Death Of A Nation (Nahum 3:8-19)

Hundreds of years before Columbus discovered the new world, the city of Cahokia was one of earth’s great metropolises. It was built in what is now southern Illinois, just west of modern day St. Louis, and inhabited by a people group that modern researchers call the “Mississippians.”

Cahokia was an impressive city. Its residents built hundreds of mounds with buildings on top for various purposes. The tallest is known as Monk’s Mound, standing 10 stories high. It was probably the tallest manmade structure in America until the introduction of steel skyscrapers in the late 1800s.^[1] The city was carefully designed, with “perfectly laid out streets.” It was also home to what is called “Woodhenge” – like Stonehenge, but with cedar poles. This celestial monument has been partially rebuilt as archaeologists attempt to understand the Mississippian religion and culture.

Cahokia’s size and population rivaled the capitals of Europe at the time. In fact, it was home to more people than London or Paris. It’s been called an “early-day Manhattan.”^[2] But, it has also been described as an American Atlantis. After standing as a major urban area for centuries, by 1350 AD, this metropolis was abandoned and no on knows why. It joined the list of mysterious, lost cities.

The fall of Nineveh is one of the most dramatic political events ever. Historians at Cambridge University wrote, “The disappearance of the Assyrian people will always remain an unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history.”^[3]

It seemed like an impossibility to Assyria’s rulers and her enemies. But, as Nahum brought his book to a close, he makes it clear that it could happen and it would happen – no matter what.

Nahum 3:8 – ⁸ Are you better than Thebes that sat along the Nile with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, the river her wall?

Thebes was the capital of Egypt. It has been called the world’s “first, great monumental city”^[4] – a landmark for 1,400 years.^[5] It was home to the Avenue of Sphinxes and the Luxor Temple. More importantly, it was considered to be invincible. Because of its position on the Nile, because of its fortifications, it was commonly believed that no army could ever conquer the city of Thebes.

Then the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel let the world know, “That city is going down.” And in 663 BC, the “impossible” happened. Ashurbanipal brought his army down and destroyed Thebes.

Now, Nineveh was a strong city – it also had walls, towers, moats, and a river with its tributaries. But, everyone knew that Egypt’s capital was even more protected than Assyria’s capital, yet it had fallen.^[6] And it fell to Ashurbanipal, the king during Nahum’s time. So this example is quite timely.

Nahum 3:9 – ⁹ Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.

Thebes had many friends. In fact, she was protected by allies on the north, the south, the east, and the west.^[7] Assyria had no allies, only subjugated enemies. No one was going to come to her aid when attacked. In fact, as we’ll see, everyone was quite happy to see her get what was coming.

So Nahum is driving home this point to Nineveh: You think you’re safe, but you’re not. You think you have fortifications and defenses, you think you can handle your business, but you’re totally wrong because no one can stand against the Lord when He comes in wrath.

And this is an important principle for any people, any society to take to heart: It doesn’t matter how much wealth you have, how many allies your have, your defenses, your geography, your size, your importance on the world stage. None of that matters if you don’t walk with the Lord. It can all be swept away in a moment. Any city, any nation, can join the list of ‘nations that used to exist.’ None of your strengths matter if you don’t have a relationship with the Living God.

Nahum 3:10 – ¹⁰ Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her children were also dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.

Our leaders seem determined to get us involved in one war or another. A verse like this gives a terrifying glimpse of the horrors of battle. We don’t want war. Sometimes war between nations is necessary, but it shouldn’t be something we desire or get excited about.

The Assyrian Kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal tried to show restraint toward Egypt. Egypt was way out on the edges of Assyria’s grasp – the very bottom corner of their empire. But Thebes kept vacillating in its allegiance. But, finally, after yet another insurrection, Ashurbanipal’s patience was exhausted and he “razed [Thebes] to the ground.”^[8]

Now the Lord was sending them a message, “Hey, I’ve been patient for centuries. I keep waiting for you to get on board and you just won’t, so now the war hammer is coming down.”

Nahum 3:11 – ¹¹ You also will become drunk; you will hide. You also will seek refuge from the enemy.

We’ve heard in earlier studies how drunkenness played a major factor in the fall of Nineveh. But Nahum is also writing poetically of how the Assyrians would have to drink the cup of God’s wrath. This is a common metaphor in the Bible. Psalm 75 pictures God pouring out judgment and it says, “God is the Judge: He brings down one and exalts another. For there is a cup in the Lord’s hand, full of wine blended with spices, and he pours from it. All the wicked of the earth will drink, draining it to the dregs.”^[9] In Jeremiah we read:

Jeremiah 25:15 – ¹⁵ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it.

This is the judgment that wicked nations and wicked people deserve – what you and I deserve. But what did Jesus do? In the Garden of Gethsemene He prayed to the Father and said, “I am willing to drink from this cup.” He was willing to drink it for us so that we don’t have to – so we can be rescued from judgment, just like any Ninevite who believed Nahum’s message could escape what was coming if they went to the Lord for refuge.

But they were seeing refuge behind moats, behind walls, in the temples of false gods. And that meant they would have to drink the cup of God’s wrath.

Nahum 3:12 – ¹² All your fortresses are fig trees with figs that ripened first; when shaken, they fall—right into the mouth of the eater!

One translator points out how little effort will be needed to topple Nineveh – just “a little shake.”^[10] We had a fig tree at our first house. It was amazing to see how fragile the fruit was when it was ripe. One day they’d be green on the tree, the next they were all black on the ground. A little wind, a little bump brought them down. That’s what was going to happen to the world’s most powerful city.

Nahum 3:13 – ¹³ Look, your troops are like women among you; your land’s city gates are wide open to your enemies. Fire will devour the bars of your gates.

The Lord isn’t bad-mouthing ladies here. The reality is that these were not the kind of armies that had female combatants. They weren’t trained to fight. They weren’t outfitted for defense. God is telling them that their ultra-fierce, elite soldiers would not be a factor at all, just like their gates wouldn’t be a factor. In fact, the gates were going to be burned as fuel.

Archaeology testifies that fire was a great instrument in the destruction of Nineveh.^[11] God means what He says and He always gets prophecy right.

Nahum 3:14-15 – ¹⁴ Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Step into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick-mold! ¹⁵ The fire will devour you there; the sword will cut you down. It will devour you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust; multiply like the swarming locust!

Nahum closes with one more taunt. “Go ahead. Make as many bricks as you want. Fortify the walls as thick as you can. It won’t matter.” What good is mud against fire? Against a flooding river? They’re no good at all. John Goldingay writes, “Any Israelite knows that a decent fortification is made of rock.”^[12]

They needed to hide themselves in the Rock, not in the mud. Humans were made from what? The dust of the earth. When we try to build our lives on human principles, with human fortifications and security, it’s just like the little pigs who were making their house out of straw. We need to build on the Rock, to hide ourselves in the Rock. Otherwise, our lives will ultimately be devoured.

