In this episode, we delve into the teachings of Zephaniah as we explore a different outlook on pain and suffering, through the eyes of Dr. J. Vernon McGee. We begin with a discussion on faith and God’s mercies during times of personal hardship, illustrated by touching listener testimonies. As the Bible bus travels through Zephaniah, we reflect on a mother’s deep longing for her son’s salvation—even at great personal sacrifice—highlighting the intense love and spiritual convictions that drive prayers.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
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In times of trouble or sickness, have you ever asked the question, does God really love me? If so, you’re not alone. Welcome to Through the Bible. Our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, continues to direct the Bible bus through the Old Testament book of Zephaniah, where we’re discovering a new way to look at pain and suffering. I’m Steve Schwartz, and as I hold the doors of the Bible bus open for you, go ahead and climb aboard and pick your seat. And if you brought your Bible along, always a good thing to do. Turn to Zephaniah 1, verse 2. Now, I know that many of you are dealing with sickness and pain, and in a minute we’re going to pray together for you. But first, here’s a personal message that Dr. McGee recorded about his journey with life-threatening cancer and a letter that he received from a listener who also learned how close God was to him even when he faced death. Let’s listen now as Dr. McGee talks about choosing to be grateful and looking for God’s mercy during his own illness.
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Many times on this program, I’ve called attention to the fact of how I experienced the mercy of God when he let me go to the hospital five times for major operation. And I felt, you know, that he’d sort of mistreated me. But I find other people have probably experienced more the mercy of God than I have. I have a letter here that comes from a listener that says, I can sympathize as I am going for a checkup this month after a cancer operation last summer. Please pray for me. I’m 74 years of age. I had a paralyzing stroke 17 years ago and don’t get around very well. This cancer bout came as a shock. I really felt that after I’d endured the after effects of the stroke for 17 years, I really felt abused, but have managed to be thankful for many things, and I do praise and thank the Lord every day for his love and blessings. He is merciful, friends.
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It’s hard to come to that place of surrender, isn’t it? But when we’re able, finally able to do it, it’s so worth it. Let’s pray for each other as we begin. Merciful and loving Father, thank you for being the God of all comfort for those who are suffering. whether it’s our own illness or pain or a burden that we bear for someone that we love. Thank you, Lord, for making your presence known to us in a mighty way. When it hurts, Lord, give us perspective and patience and a strength that can only come from you. Shine into our lives regardless of our circumstances and bless us as we study your word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Well, the Bible bus is off to Zephaniah 1 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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When I was pastor in downtown Los Angeles, it was on Mother’s Day. I looked down in the congregation because that was the day that we recognized mothers. And you could see that many of them were there. And they were dressed a little special for that day. Many of them had on corsages. But one mother that sat out there, she didn’t look as happy as the others looked. In fact, there was a note of Sarah on her face, and she had a beautiful corsage on, a beautiful orchid corsage. In fact, the matter is, it was the biggest one I’ve ever seen. And I knew where it came from. She had a son in the East, and he’s a prominent businessman. He’s high up in government circles, as well as the business world. But he’s not a Christian. In fact, he turns a deaf ear to his mother’s pleading and she prays for him constantly. She’s asked others to pray for him. And one Sunday morning after a message with tears streaming down her cheeks, she said to me, Oh, Dr. McGee, I pray that God will save my boy. I pray that he’ll save him even if he has to put him on a sick bed. And then almost fiercely, she said, even if he has to kill him, I pray that God will save him before it’s too late. And I say to you, that’s a very strong statement to make. Suppose that there had been listening a private detective or a detective from the police department. Would he have arrested her for making that kind of a statement? No, he could not. He could not arrest her at all. Why? Well, because that wasn’t a threat. That was actually a statement of love. It was because she loved that boy, that she was actually willing to give him up and let him go down through the doorway of death if it meant the salvation of his soul. May I say to you that the little book of Zephaniah presents this aspect of God. And actually, I think that we need to recognize, as I called attention last time, that our idea today of God is he’s sort of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that he is a God of love, but there’s another nature to him. He’s almost a different person. He’s a God of judgment. But there is all the way through this little book, and this is a book of judgment. And you won’t find judgment enunciated in a more harsh manner than you find in this book here. And there actually are two thoughts that stand out in this brief book. The first one is this. The day of the Lord occurs seven times in this book. The fact of the matter is, that’s the theme of the book, the day of the Lord. Obadiah and Joel, they were the first of the writing prophets to use this phrase, the day of the Lord. Now, Zephaniah is the last one to use it. And as I say, he uses it more than any other prophet. In fact, it occurs… seven times in this little book. And there are other references to it, but not that particular phrase, by the way. And it has a particular application to the great tribulation period which precedes the kingdom. But