God attacks the Chosen People yet again
A SCEPTICAL BIBLE READING OF THE BOOK OF
ZEPHANIAH
Chapter One
As with the other
prophets, the bloodline of Zephaniah is given as some kind of evidence of
his credentials. Useful as he comes up from nowhere and there are no other
sources in the history books referring to whom he is or why anyone should take
note of what he has to say. That people can be inserted into such
illustrious family trees or great deeds attributed to someone who might
otherwise be just a name on a list should be obvious.
The events
described are set in the time of Amon, a king of Judah. That is when Zephaniah rather
than a date when any of the bad news he relates came to pass received the
prophecy.
God is going to inflict
a terrible curse on Judah, blighting the land
and killing all edible livestock, fish, etc. There has been too much Baal
worship (Baal being a false God), and God has had enough of that. Rather
than just deal with the Baal worshippers he is inflicting his wrath
on the entire population. He actually states that even the faithful to god will
suffer along with the wicked. (Verse 5 –6). Kings, priests, merchant classes,
any bearing silver, all equally doomed. God promises all a ‘speedy riddance’
(verse 18).
Chapter Two
Describing Judah
as “O nation not desired,” (Verse 1) as a statement of his disownership of the
people he so loved for generations, God advises the people to start venerating
him properly, like a bully offering not to punch us if we do as he wills.
God assures the people of Judah through
Zephaniah that they won’t suffer alone as Gaza, Eskellon and Ekron will also
fall. In Canaan there will be no survivors. Moab & Ammon will go down as
Sodom & Gomorrah did, in brimstone and fire. The
children of Judah will take over the lands there. Ultimately, the survivors
from Judah will also take over the remnants of Ashkellon, and make their homes
there. This is obviously a far off vision as the scale of disaster befalling the
land of Judah suggests they’ll be in no condition to conquer half the Near East
too soon. Their population will take several generations to be replenished.
Enough to conquer any new land.
God wiping out a people to move other people onto their
land gives a terrible sense of divine Lebensraum. Hardly in keeping with the
modern Christian notion of God as a God of love.
Ethiopia will fall
too, a line added almost as an afterthought. Assyria and Nineveh will
fall too. The destruction of Nineveh is constantly remarked on by many of the Minor Prophets. God really seems to
have issues with Nineveh. Her streets will become a settling place for the
beasts of the earth, as there will be no people left to stop them taking over.
Chapter Three
Jerusalem itself will be the central focus of the great
scourging to come. The Israeli nations will fall as their story comes round
full circle. They will be conquered and plunged into a new and long, terrible
captivity.
Only once all our cities have been levelled (The
apocalyptic vision now becoming global), God will restore us all to a single
language (having divided our tongues and nations during the abandonment of
Babel in Genesis). This is so we can all pray to God in fear together.
Only then will God restore the peace upon us all, with
special affection for Israel once again.
A typical, uncompromising description of violence and
bloodshed with an occasional shrill promise that all this comes down to love
starting to sound less than convincing. There is nothing remotely lovable about
this God.
Arthur Chappell
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
LINK
TO THIS PAGE http://arthurchappell.me.uk/bible-zephaniah.htm
E-mail arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
LINKS TO MY OTHER PAGES.
LINKS
TO OTHER PEOPLES PAGES UPDATES MYSPACE - http://www.myspace.com/arthurchappell
FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/arthur.chappell
FACEBOOK BLOG http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blogpage.php?blogid=85623
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE http://www.facebook.com/pages/ARTHUR-CHAPPELLS-WRITING-POETRY-MODELLING-PHOTOGRAPHY-FAN-PAGE/366778907731?ref=mf
MY BOOKS - http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=952521
MY FLIXYA PHOTO PAGES http://www.flixya.com/user/arthurchappell
MY TWITTER
PAGE - http://twitter.com/arthurchappell
PHOTOS OF ME
& GENERAL
PHOTOGRAPHS
MY WOOPHY
PHOTO SHARING PAGE - http://www.woophy.com/member/Arthur+Chappell
MY FLICKR PAGE http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthurchappell/
MY MODEL
MAYHEM PAGE http://www.modelmayhem.com/arthurchappell
MY MODEL
URL WEB PAGE http://modelurl.com/arthurchappell
BOOK
REVIEWS AND ABSTRACTS - http://www.shvoong.com/writers/arthurchappell/
MY SHARE
A LINK PHOTO PAGES http://www.shareapic.net/user/arthurchappell
Shetoldme – Website summaries portal – many reviews of my pages - http://shetoldme.com/referral/7368b651
YOUGOV SURVEY
PAGES - http://my.yougov.com/go.aspx?id=83d4324b-e38d-4022-af7d-44ee3ab4f4c9