Nahum 3:16-17 – ¹⁶ You have made your merchants more numerous than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away. ¹⁷ Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are.

Nahum continues using locust imagery. The Ninevites would say, “Look at all the people we have! Look at all the soldiers, all the officials, all these different figures which make Assyria strong.” And the Lord says, “Yeah, lots of people. It’s gonna be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Yes, Nineveh had many soldiers and officials and merchants, but they lived for self. They were locusts, not sheep. Locusts devour. Locusts can cause a lot of trouble, but also have great frailty. A little cold makes them all freeze up and unable to move. When the sun finally comes back out, they just take off – every locust for itself.

Assyria was militarily strong, academically strong, economically strong, but their society was based on greed, selfishness, personal pleasure. When the moment of testing came, it all crumbled.

As Christians, we’re not called to be locusts, we’re called to be sheep. We’re a flock living and moving together and bearing with one another and sharing kindness and affection with each other.

Nahum 3:18 – ¹⁸ King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather them together.

After 3 chapters, Nahum finally addresses the king himself. William Brown writes, “The king of all people is the last to know that his power has been pulled out from under him.”^[13] It’s as if Nahum enters the throne room where this despicable sovereign is sitting and he says, “You know, your troops, your academics, your lawyers, your officials, your commanders, your shepherds, your nobles, and your builders are all taking a dirt nap while your city burns.” This was the king who called himself “the king of the universe.”^[14] Soon he wouldn’t be the king of anything.

Nahum 3:19 – ¹⁹ There is no remedy for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands because of you, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?

There are a lot of conflicts going on in the world today. All of them have supporters on either side. When Nineveh came down everyone was happy about it. Three continents had been pummeled with their brutality for hundreds of years. The Assyrians were constantly cruel. Another translation is “unceasingly evil.”^[15] And that’s why judgment finally came. They would not turn from their evil and receive God’s mercy.

The truth is, God did not want to kill these people. As Charles Feinberg points out, “God delights to bless and only judges when He must.”^[16]

Nineveh’s destruction would be total and lasting. Thebes has been rebuilt. You can take a cruise ship there, visit the temples and the markets. Not Nineveh.

Perhaps it was God’s judgment that wiped Cahokia off the map. We don’t know. We do know there seemed to be significant practices of human sacrifice in the city.^[17] Whoever the Mississippians were, they weren’t going God’s way.

Did you know that just two books of the Bible end with a question?It’s Nahum and Jonah. Both of them are focused on Nineveh. In Jonah, the Lord asks, “So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh?” He did care and He not only wanted the Ninevites to know it, He wanted Jonah and the Israelites to know it, too.

But here we are, 100 years later in Nahum’s time. Now the question is, “Who has not experienced your constant cruelty?” And the underlying question along with that is, “Shouldn’t I, a caring and holy and just God, do something about it?”

God loved the Assyrians. But He must judge wickedness. He will even judge His own, special people when they live apart from His ways. The threats made in this passage to Nineveh would be repeated to Jerusalem in Lamentations and Obadiah and elsewhere. We’ve seen in earlier studies how God’s people were following these Assyrian ways and the result was wrath.

As we wrap up our study of this book for the time being, there are some important takeaways for us to apply to ourselves. The first is to take God seriously. What He says matters and obeying Him matters for people and for nations.

The second is that, if we’re taking God seriously, we will take His values seriously. How does God want us to relate to others? How does He want us to relate to culture?

Given what we’ve learned about Assyrian life, we might ask ourselves: How am I decorating my life? What are my ambitions? Do I think of myself as god over my life or have I really surrendered to the God of the Bible Who has revealed Himself to me? Am I orienting my life around His values, His leading, His principles? Or am I connecting parts of my life to the world’s culture, hoping to get some of what the world offers?

Looking at Nahum and the various peoples listed, we see they were all culpable in this sin. It wasn’t just one king. It was everyone, from the laborers on up. So, in the nation I find myself in, what is my part to play in helping my nation be righteous?

God sent the prophet Jeremiah to His own people with a very similar message as we’ve seen in Nahum. In chapter 5 the Lord says something interesting.

Jeremiah 5:1- Roam through the streets of Jerusalem. Investigate; search in her squares. If you find one person, any who acts justly, who pursues faithfulness, then I will forgive her.

You may not be a king or a city official, you may not be the commander of an army or the keeper of the library, but your life does matter when it comes to the righteousness of your city, of your nation. We are in position to be salt and light – to help turn our nation away from judgment. We can’t make others do what’s right, but we can do what’s right. We can keep our vows to the Lord. We can celebrate His goodness. We can proclaim His truth, even if culture laughs. We know the Lord has the last laugh and we want to faithfully, righteously pursue Him for our good, for His glory, and for the sake of the people He has placed us amongst.

Why Woe, Why Woe? It’s Off To Filth I Go (Nahum 3:1-7)

If you do a Google search for the phrase, “God has some explaining to do,” you will be met with many results from Christians and non-Christians and pretend Christians alike. Usually the articles are about suffering or after some tragic event. How could God allow something terrible to happen?

I listened to a song titled My God (Has Some Explaining To Do).^[1] The artist sings about general sad things and comes to this line: “If I’m ever to believe that His Word is true, my God has some explaining to do.”

In the aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre, Shannon Johnson Kershner said, “God has some explaining to do.” Who is she? Just the pastor of a 5,500-member church in Chicago – the second largest Presbyterian church in the country. She’s also on record saying that God is “not a Christian” and that Christianity is not the only way to heaven.^[2]

Terrible things happen in this world to individuals and to nations. We’re see them day-in and day-out in the news. The common response is, “How could God allow such tragedy?”

Of course, we know all that tragedy is because of humans – specifically because of our sin. Now God works to redeem what’s been lost and marred by our sin. And, the truth is, He does not need to explain anything to us, and yet He loves to do just that! He goes to considerable trouble to reveal and explain and contextualize and instruct and help us understand why things are the way they are and how we can partner with Him so that more lives can be saved, more societies can be benefitted, more redemption can take place around the world.

The book of Nahum is all about God revealing the terrible things that were going to happen to a terrible empire, but also explaining why. It wasn’t because He delights in human suffering – it’s because when He offered life and forgiveness, His offer was rejected.

In our text we see why Nineveh was doomed. He wants other societies to avoid Assyria’s fate.

Nahum 3:1 – Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey.

