In
the book of Nahum we find some of the more unpopular truths about God. Things
like the wrath of God, His vengeance and His jealousy are truths about God
for which many Christians seem to think they need to make an apology.
Many Christians treat these attributes as if they were a blemish on the Divine
nature of God. Others think that His wrath would contradict His goodness and
love and therefore there must be no such thing.
But even those of us who take God at His word and
see that God's wrath and vengeance and jealousy are just as much a part of His
perfect character as His love and mercy and grace and goodness, we rarely take
time to revel in these less popular truths because it seems, to me at least,
too frightening a thing to profit from.
But God is completely perfect and Holy, and any
time we take to reflect on any aspect of His perfect character is going to
profit us greatly.
The book of Nahum was written sometime around 630 B.C. and it's a sequel to the book of Jonah. You know the story of Jonah. Jonah was sent with a message to Nineveh, but fearing that the people would repent and that God in His great mercy would spare them, he ran the other way. Jonah got caught in a storm, which he knew was a result of his disobedience, he drew the short straw and got thrown overboard. But God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of the fish crying out to God and God commanded the fish to spit up Jonah on the beach, and God commanded Jonah the second time saying "Go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you." Jonah 3:3-10 - "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it." This is the greatest revival in the entire Bible, and maybe even in the history of the world. Probably close to a million people, and gentiles at that. We often have a tendency to think that the Old Testament is all about Israel, and the New Testament is where the Gentiles come in, but we can see that God has always been interested in the salvation of all peoples.
The Assyrians were an extremely wicked and cruel people, and it's no wonder that Jonah didn't want to go to them, but he did. Jonah prophesied in Nineveh and the whole city repented. Nineveh was the capitol of the Assyrian empire and we're told in the book of Jonah that the city was exceedingly great, three days journey, that is it takes three days to get from one side of the city to the other. This exceedingly great city repented and turned to the Lord.
Well, by time we get to the book of Nahum about one hundred to one hundred and fifty years had passed since the time of Jonah and the repentance of Nineveh, and at this time the Lord raised up another prophet by the name of Nahum to prophesy against the city of Nineveh once again. This prophet was raised up by the Lord to pronounce a message of judgment on the people of Nineveh, this people who under the prophecy of Jonah had turned to the Lord and were now, 150 years later rebelling against the Lord once again. We don't know much about the man Nahum. The significance of the prophets was not their personal lives, it was their message. Occasionally one of the historical books will shed light on the lives of the prophets, however with regard to Nahum no such history is given. This is the only book in which he is mentioned, so the only things we know about him are given us right here.
His name means 'comforter' and is a shortened form of the name Nehemiah which means 'comfort of Jehovah.' It's an interesting name, considering the message that he brought, and some may even think that he was misnamed. He had the name 'comforter' and yet the message he brought was one of destruction. It's interesting but I think as we get into this book we'll see that this was an appropriate name for this servant of God.
We don't know where Nahum was from, but there are a few different theories. He's called "Nahum the Elkoshite" so some people think that he was either from, or prophesied in the town of Elkosh which is located in northern Israel. Others believe that he came from the town of Capernaum which is located on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee, the same place where Jesus set up his headquarters centuries later. The word Capernaum, means 'the town of Nahum' and that's why many scholars believe that this is where Nahum the prophet was from and it was actually named after him, however this is mere speculation, and again, not vital to the interpretation of the book.
The book itself consists of three chapters with a different focus in each chapter. In chapter 1 Nineveh's doom is proclaimed. In chapter 2 Nineveh's destruction is described. And in chapter 3 we're given the reason for Nineveh's destruction.
Chapter 1 - Nineveh's doom is proclaimed. 1:1 - "The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite." The word 'oracle' is also translated 'burden'. This is word word used in many of the prophecies because the message of doom that God gave to the prophets to declare was a burden. It was a weighty message that they were told to announce. And this burden was against the people of Nineveh.
Chapter 1 is split into two sections. In verses 2-7 The personality and power of God is revealed, and in verses 8-15 we see the prophecy and plan of God toward Nineveh revealed.
Verses 2-7 - The personality and power of God is revealed. 1:2 - "A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies." I am glad that I'm not an enemy of God. "It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." The first thing we're told about the personality of God is His jealousy. Gods jealousy - Human jealousy is a selfish thing. It's a selfish emotion, a fear that I'm going to get short changed, I'm going to get hurt. But God's jealousy is a righteous jealousy. A loving jealousy. God is concerned for us that we're going to get hurt. God doesn't need us, He is content in and of Himself, and He has need of nothing. He's love for us is not to fulfill something in Himself something He lacks and needs to fulfill Himself. He's not jealous for us because He needs us and will be hurt if neglect Him, but its a loving jealousy. He doesn't want us to get hurt. He knows that if we go after other gods, other things, try to find fulfillment in something other then God we will get hurt. So He is jealous for us, for our good, for our well being because He loves us. He's concerned, not that He'll be hurt, but that we'll be hurt in leaving Him. God was jealous for His people, for the people of Judah, and His jealousy for His people resulted in vengeance and wrath toward the people of Nineveh. The Assyrians had already taken the people of Israel captive, and the people of Judah were living in constant fear of the Assyrians, and God was jealousy for His children, so He pronounces judgment against Nineveh. He says that those who rise up against His people He will deal with. The Lord says "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." God is jealous for us, and He is much more capable to dole out judgment. He is much more able to make sure that everyone gets what they deserve, so when we are wronged, we can entrust ourselves to a faithful Creator knowing that in His jealousy He will take vengeance on His adversaries. We're told that He reserves wrath for His enemies, but verse three continues,
1:3 - "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." God is slow to anger - God doesn't have a temper. When we lose our temper we end up far worse off then we were. God isn't like that. All throughout Scripture God reveals Himself as slow to anger and great in power. Yes, He will take vengeance on His adversaries, and yes, He is reserving wrath for His enemies, but He is slow to anger, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Many people mistake the slowness of Gods anger for apathy, that God doesn't care. They recognize that what they're doing is not right, but they figure that God doesn't care because He hasn't stopped them. They haven't been struck by lightening or anything like that so God must not care that we're disobeying His law. Others mistake His slowness to anger for approval. I'm doing these things and nothing bad is happening. God must approve of what I'm doing. Still others mistake the slowness of His anger for impotence, that is God doesn't have the power to deal with me. Of course we know that's not true. This very verse goes on to say: "God is great in power." He is slow to anger and great in power. All those ideas are big mistakes. The people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, but now 150 years had passed, and as time went on the people got further and further from God. They responded to God but then they turned away from God. They've had 150 years to get right with God, but they've continued to go their own way. God withheld judgment from them for so long because He is slow to anger, but as someone once said "The mill of God's anger moves slow but grinds small." The wheels of Gods judgment turn slowly but they grind thoroughly. God could have wiped them out at any time, but He is slow to anger, and He gave them 150 years to repent and turn back to Him, but they continued to go their own way. And this verse continues "the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." God is completely righteous, completely just, and so He cannot leave the guilty unpunished.
