 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today's session on your Testament survey. We are standing on two books, Zephaniah and Haguei. Before I could start with the session, can I request one of us to lead us in prayer please? Thank you for this time. I would be submit us to your mighty hands and ask Lord that let's be going to learn from these books or we pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding and help us to understand your word and help us die not to teach us your word in a special way Lord. United us together bless each one of us and help us to learn something new from your presence of God in Jesus name we pray. Amen. If I could start and we just share the presentation. Good morning everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I'm just sharing the book of Zephaniah. When the book of Zephaniah was written by Zephaniah was the son of Kushi, the son of Gidealia, the son of Amalia and the son of Ezekiah. So among the other prophets we see something very different with Zephaniah that is unique the way he is introducing his long list of fathers, long list of fathers and that is a very unique in nature the way he is portraying. He is listing till Ezekiah. So we may question why did Ezekiah, I mean why did Zephaniah stop with Ezekiah. Most likely the prophet may wanted to highlight his royal lineage as a descendant of one of Judah's good people. So in the reference of Zephaniah 1.4 we see that in this place you know how he is introducing his fathers and great-grandfathers and the word Zephaniah means in Hebrew Yahweh height or Yahweh has hidden. So Zephaniah was evidently born during the latter part of the reign of King Manasseh and his name made me that he was hidden from Manasseh's atrocities when he was a very wicked and a cruel king and you know it says like history says that he was not good in nature he was very cruel and yes here we see Zephaniah been hidden from the King Manasseh and yes Nahum and Nahum, Nahum and Jeremiah were Zephaniah's contemporaries and let's look into a little bit of the background of Zephaniah after the enlightenment of the reign of Ezekiah, Judah endured 55 years under two of its worst King like Manasseh and Amon, Amon. Before Josiah was made king at the age 8 in 640 he grew into adulthood and we see King Josiah proved to be the most godly or a good king of Judah. He experienced a personal spiritual awakening in 632 at the age of 16 and after the law was discovered in 622 he led a nation by revival among the people of Israel or the people of Judah. So this has been recorded in the 2nd Chronicles chapter 34. So on the whole we see that Zephaniah is a fierce and grim book of warning about the coming of the Lord, coming of the Lord and the desolation, darkness and brilliance with strife Judah and the nations because of the wrath of God once said. So Zephaniah looks beyond our joint. However to a time of joy when God will cleanse the nation and restore the fortunes of his people Israel the book begins with God's declaration in chapter 1 verse 2 we see that I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth but it ends with this promise at that time you know in verse chapter 3 verse 20 it says that at that time I will bring you in and restore your fortunes before your eyes and the purpose the purpose of this book we see in the notes is to warn the coming of the Lord and and many Israelites thought it would be a day for rejoicing but Zephaniah is revealing that no it's not the time to rejoice for you guys because idolator idolators idolators Israelites we consider God's enemies just as the canonites it is not nationality but spirituality and the second purpose we see that to hold out hope for a remnant that will survive God's judgment and we see Zephaniah live in the final decades of the southern kingdom of Judah and you know when we start to the chapters we see in first chapter talks about Israel was too far Zephaniah saying that Israel you have gone too far worshipping other gods and you wait to entrenched in the life of the people and it ended up that Josiah's pride led him to a tragic death on the battlefield as he set Jerusalem on a collusion courts with Babylon and Zephaniah is saying that he had seen all of this coming for years he had been one of the leaders of Jerusalem saying that you know through the collection of poetry is he saying in chapter one we see wait let me see that's again just trying to guys the connection was dropping very sorry so chapter one verse two to three chapter one chapter one to chapter two verse three talks about the it first focuses on the day of the Lord's judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem and in chapter two till chapter three it talks about the second part is about the day of the Lord's judgment the nations of Jerusalem and chapter three verse nine to twenty talks about then the third section exposed of what that remains for the nations and put Jerusalem on the other side of God's judgment so we are not this introduction thank you so the first section opens with this shocking reversal of Genesis chapter one so it talks about God's good and ordered word is going to descend back into this order and darkness and chaos becoming uninhabitable once again as we keep reading we realize that Zephaniah is developing all of these powerful political leaders to describe how Jerusalem's world is going to be and all of the city's institutions for worshipping the God of the Canaanites can be destroyed and we also see all the leaders of you know who are leading with injustice and all the economic centers where we are leading in unhealthy manner or by crooked ways of lending and borrowing money and all of it is going to be along with us and Zephaniah develops all these almost you know apocalyptic images to show the significance of what's going to happen to Jerusalem it's all refers to the great army that is coming to pick out Jerusalem out in Greston that Zephaniah never mentions whose army God's going to use to bring the judgment upon this nation though the other prophets like Micah