Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 24th book of the Bible. It's written by a minor prophet

Zephania who is the great-great-grandson of Judah's King Hezekiah.

And because he's a descendant of the king, that actually makes him a distant relative of King Josiah, who is the king during the time that Zephania is writing this book. You may remember King Josiah from yesterday. He's the king who

sought God in his ways and turned the places of idle worship into graveyards.

If there's one thing we can say about Zephania, it's that he does not hold back. Right out of the gate in chapter 1 verse 2, he starts out with destruction.

He warns Judah about God's coming judgment in much the same way Isaiah did. He calls them out for the ways

they've mingled their worship of yawe with the worship of false gods.

Anytime they felt God wasn't coming through for them,

they didn't actually seek him or pray about things. They sought help from idols instead.

Zephania warns them that the day of God's judgment is coming.

God promises to punish not only those who are blatantly wicked and idolaters,

but according to 112, he promises judgment on the complacent, too,

those who are inattentive and inactive.

Interestingly, it seems like their passivity

stems from a belief that God is passive.

They think God won't really do anything about their actions,

so they carelessly live their lukewarm lives.

If you know someone who is a deist, this is a lot like what they believe.

They believe a creator exists, but after he kind of set everything in motion, he just left it alone and moved on to other stuff.

They believe he's distant and doesn't interact with mankind.

But here, the one true God who is speaking and interacting with mankind,

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