Today is the 19th day of December. Welcome to the daily audio Bible. I am Ryan and it is fantastic to be here with you today as we move.

I guess this really is Christmas week even though Christmas begins a new week. This is Christmas week.

So it's great to be here with you as we enjoy the Christmas spirit, enjoy all or any of the festivities and focus our hearts on the overwhelming love of God to come for us as we prepare to celebrate the arrival of the Christ child, the Savior of the world.

It's all so great to be together during I mean we're all over the world but at least we every day we're going through this together and enjoying this season together.

We're also here to take the next step forward together and that leaves us to another one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament, the 9th of the 12 minor prophets.

And we will read it in its entirety today, a book of Zephaniah. And as with the good many other authors in the scriptures, we don't know a whole lot about who Zephaniah was.

Actually, Zephaniah itself begins by giving us all the information that we're going to get and that is that Zephaniah received a message from the Lord when Josiah, son of Ammon, was King of Judah.

And we're also told Zephaniah was the son of Kushi, the son of Gadolaya, son of Amaraya, son of Hazakaya. And Biblical scholars find that genealogy to be interesting because he traces his genealogy for generations back as opposed to just naming his father.

And now maybe because Zephaniah was a descendant of the good King Hazakaya, which would explain the material in Zephaniah, his awareness of what was going on around him.

And if his lineage does go to King Hazakaya, then that would have given him credibility and got his prophetic utterances paid attention to.

Zephaniah the word or the name means God has hidden. And as we just pointed out, we're told that the message came during the reign of Josiah, which would place him in the early, maybe mid-600s BC, and that would make him a contemporary with other prophets like Jeremiah.

And many scholars believe that Zephaniah was at least familiar with other writings of other prophets like Isaiah because there's a similarity in the language.

And another thing we may notice is that Zephaniah is not targeting his prophecies to anything or any one, particularly it's the whole world, which includes Judah.

And it's a warning that God's judgment is imminent and that the day of the Lord is coming and that it's time to repent before it is too late.

God will judge evil. And I think we need to remember God is eradicating evil, not people, but if people are unwilling to participate in ridding themselves of evil, then they'll be swept away in the judgment of evil, whether they live in the kingdom of Judah or no matter where they live.

And Zephaniah tells us those who are left will be the lowly and humble for it is they who trust in the name of the Lord.

And so with that, let's read the three chapters of the book of Zephaniah.

The Lord's Word that came to Zephaniah, Cushy's Son, Gatelliah's grandson, Amariah's great grandson, and has a Chia's great-great grandson in the days of Judah's King Josiah, Amon's Son.

I will wipe out everything from the earth, says the Lord. I will destroy humanity and the beasts. I will destroy the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. I will make the wicked into a heap of ruins.

I will eliminate humanity from the earth, says the Lord. I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

I will eliminate what's left of bail from this place and the names of the priests of foreign gods, those bowing down to the forces of heaven on the rooftops, those swearing by the Lord along with those swearing by milkum.

Those turning away from the Lord, those who don't seek the Lord and don't pursue Him.

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