had a cook had mentioned that it's Babylon but Zephaniah never mentions that in his book and that's because he wants to highlight God's role in pompous trading things around the rights for the city so because we will move on to chapter 2 so in chapter 2 verse 1 to 3 you see actually that what gives Zephaniah a kind of hope that Jerusalem has a hope can avoid its fate but in the closing poem of section 1 he calls on anyone in Jerusalem who would seek the Lord and he says these will make up the faithful remnant the people who could be spared if they defend and in the second section chapter 2 verse 4 chapter 3 verse 8 Zephaniah widens the focus to include the nation around Judah so here we see the Philistines the mobile the neighboring places you know he recalls them saying that the Philistines the mobiles the Abonites and even the Assyrians and he accuses all of them for the corruption the violence and arrogance and he predicts that all of them will fall before Babylon and with this we will move on to chapter 3 verse 1 to 8 what's shocking is that final people grouped up dated in the section are the Israelites in Jerusalem so it's the leaders and prophets and the priests of Israel are so corrupt and violent so and strange from the God that he doesn't even recognize them as his people just imagine that and now the section ends with God's final decision and he says that he's going to gather up all the nations including Jerusalem and you know he's going to pour out his a breath of God's and God will bring justice by in form of a consuming fire that devours the people from the land which is really intense and so the following line and brings a brings a final part to a conclusion is that we see that in chapter 3 verse 9 to 10 begins like God says that he is going to heal and transform the rebellious nation into one unidentified family so in chapter 1 and 2 we see how God is going to bring a correction what is the punishment been expected the judgment upon upon Jerusalem but in chapter 3 we see a message of hope in all till now whatever we have studied about the major prophets and the minor prophets whenever they prophesied for you know the judgment upon the sin I won't say upon the city upon the nation but then the sin nature of judgment but at the same time you see the prophets also giving a message of hope when you repent God will forgive you see most of the time they have been highlighted by saying God is a punishing God but at the same time what is causing the punishment we need to see that it's us the people sin the nature of their rebelling against God the very law that God gave people not to worship us but what happened to Israelites why are they going after other gods or gods of the bombs so this is what bringing the breath of God stirring the breath of God they started doing unnecessary sacrifices the child all these things are introduced in the people's culture which is not right and God stands against it and here God says I'm going to judge and with that the chapter 3 gives a message of hope saying that I you know after being purified after they have been charged I'm going to restore them back there's a restoration because I have promised Abraham E the prophet goes back to the book of Genesis chapter 12 15 and 17 we recalls the Abraham covenant that God gave that I will bring a restoration I will bless the nation and Jerusalem will be blessed so exactly the conclusion was from verse 11 to 20 saves the conclusion of the book focuses on the restaurant of the city and the center of the nation so God's presence is there in the restored city along with that faithful remnant that's been humbled and transformed by God's mercy and they are called to sin and rejoice and then in the striking image we are told that God is a poet who wants to sing to you know very beautifully that first he says chapter 3 verse 17 that God will live among you and he would celebrate you with songs of joy and this boy of closest with the very party inmates and God is gathering his family together the poor broken and he exalts them in a place of honor that's how the book hints the little book of Zephaniah it contains some of the most intense image of God's justice and love that we can find anyway so God will tolerate the horrible things the sin nature but then at the same time he is a God who restores us he is a God of justice but at the same time he is a God of restores God who brings hope he restores people he will give even give the evil flourish that he will give them the safety because this is our God God is a God of refuge God of peace God of strength God of love and we see that Zephaniah forces us to hold together these two aspects of God's character what are this that is guess is a justice God but at the same time he is loving his man and he wants us to discover that together they contain the future hope of our world too so how can we portray Christ in this book we see that Zephaniah portrays Christ in two occasions in Zephaniah chapter 1 3 and you know he relates it with the book of Matthew as well so and Zephaniah 150 so in both these scriptures we see that the that the day of the Lord is associated with Christ's second advent so all of the Messiah is not specifically mentioned in the book of Zephaniah but it is clear that he is the one who will fulfill the great promise that he's talking about in chapter 3 verse 9 to 20 at the time of conclusion that he will gather the people the poor the broken the wounded the oppressed the depressed he will bring all them together and he will reign in the creed so yes Christ was born for each of us he was born he humbled himself and he was born among the poor so that we can be so what we can learn from the book of Zephaniah very beautiful verse we see that in Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 18 the first part of verse 18 we see that neither silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's craft so what we need to see here is we need to be focused on the God we need to set the hearts right because the book of Zephaniah says very clearly certain things our