it includes the kingdom. In fact, the great tribulation is ended by the coming of Christ personally to the earth to establish the millennial kingdom. And all of that is included in the day of the Lord. And we need, therefore, to keep that before us in this little book, because the emphasis here is upon judgment. You see that first two prophets, Joel… And Obadiah, Joel, for instance, you remember his book opens with that great locust plague, and he likens that locust plague to the day of the Lord that is coming in the future. And he enlarges upon it. He says the day of the Lord is not light, it’s darkness. That’s the way God’s day begins. In fact, that’s the way God writes salvation. It’s on the black background of man’s sin that God writes in letters of light the wonderful gospel story for you and for me. Now, Zephaniah, he is the last of the writing prophets that uses this expression, the day of the Lord. In other words, the prophets begin with that expression. All of them refer to it. And now you come here to Zephaniah, and he prophesied during the days of Josiah. And that was the period… That actually was the last spiritual movement that took place in the kingdom. There was a revival during that time. Wasn’t a great one. It didn’t last long. But there was a revival. This man had known something of the reign, actually, of Ammon, an evil king. and the reign of Manasseh, a terrible king. And he knew the reign of these men. And this man sees that judgment is coming upon his nation and upon his people. And his message sounds very harsh, by the way. Now, the second thought that’s in this little book, and it’s the word jealousy. It only occurs twice. And jealousy, as it refers to God, is on a little different level and different plane than it is for you and me. In our jealousy, we seek actually to do evil. But God is jealous of those that are his own. He’s jealous of mankind. He created him. He’s purchased a redemption for him and made it possible for him to be saved. And God is jealous. It’s not his will that any should perish. He wants them to be saved. He’s jealous of them. But when they don’t turn to him, he’s going to judge them. And the thing this book makes clear as we’ll go through it, God is glorified in judging as well as God is glorified in saving. Now, a great many people don’t see that at all. They can’t understand how that could possibly be true. But you remember over in the 38 and 39 chapters of Ezekiel, That is the time that God is going to judge Russia in the future. And he says that it will be in the last days, the latter days. And in chapter 38 of Ezekiel, verse 16, it reads like this. Thou shalt come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O God, before their eyes. In other words, God says, I intend to judge this godless system, this godless nation. And when I do, I will be glorified in that judgment. Now, that is a tremendous statement to make. And also… For a great many people, it’s a bitter pill for them to follow. But it might be well for us to learn to think God’s thoughts after him, realizing that our thoughts are not his thoughts and our ways are not his ways at all. We saw last time, verse 1, this man belonged to the royal family. In fact, Hezekiah was his great-great-grandfather. And now he gives us his prophecy. Verse 2, he says, “…I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord.” Now, in chapter 1, we have the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem. Here he says, and this is certainly strong language, I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. God says that I intend to judge, and when I do, I intend actually to scrape the land, just like a scraper. A dirt scraper had been run over it. Just as you wipe out a dish, God says, that’s the way that I intend to judge them. Now he reinforces that statement in verse 3, and he says, “…I will consume man and beasts, I will consume the fowls of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man from the land, saith the Lord.” Now, this is quite a judgment, by the way. They have a zoo over in Israel today. I have not seen it. I was told when I was there that it was somewhere up around the Sea of Galilee. And there is an effort being made to gather the animals that were in existence in Bible days and put them in these zoos because… Obviously, today, as the population increases, the same thing that will happen there has happened in our land. Certain species will become extinct, disappear. God says that that’s exactly what’s going to happen when he judges that land. Many species, in fact, they’ll all become extinct at that time. This is a very severe judgment, you see. Now, as we move on down here, we recognize that it actually, I think, covers more than just that land. It’s worldwide devastation that’s predicted here. And the book of Revelation confirms this. and places the time as the great tribulation period. During that period, this earth will absolutely be denuded and the judgments that come upon it. Because you see, it is right before God brings in the millennial kingdom and renews the earth. Now, will you notice, he says here, I will consume man and beast. In other words, all living creatures are included in the judgment. Now, he’s very specific. In verse 4, he says, “…I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Shemarim with the priests.” and those who worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and those who worship, and who swear by the Lord, and who swear by Malcolm.” Now, here, God makes it clear that Jerusalem is singled out, and so is Judah. And God says, “…I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” And I’m going to cut off the remnant of Baal from this place. Now, the thing that brought the judgment of God upon the land is very specific. What we have is idolatry. Now, we saw in Habakkuk that God mentioned five woes that he was going to bring on the people because of certain sins that they committed. And idolatry was the last one. It was the fifth one, but there were four others. Now, Zephaniah narrows it down and puts his hand on idolatry, that is, false religion. In other words, he’s carrying out what the Scripture teaches, beginning with the book of Judges. You have given a philosophy of human government. And you will