Philip Dampier's Blog

Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” O that all the prophets would end on such a high note.…

Zephaniah 3:14 “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart O daughter of Jerusalem!” I love it. Right in the middle of wrath and destruction there comes hope; a reason for rejoicing. As you read through Zephaniah you won’t see much for…

Zephaniah 2:3 “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.” This is the lowest of expectations from a prophet. Things are so bad that the prophet…

Zephaniah Zephaniah 1:2 “’I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,’ declares the LORD.” Here is a wonderful example of prophetic language. For those who seek literal interpretations of every verse of the Bible it creates a difficult problem. This is a prophecy against Judah. The…

Habakkuk 3:17, 18 “Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no heard in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the…

Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” I used to see these words over the doors that led to the main auditorium where worship services were held. Somehow, Bible leaders thought this verse applied to worship services but that…

Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith (faithfulness).” Habakkuk is discussing his complaint against God and God is answering him. Habakkuk surely knows there are two kinds of people he is working with. There are…

Habakkuk Habakkuk 1:2 “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” Ever feel like Habakkuk? You’ve cried to God for help but you failed to hear a response? Habakkuk was sure God was ignoring…

Nahum 3:6 “I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.” This is God’s message to that wicked city Nineveh. For those of us in the New Testament age, it seems a harsh message, one unbecoming of the God we love. It is…

Nahum Nahum 1:2 “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.” Nahum is all about Nineveh and its wickedness and what God is going to do about the wickedness. The prophet…