Nineveh was guilty of extreme levels of violence, deceit, robbery, and oppression. I’ve covered some of their atrocities in previous weeks. They were unmatched in brutality. Did you know the Assyrians invented crucifixion?^[3] They decorated their palaces with remains of their victims. They displayed their enemies in merciless and barbarous ways around town.

Assyrian “diplomacy” was based on lies, intimidation, and force. They would make peace then attack.^[4] They would often break truces and their promises to other nations.^[5] When Assyria besieged Jerusalem, they promised everyone would have their own fig tree and their own vine and their own cistern. Give in to Assyria and you would live in peace and prosperity.^[6]

What was the reality? Look at the example of Manasseh:

2 Chronicles 33:10-11 – ¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn’t listen. ¹¹ So he brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

Assyria didn’t just take, they ripped apart.^[7] They delighted in violence and oppression. As a result, God pronounced a woe on them.

The Old Testament prophets used this term a lot. It was most often used as a warning that God’s physical chastisement was coming.^[8] It was also used as a lament for the dead.^[9] God wasn’t happy that these people would die. But He had waited for decades for Nineveh to turn from their sin, to show some sign of repentance, but it never came.^[10] And so, the only other option was wrath.

Nahum 3:2 – ² The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot!

The Assyrians are reaping what they sowed. That is a spiritual principle explained to us in the Bible. The choices we make come bundled with consequences. They had been the attackers, now they were the victims. If you sow to the flesh, you’re going to reap destruction.^[11]

Here in verse 2, Nahum focuses on the sounds. Crack and rumble and the pounding of the hooves. This year, the Academy Award for Best Sound didn’t go to a sci-fi epic or action-adventure full of explosions and car chases. The Oscar went to a movie called Zone Of Interest. It tells the story of the family life of the commandant of Auschwitz, who lived in a house next to the camp. I haven’t seen the movie, but I saw a clip where they’re out on their lawn, having a regular day, and in the background you hear the muffles of what was happening in the camp. It’s haunting and sickening – the wholesale destruction of a people. That’s what Assyria was doomed for.

Nahum 3:3 – ³ Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end—they stumble over their dead.

Now Nahum focuses on the sights of the judgment. The warfare was so savage, even the Babylonians called what happened an “evil” thing…and they were the ones that did it!^[12]

Assyrian kings used to pile up corpses of their enemies. They paraded mangled and disfigured captives. That’s how they decorated their palaces. Now, they would become part of the furniture.

Where once they had an endless heap of treasure, now they had an endless pile of death. This was the inevitable result of a life in rebellion against God.

Nahum 3:4 – ⁴ Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who treats nations and clans like merchandise by her prostitution and sorcery,

In addition to the lies and violence and oppression and greed, Assyria was deep into idolatry, sorcery, and immorality of every kind. This second list is added to the charges.

The Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal had “almost fanatical devotion to divination.”^[13] The library of Nineveh had many tablets full of occult rituals and incantations. There were rituals for farmers, incantations for meeting with public officials. They divined using oil or the entrails of slaughtered animals.^[14]

And then there was the idolatry. Assyria worshiped a variety of gods. They were particularly fond of Ishtar, and they often referred to her as a prostitute.^[15]

On top of these practices, Assyria would entice other nations to take on their culture – to join with them and become like them. During Nahum’s time, King Manasseh was converting the Temple of Jerusalem to paganism. Altars to Baal, poles for Asherah, altars to the stars of the sky. He burned his sons for these pagan gods and did all sorts of witchcraft and divination, just like the Assyrians.^[16] He was enamored and enticed by their wealth and their power and their culture. And what happened? He wanted to be their friend. What did they want? They wanted his money and his territory and his life. They came and ensnared him, dragged him off with hooks.

Nahum 3:5 – ⁵ I am against you. This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.

The action here in verse 5 is shocking, but God is simply exposing what they were already doing. It reminds me of those social media accounts that just repost TikTok videos and people get all upset. Hey, they’re just showing what you put out!

The language is harsh, but the Lord is saying to the world, “You think Assyria is the queen of the earth right now, you think she’s the strongest, greatest, most enviable. Take a look after I remove her trappings of power – the palaces and the gold and the art and the finery.^[17] Let’s look behind the curtain and see what’s underneath.”

I think our tendency is to read verse 5 and feel a little uncomfortable and think, “Lord, that’s not very loving.” The truth is, it would be unloving for God not to judge Assyria. They had victimized the whole world for centuries and had refused to go God’s way, even when He gave them a gracious, merciful chance year after year, decade after decade, and now it was time for the reckoning.

Every culture, every person must face their Creator one day. The accounts must be settled. Judgment has to happen. If you want to stand before God in your own strength, in your own ability, in your own merit, then you’re going to be like Assyria. You’re going to be uncovered before Him and all that will be left is your shame and your guilt.

But if you are willing to turn from your sin and receive salvation, what happens? Then God, by His grace, clothes you in His righteousness. You are covered. And when God sees you, He sees you perfect and redeemed in His Son. And instead of your shame being on display, the immeasurable riches of His grace are displayed in you.^[18]

Nahum 3:6 – ⁶ I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.

Our buddy Ashurbanipal once captured an enemy leader and put him on display as a fun spectacle for his people. Here’s what the king wrote:

“I pierced his chin with my keen hand dagger. Through his jaw I passed a rope, put a dog chain upon him and made him occupy a kennel of the east gate of Nineveh.”^[19]

Sin is awful. James explains to us that when sin is fully grown it gives birth to death. Now, most of us don’t act like Assyrian kings, but sin is the same. Sin bears the same fruit in a heart. And God cannot pretend like sin is no big deal. He must judge it and it is right for Him to do so.

When an individual continues in a life of sin, the result is waste and ruin and, ultimately, death. When a nation continues into a culture of sin and rebellion against God, the result is Assyria – not just the horrors of the culture, but ultimately the destruction of that nation.

God says there, “I’m going to treat you with contempt” (your version may say “make you vile). Literally the words can read, “I will treat you as a fool.”^[20]

The Assyrians were fools. They could’ve escaped judgment, but they wouldn’t turn to God. And so, God allowed them to go their own way, and this is the result.

Nahum 3:7 – ⁷ Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying, “Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her?” Where can I find anyone to comfort you?

Not only was there no one to show them sympathy, we’ll see at the end of the chapter that everyone in the world was going to applaud the fall of the empire. None of Assyria’s peers thought God was going to far in His treatment of this nation. To all of them it had been a long time coming.

In the end, there was no one there to comfort Assyria. The saddest part of that statement is the fact that God Himself had wanted to be their Comforter. That’s always what He wants.

Nahum 1:7 –⁷ The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; he cares for those who take refuge in him.