worship matters our justice matters and the humility matters three things worship worship the Lord with all your heart with all your strength with all your might worship him in spirit because he is our God let there be a true worship do not worship any other gods yes now we may not worship any other God but then are we having any kind of idols any kind of likings towards something else other than God we need to check us and see to it our worship is only to God and not to any other things around us which may pick up our ship and we also see this book also talks about the justice because Zephaniah he says the justice matters to God in chapter 3 verse 5 he says that the Lord with the Lord is righteous and he does no wrong morning by morning he dispenses justice and every new day he does not fail yet the unrighteous know no shame sorry if there's some sound coming from outside you know they're doing some drilling work outside it's the government who's doing so i'm not able to avoid it sorry about it and the final point here is humility humility matters so in chapter 2 we see that Zephaniah calls us to seek the Lord seek righteousness and seek humility there are three things that this chapter talks about that we in our daily life need to apply these three things seek the Lord seek righteousness and seek humility because in these things when we actively seek we find ourselves and God's plan by fulfilling his purpose in our life so with this we conclude the book of Zephaniah is any questions if you'd like to thank you if you would like to add on please feel free to add before we could move on to the next book hey guys these are some of the key verses we have here these are some of the key verses yeah can i request each one of us to take turns and read these scriptures please there are six scriptures listed Zephaniah 3 17 the Lord your God is with you the mighty in the mighty warrior who says he will take great delight in you in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing yes the next person can read the other scriptures each one can turn and read all the six Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 18 neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath in the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the Zephaniah 2 3 seek the Lord all you weak of the earth who had who have upheld his justice seek righteousness seek humility it may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 5 but the Lord is seen in the city he does what is right and never what is wrong every morning without fail is being just to his people and yet the unrighteous people get hit on doing wrong and not ashamed Zephaniah Zephaniah chapter oh i'm right yes can you hear me yes we can hear you please go ahead okay Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 11 to 12 at that time at that time you my people would no longer need to be ashamed that you will rebel against me i will remove everyone who who is proud and arrogant and you will never again rebel against me on my side you verse 12 i will leave these i will leave there in humble and in lowly people who will come to to me for help amen the last verse that's my thing he said the time is coming i will punish your oppressor i will wreck you all the lane and bring an exiled hope i will turn your shame to honor and all the world we pray them amen amen it's so beautiful that each key verse that we can claim in our life would you like to share that how these verses it has helped each one of us in our daily life our spiritual war is that anyone in the class would like to share something about these scriptures Zephaniah 3 17 that particular verse has spoken to me much especially in one version it says he'll quiet you with his love he'll rejoice you with zing i think in this version it is different he'll take great delight in you in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with zing that that really shows how much you know god is concerned about you know who cares about each person individually and how much he delights in each person like just like a parent for due to a child even more than that i would say yeah we are his creation so yeah and it also talks about the his presence is our strength right the mighty warrior who saves so yeah it is very beautiful yeah and i think about that to us thank you thank you thank you the way of sharing that yes the lord our god is with us the mighty warrior who saves us and he will take great delight in you in his love he will no longer rebuke us but will rejoice over us with zing so even when i read i came across this verse for the first time it made me rejoice saying that hey my god rejoices over me and he rejoices over me and he sings you know it makes him sing around me so that delighted me and and it made me very happy to know that you know god rejoices over me that was a very i mean it was a very comforting verse during the time when you're going through artificial season and a verse like this brings and delights your heart and comforts you that you know yes and they just said that god is more than a father and a mother of my earthly parents because he is a creator our god and he is with us and he rejoices over us since late amazing to know that and he sings around us it's actually literally you know god actually does it we can take literally because this is what he means and he means everywhere that he says and it is actually god rejoices over us okay yeah but this we will move on to the next book hey guy i think there's some problem we can turn the video switch off the video so that we'll have a good clarity yeah thanks so the book of hey guy so the the hey guy was the author of this book and it's named after him and even in the book we see that nine times his name has been mentioned and both hey guy and Zechariah are named by Ezra in his book when we studied the book of Ezra we would have come across hey guy and Zechariah well like Nehemiah who would come to Jerusalem much later to rebuild the walls and we see hey guy was a matter of action after the temple had stopped for 15 years from