1:3-6 - "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him." When God judges it really comes down. When I consider this, when I think about the judgment and the wrath and the justice of God it makes me appreciate all the more what Jesus Christ absorbed for me on the cross. We can look all throughout the Bible at different accounts of the Lord destroying armies, or cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, different accounts of Gods judgment and wrath poured out, and then we think of Christ and His great love for us in that while we were yet sinners, deserving of the full cup of the wine of the wrath of God, He took it upon Himself. What a love that must have been! God took all the wrath that should have been poured out on all humanity and poured it out on His Son. He can't leave the guilty unpunished, so He poured out the punishment on His Son in my place, that He might be both Just, and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
1:7 - "The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him." Here in verse 7 a reminder is given concerning the goodness of God. "The Lord is good." When considering the wrath of God and the awesomeness of His judgment, keep in mind that the Lord is good. This statement is foundational to our faith, and God's goodness is always the first thing that Satan will attack in the mind of the believer. Think back to the garden of Eden when the serpent slithered up to Eve. He said to her "has God indeed said that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" That's not what God said at all. God said "From any tree in the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." What God said was positive "you may freely eat" but Satan took the word of God and distorted it. He made Eve question Gods goodness. He put it in her mind that God was withholding something good from her. And Satan still works the same way today. He tries to make us doubt Gods goodness. God's goodness is foundational to our faith. Psalm 73:1 says - "Truly God is good." This is foundational to everything we believe. In fact it's interesting, In Psalm 73 the Psalmist goes on to say, I know that God is good, but as he was looking around he saw the prosperity of the wicked and he didn't understand it, "until" he says, "I came into the sanctuary." The Bible says in the book of Hebrews "don't forsake the assembling of yourself together." Out in the world we see the prosperity of the wicked, we see the things going on and in our weakness we may be tempted to question the goodness of God. But we have the privilege and the opportunity to meet together with our brothers and sisters and encourage one another in the things of the Lord. To meet together and break bread in remembrance of Him, and to pray for one another, and see the goodness of God.
Verse 7 continues - "The Lord is good, A Stronghold in the day of trouble." We certainly have troubles. - Psalm 34:17-19 - "The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Everybody has troubles, the difference for believers is that we have a Stronghold that we can take refuge in. On several occasions in the life of David, when an army would come up to war against Him, the Bible says that David would go into the stronghold and pray, and seek the Lord direction as to what to do about the trouble that's come up against him. We need to learn to follow that pattern. When troubles arise in our lives we need to go into the stronghold. "The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble."
"And He knows them that trust in Him." Not only is God good, and not only is He our stronghold in the day of trouble, but He also knows them that trust in Him. Our salvation does not rest in our knowledge of Him, but rather in His knowledge of us. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 4:9 - "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God..." The knowledge that this is talking about is not like knowing about something, but rather it's an intimate personal knowledge. Indeed, God knows everything about everyone, but He has a personal intimate knowledge of and relationship with His children that He doesn't have with the unbeliever. At the great white throne when Jesus is judging the wicked, you remember what He says to them. He says "Depart from me you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you." He's not saying that He never knew anything about them. God is omniscient. He knows everything, but He declares to these people, that He never knew them, He never had an intimate personal relationship with them because they never came to Him.
But He knows us, praise the Lord. "He knows them that trust in Him." And not only does He know us but He thinks about us. Psalm 139, one of my favorite psalms says "How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand." The theorists tell us that there are 10 to the 25th power number of sand. That's a one with 25 zeros after it. I don't know how they come up with these numbers, but I find this interesting, because they also estimate that their are the same number of stars as their are grains of sand. In Genesis 22 when God is making a promise to Abraham, He says "indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore." The stars and the sand. God put those two numbers together long before the theorists ever did. So anyway, next time your on the beach somewhere and you pick up a fistful of sand and let it fall through your fingers think of this, that for every grain of sand, God has a thought toward you. What an amazing thought. He knows them, and thinks about them that trust in Him.
God is Jealous, awesome, wrathful, avenging, patient, good, constantly observing and thinking about those that trust in Him.