But Assyria said, “No. We’re going this way. We like our culture. We like our weapons. We like our chances on our own.”

Worst of all, Judah was going the same way. In verse 1, Nineveh was called the city of blood. Both before and after Nahum, other prophets would call Jerusalem a city of blood, built on a foundation of bloodshed. In Micah 3, God says to the leaders of Israel, “You guys tear off people’s skin and devour them…kinda like the Assyrians.” In Hosea and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Lord repeated tells His people, “you also are guilty of harlotry – you’re acting like spiritual prostitutes.”

The Assyrians are an example, not a tall-tale. They show what happens when a people turn from God and refuse God and reject God. The end is the death of their nation. The only way for a people to find refuge and comfort and redemption is by running to the Lord and receiving His mercy. To turn their backs on greed and injustice and violence and immorality and instead say, “We believe God, we trust that His way is the only way to life, and so we’re going to go that way.”

As individuals and as a nation we have this choice. The Assyrian way comes along and says, “Go with us and everyone will get their own cistern, their own vine, their own fig tree. It’s gonna be great. Pay no attention to the mounds of bodies left behind us. Pay no attention to our track record or the rot beneath the surface.” Meanwhile, the Lord says, “Go My way and the result is rest and life and hope. God promises that in His Kingdom:

Micah 4:3-4 – ³ He will settle disputes among many peoples and provide arbitration for strong nations that are far away. They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not take up the sword against nation, and they will never again train for war. ⁴ But each person will sit under his grapevine and under his fig tree with no one to frighten him.

How’s our nation doing? Could we be found guilty of bloodshed and deceit and greed and oppression? How about idolatry, sorcery, immorality? Yesterday after watching a YouTube video some random ad started playing. The opening line was, “Can ancient witchcraft unlock the secret to luxuriant hair growth?” Our nation needs revival. And that starts with me. But we need to have a Jonah 3 moment so that our nation doesn’t have to face a Nahum 3 moment.

Have you heard it said that Shakespeare’s comedies end with a wedding and the tragedies end in death? That’s really the choice set before us. If we go with the Lord, the result is joy, leading to the wedding feast of the Lamb. If we go our way, the result is death and judgment. God has explained all of this and set before us life and death, blessing and curse. Choose wisely.

The Hunter Becomes The Hunted (Nahum 2:11-13)

In 1898, two maneless, male lions terrorized the Tsavo region of Kenya. They dragged off and devoured human victims almost daily, and were particularly focused on a British construction camp. Thousands of Indian and African workers were there, building a bridge over the Tsavo river. The estimated number of victims ranges from dozens to over a hundred. The truth is, casualties among the African workers weren’t documented.^[1]

What do you do when lions are brazenly hunting people? You gear up and hunt them. John Patterson, who was in charge of the bridge-building, spent months pursuing the beasts. He was ultimately successful, though the second lion had to be shot nine times and died “gnawing on a fallen tree branch, still trying to reach him.” After all that terror and destruction, the Tsavo Man-Eaters became rugs in Patterson’s home. Years later the skins were sold to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where they were stuffed, mounted, and are now on display for the world to see.

Israel had a lion problem: Assyria. They were the apex predators of the ancient world, victimizing everyone in their territory. They devoured peoples and cities and nations. They lived, breathed, and celebrated violence. They dared God to stop them, roaring their blasphemies wherever they went.

Isaiah described the unstoppable Assyrian army this way:

Isaiah 5:29 – ²⁹Their roaring is like a lion’s; they roar like young lions; they growl and seize their prey and carry it off, and no one can rescue it.

What you may not know is how into lions the Assyrians were. They used lion imagery more than any culture in the ancient, semitic world.^[2] They used it in their art and in their architecture and in their literature and their propaganda. Lions were featured on the royal seal for hundreds of years, pressed into countless clay tablets.^[3] Tiglath-Pileser I wrote, “I left the chariots and took my place at the head of my warriors. I was bold as a lion, and advanced triumphantly.” King Sennacherib said, “I raged like a lion, I stormed like a tempest, with my merciless warriors I set my face against Merodach-baladan.” His son, King Esarhaddon, also wrote about roaring and raging like a lion.^[4]

The Assyrian goddess, Ishtar, was often depicted as a lioness or as riding a lion.^[5] And kings like Sargon and Sennacherib, would put what are called Lamassu sculptures at the entrance of their citadels and throne rooms. These statues were protective deities with human heads and bodies of bulls or lions with wings.^[6] The lamassu figures were often followed by statues of a hero, grasping a wriggling lion. These are great, tall wall-sculptures that are currently on display at the Louvre.

Lions were a part of Assyrian culture for a long time, but it was Ashurbanipal who could really be called the original Lion King. We believe this was the king who reigned while Nahum wrote. He frequently used lions in his propaganda, and literally used lions to show that he was the strongest king in the world. He once said, “Among men—kings, and among the beasts—lions; all are powerless before my bow.”^[7] He decorated his palace walls with images of lion hunts, which he frequently took part in. In fact, he was the only king of Assyria to put himself as a lion-slayer in reliefs on the palace walls. He had a big ego, but it also had a practical, PR purpose.

You see, lions were not only a symbol in Nineveh, they were also a real a problem. There was a population explosion in the area during Ashurbanipal’s reign.^[8] They threatened both people and livestock. As king, Ashurbanipal was responsible to do something about it. So, he had an arena constructed in Nineveh so he could publicly “hunt” lions in front of his people. He wanted his citizens to know that he was the boss of lions. He told his people he could kill lions with his bare hands.^[9] And he once reported that he killed 18 lions just 40 minutes after daybreak.^[10] He said he was able to do this because he had been divinely empowered.^[11] In fact he called himself the king of the universe.

So, hearing all this, now listen to what Nahum wrote at the end of chapter 2:

Nahum 2:11-13 – ¹¹ Where is the lions’ lair, or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled, and the lion’s cub, with nothing to frighten them away? ¹² The lion mauled whatever its cubs needed and strangled prey for its lionesses. It filled up its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey. ¹³ Beware, I am against you. This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. I will make your chariots go up in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the sound of your messengers will never be heard again.

Nahum closes this chapter with a taunt song.^[12] Assyria had roared and ravaged and ruined the land for centuries, but now it’s over because the Lord God of Israel was going hunting. Look at verse 11 again.

Nahum 2:11 – ¹¹ Where is the lions’ lair, or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled, and the lion’s cub, with nothing to frighten them away?

This wasn’t just about one city – the whole Assyrian empire was going to be wiped out. All the lions. All the lionesses. All the cubs. All their feeding grounds would be reclaimed. They were going the way of the buffalo.

