God Will Judge Gaza?

⁴ For Gaza will be abandoned And Ashkelon a desolation; Ashdod will be driven out at noon And Ekron will be uprooted.  ⁵ Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, The nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; And I will destroy you So that there will be no inhabitant.

 

Gaza will be abandoned?  So says Zephaniah (2:4).  Zephaniah speaks of a war with the neighboring countries around Israel who are destroyed, abandoned and of some he says, “made like Sodom…”  and, “made like Gomorrah” (2:9).  Moab and the land of the Ammonites are destined to be made like the OT cities which were destroyed for their widespread practice of homosexuality; their great immorality against the I AM (Gen. 19:24).  So if that tells us anything concerning the Muslim lands around Israel, their fate, like Sodom and Gomorrah will be a rain of fire and sulfur “out of heaven,” that is, from the sky.

So how are you sure where exactly these locations you are speaking of are in the Bible?  Many of the place in scripture are described with enough identifiers to know which locations are spoken.  But aside from that, most of certainty concerning Biblical places comes from archaeological finds that confirm Biblical data.

One website which I think is an excellent tool in researching Biblical locations, which has already done much of the homework, is http://a.openbible.info/geo/.  With this site you can type in the book and chapter of the Bible you are in, and using Google earth, find the Biblical locations which are being spoken of.

Using this site for Zephaniah ch. 2, it places the locations, though some retain their ancient and Biblical names, like Gaza and Ashdod for instance.  Sodom and Gomorrah are located at the south end of the Dead Sea, while Gaza, Ashdod and Ashkelon are located on the coastline of Israel proper.  Today, these cities and territories are inhabited by Muslim peoples that are increasingly raging against Israel, as told of in Psalm 83:4-5.  Verse five tells us that in conspiring against Israel and the Jewish people, they are in fact conspiring against Yahweh Himself (v. 5)!

Psalm 83:5  ⁵ For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant:

When Israel first came up out of servitude in Egypt, the LORD told Israel not to provoke or take the land of Esau’s descendants (Edom) or that of the children of Lot (Moab and Ammon).  But these relatives of the Israelites grew a contempt against Israel, and the prophet Zephaniah prophesies that they are going to be punished, even destroyed for the attitude and behavior toward Israel.

Zephaniah 2:9-13, 15   ⁹ "Therefore, as I live," declares the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, "Surely Moab will be like Sodom And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah-- A place possessed by nettles and salt pits, And a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them And the remainder of My nation will inherit them."  ¹⁰ This they will have in return for their pride, because they have taunted and become arrogant against the people of the Yahweh Saboath.  ¹¹ The LORD will be terrifying to them, for He will starve all the gods of the earth; and all the coastlands of the nations will bow down to Him, everyone from his own place.  ¹² "You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword."  ¹³ And He will stretch out His hand against the north And destroy Assyria, And He will make Nineveh a desolation, Parched like the wilderness.

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¹⁵ This is the exultant city Which dwells securely, Who says in her heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me." How she has become a desolation, A resting place for beasts! Everyone who passes by her will hiss And wave his hand in contempt.

 

Muslims seek to annihilate the Jewish race in the name of their god, Allah.

John 16:2-3  ² "¹They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  ³ "These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.

Matthew 11:27   ²⁷ "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”