After revealing the personality and power of God, the focus switches in verse eight and from here to the end of the chapter we're given a prophecy and plan concerning Nineveh. 1:8-11 - "But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, And will pursue His enemies into darkness. Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will make a complete end of it. Distress will not rise up twice. Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed As stubble completely withered. From you has gone forth One who plotted evil against the Lord, A wicked counselor." In these four verses we're given a remarkable prophecy that was fulfilled exactly as God had predicted. In the year 612 B.C. the Medes from the north and the Babylonians from the south joined together to attack the city of Nineveh. Three times in three years they assaulted the city, but they found no way to break through. They were easily beaten back as the Assyrians would simply close up the city, there was enough food growing within the walls of the city to last them eighteen years, the Tigris river flowed through the city so they had no worry about fresh water, they had it flowing right in. They were a very self sufficient people. And they would simply close themselves up and they were unconquerable. After the third attempt by the Medes and the Babylonians to take the city, the Assyrians saw that they were unsuccessful and began to throw a huge party inside the city. A drunken party that went on for weeks. They thought that they were unconquerable and no one could beat them. But while this was going on the Lord sent great storm clouds over Nineveh and it began to rain and rain and rain. And the Tigris river began to swell and get deeper and stronger, and it began to overflow it's banks. And when it overflowed it's banks it began to weaken the foundations of the mighty wall that wrapped around the city. The foundations of the wall began to crumble as the river began to push out, and the wall fell down around the river and great gaps were left open and unguarded. And the Medes and the Babylonians saw what was going on and invaded the city and set it on fire, exactly as prophesied. "Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed As stubble completely withered." They're going to be burned while they're drinking and drunk. How's it going to happen? Verse 8 - "with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site." The flooding and the burning. Eighteen years later that's exactly what happened. It happened exactly as prophesied. The river flooded, the walls caved in, the enemy poured in, the city was burned.
1:12-14 - "Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and likewise many, Even so, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer. So now, I will break his yoke bar from upon you, And I will tear off your shackles.” The Lord has issued a command concerning you: “Your name will no longer be perpetuated. I will cut off idol and image From the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, For you are contemptible.” Nineveh was completely wiped out without a trace. It was so completely destroyed that when Alexander the great came through the area, there was not a trace of the city. Not one stone was left upon another. Over time people began to say that there never was such a city, it was just a fairy tale, a Bible story, because there was not one trace of this great city. Until the year 1845 when Archeologists discovered the ruins of the city, complete with records that confirm this story perfectly.
1:15 - "Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; Pay your vows. For never again will the wicked one pass through you; He is cut off completely.
This verse is very similar to a verse in Isaiah 52 and Romans 10. Isaiah 52:7 says - "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Here Nahum is saying the same thing only it's in a little different context. Isaiah is talking about the kingdom age, the time of the millennial reign of Christ here on the earth. A time of peace when all men will say "our God reigns." Paul quotes Isaiah 52 in Romans 10, and Paul says that same verse applies, not to the future kingdom, but to our present salvation. It's a wonderful beautiful thing. And here Nahum has the same word, only not applying it to the future kingdom or to our present salvation, but referring to the destruction of Nineveh. You may say 'That's not good news, an entire civilization wiped out?' It wasn't good news for the Assyrians, but it was very good news to the people of Judah. The people of Judah were living in constant fear of the Assyrians, because the Assyrians could have at any moment come upon them. They were a very powerful people and they were always ready to pounce on Judah, so if you were living in Judah at the time and someone said that the Assyrians had been destroyed you would rejoice at the good news. So we see the same prophetic word in three passages, in three different contexts, with three different applications. This is why I think that Nahum, 'comforter' was not misnamed. His message was a message of doom for the Assyrians, but that message was a great comfort to the people of Judah.
Chapter 2 - Nineveh's destruction described. 1-8 - pounding of Nineveh 9-13 - plundering in Nineveh
2:1-2 - "The one who scatters has come up against you. Man the fortress, watch the road; Strengthen your back, summon all your strength. For the Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, Even though devastators have devastated them And destroyed their vine branches."
"The one who scatters has come up against you." In Isaiah chapter ten and following God reveals His plan concerning the Assyrians. He calls them the rod of His anger, and the staff in whose hand is his indignation. Isaiah 10:5-27 - "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of My fury to capture booty and to seize plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend, nor does it plan so in its heart, but rather it is its purpose to destroy and to cut off many nations. For it says, “Are not my princes all kings? “Is not Calno like Carchemish, or Hamath like Arpad, or Samaria like Damascus? “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.” For he has said “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, for I have understanding; and I removed the boundaries of the peoples and plundered their treasures, and like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, and my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; and there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.” Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. Therefore the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; and under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number that a child could write them down. Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return; a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” The Lord of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt. So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness." God raised up the Assyrians empire to discipline His people, but the Assyrians intended, not to discipline, but to destroy. They were meant to be a rod for discipline, but they became a sledgehammer for destruction. Therefore God pronounced destruction upon them. The way they were treating others came upon them.
2:3-8 - "The shields of his mighty men are colored red, The warriors are dressed in scarlet, The chariots are enveloped in flashing steel When he is prepared to march, And the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly in the streets, They rush wildly in the squares, Their appearance is like torches, They dash to and fro like lightning flashes. He remembers his nobles; They stumble in their march, They hurry to her wall, And the mantelet is set up. The gates of the rivers are opened And the palace is dissolved." It is fixed: She is stripped, she is carried away, And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves, Beating on their breasts. Though Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, Now they are fleeing; “Stop, stop,” But no one turns back." Look at verse 6 - "The gates of the rivers are opened And the palace is dissolved." That's exactly what happened when the Medes and the Babylonians came up against Nineveh. The river swelled and the walls collapsed. And history tells us that when the king of Assyria realized what was happening he went into his palace armory, but realize that it was hopeless, that defeat was immanent, he torched himself. The gates of the rivers were opened and the palace was dissolved. And seeing this the soldiers fled. Now they are fleeing, "Stand, Stand," But no one turns back. Panic is in the city. The palace is dissolved, the king is burned up, the walls have fallen down and the enemy is flooding in. Now we read in verse 9 of the plundering of the city.
2:9-10 - "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no limit to the treasure— Wealth from every kind of desirable object. She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and waste! Hearts are melting and knees knocking! Also anguish is in the whole body And all their faces are grown pale!" You can just see the fear in these people. "Hearts are melting and knees knocking." Someone once said that if your knees are knocking kneel on them. We don't have to be anxious or worried or fearful about anything, and whatever we're facing we can bring it to the Lord in Prayer. But these people didn't have that opportunity. And the next verses go on to tell us that.
