Audio Download

The Book of Zephaniah – Zep 1:1-18

[Aired April 5, 2025]

Zephaniah’s name means ‘Jehovah has treasured and stored up.’ Is it no coincidence that he is the ninth in the order of the Minor Prophets since his opening statements declare judgment? The number nine embracing three figures of threes (3+3+3) in thirds means the spiritual progression to the completion of judgment, culminating in the number nine directly meaning judgment.

After Christ’s death, the immature disciples’ internal turmoil from the previous day’s events, undoubtedly haunted by the chaos surrounding Jesus’s death, led them to perceive their future role in restructuring the governance of Israel as bleak without the Lord, prompting them to return to their former professions. It must have been a phenomenal experience to suddenly have their dead Lord show up on the beach where they were attempting to catch fish forlornly. We will recount the story (Joh 21:1-14) with the powerful key element being the number of fish they eventually caught, 153; its additions being 1+5+3=9, signifying one as Unity, five is Grace through Judgment, and three is the process of spiritual completion brought forth in an Elect figuratively in his ninth month of gestation and birth of the beginning of the New Man in Christ.

Joh 21:11  Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
Joh 21:12  Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 
Joh 21:13  Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 
Joh 21:14  This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. 

The fact that the net wasn’t broken means that not a single crumb will fall to the floor and be lost (Joh 6:12), signifying that the process of salvation will extend to mankind as numerous as the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven. The entire saga of preparing the Lord’s disciples, his Elect, to this day is to ensure that they, like Christ, are fishers of men. This begins the trial by spiritual fiery judgment within them so they can save their fellow humanity in (not from!) the problematic Lake of Fire.

Meanwhile, the Orthodox Christian world discounts the troublesome impossibility of understanding the likes of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, pacifying themselves with the mantra that “Jesus loves us”, meaning that their Lord understands their frailty and died in their stead on the cross so that they will be granted eternal life without suffering as He did. Consequently, and to them, Zephaniah and his contemporaries are simply predicting Israel’s destruction, with no relevance to the Christian’s journey to salvation, since they believe that they are the Elect because of their faith in Jesus. They do not understand that Jeremiah 49:12 denotes their spiritual progression to drinking the same cup in judgment as Christ did on the cross. Their God-given blindness in stating that they can see and understand the sum of scripture is then represented by Esau, symbolically naked, and as Habakkuk says, drunk on their doctrine, uncircumcised of heart, spewing lies in the emission of the Serpent’s spiritual seed in the minds of an equally blind laity, spawning his seed. They are the fatherless children (Psa 68:4-5) as numerous as the stars of heaven (Gen 26:4) who will, through the fire of God’s word, be preserved alive while their 40,000 plus harlot mothers (Google how many Christian churches in the world), by the sheer volume of believers who all can’t be wrong, believe that they are not widows (Rev 18:7).

Jer 49:10  But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.
Jer 49:11  Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust me. 
Jer 49:12  For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. 

Hidden in verse 12 is the progression of judgment on the mass of humanity represented by Babylonian Christianity. “They”, since Eden to the end of the One-Thousand Year reign under the rod of iron, are not being judged to drink the same cup as Christ and His ‘very Elect’ have been doing for the past 2,000 years, “but, they shall surely drink of it” in the Lake of Fire (Jer 25:27-31).

Rev 18:7  How much she [Babylonian Christianity and the all humanity] hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. 

In profound humility in judgment, the ‘very Elect’ shudder to the soles of their feet in awe and reverence to ‘the Christ’ who, and of no account of them selecting themselves to first trust in Him, are “affrighted” in joy for the “earthquake” Christ has revealed in and to them. Accordingly, we will further see in Zephaniah our Lord’s spiritual understandings.

Mar 16:6  And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
Mar 16:7  But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.

Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 

Significations:

Zep 1:1  The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 

In scripture, blackness in the face of the deep (Gen 1:2) of humanity’s understanding always comes first, represented in the meaning of Cushi = their blackness. As you would have guessed, the Lord, being light, reveals Himself in the meaning of Gedaliah, which means Jehovah is great; sequentially, Jehovah speaks, the meaning of Amariah, and Hizkiah, Jehovah is my strength; Josiah—whom Jehovah heals with light in his wings, and Amon representing the Lord being the chief workman as a skilled workman or master workman in Israel, but represented as Judah, the priests and Christ’s Elect.

The progression of the creation of God in man begins with light, symbolically vanquishing the death represented by blackness and darkness. Just as countless stars dwell in the vast black space, humanity, since Adam, is not given in this age to understand Christ’s commands.

Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 

The priests, particularly the High Priest of Israel, are entrusted to correctly convey the Lord’s word. As scripture faithfully illustrates our former standing spiritually, the priests of Israel utilised God’s word to prosper themselves in terms of social status and finances rather than serving as righteous examples to the dispirited nation.

Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 

Consequently, the impending judgment upon Judah, representing the Lord’s Elect, is directly aimed at the Elect today, as Zephaniah and all the prophets initially focus.

Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation [… Today, Israel in the wilderness continues alive and well as Babylonian Christianity, and, anytime we, the hopeful Elect, regress]. 

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? [… inclusive of a slothful Elect?] 
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? [In the Lake of Fire, of course] 
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 

The Coming Judgment on Judah

Zep 1:2  I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. 
Zep 1:3  I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. 
Zep 1:4  I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal [Meaning ‘lord’ – hence, we are the priests, the self-appointed gods sitting on Christ’s throne] from this place, and the name of the Chemarims [Meaning priest, an idolatrous priest; to yearn, be kindled, be black, grow hot] with the priests; 

Outwardly, to the Babylonian Christian whom we are fleeing, those first verses of Zephaniah sound terrifying. Yet, upon the death of Babylon within, an Elect welcomes the all-consuming fire of the Lord’s word, typified by Daniel’s experience in the overheated furnace that belched out a fiery back-draught to consume the very ones stoking its heat (Dan 3:16-30).

Jer 51:6  Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense [‘a benefit’; a fiery benefit of judgment]. 

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 
Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 
Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire. 

That “fiery recompense” consumes the fowls, the lying spirits in our heavens, promoting our self-righteousness; we, the very priests of God, supposedly holding His word righteously, yet pompously against His word. Similarly, the fish of the sea represents the multiple billions of humanity since Eden to this day, milling around in a giant fish-ball of confusion in Babylon (which means ‘confusion’), following each other, with the Serpent as their head. It all denotes the truth of Christ as their stumbling block from understanding these very significations! Subsequently, except for the Elect, they are, for a little while, ‘cut off from their inheritance’ Christ, ‘saith their Redeemer’. In their time and order, Babylon and the Elect residing therein are forsaken and, again in their time and order, redeemed. Both groups are women, meaning churches; the Great Whore the greater camp of the ten tribes of Israel; and the smaller camp of Judah, the symbolic Elect further reduced to a remnant, having later fled the entire representation called Babylon. That remnant Elect represents the younger whom the Whore, the elder, eventually serves in the Resurrection to Judgment (Rev 3:9).

Isa 54:6  For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 
Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. 

Zep 1:5  And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham [King: Reigning as self-styled kings ahead of our appointed time]; 
Zep 1:6  And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him. 

The Elect welcome Christ, their all-consuming fire of judgment upon their minds, ‘the housetops‘ where we worship deities, the stars of heaven, other people’s ideologies, the moon—women and churches and Baal, another Jesus and lord, formerly causing us to turn back to Babylon, where life is mostly without tribulation and chastisement.

The Day of the Lord Is Near

Zep 1:7  Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. 

The Lord’s people are paradoxically gladly aware, holding our peace, that the great and terrible Day of the Lord has been in their lives since He dragged them out of Babylon. That day of being shaken alive by the mighty earthquake of understanding is any day from the cross until the ninth hour before Christ’s outward return when a budding Elect is given eyes that see and ears that hear His spiritual truth. Christ is the sacrifice we emulate daily as His guests in the spiritual sacrificial death of our old man. We are the punished ‘princes and king’s children’ being stripped of our filthy apparel.

