Inductive Bible Study - Zephaniah

Inductive Bible Study-Zephaniah

I.                   Theme- The Day of The Lord, A Call to Repentance, and A Faithful Remnant-The wrath of a loving God.  

-The day of the Lord is portrayed as the day God will pour out his judgment and wrath on the children of Israel for their wickedness and disobedience to His commandment by turning their backs on Him and serving other gods. Zephaniah issues a call to repentance for the children of Israel to repent and turn back to God for the God’s judgment is unleashed. Through God’s faithfulness and love there is a remnant of Israel who repents and keep their hearts for God. The book of Zephaniah perfectly portrays the wrath of God on disobedience, and the love of God that will be forever poured out on His remnant.

II.                Table of Contents:

1.      The Great Day of The Lord (God’s judgment on Judah) 1: 1-18

2.      A Call to Repentance 2:1-3

3.      Judgment on Nations 2:4-15

4.      Wickedness of Jerusalem 3:1-7

5.      A Faithful Remnant 3:8-13

6.      God’s Love and Faithfulness 3:14-20

III.             Observation Questions

1.      The Great Day of The Lord (God’s Judgment on Judah)

1.1  Who is Zephaniah?

1.2  When was Zephaniah writing?

1.3  Who was his audience?

1.4  How did his audience respond to Zephaniah and to God?

1.5  What were the actions of disobedience by his audience?

1.6  What judgments were to come from the Lord?

IV.             2.  A Call to Repentance

2.1 What was Zephaniah’s heart for the people of Israel?

2.2 What was God’s heart?

2.3 What did the people of Israel need to do before judgment?

2.4 What did Israel need to seek according to verse 3?

              V.      3. Judgment on Nations

                        3.1 What nations does God choose to judge?

                        3.2 Why does he judge the nations?

                        3.3 What kind of pagan worship is taking place at this time?

                        3.4 What does Zephaniah say about the remnant in these verses?

                        3.5 Who is the remnant?

            VI.       4. Wickedness of Jerusalem

4.1  What wickedness was Jerusalem committing?

4.2  What was the conduct of the priests like?

4.3  What was the culture of Jerusalem like at this time in history?

4.4  How did they get this way?

4.5  What are some of the signs of Judah’s demise?

VII.     5. A Faithful Remnant

            5.1 What is God’s cry for the people of Judah in v 8?

            5.2 What is God’s determination?

            5.3 What will God restore in v 9?

            5.4 What is Zephaniah referring to when he says, “A pure language”?

            5.5 What will be the characteristics of the remnant of Israel?

VIII.    6.  God’s Love and Faithfullness

6.1  What has God done for the ones who remain faithful?

6.2  What will The Mighty One do for us?

6.3  How is Christ revealed in this passage?

6.4  How is the Holy Spirit at work in Zephaniah?

6.5  What do you get most out of this book on a personal level?

Application:

It seemed it was a time of prosperity during Zephaniah’s time of Judah there was very complacent according to 1:12. We do not need to become complacent in our walk with Christ. I’ve heard it said that complacency is the enemy of spiritual growth. I read a quote that said, “The chief danger in the quest for knowing God is the temptation to be satisfied with past encounters so that no fresh pursuits are made.” We can’t be satisfied with our experiences with God from last year or even last week. We need to continually every day need to be seeking the Lord. We need to remain zealous for God. I also noticed that Judah was very prideful. God resists the proud, but he will give grace to the humble. We can’t think just because we call ourselves Christians, or were water baptized that we can live any way we want to live. We always need to maintain an attitude of humility and be teachable. If we’re not humble, and we’re not teachable then the enemy will come in like a flood and take us out before we know what hit us. We need to reject anything that may come into our life to try and take God out of His role in our life. What the Bible calls idolatry. Israel had fallen into deep idolatry, and they had been in their idolatry so long they had no desire to get out.  If we realize that there is something in our life that is taking the place of God, and we are becoming disobedient to His word we need to quickly repent. If we don’t quickly repent our hearts can become hard like the Israelites, and we can become apostate. As I was reading I noticed the conduct of the priests, and leaders of the Israelite people in chapter 3. It seemed they were doing unrighteous acts in the temple, and committing sin in the sanctuary of God. We need to diligently avoid any form of pride or arrogance that would cause us to misuse the word of God, or manipulate people for our personal benefit. We should never teach our opinions of the Word. We’re supposed to take the Word and apply it to our life, not the opposite where we pick and choose what we want and leave out the rest.  As I was studying this book, I began to realize how this story in three chapters basically summarized the story of the Bible. It described God’s people along with the nations wallowing in sin, and refusing to repent. It described a God who would gather those who would repent, and hide those from his anger. And at the end, Zephaniah, described The Mighty One who will save us. He began with wrath, and ended in love. In Summary, there were three components to these three chapters: 1) God’s righteous judgment of sin 2) A plea for repentance because God is ready and willing to forgive and 3) The remnant who have put their trust in God will be saved.