2:11-13 - "Where is the den of the lions And the feeding place of the young lions, Where the lion, lioness and lion’s cub prowled, With nothing to disturb them? The lion tore enough for his cubs, Killed enough for his lionesses, And filled his lairs with prey And his dens with torn flesh. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.” Look at verse 13 - "Behold, I am against you," declares the Lord of hosts. What a terrifying message. What if you heard this message? A prophet was sent to you from the Lord and this was the message: "Behold I am against you." That is one thing that I would never want to hear. But because we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ the message to us is. "If God is for us, who shall be against us." However, these are the words of the Lord to all you relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers that have rejected the Lord. And the Lords judgment will come on them. Maybe not today, Maybe not tomorrow, remember God is slow to anger, and He's not willing that any should perish, But He is completely just and completely holy, and one day His judgment will come, and if they do not repent, He will say to them "Depart from Me you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you." This city that at one time was full of the knowledge of God, now hears this message from Him: "Behold I am against you."
Chapter 3 - The reason for Nineveh's destruction
The first reason we're given for the destruction of Nineveh is because of their cruelty. Verses 1-3 - "Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs. The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses and bounding chariots! Horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears gleaming, many slain, a mass of corpses, and countless dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies!" There was never a crueler people in the history of the world than the Assyrians. When they conquered a city, they would take their captives and put hooks through their mouths and attach them to one another and lead them single file back to Nineveh. The Assyrians perfected the fine art of skinning people alive, and they would use their skins to cover their furniture. They would put blades on the wheels of their chariots and run over their enemies. They would impale people in poles and let them die a slow painful death. Any city they conquered they would pile the skulls of their victims at the entrance of the city as a warning, that this is what happens when you mess with the Assyrians. But because of their great cruelty God pronounced His wrath against them. Their also called liars in this verse. They would make deals with peoples that they were at war with, and when the people came out of the city to confirm the deal, the Assyrians would turn on them and slaughter them.
The next reason we're given for their destruction is because of their carnality. Verses 4-7 - "All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts; “And I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace. “I will throw filth on you And make you vile, and set you up as a spectacle. “And it will come about that all who see you will shrink from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?” Both sexual immorality and witchcraft are mentioned in these verses as reasons for the the destruction of Nineveh. In verse 5 the Lord repeats the message that He gave to them in chapter 2 - "Behold I am against you."
In verses 8-10 Nineveh is told that they should've learned their lesson from what happened to another city that was much the same as Nineveh. They failed to learn from the example of Thebes. (No Amon) They thought they were indestructible. Verses 8-10 - "Are you better than No-amon, which was situated by the waters of the Nile, with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall consisted of the sea? Ethiopia was her might, and Egypt too, without limits. Put and Lubim were among her helpers. Yet she became an exile, she went into captivity; also her small children were dashed to pieces at the head of every street; they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound with fetters." Thebes was a famous wealthy city in Egypt. In 633 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the city of Thebes, and they felt great about it. Thebes was also a great city and they thought that they would never fall. God is saying, 'they thought they would never fall and you beat them, and you think that you're never going to fall, don't you get the picture?' They were proud, and they were not learning from history.
They would become just like the city that they conquered. Verses 11-13 - "You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy. All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit— When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth. Behold, your people are women in your midst! The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; Fire consumes your gate bars." When their city was invaded they were drunk, they were weak, and they couldn't defend themselves. They couldn't stand, they had no strength.
Nahum mockingly takes charge. Vs.14 - "Draw for yourself water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!"
Vs. 15-16 - "There fire will consume you, The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the locust does. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, multiply yourself like the swarming locust. You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven— The creeping locust strips and flies away." They had all these merchants, and all these traders of earthly goods, but it would all fade away.
Vs. 17-18 - "Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, and the place where they are is not known. Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to regather them. The leaders of Nineveh, the commanders in their army are described as grasshoppers. As soon as the sun rises, as soon as the heat comes on them, as soon as they start feeling the pressure they flee. They run away, and the armies have no direction. The leaders are lying down and sleeping, and the people are scattered.
Vs. 19 - "There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you, for on whom has not your evil passed continually? An incurable wound. Their judgment is irreversible. And because they tormented all peoples, no one would grieve over their destruction. Everyone who hears of their destruction will celebrate. And that's where the prophecy ends.
Was their doom deserved? Yes. The wrath of God is an important component in the love of God. These people, this society had become so corrupt that God in His love is absolutely justified in destroying them, because they are doomed already. Jesus said in John 3:18 - "He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." For those people that do not know God, His message for them is the same as it was for Nineveh, "Behold, I am against you." Declares the Lord. God cannot tolerate sin, and He will one day rid the world completely of it. But He is slow to anger. 2 Peter 3:9 says "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and He is slow to anger, but that doesn't mean that His anger will not come. God said to Noah "My Spirit will not strive with man forever." And we know that that's true. 2 Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah spent 100 years building the ark and all the while he was preaching to the people. God was patient, slow to anger, and He gave the people 100 years to repent, but at last His anger came and only eight people were saved. Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and his family. God is slow to anger, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. "But" the next verse goes on to say, "the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." Yes, God is patient, but the day of the Lord will come. Everything temporal will be consumed with fire. The earth and all its works will be burned up. But what about us as Christians, how does this effect us? Peter continues "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness." The book of Nahum began with the statement "A jealous and avenging God is the Lord." Deuteronomy 4:24 says "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." Not only is God going to consume the world, and burn up all the wicked and worthless things, but right now God wants to consume all the worldliness in you and I, and leave only that which has true value. God in His love wants to burn away that which is harmful to us. He wants to consume our lives. In Hebrews chapter 12 the Bible talks about that which is of true value, and those things that are worthless, that which is eternal and that which is temporal, those things that will last forever, unshaken, and those things that will be burned up. "And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." The Lord has put within every believer a 'Nahum', the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to teach us all things and to bring to our remembrance His word. Knowing that are God is a consuming fire, knowing that the Lord is slow to anger but He is avenging and wrathful nonetheless, we should be compelled to offer our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice. Willing offer ourselves to Him so that He can consume the worldliness, the carnality within us and make us more like Himself.
A Jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord is good, a Stronghold in the day of trouble and He knows them that trust in Him. Therefore let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
The book of Nahum was written sometime around 630 B.C. and it's a sequel to the book of Jonah. You know the story of Jonah. Jonah was sent with a message to Nineveh, but fearing that the people would repent and that God in His great mercy would spare them, he ran the other way. Jonah got caught in a storm, which he knew was a result of his disobedience, he drew the short straw and got thrown overboard. But God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of the fish crying out to God and God commanded the fish to spit up Jonah on the beach, and God commanded Jonah the second time saying "Go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you." Jonah 3:3-10 - "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it." This is the greatest revival in the entire Bible, and maybe even in the history of the world. Probably close to a million people, and gentiles at that. We often have a tendency to think that the Old Testament is all about Israel, and the New Testament is where the Gentiles come in, but we can see that God has always been interested in the salvation of all peoples.
The Assyrians were an extremely wicked and cruel people, and it's no wonder that Jonah didn't want to go to them, but he did. Jonah prophesied in Nineveh and the whole city repented. Nineveh was the capitol of the Assyrian empire and we're told in the book of Jonah that the city was exceedingly great, three days journey, that is it takes three days to get from one side of the city to the other. This exceedingly great city repented and turned to the Lord.
Well, by time we get to the book of Nahum about one hundred to one hundred and fifty years had passed since the time of Jonah and the repentance of Nineveh, and at this time the Lord raised up another prophet by the name of Nahum to prophesy against the city of Nineveh once again. This prophet was raised up by the Lord to pronounce a message of judgment on the people of Nineveh, this people who under the prophecy of Jonah had turned to the Lord and were now, 150 years later rebelling against the Lord once again. We don't know much about the man Nahum. The significance of the prophets was not their personal lives, it was their message. Occasionally one of the historical books will shed light on the lives of the prophets, however with regard to Nahum no such history is given. This is the only book in which he is mentioned, so the only things we know about him are given us right here.
His name means 'comforter' and is a shortened form of the name Nehemiah which means 'comfort of Jehovah.' It's an interesting name, considering the message that he brought, and some may even think that he was misnamed. He had the name 'comforter' and yet the message he brought was one of destruction. It's interesting but I think as we get into this book we'll see that this was an appropriate name for this servant of God.
We don't know where Nahum was from, but there are a few different theories. He's called "Nahum the Elkoshite" so some people think that he was either from, or prophesied in the town of Elkosh which is located in northern Israel. Others believe that he came from the town of Capernaum which is located on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee, the same place where Jesus set up his headquarters centuries later. The word Capernaum, means 'the town of Nahum' and that's why many scholars believe that this is where Nahum the prophet was from and it was actually named after him, however this is mere speculation, and again, not vital to the interpretation of the book.
The book itself consists of three chapters with a different focus in each chapter. In chapter 1 Nineveh's doom is proclaimed. In chapter 2 Nineveh's destruction is described. And in chapter 3 we're given the reason for Nineveh's destruction.
Chapter 1 - Nineveh's doom is proclaimed. 1:1 - "The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite." The word 'oracle' is also translated 'burden'. This is word word used in many of the prophecies because the message of doom that God gave to the prophets to declare was a burden. It was a weighty message that they were told to announce. And this burden was against the people of Nineveh.
Chapter 1 is split into two sections. In verses 2-7 The personality and power of God is revealed, and in verses 8-15 we see the prophecy and plan of God toward Nineveh revealed.
Verses 2-7 - The personality and power of God is revealed. 1:2 - "A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies." I am glad that I'm not an enemy of God. "It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." The first thing we're told about the personality of God is His jealousy. Gods jealousy - Human jealousy is a selfish thing. It's a selfish emotion, a fear that I'm going to get short changed, I'm going to get hurt. But God's jealousy is a righteous jealousy. A loving jealousy. God is concerned for us that we're going to get hurt. God doesn't need us, He is content in and of Himself, and He has need of nothing. He's love for us is not to fulfill something in Himself something He lacks and needs to fulfill Himself. He's not jealous for us because He needs us and will be hurt if neglect Him, but its a loving jealousy. He doesn't want us to get hurt. He knows that if we go after other gods, other things, try to find fulfillment in something other then God we will get hurt. So He is jealous for us, for our good, for our well being because He loves us. He's concerned, not that He'll be hurt, but that we'll be hurt in leaving Him. God was jealous for His people, for the people of Judah, and His jealousy for His people resulted in vengeance and wrath toward the people of Nineveh. The Assyrians had already taken the people of Israel captive, and the people of Judah were living in constant fear of the Assyrians, and God was jealousy for His children, so He pronounces judgment against Nineveh. He says that those who rise up against His people He will deal with. The Lord says "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." God is jealous for us, and He is much more capable to dole out judgment. He is much more able to make sure that everyone gets what they deserve, so when we are wronged, we can entrust ourselves to a faithful Creator knowing that in His jealousy He will take vengeance on His adversaries. We're told that He reserves wrath for His enemies, but verse three continues,
1:3 - "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." God is slow to anger - God doesn't have a temper. When we lose our temper we end up far worse off then we were. God isn't like that. All throughout Scripture God reveals Himself as slow to anger and great in power. Yes, He will take vengeance on His adversaries, and yes, He is reserving wrath for His enemies, but He is slow to anger, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Many people mistake the slowness of Gods anger for apathy, that God doesn't care. They recognize that what they're doing is not right, but they figure that God doesn't care because He hasn't stopped them. They haven't been struck by lightening or anything like that so God must not care that we're disobeying His law. Others mistake His slowness to anger for approval. I'm doing these things and nothing bad is happening. God must approve of what I'm doing. Still others mistake the slowness of His anger for impotence, that is God doesn't have the power to deal with me. Of course we know that's not true. This very verse goes on to say: "God is great in power." He is slow to anger and great in power. All those ideas are big mistakes. The people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, but now 150 years had passed, and as time went on the people got further and further from God. They responded to God but then they turned away from God. They've had 150 years to get right with God, but they've continued to go their own way. God withheld judgment from them for so long because He is slow to anger, but as someone once said "The mill of God's anger moves slow but grinds small." The wheels of Gods judgment turn slowly but they grind thoroughly. God could have wiped them out at any time, but He is slow to anger, and He gave them 150 years to repent and turn back to Him, but they continued to go their own way. And this verse continues "the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." God is completely righteous, completely just, and so He cannot leave the guilty unpunished.