1Co 15:30  And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? 
1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

Joe 2:29  And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 
Joe 2:30  And I will shew wonders in the heavens [Our housetops] and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 
Joe 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness [All bar the Elect’s understanding of Christ, our sun], and the moon [Harlot churches] into blood [Endless doctrinal lies], before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 
Joe 2:32  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. 

Zep 1:8  And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. 
Zep 1:9  In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold [H4670 – a snake, venomous Serpent, asp, adder], which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. 

What does it mean to “leap on the threshold”? The term ‘threshold’ only occurs eight times in scripture, with the H4670 version in Zep 1:9 meaning snake or viper and is the same meaning for Dagon’s head being cut off, emblematic of the head of the Serpent, Satan’s head bruised or cut off. A threshold also typically means the edge of something: the entrance to a house or plot of land.

1Sa 5:4  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon [a fish 

1. a Philistine deity of fertility] was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold [H4670]; only the stump [The body, representative of a deadly wounded head of the Beast, now healed] of Dagon was left to him. 

When we ‘leap on the threshold of our master’s houses with violence and deceit’, it denotes a two-fold child of hell’s firebrand version of another Jesus, the Serpent’s mind forced upon the laity.

Mat 23:13  But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 

Zep 1:10  And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. 
Zep 1:11  Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off. 

We have been those leaping on the threshold like the men of Sodom, clothed in ‘strange apparel’, baying ‘noisily’ on the steps of Lot’s house to know intimately the angels of the Lord. The commotion reflects the hustle and bustle of fishmongers, representing false teachers selling their catches to the laity. 

Jerusalem was surrounded by three walls, clearly to impede an attacking army from penetrating the city’s heart. Thus, the mention of equal howling from the ‘second gate’ pierced the first gate, an indictable double witness of doctrinal noise reverberated (“crashing”) off the nearby hills. Spiritually, the pictorial denotes we, deluded by our Babylonian priest’s magic arts, echo deception to all who would hear the refashioned ‘silver’ of God’s word.

The name Maktesh means “mortar. ” It is synonymous with a hollow in the earth created by contemporary mortar shells. The entire ‘hollow’ area around the fish gate and nearby hills was not just an echo chamber but was likened to a hollow for a pestle used to pound grain and other foodstuffs, all amplifying the cacophony of Babylonian-like confusion upon witless parishioners. It can represent the organised pandemonium of Orthodox Christianity, yelling like veritable ‘fish-wives’—the churches’ ferment of disunified doctrines whereby they sell Christ’s word to an individual, ‘the souls of men’ seeking an ear-tingling good price, unaware that he has sold his soul to the Great Whore, ‘that great city Babylon’ of Revelation 18 (Rev 18:13). {“Yelling like a fishwife” is a British English idiom that describes someone, often a woman, the wives and daughters of fishermen, notoriously loud and foul-mouthed shouting and behaving in a very unpleasant and bad-tempered way.}

Pro 27:21  As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise. 
Pro 27:22  Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. 
Pro 27:23  Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. 

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 
2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 

Appropriately, when we assume the meaning of God’s word and loudly proclaim it without a second witness, we lose the silver of understanding our Lord’s word; likewise, our audience’s ears in the ‘mortar’ where we are grandiloquently holding forth are cut off by the idols of our heart. 

Zep 1:12  And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. 

Verse 12 portrays our Lord examining the inner heart of the New Jerusalem, particularly at night when we least anticipate His arrival. The imagery suggests that His words have inebriated us as we settle, gazing dissolutely at the remaining dregs, the “lees” in the wine bottles, unable to divide the truth of His word rightly—pacified, deludedly claiming that we are saved and will not incur God’s wrath, that it is reserved for some other poor wretch, not realising the irony. Hence, our wealth, like Solomon’s Temple’s riches, became plunder for the dens of vipers, our sister Babylonian churches.

Exo 23:13  And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.

1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 
1Th 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Zep 1:13  Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. 