Now remember: At the time of writing, Assyria was as strong as ever.^[13] And they were swollen with pride. Back when Ashurbanipal’s grandfather, Sennacherib, sent an army to besiege Jerusalem, his field commander had mocked the God of Israel. He said, “Your God can’t help you or save you. NO god can overpower Sennacherib. Where is the god who can rescue you from Assyria’s power?” Then they found out. There is a God Who acts and responds and protects His people.

Assyria was going to find out again, only this time it would be their final lesson. In the previous verses, Nahum depicted the siege of Nineveh. Now, the dust has settled and there’s nothing left. Nahum mocks the Assyrians, saying, “Where’d everybody go?”

Nahum 2:12 – ¹² The lion mauled whatever its cubs needed and strangled prey for its lionesses. It filled up its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.

When Jeremiah described what Assyria did to Israel, he said, “Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria.”^[14]

The Assyrian kings were very excited to talk about how violently they devoured their enemies. Here are a few lines from their annals. Ashurbanipal: “…cities I conquered, destroyed, laid waste and burned with fire…carrying booty away from them which was beyond counting.” Sargon: “I smashed their fortified walls and reduced them to the ground. The people together with their possessions I took as booty.” Tiglath-Pileser: “I felled with the sword 800 of their combat troops, I burned 3000 captives from them. I did not leave one of them alive as hostage. I made a pile of their corpses. I burnt their adolescent boys and girls. I flayed…their city ruler and draped his skin over the wall of the city^[15]… I crushed the corpses of their warriors…I made their blood to flow over all the ravines and high places of mountains. I cut off their heads and piled them up at the walls of their cities like heaps of grain.”^[16] The lion’s roar of Assyria was terrifying.

Their empire stretched over 1,000 miles, from the Nile river to the Caucasus mountains.^[17] And through that whole territory they spread fear and violence and bloodshed. One source writes, “Assyrian cruelty stands almost unparalleled in the record of human history.”^[18]

Just three weeks ago, in Northern California, a man and his brother were attacked by a mountain lion. One man was killed, the other survived with traumatic injuries to his face.^[19] What do you do when lions start killing people? You hunt and kill them. And we do that even knowing that the lions are simply following their animal nature. Lions aren’t evil. They’re not criminals. But they are dangerous, and so we protect people from them. We step in and put a stop to their violence.

The Assyrians were not animals – they were human beings. They should’ve known better, especially since they had had a real encounter with the Living God during the time of Jonah. And in that encounter the Lord had told them, “You have to stop doing what you’re doing. You’ve got to turn from this evil and this violence otherwise I’m going to destroy you.” And, for a time, Nineveh did. They repented and turned toward God. But then, years went by, new rulers came to power, and the people went back on the prowl. They chose to run with the lions of Assyria, rather than the Lion of Judah.

Nahum 2:13 – ¹³ Beware, I am against you. This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. I will make your chariots go up in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the sound of your messengers will never be heard again.

I am against you. Most of us have heard the comforting words of Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” But this is the opposite of that. And if God is against you, it doesn’t matter who is on your side. It doesn’t matter your wealth or power or position or fortification or intelligence. All of it will burn in God’s wrath. Like the chariots of Assyria, it all goes up in smoke.

Their strength, their people, their empire, their culture, it was all going into the dirt. And while we shrink from the severity of their judgment, the truth is that they were reaping what they sowed. You love violence? Well then, you can die doing what you love.

The messengers of Assyria figure prominently in the Old Testament. They’re highlighted here – but we also see one of these messengers in Isaiah, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles. He’s called the Rabshakeh. He was the royal spokesman of Assyria and he’s very much like the Mouth of Sauron if you’re familiar with The Lord Of The Rings. These messengers came to intimidate, to blaspheme, to demand submission, to exact tributes.^[20]

They were messengers of death.

Finally, the Lord said, “That’s enough. I’m going to stand up on behalf of all your prey. I’m putting a stop to this once and for all.” And, along the way, He would remind the world that He is the Almighty God. He is the One in charge of the flow of human history. He is the King of the universe. Not some Assyrian. Nineveh was seen as the hub of the world at the time.^[21] But God was showing His people and anyone else paying attention what was really true. The Lord is in charge.

We’re don’t know if Nahum’s message actually made it to Nineveh, though I suspect that at some point in the forty years between writing and wrath it made its way to Nineveh’s great library. But we know God was always willing to save individuals who fled to Him when judgment was coming. Rehab in Jericho. The mixed multitude in the exodus. The Gibeonites in Joshua. God is always ready to accept Ruth the Moabitess, Uriah the Hittite, Naaman the Syrian general. Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian. He’s not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. But when they don’t, perish they will.

The city of Nineveh was doomed. The Assyrian empire was going to be wiped off the map. But individual Assyrians could still be saved. What should they do? They should desert. They should desert their temples, their culture, their sin, and ally themselves with God Almighty.

This is always the choice. We’re all guilty of sin and rebellion and blasphemy against the One True God, and the only hope we have is to fall at His feet and receive His mercy and become one of His people. That’s the only way to be saved from His devouring sword. To become citizens of His Kingdom.

Meanwhile, what was Israel supposed to be doing – the people who already belonged to God? Nahum told them, back in chapter 1, verse 15 what they should be doing:

Nahum 1:15 – ¹⁵ Look to the mountains—the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace. Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows.

Judah was supposed to remain faithful and remain separate. Don’t become the new Assyrians. Be who God made you to be. Orient your lives around your walk with the Lord.

I was stunned (and a little disturbed) to discover that, outside the San Francisco library, stands a 15 foot tall statue of…Ashurbanipal. In one hand he holds a clay tablet, reminiscent of his great library where he sought to compile all the world’s knowledge. In the other hand, the statue clutches a wriggling lion cub to his chest. It’s said that the sculpture cost $100,000. It has stood there for nearly 40 years^[22] – an emblem of man’s wisdom, man’s hubris, man’s blasphemy, and failure.

Who is our lion King and what does He stand for? We don’t want to be anything like the Assyrians. God calls us to not love violence, to not be greedy, to not oppress the weak, to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. He invites us to lives of mercy and thankfulness and generosity and grace. And as His messengers, we’re to be the exact opposite of the messengers of Assyria. They were messengers of death, we’re messengers of life. They came with intimidation, we go in gentleness. They extracted tribute, we freely give. They demanded submission, we go with invitation to join the family of God, to submit one to another and together kneel before our loving Savior, Who protects and provides and walks with us through life. He is the real Lion King, coming once again to put down the oppressor and deliver His people.