1:3-6 - "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him." When God judges it really comes down. When I consider this, when I think about the judgment and the wrath and the justice of God it makes me appreciate all the more what Jesus Christ absorbed for me on the cross. We can look all throughout the Bible at different accounts of the Lord destroying armies, or cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, different accounts of Gods judgment and wrath poured out, and then we think of Christ and His great love for us in that while we were yet sinners, deserving of the full cup of the wine of the wrath of God, He took it upon Himself. What a love that must have been! God took all the wrath that should have been poured out on all humanity and poured it out on His Son. He can't leave the guilty unpunished, so He poured out the punishment on His Son in my place, that He might be both Just, and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
1:7 - "The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him." Here in verse 7 a reminder is given concerning the goodness of God. "The Lord is good." When considering the wrath of God and the awesomeness of His judgment, keep in mind that the Lord is good. This statement is foundational to our faith, and God's goodness is always the first thing that Satan will attack in the mind of the believer. Think back to the garden of Eden when the serpent slithered up to Eve. He said to her "has God indeed said that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" That's not what God said at all. God said "From any tree in the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." What God said was positive "you may freely eat" but Satan took the word of God and distorted it. He made Eve question Gods goodness. He put it in her mind that God was withholding something good from her. And Satan still works the same way today. He tries to make us doubt Gods goodness. God's goodness is foundational to our faith. Psalm 73:1 says - "Truly God is good." This is foundational to everything we believe. In fact it's interesting, In Psalm 73 the Psalmist goes on to say, I know that God is good, but as he was looking around he saw the prosperity of the wicked and he didn't understand it, "until" he says, "I came into the sanctuary." The Bible says in the book of Hebrews "don't forsake the assembling of yourself together." Out in the world we see the prosperity of the wicked, we see the things going on and in our weakness we may be tempted to question the goodness of God. But we have the privilege and the opportunity to meet together with our brothers and sisters and encourage one another in the things of the Lord. To meet together and break bread in remembrance of Him, and to pray for one another, and see the goodness of God.
Verse 7 continues - "The Lord is good, A Stronghold in the day of trouble." We certainly have troubles. - Psalm 34:17-19 - "The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Everybody has troubles, the difference for believers is that we have a Stronghold that we can take refuge in. On several occasions in the life of David, when an army would come up to war against Him, the Bible says that David would go into the stronghold and pray, and seek the Lord direction as to what to do about the trouble that's come up against him. We need to learn to follow that pattern. When troubles arise in our lives we need to go into the stronghold. "The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble."
"And He knows them that trust in Him." Not only is God good, and not only is He our stronghold in the day of trouble, but He also knows them that trust in Him. Our salvation does not rest in our knowledge of Him, but rather in His knowledge of us. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 4:9 - "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God..." The knowledge that this is talking about is not like knowing about something, but rather it's an intimate personal knowledge. Indeed, God knows everything about everyone, but He has a personal intimate knowledge of and relationship with His children that He doesn't have with the unbeliever. At the great white throne when Jesus is judging the wicked, you remember what He says to them. He says "Depart from me you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you." He's not saying that He never knew anything about them. God is omniscient. He knows everything, but He declares to these people, that He never knew them, He never had an intimate personal relationship with them because they never came to Him.
But He knows us, praise the Lord. "He knows them that trust in Him." And not only does He know us but He thinks about us. Psalm 139, one of my favorite psalms says "How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand." The theorists tell us that there are 10 to the 25th power number of sand. That's a one with 25 zeros after it. I don't know how they come up with these numbers, but I find this interesting, because they also estimate that their are the same number of stars as their are grains of sand. In Genesis 22 when God is making a promise to Abraham, He says "indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore." The stars and the sand. God put those two numbers together long before the theorists ever did. So anyway, next time your on the beach somewhere and you pick up a fistful of sand and let it fall through your fingers think of this, that for every grain of sand, God has a thought toward you. What an amazing thought. He knows them, and thinks about them that trust in Him.
God is Jealous, awesome, wrathful, avenging, patient, good, constantly observing and thinking about those that trust in Him.
After revealing the personality and power of God, the focus switches in verse eight and from here to the end of the chapter we're given a prophecy and plan concerning Nineveh. 1:8-11 - "But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, And will pursue His enemies into darkness. Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will make a complete end of it. Distress will not rise up twice. Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed As stubble completely withered. From you has gone forth One who plotted evil against the Lord, A wicked counselor." In these four verses we're given a remarkable prophecy that was fulfilled exactly as God had predicted. In the year 612 B.C. the Medes from the north and the Babylonians from the south joined together to attack the city of Nineveh. Three times in three years they assaulted the city, but they found no way to break through. They were easily beaten back as the Assyrians would simply close up the city, there was enough food growing within the walls of the city to last them eighteen years, the Tigris river flowed through the city so they had no worry about fresh water, they had it flowing right in. They were a very self sufficient people. And they would simply close themselves up and they were unconquerable. After the third attempt by the Medes and the Babylonians to take the city, the Assyrians saw that they were unsuccessful and began to throw a huge party inside the city. A drunken party that went on for weeks. They thought that they were unconquerable and no one could beat them. But while this was going on the Lord sent great storm clouds over Nineveh and it began to rain and rain and rain. And the Tigris river began to swell and get deeper and stronger, and it began to overflow it's banks. And when it overflowed it's banks it began to weaken the foundations of the mighty wall that wrapped around the city. The foundations of the wall began to crumble as the river began to push out, and the wall fell down around the river and great gaps were left open and unguarded. And the Medes and the Babylonians saw what was going on and invaded the city and set it on fire, exactly as prophesied. "Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed As stubble completely withered." They're going to be burned while they're drinking and drunk. How's it going to happen? Verse 8 - "with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site." The flooding and the burning. Eighteen years later that's exactly what happened. It happened exactly as prophesied. The river flooded, the walls caved in, the enemy poured in, the city was burned.