Mat 23:31  Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 
Mat 23:32  Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 
Mat 23:33  Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 
Mat 23:34  Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 
Mat 23:35  That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 
Mat 23:36  Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 

Zep 1:14  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. 

The Great Day of the Lord is when we are shaken to the very core of our understanding that everything we learned in Orthodox Christianity—meaning Babylon, where we never realised we were exiled—was utterly false!

The hills, creating an echo chamber for our vociferous pride, appear as unconquerable mountains to be overcome; to our Lord, they are but hills He flattens with the great noise of our lament, reminiscent of the clamour around Jerusalem’s fish gate, correlates to the immense internal turmoil of spiritual noise caused by The Great Day of the Lord. Mountains, as in the Mount of the Lord, signify the magnitude of His word above the hills. In the Day of the Lord, our self-styled mountains of doctrinal belief are shaken and made flat, as in Revelation 16:20. 

Isa 54:10  For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. 

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 
2Pe 3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 
2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 

Zep 1:15  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, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 
Zep 1:16  A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. 
Zep 1:17  And 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, and their flesh as the dung. 

Immediately following the death of mankind by our Lord’s fiery word of brimstone and fire at the end of the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron, all conceived mankind since Adam, as numerous as the stars of the heavens not in the First Resurrection, are resurrected to their Day of the Lord. It is their time of having their Old Jerusalem within destroyed with a great noise and divided into three parts. It is their time to drink of the same cup the Elect in the First Resurrection drank with thanks and glory to God against their old man.

Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city [Old Jerusalem within] was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 
Rev 16:20  And every island [equivalent to ‘hills’, imagined inconsequential sins] fled away, and the mountains were not found. 
Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. [Of course, we are familiar that the hail sweeps away the multitude of lies – Isa 28:17] 

None of those in one of the two resurrections will feel more profound distress than a rejected Elect represented by Judas. They will cast the silver of their works before Christ and His Christs and feel indescribable crushing rejection for returning their emblematic one talent of gold to their Master without increase, to the point of no respect for colloquially ‘spilling their guts out’ (Act 1:18) in repentance — or, like Esau with indolent regard for his inheritance, wept bitterly – (Gen 27:28)

Mat 27:3  Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 
Mat 27:4  Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 
Mat 27:5  And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 

However, a rejected anointed one, as Saul typified, an Elect cast alive into the Lake of Fire, though severely distressed, will find a deeply sad consolation in remembering the goodness and guaranteed mercy of God’s chastisements, which result in repentance. Thus, being sanctified, he receives an early Lazarus-like drop of water to cool his tongue—juxtaposed with the billions of humanity receiving their timely Great Day of the Lord, temporarily unaware of that blessed hope — just as Joseph’s brothers lived for seventeen years wondering when inevitable vengeance would suddenly come. Although the time felt agonisingly long, it was, in God’s terms, a swift act of mercy. Instead, and to Joseph’s brother’s immense joy, mercy rules — them, a symbolic burnt sacrifice to satiate the Lord’s wrath against the 200,000,000 lies Orthodox Christianity spun to keep their gold and silver filling the coffers each Sunday. They now express in a thunderous fish-gate-like noise loud enough to fill the universe a joy for the devastating earthquake within, of the likes never felt and seen nor will be, ever again.

Hos 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 

All in the Resurrection to Judgment, the Lake of Fire following excruciating darkness on their understanding, will be phenomenally pleased to rush and cast their gold and silver back into the streets of their Old Jerusalem, its smoke ascending as from a giant furnace.

Eze 7:18  They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. 
Eze 7:19  They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity. 

Zep 1:18  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 [and now, The Lake of Fire]. 

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 

However, that verse of Revelation 3:9 is for the Elect to foresee the future, since in the next chapter of Zephaniah, judgment is still spoken upon us, the Priests represented by Judah. It all depicts the Elect drinking Christ’s cup and progressively experiencing, yet paradoxically rejoicing in the dreadful Day of the Lord as Christ experienced on the cross, echoing him in the next instant — “it is finished”  (Joh 9:30. Heb 12:2).

