I recently was honored to provide this year’s W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary. My theme was “Rejoicing in Hope: Understanding and Applying Zephaniah.” Each of the three lectures consider the New Testament’s use of Zephaniah and wrestle carefully with Zephaniah’s close, continuing, and complete biblical context.
- Revering God: Punishment on the Day of the Lord (Zeph 1:2–18):The prophet emphasizes how the nearness and nature of the day of the Lord as cataclysm, conquest, and sacrifice demands that listeners revere God. [MP3 Audio / GearTalk Podcast / SoundCloud Stream / Video]
- Seeking God and Waiting: Hope on the Day of the Lord (Zeph 2:1–4; 3:8–10): The prophet stresses the need to seek the Lord together to avoid punishment and to wait on the Lord to enjoy satisfying salvation. [MP3 Audio / GearTalk Podcast / SoundCloud Stream / Video]
- Rejoicing Then and Now: Pleasures on the Day of the Lord (Zeph 3:11–20): To motivate listeners to wait for the Lord, the prophet graphically portrays the day of the Lord as renewal while highlighting the pleasure of both the Redeemer and the redeemed. [MP3 Audio / GearTalk Podcast / SoundCloud Stream / Video]
All three lectures will be published later this year in DTS’s quarterly journal Bibliotheca Sacra. I hope you are blessed by these studies.