1:12-14 - "Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and likewise many, Even so, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer. So now, I will break his yoke bar from upon you, And I will tear off your shackles.” The Lord has issued a command concerning you: “Your name will no longer be perpetuated. I will cut off idol and image From the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, For you are contemptible.” Nineveh was completely wiped out without a trace. It was so completely destroyed that when Alexander the great came through the area, there was not a trace of the city. Not one stone was left upon another. Over time people began to say that there never was such a city, it was just a fairy tale, a Bible story, because there was not one trace of this great city. Until the year 1845 when Archeologists discovered the ruins of the city, complete with records that confirm this story perfectly.
1:15 - "Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; Pay your vows. For never again will the wicked one pass through you; He is cut off completely.
This verse is very similar to a verse in Isaiah 52 and Romans 10. Isaiah 52:7 says - "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Here Nahum is saying the same thing only it's in a little different context. Isaiah is talking about the kingdom age, the time of the millennial reign of Christ here on the earth. A time of peace when all men will say "our God reigns." Paul quotes Isaiah 52 in Romans 10, and Paul says that same verse applies, not to the future kingdom, but to our present salvation. It's a wonderful beautiful thing. And here Nahum has the same word, only not applying it to the future kingdom or to our present salvation, but referring to the destruction of Nineveh. You may say 'That's not good news, an entire civilization wiped out?' It wasn't good news for the Assyrians, but it was very good news to the people of Judah. The people of Judah were living in constant fear of the Assyrians, because the Assyrians could have at any moment come upon them. They were a very powerful people and they were always ready to pounce on Judah, so if you were living in Judah at the time and someone said that the Assyrians had been destroyed you would rejoice at the good news. So we see the same prophetic word in three passages, in three different contexts, with three different applications. This is why I think that Nahum, 'comforter' was not misnamed. His message was a message of doom for the Assyrians, but that message was a great comfort to the people of Judah.
Chapter 2 - Nineveh's destruction described. 1-8 - pounding of Nineveh 9-13 - plundering in Nineveh
2:1-2 - "The one who scatters has come up against you. Man the fortress, watch the road; Strengthen your back, summon all your strength. For the Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, Even though devastators have devastated them And destroyed their vine branches."
"The one who scatters has come up against you." In Isaiah chapter ten and following God reveals His plan concerning the Assyrians. He calls them the rod of His anger, and the staff in whose hand is his indignation. Isaiah 10:5-27 - "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of My fury to capture booty and to seize plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend, nor does it plan so in its heart, but rather it is its purpose to destroy and to cut off many nations. For it says, “Are not my princes all kings? “Is not Calno like Carchemish, or Hamath like Arpad, or Samaria like Damascus? “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.” For he has said “By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, for I have understanding; and I removed the boundaries of the peoples and plundered their treasures, and like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, and my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; and there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.” Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. Therefore the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; and under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number that a child could write them down. Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return; a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” The Lord of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt. So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness." God raised up the Assyrians empire to discipline His people, but the Assyrians intended, not to discipline, but to destroy. They were meant to be a rod for discipline, but they became a sledgehammer for destruction. Therefore God pronounced destruction upon them. The way they were treating others came upon them.
2:3-8 - "The shields of his mighty men are colored red, The warriors are dressed in scarlet, The chariots are enveloped in flashing steel When he is prepared to march, And the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly in the streets, They rush wildly in the squares, Their appearance is like torches, They dash to and fro like lightning flashes. He remembers his nobles; They stumble in their march, They hurry to her wall, And the mantelet is set up. The gates of the rivers are opened And the palace is dissolved." It is fixed: She is stripped, she is carried away, And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves, Beating on their breasts. Though Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, Now they are fleeing; “Stop, stop,” But no one turns back." Look at verse 6 - "The gates of the rivers are opened And the palace is dissolved." That's exactly what happened when the Medes and the Babylonians came up against Nineveh. The river swelled and the walls collapsed. And history tells us that when the king of Assyria realized what was happening he went into his palace armory, but realize that it was hopeless, that defeat was immanent, he torched himself. The gates of the rivers were opened and the palace was dissolved. And seeing this the soldiers fled. Now they are fleeing, "Stand, Stand," But no one turns back. Panic is in the city. The palace is dissolved, the king is burned up, the walls have fallen down and the enemy is flooding in. Now we read in verse 9 of the plundering of the city.
2:9-10 - "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no limit to the treasure— Wealth from every kind of desirable object. She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and waste! Hearts are melting and knees knocking! Also anguish is in the whole body And all their faces are grown pale!" You can just see the fear in these people. "Hearts are melting and knees knocking." Someone once said that if your knees are knocking kneel on them. We don't have to be anxious or worried or fearful about anything, and whatever we're facing we can bring it to the Lord in Prayer. But these people didn't have that opportunity. And the next verses go on to tell us that.