Greetings of peace to you, Mike,
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed meeting you and everyone at the Marshall conference.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it over there to NC, but do hope to make the following one, Lord willing.
I really got a lot from Marshall especially in your encouragement to dig into the different types and shadows of scripture.  In all the “downtime” God has blessed me with in these past several months, I’ve really been able to get into the Old Testament and just this morning really felt blessed to come across something in Jeremiah I wanted to run by you (I’m not sure if this has been rattling around in my subconscious from something I might have already read or heard somewhere.)  Anyways, I saw that you posted Multiple of Numbers on the Audio just a few hours after I saw this in Jeremiah and couldn’t help but think, “WOW!”
In one of Jeremiah’s happier times from 31:26 to 32:27, he wakes up in a joyous state with God revealing to him in verse 27, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.”   The most notable theme that jumped out at me in this section of scripture was the combination of judgment (9) and redemption involving the (17) shekels of silver required to purchase the field which I thought might equal out to the “153” fish in Joh 21:11 that are dragged to shore and put on the fire that Jesus has already provided.  Jer. 32:27 has the word of the Lord coming to Jeremiah:  “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh:  is there anything too hard for me?”
All the signs and symbols that appeared in the two passages of Jeremiah and John were absolutely staggering to me, but I found most interesting that Jer. 32:1 shows after (9) complete years of the King of Judah (… in the tenth year of Zedekiah…) coinciding in the midst of after (17) complete years of the King of Babylon (… which was the eighteenth year…)
If you can give me any feedback on this, I’d be more than glad to receive your input.
Thanks, Mike

Hi S____,
It was a great pleasure to meet you in Marshall, and I am sorry you won’t be with us in Salisbury. At any rate I know it is the Lord who is running the affairs of this world so if you cannot come, it is His working. But you will be missed.
Here is the verse you reference concerning the Num 9 and 10:

Jer 32:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
As was demonstrated in the audio and in the study notes, the number nine is the number of judgment. Christ uses a multiple of this number to refer to the scribes and the Pharisees:
Luk 15:1  Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
Luk 15:2  And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
Luk 15:3  And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luk 15:5  And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luk 15:6  And when he cometh home, he calleth together [ his] friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luk 15:7  I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance

“Just persons, which need no repentance” is a reference to “the well who need no physician.” There are no ‘ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance” and there are no descendants of Adam who are not in spiritual need of a spiritual physician. Every patriarch whose life was over nine hundred years of age before the flood, was but a testimony of the impending judgment coming upon the world.
Paul tells us that circumcision represents the judging and “putting off of the flesh.” So when did Abraham symbolically, judge his own flesh?

Gen 17:24  And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

It is the nine ungrateful lepers and Joseph’s nine murderous brothers upon whom God’s impending judgments will be poured out:

Luk 17:17  And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

I had never noticed that the fall of Jerusalem came after Zedekiah had reigned nine full years. And the fact that Nebuchadnezzar had reigned 18 years also is more than mere coincidence that Jerusalem is judged at this particular time. Thanks for pointing this out to me.
I am not making the connection you seem to be seeing between the 17 shekels of silver and the 153 fish. Silver is always connected with redemption, and I see where that figures into God telling Jeremiah…:

Jer 32:8  So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that [ is] in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jer 32:14  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
Jer 32:15  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

When will this be done?:

Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

It was suggested that the message in the number 153 is not the number of the fish so much as the Num 1, 5, and 3. One is, of course unity, two is witness and three is the process of maturing and coming to completion, through the fire Christ has kindled on the shore.
It is evident from the scriptures that God’s Word ministers to different people in different ways at different times. What is not different is the message which is ministered. It is always the message of “forsaking ungodliness and worldly lusts and living godly lives in this present age.”

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

I look forward to hearing more of how God’s Word is ministering to you and hope to see you soon.
Mike >

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We will conclude by showing that those who refuse judgment are blinded by Christ

The Old Testament

Nine Isa 3+6 or the maturing of the first Adam. It Isa 2+7 witness being completed. It Isa 4+5 the whole of God’s chastening grace. It Isa 1+8 unity with God coming through the perdition of the eight beast, the making of the new man.

