00:00And Zephaniah then goes on to describe the judgments which are coming.
00:04I won't read all of that, but he starts with judgments coming upon the different nations which surround Israel.
00:10Interestingly, the first one he mentions is actually Gaza.
00:15If I can come to it in chapter 2, verse 4.
00:24It says, Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon desolate.
00:29Ashkelon is just up the road from Gaza, by the way.
00:32So it speaks about something happening in the area of Gaza.
00:35But it goes on to speak about different countries.
00:37It speaks about Ammon, which is Jordan.
00:41It speaks about Moab.
00:43It speaks about Assyria, which is the northern part of Iraq.
00:46And it says that all these countries are going to be affected by this time of trouble.
00:50They were affected in the time when the Babylonians came in as well.
00:53So Babylon didn't just invade and attack Israel and Judea.
00:57It also attacked the countries surrounding it, and particularly the country to the north of Babylon, which was Assyria.
01:04So we have a general state of trouble, but also something specifically located around the land of Israel.
01:11It also goes on to speak about the judgment coming upon the rebellious and wicked city that has not obeyed the Lord,
01:19has not received correction, not trusted in the Lord.
01:22And if you look around the world today, we live in a world which is full of rebellion and pride and rejection of the Lord.
01:30Wherever you look, whatever country you're in, whether it's Britain or Russia or America or any of the countries of the world,
01:36there is a general spirit of rebellion against God, which is taking hold upon people and becoming increasingly strong in the days in which we live.
01:44Jesus said it'd be as in the days of Noah, at the time of his second coming.
01:49And you read in the book of Noah, in the book of Genesis about Noah,
01:52it was a time when there was great wickedness on the face of the earth,
01:55and every imagination of the heart of man was only evil continually.
02:00And the earth was filled with violence.
02:02And so God was displeased with what was taking place on the earth.
02:05Interesting, by the way, the word for violence in Genesis is Hamas.
02:11So, put that one, think about that.
02:15But there is a source of violence, particularly coming from terrorism, from drug pushing,
02:20from all kinds of things taking place, influences in the world, which are towards violence and destruction.
02:26And of course, manifesting itself in some of the horrible wars which are taking place around us in the world today.
02:31Okay.
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