Paul the Poke

Zephaniah 3:9 For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.

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What in the world are purified lips? The Hebrew word for “lips” is saphah. Per Strong’s Concordance it means: lip, language, speech. The term “lip” is synonymous with a language or speech.

The New Testament equivalent is “tongue” or glossa in the Greek. For example Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 

The Bible is talking about foreign languages. This is not a reference to a bunch of “spiritual” non-intelligible mumbo jumbo that nobody knows what is being said. 1 Corinthians 14:4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Get over yourself. If nobody understands it, what good is it? The context of 1 Corinthians 14 is a discussion about foreign languages. There are better gifts, desire those.

The future kingdom holds one language.

“Purified”…The Hebrew word is barar. It means: to purge out, purify, to choose, select; to cleanse, make shining, polish. It is a simple action verb in Hebrew.

The context of the verse in Zephaniah 3 is all the peoples. Verse 6 mentions “nations”. Verse 8 talks about the “nations, kingdoms and the whole earth”.  Verse 19 states the “whole earth”. Verse 20 discusses the “nations of the earth”.

Simply stated, God is going to purge the languages and choose one. Zephaniah 3:9 states there will be one language spoken on Earth in the Millennial Kingdom. I suspect the chosen language will be Hebrew, but whatever God chooses.

Once upon a time, humanity spoke one language. Genesis 11:1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.

Genesis 11:4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

The pride of humanity is on display. They were out to “make a name for themselves”. Man is telling God, “We know best. We know the consequences. And we are going to do this regardless.” Humanity chose to separate itself from God’s direction. This was likely not the first warning from God. Humanity knew the consequences. Mankind knew there was a risk of being “scattered abroad”. But, man rebelled…

…And God responded accordingly as promised. Genesis 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Babel means confusion. And the tower was not completed. Man apart from God equals confusion.

Zephaniah 3:9 will undo the scattering and confusion created at Babel. In the Millennial Kingdom, humanity will be under the leadership of Jesus. People will be personally taught by Him in His ways. Under the leadership of Christ, people should generally have a better sense of direction and focus.

When channeled in the right direction…Genesis 11:6 The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

This entry was posted on February 28, 2016 at 8:19 AM and is filed under Millennial Kingdom, Prophecy with tags 1 Corinthians 14, Genesis 11, Hebrew, Jesus Christ, Language, Millennial Kingdom, tongues, Tower of Babel, Zephaniah 3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.