The ages of so many of the pre- flood patriarchs was nine hundred and whatever. No one lived to be one thousand. Methuselah lived the longest and he lived to be 969 years old. And then the world was judged.

Gen 5:27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Gen 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Abraham was 99 when he was circumcised, typifying judgment:

Gen 17:24 And Abraham [ was] ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

King Hoshea was judged after nine years of rebellion:

2Ki 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2Ki 17:2 And he did [ that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.

2Ki 17:6 (a) In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria,

It was in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar that he besieged Jerusalem.

2Ki 25:1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

It was on the ninth day of the fourth month that we are told “the famine prevailed.”

2Ki 25:3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

Judah and Benjamin judged themselves of their strange wives in the ninth month:

Ezr 10:9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.
Ezr 10:10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.
Ezr 10:11 Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.
Ezr 10:12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

It was in the ninth month that judgment was pronounced upon Judah.

Jer 36:30 Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
Jer 36:31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.

It was in the ninth year of Zedekiah that Jerusalem was besieged:

Jer 39:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

It was on the ninth day of the fourth month that the siege was over and the city was taken:

Jer 39:2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

Eze prophsied the fall of Jerusalem in the ninth year :

Eze 24:1 Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth [ day] of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 24:2 Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.

Haggai pronounced Israel unclean in the ninth month.

Hag 2:10 In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
Hag 2:14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

Zechariah pronounced judgment in the ninth month:

Zec 7:1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;

Zec 7:13 Therefore it is come to pass, [ that] as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:
Zec 7:14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.

New Testament

It is the ninty and nine who refuse to judge themselves

Luk 15:3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
Luk 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luk 15:5 And when he hath found [ it], he layeth [ it] on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luk 15:6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together [ his] friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luk 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Nine lepers are judged ungrateful:

Luk 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
Luk 17:13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
Luk 17:14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Luk 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
Luk 17:16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
Luk 17:17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
Luk 17:18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

Darkness covered the land at the death of Christ until the ninth hour

Mat 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

Christ died at the ninth hour:

Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Prayers were offered at the ninth hour.

Act 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

God visited Cornelius’s house at the ninth hour:

Act 10:3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius
Act 10:4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. .

The fruit of the spirit is in nine forms to judge the flesh:

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

The gifts of the spirit are also nine to judge schisms in the body:

1Co 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another [ divers] kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [ is] Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [ we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [ we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17 If the whole body [ were] an eye, where [ were] the hearing? If the whole [ were] hearing, where [ were] the smelling?
1Co 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19 And if they were all one member, where [ were] the body?
1Co 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
1Co 12:21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
1Co 12:23 And those [ members] of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely [ parts] have more abundant comeliness.
1Co 12:24 For our comely [ parts] have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that [ part] which lacked:
1Co 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but [ that] the members should have the same care one for another.

Christ came for judgment:

Joh 9:1 And as [ Jesus] passed by, he saw a man which was blind from [ his] birth.
Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Joh 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Joh 9:6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
Joh 9:7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Joh 9:8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
Joh 9:9 Some said, This is he: others [ said], He is like him: [ but] he said, I am [ he].
Joh 9:10 Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
Joh 9:11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
Joh 9:12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.
Joh 9:13 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
Joh 9:14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
Joh 9:15 Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.
Joh 9:16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
Joh 9:17 They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
Joh 9:18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.
Joh 9:19 And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?
Joh 9:20 His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
Joh 9:21 But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.
Joh 9:22 These [ words] spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Joh 9:23 Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.
Joh 9:24 Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.
Joh 9:25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner [ or no], I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Joh 9:26 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?
Joh 9:27 He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear [ it] again? will ye also be his disciples?
Joh 9:28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
Joh 9:29 We know that God spake unto Moses: [ as for] this [ fellow], we know not from whence he is.
Joh 9:30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and [ yet] he hath opened mine eyes.
Joh 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Joh 9:32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
Joh 9:33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
Joh 9:34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Joh 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Joh 9:36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Joh 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.