upon in the last post.
Since Jerusalem’s history is fairly complete until the time of Christ, the gap is reckoned to begin after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Verse eight not only suggests the gap in the first phrase, “Therefore wait for Me”, it also shows the completion of the return of Christ. We will now discuss all of verse eight.
“Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “until the day I rise up for plunder…” Zephaniah 3:8a.
God tells the Israelites to wait for Him, this not only implies time, but God here is speaking to believers, not the unrighteous people He had spoken of in the preceding seven verses.
Despite dire predictions for an apostate Israel in Isaiah chapter 30, the Lord says the following to the faithful in Israel.
“Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.” Isaiah 30:18.
“Until the day I rise up for plunder…” this signals the end of the time gap which began so long ago one Easter morning when Christ arose from the dead.
Jesus came once to go to the cross to redeem mankind from sin. He will return soon to take possession of that which He also took from Satan, authority over the entire earth.
Technically God’s prophetic time clock will begin ticking again at the beginning of the tribulation period of seven years when Israel signs a pact with the Antichrist. And the return of Christ signals the end of that period.
“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He [Jesus Christ] who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16.
“Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this One [Jesus] who is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? – ‘I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’ Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? ‘I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, made them drunk in My fury, and brought down their strength to the earth.’”Isaiah 63:1-6.
Both of these passages refer to, “…the day I rise up for plunder” Jesus Christ is coming again to destroy all who would oppose His authority. He will cast the Antichrist and his false prophet into the lake of fire, after this all of the Antichrist’s armies will be annihilated.
“And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.” Revelation 19:19-21.
This is the culmination of the battle of Armageddon, but before this God draws them all, all of them into one small land, Israel.
You have probably heard the term globalism; it is a process that is going on at this very moment. Certain corrupt and godless men are endeavoring to return to the one world that was Babylon.
It is not God’s will for men to do this, He has purposely divided this world into nations so that individuals, if not nations would seek Him.
“And He [God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” Acts 17:26-28.
Yet, in spite of God’s will, yes, even in rebellion against that will men have been trying to put together a one world government again.
After the flood of Noah’s day God told him and his sons the following.
“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Genesis 9:1.
The children of Noah’s sons however had other ideas.
“Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.” Genesis 11:1-2.
“And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:4-9.
The problem with mankind dwelling in one place like that is that corrupt ideas infect everyone almost at once. Very little time would elapse before the world would be ripe for another flood type of extinction.
Globalism will take over the world after the rapture of the church, creating one socialist state. Soon after that the Antichrist will take control and devastate the world.
Socialism which is just a whisker’s difference from communism has never worked and it never will.
Socialism does nothing more than transfer power and freedom from the citizens to an elite few in a central government. Impoverishing the one and enriching a few unqualified autocrats.
If you value your freedom, never vote for a globalist, they will always take away the freedom of the citizenry.
“…My determination is to gather the nations to My assembly of kingdoms…” Zephaniah 3:8b.
It has been mentioned that globalism, is already gaining momentum and a catastrophe like the rapture of the church will likely seal the deal with the nations of the world.
The rapture will be a worldwide catastrophe when all of the Christians are taken out of the world because Christians are not just a nuisance to the ungodly, they are also airline pilots, truck drivers, engineers at nuclear plants, police and emergency technicians, doctors and nurses, yes it will be a catastrophe.
So the world will come together, from sheer panic, which will be fanned by the ones who want the power the new system will give them, this and a massive shift of wealth into the hands of a few.
The Club of Rome already has a plan to redistrict the world into ten blocks of nations. For instance, if I remember correctly, the United States, Canada, and South America, would be one block ruled over by one of ten different kings.
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast [Antichrist]. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.” Revelation 17:12-13.
So when the Lord says that He is determined to “gather the nations to My assembly of kingdoms,” He might be speaking literally. The nations within the ten kingdoms will be gathered together in one place.
How will they be gathered and for what reason? The reason is simple, hatred of the Jews. Even now anti-Semitism is at a world-wide high. How much more so in a world in total rebellion against the God of the Christians and the Jews?
As for the how they will be gathered, Scripture answers that question.
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon [Satan], out of the mouth of the beast [Antichrist], and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Revelation 16:13-14.
“And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” Revelation 16:16.
“Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow – for their wickedness is great [blood flowed for 200 miles, 4 ½ ft. deep]. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Joel 3:12-16.
God has said that He is determined to gather the nations one day soon. God has said that He is determined “…to pour on them My indignation, all My fierce anger”.
God is indignant because the world blasphemed Him by worshipping a man, the Antichrist. God is indignant because of the world’s unrighteousness, their persecutions, tortures, and murders of innocent men and women sent to them in His name.
Are you angry with the things you hear of every day? How much more so is a holy God who witnesses such evil every second of the day?
“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” Romans2:5.
“All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.” Zephaniah 3:8c.
The earth devoured by a foul and loathsome sore upon those who have the mark of the beast. The sea turned to blood as of a dead man, every creature in it dies, the rivers and springs of water also turned to blood. The stench and disease from this alone will be unimaginable. The sun will begin to scorch people and the world will become dark. Thunder, lightning, 100 pound hailstones, and devastating earthquakes which level mountains, cities and islands are the terrors of the tribulation.
God’s wrath will be great on that day; yet, no one reading this will go through these things if they accept Christ as their Savior today.
“…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek [Gentile], for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” Romans 10:9-13.
The Tyrannical City, Part 6 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-19-17, updated on 8-19-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.