D&D&D (Nahum 2:1-10)

The opening 24 minutes of Saving Private Ryan changed movies forever. Spielberg’s epic set a new standard for brutality and intensity that filmmakers have been imitating ever since.

Nahum chapter 2 is like the opening of Saving Private Ryan. It depicts the fall of Nineveh in shocking, visceral terms. There’s no question who is going to win this battle. In fact, the scene is depicted as if all the casualties are on Assyria’s side.

As the smoke of the battle clears, Nahum describes what he sees with three words: “Desolation, decimation, devastation.” The Lord God was coming, and hell on earth was coming with Him.

Nahum 2:1 – One who scatters is coming up against you. Man the fortifications! Watch the road! Brace yourself! Summon all your strength!

We’re going to move in and out of the city – one instant hearing Nahum talk to the Ninevites, in another instant we hear shouts from the soldiers. Suddenly we sweep down onto the Babylonian siege ramp, then to the rushing rivers flowing through the city. One commentary described the passage as a kaleidoscope of destruction.^[1] It’s an explosion of chaos and violence.

Nahum’s calls for them to prepare themselves aren’t serious – this is ironic satire, maybe even sarcasm.^[2] He’s mockingly cheering them on.^[3] There was no way to prepare because this was history written in advance. Nahum uses what is sometimes called the “prophetic perfect” tense – he talks about these things as if they’re already done, because that’s how sure it was to happen.^[4] Your version may not say “One…is coming against you,” but, “has come up” – past tense.

The Assyrians also had no hope in this fight because of Who they were fighting. Their eyes told them that it was a coalition of Medes and Babylonians (the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar’s father), but in reality it was Someone else Who was coming to crush them: The Scatterer. The title means the One Who overflows and disperses.^[5]

For centuries the Assyrians inhaled cities and peoples, gathering them under her control through savage atrocities. Now, the Lord was going to break this empire into pieces and scatter them.

It’s hard to overestimate Assyria’s prominence was when Nahum wrote. They were the superpower. They had the dominant military. They were the first to make war a science.^[6] King Sennacherib spent six years building an armory in Nineveh that covered 40 acres. His son, Esarhaddon, enlarged it. They widened the royal road inside the city so that it could facilitate troop movements. They were all about war and conquest and violence. But now, the Smasher^[7] was coming with His war club.^[8]

Nahum 2:2 – ² For the Lord will restore the majesty of Jacob, yes, the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their vine branches.

One of the main reasons why God was going to judge them was because they ravaged His people, Israel. The northern kingdom was totally destroyed by Assyria back in 721 BC. The southern kingdom was also terribly oppressed by this empire for many decades.

The question is: Why did God allow these things to happen to His chosen people? His people had turned their backs on Yahweh. In fact, they were largely going along with the Assyrian culture, worshiping Assyrian gods, and so, God raised up these merciless people to discipline them.

The testimony of the Minor Prophets is that God’s people cannot live in sin and expect no consequences. That’s not the case. In fact, judgment begins in the house of God.^[9] That’s why Assyria had the power they had. That’s why Judah was a vassal state in constant danger.

If you’re a Christian and you’re living in habitual sin – you’re ignoring God’s commands or overstepping the boundaries He’s given you, you’re devoting yourself to the idols of the world or refusing to obey Him in some way, you should expect consequences from God. He loves you too much to allow you to destroy your life and He will not be mocked.

In the end, God’s would reconcile His people to Himself. Yes, we fall short and make mistakes, but our God is a reconciler. He says that after all Israel did, after all their unfaithfulness, “I will restore the majesty of Jacob and Israel.” How could He possibly do that when “Israel,” as far as the 10 northern tribes, no longer existed? With God it was possible. Here’s what God said through Isaiah:

Isaiah 27:13 – ¹³ On that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those lost in the land of Assyria will come, as well as those dispersed in the land of Egypt; and they will worship the Lord at Jerusalem on the holy mountain.

The people of Israel were wayward, but they weren’t lost. That’s still God’s plan for Israel, by the way. He will restore His people, not just to life, but to splendor and majesty by His grace and power.

Nahum 2:3-4 – ³ The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the valiant men are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariot flash like fire on the day of its battle preparations, and the spears are brandished. ⁴ The chariots dash madly through the streets; they rush around in the plazas. They look like torches; they dart back and forth like lightning.

These invaders were quite fond of red in their militaries.^[10] They wore scarlet tunics. Their shields were either covered in skins dyed red or plated in copper which gave off a red glow in the sunlight.

There’s another possibility here, though. Some scholars say that Nahum means that the shields have been reddened, and the soldiers are stained in crimson.^[11] Meaning that, as the Ninevite watchmen looked down the road, they saw the enemies advancing, covered in the bloody gore of the Assyrians they already slaughtered in the cities along the way.

The chariots of the day were the weapons of mass destruction. They were often fitted with scythes on the wheels, maybe 3 feet in each direction.^[12] Think Ben Hur’s chariot race. Greek historians talk about heads rolling in their wake, rib cages torn open, limbs shorn from bodies. Here’s a quote: “Everything arms and men was horribly mangled.”^[13] Even if you killed the driver of the chariot, the horses would keep running, and the chariot would continue it’s gruesome work.

In a battle in 395 BC, just two Persian chariots caught hundreds of Greek soldiers in the open, charged, and scattered the Greeks who were then finished by the cavalry.^[14]

These sort of chariots were now racing through Nineveh – Nineveh which had widened their streets so that troops and chariots could move easily through. Now the people were trapped in a cage with these highly maneuverable death wagons.^[15]

Nahum 2:5 – ⁵ He gives orders to his officers; they stumble as they advance. They race to its wall; the protective shield is set in place.

In a few of these verses, scholars have a hard time determining if we’re looking at the invaders or the defenders.^[16] But that adds to the chaotic frenzy of the scene.

The Babylonians and Medes came against Nineveh for a three year period. At first, the Assyrians won a few victories. But then, at the end, there was a three-month siege and we’re seeing the breech here. The ramp is built, and this “siege mantel” would be put in place to protect the attackers from arrows or other items that the Ninevites would drop from the top of the wall.^[17]

Archaeologists have found an old Assyrian siege ramp. It was 230 feet wide at its base and was made of 14,000-21,000 tons of stone.^[18] This was ferocious war. Both sides going all out.

There are two reasons why troops stumbled. If it’s the invaders, it’s because there are so many dead bodies, they’re literally tripping over the corpses. If it’s the defenders, it’s because when the breech happened, most of the army was drunk! That’s something Nahum prophesied and it’s attested in ancient history. The Assyrians had a small victory, so the king distributed a bunch of meat and wine and everyone started carousing and getting hammered. Some of the wiser soldiers deserted to the enemy, who heard the city was undefended and started attacking at night.^[19]

Nahum 2:6 – ⁶ The river gates are opened, and the palace erodes away.