completion it took hey guy just 23 days to inspire and exhaust people to resume the work of the lord and then the work would finally be completed about you know uh in uh 515 bc with Ezekiah's exhortation to the people so Ezekiah uh sorry hey guy's exhortation to the people now hey guy's name is probably derived from Hebrew word called ha ha ha which means festival which means festival it may also be an aggravated form of hey uh hey guy uh means the festival of Yahweh so that's hey guy means festival or festive possibly because he was born on the day of the uh the major feast on the tabernacles the first group of Jews who returned to Babylon returned from Babylon the first exile in 538 bc which we saw in Ezra chapter 1 and in 536 the second began in 536 they began to rebuild the temple and in about 535 deeply discouraged and under the intense opposition of the people around them the work had stopped or halted for about 15 years almost 15 years and after 15 years in 520 bc god raised hi guy and Ezekiah to encourage the people to absorb them to tell them to rebuild and to rebuild the temple and not only the temple but also the person who will rebuild the spiritual life in there so the very purpose of this book is the four points to warn against the negligence against and doing on god's work second to encourage the rebuilding of the temple third to give instruction in holiness to build their life spiritually and to show god's right when he turned to the book of hey guy in the year of 520 bc nearly seven years after the exile the Babylonian empire had recently collapsed and the world is now ruled by the potions and now this potions ruler allowed the exiles the israelite exiles to get back to their own place to go back to Jerusalem which is still still under ruins so under the leadership of a high priest who's named Joshua there are many Joshua's so you're during this time during the time of Ezra hey guy there was a high priest called Joshua so with his leadership and Zerubabel who was the governor at that time and you know the day leadership they come back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls and the temple and now we need to remember we call the story from the book of Ezra chapter 1 to 6 where our hopes are high I mean to building the temple and the city walls so the book consists of four sections now the book of hey guy has four sections let me see okay the book has four sections only two is listed I can tell you so from chapter 1 1 to 15 he opens with an accusation of the people misplace the priorities okay four sections and in first okay that is chapter 1 1 to 15 year hey guy opens the accusation of the people of misplaced priorities so yes they have come back to Jerusalem but they are spending all of their time and their resources in rebuilding their own houses while the temple of the law is still under ruin and it's almost 70 years it's under halt so hey guy asks the people of Israel are your whole home houses really more important than being loyal to God this neglect of people hey guy says it's equal to the covenant rebellion of their ancestors and the codes from Deuteronomy 28 22 to 40 he says you know why you are not being fruitful in the land you're not been unprotected because you don't there's no blessing in the work of your hands because we have not focused on God restoration of the temple setting up the you know the spiritual priorities right for God instead you have been selfish and you're only focusing of yourself and building your homes than being focusing on God first so he tries to get the people's focus right so that there will be a blessing upon them and their families and here we also see Zeru Mabel we are told as Zeru Mabel who was the governor and Joshua who was the high priest a remit of people who worked by hey guy's message and they motivated also and they started rebuilding the temple and in chapter 2 verse 1 to 9 you see that hey guy follows up one month later he addresses some problems of shattered expectation among the people the temple that are rebuilding is really pretty unimpressive and it is nothing compared to the glory of the temple Solomon had built here about 500 years earlier so the Moray was really low for finishing the project so hey guy reminds the people of the great prophetic promises the future kingdom of God about this temple it draws from the earlier prophets especially from the book of Isaiah we say and also from the book of Micah about the new Jerusalem he talks about the great splendor of God and it would it would be the place from which God would redeem the whole world and all the nations would come and participate in God's kingdom resulting in the error of peace so the temple plays a key role in God's plan for the future and hey guy calls on the people to work in hope despite the disappointing circumstances so with this we will move on to the second half of chapter 2 which is the third section really you see hey guy follows up two months later with a call of cognitive faithfulness he reminds people to keep the Torah he gives a scripture he is just not talking or exhorting people because we can also learn from hey guy sometimes when we speak with our motivational words yes it will motivate people but to see a change transformation in the heart we need to speak the scripture we need to give the scripture from scripture the only the scripture has the power to change a person to transform the person so time and again we see the prophets and also in the New Testament we see the disciples quoting scriptures because there is power in the word and here we see hey guy quoting the covenant quoting the scriptures quoting Torah and he says see the covenant failures will lead us to unproductiveness unfaithfulness and now again in chapter 2 the second half of chapter 2 again he's quoting the Torah the scriptures and he says listen when we follow this covenant faithfulness that we need to keep we engage some of the priests in a conversation about the ritual purity and then he remembers the key ideas from the book of ellipticals and he says if someone