With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps account with the nations. While His mercy is tendered, with calls to repentance, this account remains open; but when the figures reach a certain amount which God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath begins. The account is closed. Divine patience ceases. Mercy no longer pleads in their behalf.
(PK 364.3)
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“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.”Nahum 1:3-6.
(PK 364.4)
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It was thus that Nineveh, “the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me,”Zephaniah 2:15. became a desolation, “empty, and void, and waste,”“the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid.”Nahum 2:10, 11.
(PK 364.5)
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Looking forward to the time when the pride of Assyria should be brought low, Zephaniah prophesied of Nineveh: “Flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for He shall uncover the cedar work.”Zephaniah 2:14.
(PK 365.1)
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Great was the glory of the Assyrian realm; great was its downfall. The prophet Ezekiel, carrying farther the figure of a noble cedar tree, plainly foretold the fall of Assyria because of its pride and cruelty. He declared:
(PK 365.2)
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“Thus saith the Lord God; ... He hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height....”Ezekiel 31:10~14.
(PK 365.3)
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“Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: ... and all the trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall.”Ezekiel 31:10-16.
(PK 365.4)
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Habakkuk was not the only one through whom was given a message of bright hope and of future triumph as well as of present judgment. During the reign of Josiah the word of the Lord came to Zephaniah, specifying plainly the results of continued apostasy, and calling the attention of the true church to the glorious prospect beyond. His prophecies of impending judgment upon Judah apply with equal force to the judgments that are to fall upon an impenitent world at the time of the second advent of Christ:
(PK 389.1)
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“The great day of the Lord is near, It is near, and hasteth greatly, Even the voice of the day of the Lord: The mighty man shall cry there bitterly.”Zephaniah 1:14.
(PK 390.1)
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“That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of wasteness and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess”Zephaniah 1:15.
(PK 390.2)
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“A day of clouds and thick darkness,
A day of the trumpet and alarm
Against the fenced cities,
And against the high towers.”Zephaniah 1:14-16..
(PK 390.3)
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“I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust.... Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath: but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.”Zephaniah 1:17, 18.
(PK 390.4)
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“Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, Before the day pass as the chaff, Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, Before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.”Zephaniah 2:1~2.
(PK 390.5)
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“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth,
Which have wrought His judgment;
Seek righteousness, Seek meekness:
It may be ye shall be hid
In the day of the Lord’s anger.”Zephaniah 2:3.
(PK 390.6)
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“Behold, at that time I will deal with all them that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven away; and I will make them a praise and a name, whose shame hath been in all the earth. At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I bring again your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.”Zephaniah 3:19, 20, R.V.
(PK 391.1)
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“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: The King of Israel, even the Lord, Is in the midst of thee: Thou shalt not see evil any more.”Zephaniah 3:14~15.
(PK 391.2)
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“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not:
And to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee
Is mighty; He will save,
He will rejoice over thee with joy;
He will rest in His love,
He will joy over thee with singing.”Zephaniah 3:16-17
(PK 391.3)
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Jeremiah, in the presence of the priests and people, earnestly entreated them to submit to the king of Babylon for the time the Lord had specified. He cited the men of Judah to the prophecies of Hosea, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and others whose messages of reproof and warning had been similar to his own. He referred them to events which had taken place in fulfillment of prophecies of retribution for unrepented sin. In the past the judgments of God had been visited upon the impenitent in exact fulfillment of His purpose as revealed through His messengers.
(PK 445.1)
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“The prophet which prophesieth of peace,” Jeremiah proposed in conclusion, “when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him.”Jeremiah 28:9. If Israel chose to run the risk, future developments would effectually decide which was the true prophet.
(PK 445.2)
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