Zeph 1:2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land,saith the LORD.
This verse is very straight forward,God plans to remove everything from the land that God promised to Israel. As we go through this book,we will see that the prophesies will include the world as well. We studied through the Book of Revelation and saw that after God removes His people through the rapture,He then begins to cleanse the world through His judgments.
Zeph 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.
God is going to clean up the land and will begin by removing man. The Israelites would be be taken into captivity into Babylon. Three times the Babylonian army came into Israel and took captives with them and it was on the third time that Jerusalem was destroyed and the Temple was destroyed. When you read through Jeremiah and Lamentations we see that the people that were left were considered of no value to the Babylonians and many of them fled to Egypt (Jeremiah 42,43). In Jeremiah 44,God declared through Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 44:2-6 Thus saith the LORD of hosts,the God of Israel;Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem,and upon all the cities of Judah;and,behold,this day they are a desolation,and no man dwelleth therein,(3) Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger,in that they went to burn incense,and to serve other gods,whom they knew not,neither they,ye,nor your fathers. (4) Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets,rising early and sending them,saying,Oh,do not this abominable thing that I hate. (5) But they hearkened not,nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness,to burn no incense unto other gods. (6) Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth,and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem;and they are wasted and desolate,as at this day.
God’s judgment had come upon the nation of Israel,but only after they had been warned and exhorted to repent many times by God’s prophets. Sadly,the Israelites did not listen to the prophets of God and continued to turn away from God and follow their own paths and ideas. Those paths and ideas are idolatry,because they were placed ahead of God. So,as we see in Zephaniah 1:2,the stumbling blocks were going to be removed by God and Israel was going to be left physically desolate,because Israel had chosen to be spiritually desolate.
What is your spiritual condition? Do you desire God? Do you desire to please and glorify Him alone?