goes and touches the dead body and becomes ritual impure or marked by death then they go and get some food is that food impure too so the priest knowing the book of ellipticals says yes it is and then hey guy turns this into a parable and he says this is how it is with the people of Israel and what they are putting their hands to in rebuilding the temple so if the current generation does not humble themselves and if they do not turn from their injustice and you know the pathetic way that they're leading life and hey guys says whatever they build with their hands including the new rifle will be impure or pure so he is highlighting some of the incidents for them to understand and here the right challenge is that it is only by the true repentance and covenant faithfulness that they're building efforts will result in gods bringing his kingdom and blessing so in a sense we see that in Israel's future lay in their hands the god is waiting for his people to be faithful so the choice that hey guy is laying before the exiled generation is very similar to the challenge Moses gave the villainous generation before entering the land their obedience will lead to blessing and the success while faithfulness will lead to ruin the book concludes with hey guys summary of the future hope of god's kingdom so he is going to make the new Jerusalem the center of his glorious international kingdom from there he will confront and defeat evil from the nation your hey guy also reminds people of the defeat of Pharaoh's army from the exiled story and come on we fulfill here this promise to David and establish the king from Islam so here we see that how Christ is portrayed in this book Christ is portrayed as the in the in the second temple is to have God's redemptive blood so Herod the great later who spent a fortune on the project of enlarging and enriching this temple and it was filled with the glory of God incarnated every time Christ came to Jerusalem so the Messiah is also portrayed in the person of Zerubbabe that I will take you Zerubbabe and I will make you like a signatory for I have chosen you in chapter 223 we see that Zerubbabe becomes the center of the messianic line and is like a cyclic ring sealing both the branches so how do we apply how do we conclude this book before we get to conclude let me go through some of the key verses of the book of hey guy can I request each of us to take up each scripture four of us to take each scripture and read please chapter 1 verse 4 is it a time for you yourself to be living in your panel houses while this house remains a ruin? Haggai 1 5 now this is what the Lord Almighty says give careful thought to your ways yeah anyone from the team would like to pick up the scripture and read it out please hey guy chapter 1 was then hey guy the Lord's messenger gave this message of the Lord to the people I'm with you declares the Lord hey guy 2 9 the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house says the Lord Almighty and in this place I will grant peace declares the Lord Almighty amen amen thank you so much so if you see on each scripture the verse the first one verse 1 4 it says it is a time for you yourself to live in a paneled house while this house remains a ruin that's a question asking what happened so unlike the scripture we can also apply to ourselves yes we may be focusing on many things rebuilding many things our vision our plans our career our growth in our professional life personal life but are we also focusing on our spiritual life today we can take this book and apply to our personal life army focusing on a spiritual life to be rebuilt you know it's so important that we build a spiritual life and then we see in one chapter 1 verse 5 and this is what the Lord Almighty says give careful thought to your ways problems also says that the fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom it also says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and a greater understanding so we need to have the fear of the Lord half by giving a careful thought to our way of life and then in verse 13 it says the Lord's messenger gave this message to the Lord to the people that I am the cube this is such a promise that God gives from the time of Moses from the time of Abraham to every season to every prophet saying that I am the cube again and again time and again this is a greater promise that he gives to his children you are never alone I am with you I will never leave you nor to seek you declares the Lord and in Haydai chapter 2 verse 9 talks about the glory don't worry don't worry don't look at the temple how it is now but there is a greater glory in the former house where the Lord Almighty says and in this place that I will grant peace declares there is a greater duty talking about Jesus himself and he is present which is a greater glory and we need to awake now when they were waiting with Jesus coming and we are also waiting for Jesus second coming agreed a glory of your Himself being with us so this is a promise this is also a comfort in the book that where we can take as an encouragement and construct or build ourselves spiritually looking and and and also having a watch over our life and our daily life so that you know we are a vessel of honor pleasing God and our life and not only being focused about ourselves but always all the messages ends with a with an evangelical tone where we need to be like the prophets we need to go around talking to people about the good news of Jesus so each and every book ends with that the kind of the Lord is now that we need to share the good news with others just like how the prophets are doing in their time so with this we will take a short break and before we could take a break is there anything that you would like to add on to this book share and then after a short break we can go through the the last two books of the Old Testament Zechariah so is there anything that you would like to add share about these two books whatever we studied okay let's take a 10 minutes break and come back thank you God bless let's take a short break next