Nahum gives at least 12 specific prophecies about the fall of Nineveh that were literally fulfilled.^[20]This is a big one – that a river would suddenly flood, and bring down the wall and palace.

Nineveh was built on the bank of the Tigris river. Two tributaries ran through the city. They had an elaborate system of sluice gates to control the flow of water.^[21] This helped make Nineveh strong and prosperous, but it was also a concern for the leaders of the city. Sennacherib specifically fortified the palace foundations with “mighty slabs of limestone” in the decades prior, just in case the river flooded.^[22] But, during the siege, multiple ancient historians record that sudden downpours flooded the river which then brought down more than 2 miles of the wall and part of the palace. Archaeology also backs up this account.^[23]

When the flood came and the wall came down and the palace started to crumble, the Assyrian king  “resolved not to fall into the hands of his enemies, he prepared a gigantic pyre in the royal precincts, heaped up all his gold and silver and his kingly raiment as well upon it, shut up his concubines and eunuchs in the chamber he had made in the midst of the pyre, and burnt himself and the palace together with all of them.”^[24]

The Assyrians had flooded cities in conquest, showing no mercy. Sennacherib called this palace the “palace with no rival.”^[25] They were reaping what they sowed.

Nahum 2:7 – ⁷ Beauty is stripped; she is carried away; her ladies-in-waiting moan like the sound of doves and beat their breasts.

Linguists struggle with this verse. Your version may say something like “it is decreed,” or it may refer to some feminine figure like my translation does. It could mean the queen of the city, the goddess Ishtar, or the city itself. It doesn’t really matter. All would be destroyed and carried off. One commentary notes that “carried away” carries with it the sense of “being led up to sacrifice.”^[26]

Nahum 2:8 – ⁸ Nineveh has been like a pool of water from her first days, but they are fleeing. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.

This great metropolis had amazing reservoirs of strength and power and treasure and resources and population. But they didn’t have the one thing that makes a society strong: a relationship with the God of the Bible. All that other stuff didn’t matter one bit when judgment came. It was every man for himself. No one helping anyone, everyone just running and dying and despairing. History records that people fled the city, casting themselves into the river rather than face the invaders.^[27]

Nahum 2:9 – ⁹ “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.

Assyria had plundered nations for hundreds of years. Nahum says they stripped the world like locusts in a field. Breaking into the vaults of Nineveh would’ve been like the end of National Treasure. It was the richest city in the Ancient Near East.^[28] But their wealth could not save them.

Nahum 2:10 – ¹⁰ Desolation, decimation, devastation! Hearts melt, knees tremble, insides churn, every face grows pale!

Your version may use other words like, “empty, desolate, and waste,” but in the Hebrew, Nahum uses rhyming, assonant, alliterative words. One linguist calls it intense sound play.^[29] Another says it imitates the sound of a bottle being emptied of liquid.^[30]

Assyria’s reign of terror would end in terror. They would be hollowed out, emptied of everything they had. Everything they thought made them great. Everything they thought made them safe. It would all be taken because God was against them.

A consistent theme in this little book is how what was bad news for Assyria was good news for Judah. That idea continues in our time. The Scatterer is coming again! Some will mourn at His return, because for them He’s coming with judgment. But if you’re a believer, then the coming of the King is our blessed hope. He’s coming to us with a reward in His hand. Which group are you a part of? If you’re not a Christian, nothing will save you from the wrath of God. If you are a Christian, there is nothing that can separate you from His covenant of love.

James 5:7-8 – ⁷ Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸ You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

I Go To Prepare A Grave For You (Nahum 1:9-15)

In 1969, Bill True and Bruce Brubaker boarded a plane flying north from Ottawa to a remote fishing camp. Their heavily loaded Cessna shuddered as it headed into a storm. As they dodged fearsome clouds, the pilot said he had good news and bad news. “What’s the bad news?” Brubaker asked. “We’re lost.” “Then what’s the good news?” Asked the other man. “We’re making great time!”^[1]

Nineveh was headed into a storm of wrath. Their days of their wealth, arrogance, and dominance were numbered. What was bad news for Nineveh was good news for God’s people, who had been beaten down and subjugated by the Assyrian empire for over a hundred years.

In this text, God speaks to both His enemies and His friends, going back and forth between them, promising destruction for the non-believing Assyrians and deliverance for the faithful in Judah.

Nahum 1:9 – ⁹ Whatever you plot against the Lord, he will bring it to complete destruction; oppression will not rise up a second time.

This message is principally directed at Nineveh and the Assyrian empire by extension. But it’s important that we realize Nahum hasn’t specifically name-dropped Nineveh yet. It’s cited in the title, up in verse 1, but so far in Nahum’s actual message, he has spoken generally about God’s enemies and God’s people.

This isn’t just about God’s dealings with one city or one generation or one situation. Nineveh in 654 BC is just one example of an enduring truth about God: That He judges wickedness, He rescues His people, and one day He is going to totally overcome evil in all its forms in every place.

Who is the “you” in verse 9? Many scholars suggest Nahum is referencing King Sennacherib in these verses. The problem is, Nahum was definitely writing after Sennacherib died.^[2]

Of course, the current king of Assyria (we think it was Ashurbanipal) was also plotting evil schemes. He was no better than his granddaddy. But in these verses, Nahum speaks generally. In verse 8, he talked about the enemies of God and here he expands on what that means. People who are plotting against the Lord. People who are devising their own schemes in rebellion against God.

So, yes, it’s Sennacherib. And it’s Ashurbanipal. And it’s Assyria at large. And it’s those people in Judah, like King Manasseh, who had bought into Assyrian religion and culture. Everyone who stands in opposition to the Lord is going to face His wrath.

It says that oppression will not rise up a second time. There would be no new second chance for Assyria. They had a second chance a century before when Jonah came and – wonderfully – they believed God and received His mercy.

God even gave Sennacherib a second chance after he came against Judah in King Hezekiah’s day, but instead of humbling himself and repenting, he stayed in his sin and his pride and he died for it. Now, the time of second chances was over. Assyria would not live to fight another day.

Movie franchises love to do this, right? The bad guy who keeps coming back no matter how many times he’s defeated. How many times do we have to see Emperor Palpatine? But the Lord here says, “Once My judgment falls, you’re done.”

An interesting historical note – Assyrian political literature of the time would often justify their brutal foreign policy by saying the nations around Assyria were scheming or plotting evil.^[3]

But the Lord cut through the propaganda and said, “No, it’s you who are plotting evil and doing evil.”