2:11-13 - "Where is the den of the lions And the feeding place of the young lions, Where the lion, lioness and lion’s cub prowled, With nothing to disturb them? The lion tore enough for his cubs, Killed enough for his lionesses, And filled his lairs with prey And his dens with torn flesh. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.” Look at verse 13 - "Behold, I am against you," declares the Lord of hosts. What a terrifying message. What if you heard this message? A prophet was sent to you from the Lord and this was the message: "Behold I am against you." That is one thing that I would never want to hear. But because we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ the message to us is. "If God is for us, who shall be against us." However, these are the words of the Lord to all you relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers that have rejected the Lord. And the Lords judgment will come on them. Maybe not today, Maybe not tomorrow, remember God is slow to anger, and He's not willing that any should perish, But He is completely just and completely holy, and one day His judgment will come, and if they do not repent, He will say to them "Depart from Me you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you." This city that at one time was full of the knowledge of God, now hears this message from Him: "Behold I am against you."
Chapter 3 - The reason for Nineveh's destruction
The first reason we're given for the destruction of Nineveh is because of their cruelty. Verses 1-3 - "Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs. The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses and bounding chariots! Horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears gleaming, many slain, a mass of corpses, and countless dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies!" There was never a crueler people in the history of the world than the Assyrians. When they conquered a city, they would take their captives and put hooks through their mouths and attach them to one another and lead them single file back to Nineveh. The Assyrians perfected the fine art of skinning people alive, and they would use their skins to cover their furniture. They would put blades on the wheels of their chariots and run over their enemies. They would impale people in poles and let them die a slow painful death. Any city they conquered they would pile the skulls of their victims at the entrance of the city as a warning, that this is what happens when you mess with the Assyrians. But because of their great cruelty God pronounced His wrath against them. Their also called liars in this verse. They would make deals with peoples that they were at war with, and when the people came out of the city to confirm the deal, the Assyrians would turn on them and slaughter them.
The next reason we're given for their destruction is because of their carnality. Verses 4-7 - "All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts; “And I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace. “I will throw filth on you And make you vile, and set you up as a spectacle. “And it will come about that all who see you will shrink from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?” Both sexual immorality and witchcraft are mentioned in these verses as reasons for the the destruction of Nineveh. In verse 5 the Lord repeats the message that He gave to them in chapter 2 - "Behold I am against you."
In verses 8-10 Nineveh is told that they should've learned their lesson from what happened to another city that was much the same as Nineveh. They failed to learn from the example of Thebes. (No Amon) They thought they were indestructible. Verses 8-10 - "Are you better than No-amon, which was situated by the waters of the Nile, with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall consisted of the sea? Ethiopia was her might, and Egypt too, without limits. Put and Lubim were among her helpers. Yet she became an exile, she went into captivity; also her small children were dashed to pieces at the head of every street; they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound with fetters." Thebes was a famous wealthy city in Egypt. In 633 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the city of Thebes, and they felt great about it. Thebes was also a great city and they thought that they would never fall. God is saying, 'they thought they would never fall and you beat them, and you think that you're never going to fall, don't you get the picture?' They were proud, and they were not learning from history.
They would become just like the city that they conquered. Verses 11-13 - "You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy. All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit— When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth. Behold, your people are women in your midst! The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; Fire consumes your gate bars." When their city was invaded they were drunk, they were weak, and they couldn't defend themselves. They couldn't stand, they had no strength.
Nahum mockingly takes charge. Vs.14 - "Draw for yourself water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!"
Vs. 15-16 - "There fire will consume you, The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the locust does. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, multiply yourself like the swarming locust. You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven— The creeping locust strips and flies away." They had all these merchants, and all these traders of earthly goods, but it would all fade away.
Vs. 17-18 - "Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, and the place where they are is not known. Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to regather them. The leaders of Nineveh, the commanders in their army are described as grasshoppers. As soon as the sun rises, as soon as the heat comes on them, as soon as they start feeling the pressure they flee. They run away, and the armies have no direction. The leaders are lying down and sleeping, and the people are scattered.
Vs. 19 - "There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you, for on whom has not your evil passed continually? An incurable wound. Their judgment is irreversible. And because they tormented all peoples, no one would grieve over their destruction. Everyone who hears of their destruction will celebrate. And that's where the prophecy ends.
Was their doom deserved? Yes. The wrath of God is an important component in the love of God. These people, this society had become so corrupt that God in His love is absolutely justified in destroying them, because they are doomed already. Jesus said in John 3:18 - "He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." For those people that do not know God, His message for them is the same as it was for Nineveh, "Behold, I am against you." Declares the Lord. God cannot tolerate sin, and He will one day rid the world completely of it. But He is slow to anger. 2 Peter 3:9 says "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and He is slow to anger, but that doesn't mean that His anger will not come. God said to Noah "My Spirit will not strive with man forever." And we know that that's true. 2 Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah spent 100 years building the ark and all the while he was preaching to the people. God was patient, slow to anger, and He gave the people 100 years to repent, but at last His anger came and only eight people were saved. Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and his family. God is slow to anger, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. "But" the next verse goes on to say, "the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." Yes, God is patient, but the day of the Lord will come. Everything temporal will be consumed with fire. The earth and all its works will be burned up. But what about us as Christians, how does this effect us? Peter continues "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness." The book of Nahum began with the statement "A jealous and avenging God is the Lord." Deuteronomy 4:24 says "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." Not only is God going to consume the world, and burn up all the wicked and worthless things, but right now God wants to consume all the worldliness in you and I, and leave only that which has true value. God in His love wants to burn away that which is harmful to us. He wants to consume our lives. In Hebrews chapter 12 the Bible talks about that which is of true value, and those things that are worthless, that which is eternal and that which is temporal, those things that will last forever, unshaken, and those things that will be burned up. "And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." The Lord has put within every believer a 'Nahum', the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to teach us all things and to bring to our remembrance His word. Knowing that are God is a consuming fire, knowing that the Lord is slow to anger but He is avenging and wrathful nonetheless, we should be compelled to offer our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice. Willing offer ourselves to Him so that He can consume the worldliness, the carnality within us and make us more like Himself.
A Jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord is good, a Stronghold in the day of trouble and He knows them that trust in Him. Therefore let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
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