find it was true of God’s people, and it’s been true of every nation. A nation starts to decline when there’s first religious apostasy, when there’s a turning from the living and true God. And then the second step downward is moral awfulness. And then the third step down is political anarchy. That’s the last one. Now, a great many people think that the problem is in Washington. I don’t think so. And then another group of people feel that the moral awfulness of this land, if people could be reformed and we could get people acting nice and not being violent, not stealing, and to lift our standards, that would be great. And that would solve our problem. I don’t think that’s the problem. Very frankly, the problem in this country, I believe, is a religious apostasy. I think that the problem is out yonder with you and right here with me. The problem today is that the church has failed to give God’s message. Now, I’m talking not about every church or your church, because I know most of you who listen to this program are in good Bible churches. And I thank God for the wonderful group of pastors across this country that are standing for God today. And there are many of them that are. But the great denominations, by and large, have now departed from the faith. They have gone to the place where they are no longer giving an effective message to the nation. And as a result, I think that from that has flowed moral awfulness and political anarchy today. Now, if you think that this is just the wild ravings of a fundamental preacher, you are wrong. I want to read to you an excerpt from an editorial that appeared in the Chicago Tribune of March the 20th, 1968. And it was speaking about the low level of the churches and that they actually were turning from a spiritual message altogether. And they were using the prominent spokesman of the churches and of the seminaries. And the editorial concluded like this. I’m reading now. I’m quoting. This betrayal of Christ in the name of Christianity is one reason for the moral and spiritual malaise with which this country is afflicted. The melancholy fact is that the churches no longer influence The development of national character. People go to church mainly because of an impulse to participate in a service of worship, not because of any spiritual guidance they expect from the clergyman. Now, what a note of condemnation this is, friends, to read a thing like this. Now, this is not just our nation. It’s been true of every nation. Gibbons. gives five reasons for the decline and fall of Rome. Now, you must remember, Gibbon was not a Christian, but here is why he said Rome fell, and Rome fell from within. He says, “…first, there was the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.” Second, higher and higher taxes. The spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace. Third, the mad craze for pleasure. Sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral. Fourth, the building of great armaments. When the great enemy was within, the decay of individual responsibility. And fifth, the decay of religion. Fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people. That’s an amazing statement, let me tell you. Now, this man Zephaniah puts his finger right down on the sore spot in the southern kingdom of Judah. He saw what was happening. They were now on the toboggan. They were on the way out and judgment was coming. And he mentions here this thing of idolatry. Now, the interesting thing about the idolatry that he mentions is that I personally think that you have here three types of idolatry that are mentioned. That was, first of all, the worship of Baal. And that was a rather crude form of idolatry. Remember, Jeroboam set up first the golden calves. Later on, Jezebel introduced the worship of Baal. Really, it was a very crude form of worship, even of idolatry. And then the idolatry became refined and sophisticated. And you find here that the remnant of Baal from this place and the name of Shemarim with the priest. Now, Shemarim means false name. or idolatrous priests. And then we have the second form, and those who worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and those who worship and who swear by the Lord and who swear by Malcolm. Here you have introduced the second form. stage of idolatry, rather refined and very subtle and very dangerous, by the way. Now, I’m going to have to save this until next time. I’d hoped I’d be able to cover these three forms of idolatry, but I’ll save that the next time. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
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Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you’d like to join us in this mission, we welcome your partnership. Your faithful prayers and your practical financial support as the Lord leads are great encouragements as together we keep the Bible bus on the road in more than 250 languages all around the world. Find out more by visiting ttb.org. calling 1-800-65-BIBLE. And of course, you can always write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. And to those of you who quietly and regularly support us in praying and giving, I say thank you. On behalf of the millions of lives that you’re impacting, lives like Margaret in Iraq, she writes, It is not safe to have a church here, so I cannot thank you enough for all your efforts. Please also thank those who provide the finances and who pray for us. When I feel lonely, I think about the brothers and sisters in Christ who make it possible for me to hear the gospel. Well, if you want to hear more about how God is changing lives through the power of his word, sign up for our world prayer team at ttb.org forward slash pray, and you’ll hear so many stories like this of how God is at work every day. What’s the worst and really most subtle kind of idolatry? Can you guess? I’ll give you a hint. It’s practiced in America every day. Join us next time when Dr. McGee gives the answer here on Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll save you a seat on the Bible bus.
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Jesus came in all, all to him I owe.
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Our story on the Bible bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