The Lord knows our thoughts and our plots. He sees into our hearts, deeper than we’ve ever explored ourselves. What are we planning? Have we deposed the tyrant of self from the throne of our hearts and given that place to Jesus Christ? Or are our hearts still in rebellion against Him?

Nahum 1:10 – ¹⁰ For they will be consumed like entangled thorns, like the drink of a drunkard and like straw that is fully dry.

Assyria was the richest grain-bearing country in the world. Their fields routinely produced crops two-hundredfold.^[4]

But their material wealth couldn’t fix their spiritual poverty. From heaven’s perspective, this empire was a dried up thorn bush, about to be set alight. In that region, thorns were a popular fuel,^[5] good for little else.^[6] Nahum foreshadows the fact that a literal fire would consume the city. We’ll learn that drunkenness also played a role in their destruction.

The Assyrians thought things like wealth and wine made them strong. In reality, wealth fueled their greed, which fueled their violence. Their love of wine gave way to drunkenness. The Lord wants us to evaluate our lives and say, “Ok, what does God say makes a person strong? What does God say makes a person weak or foolish? Am I walking in His ways or have I drifted onto other paths.”

Nahum 1:11 – ¹¹ One has gone out from you, who plots evil against the Lord, and is a wicked counselor.

Now who is Nahum talking to? First, he’s talking to Assyria. But he’s also talking to everyone else. He’s talking to Manasseh. He’s talking to Baal-worshiping Jews. He’s talk to all who, like sheep, have gone astray. Humans have a propensity to ignore the counsel of God and listen to other advice.

There’s a warning here about this wicked counselor who is the source of all that evil plotting. The Hebrew uses a proper name for this wicked counselor – the name is Belial.^[7] The New Testament uses that name as a title for Satan.

So, Nahum is warning anyone who goes Assyria’s way – which is actually the Devil’s way. Anyone who acts in heart or deed against the Lord God. Anyone who believes the counsel of Belial. And that’s not just the pagan kings of Assyria. Eve believed Satan’s counsel in Genesis 3. Simon Peter was being counseled by Belial when he rebuked the Lord for talking about His crucifixion. What did Jesus say in response? “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”^[8]

Even God’s people need to be on guard against the bad ideas of the wicked counselor. And then we remember that Christ is here to be our Wonderful Counselor! If you’re saved, you don’t need to be afraid of the Devil, but don’t forget he’s still on the prowl for you. He’s still going to try to influence you or deceive you or beguile you. If we fall into his trap, we can’t say “the Devil made me do it,” but we should remember that the Devil really wants us to do it. Let’s get wonderful counsel.

Nahum 1:12a – ¹² This is what the Lord says:

So far in chapter 1, we’ve seen Who God is and what He does. Now we are told what He says. His spoken message is first to Judah.

Nahum 1:12b – Though they are strong and numerous, they will still be mowed down, and he will pass away. Though I have punished you, I will punish you no longer.

Right now China has the largest military in the world. India is number 2. We’re in third place, with Russia and North Korea close behind.^[9]

Assyria was at full strength, but God was not at all worried about the strongest army in the world. Yeah, they were big. Yeah, they were fierce. Yeah, they were strong. The Lord said, “I’m going to shear them like sheep.”^[10] It wouldn’t be hard for Him. In fact, as one commentary points out, God delights in overcoming vast armies who stand against Him and His people.^[11]

God is not bothered by swords and shields. He is bothered by disobedience. He says to Judah here, “Assyria was sent by Me as punishment.” What were they being punished for?

It was because they had abandoned the Lord. They worshiped the Assyrian gods. They violated God’s covenant and instead made a “covenant of death” with God’s enemies.^[12]

They turned their backs on their Shepherd. As a Shepherd, the Lord would not only fight against the wolves, but He would also stop the sheep from wandering into the death they were so enamored with.

Do shepherds break the legs of their sheep? Maybe you’ve heard that when a sheep continually wanders, a shepherd will have to break one of its legs and then carry it on his shoulders. Here’s what the editor of Sheep! Magazine said in 2006:

“It is not true that any shepherds break a lamb’s leg on purpose. What they sometimes do in certain sheep-raising nations is to ‘brake’ a leg. This means they attach a clog or weight to the animal’s leg, which keeps certain ‘rogue’ sheep from getting too far from the shepherd until they learn their names, and not to be afraid of the shepherd.”^[13]

Judah was in a time of punishment because of their unwillingness to stay near the Lord. Just because they were God’s people didn’t mean they could sin without consequence.

Nahum 1:13 – ¹³ For I will now break off his yoke from you and tear off your shackles.

This is great news! One problem: The fulfillment of this promise was still 40 years away. Four more decades of shackles and heavy yoke. How many of us are going to be alive 40 years from now?

A faithful believer might say to the Lord, “Lord, the Assyrians have ravaged and ruined us.^[14] Why do we need to wait another generation for deliverance?”

The Bible shows us again and again that God sees your suffering. He knows your hurts. He intends deliverance and fullness and restoration for you. But it also reveals that the Lord has an enduring, sweeping plan that touches every corner of the cosmos. Every generation. Every nation. Every situation. His plan is fundamentally one of grace and mercy and that requires long-suffering on His part and, by extension, long-suffering on our part.

So the bad news is that we’re going to suffer in this life. The good news is that one day every shackle will be loosed, every yoke will be broken. We will be totally free in perfect glory and rest.

Nahum 1:14 – ¹⁴ The Lord has issued an order concerning you: There will be no offspring to carry on your name. I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.

The Lord now speaks to the Assyrian king and his empire. Ashurbanipal was very concerned with the perpetuation of his name and legacy. In his annals he put a curse on anyone who removed his name from things like building inscriptions.^[15] But not only would his dynasty end, Assyria would fade from history.

It’s remarkable how quickly they were forgotten. The historian Xenophon records that just 200 years after Nineveh’s fall, a group of Greek mercenaries called The Ten Thousand marched over the mounds that had been Nineveh and had no idea that this had been the city that ruled the world.^[16]

The Assyrians were godnappers. When they conquered a city, they’d break into the temple, steal all the gods and then bring them back as “captives.”^[17]

The Lord confronts them and says, “Those are all just little pieces of carved wood and stone. I’m the real God, and all your temples are going to be laid waste because your gods have no power.”

Archaeologists discovered the statue of Ishtar prostrate and headless amid the ruins of her temple in Nineveh.^[18] God keeps His promises.

Verse 14 closes with an absolutely chilling phrase: “I will prepare your grave.” Do you think of God digging graves? Obviously, this is a poetic image, but God is not joking around when it comes to judgment and righteousness and putting down rebellion. We’re told in John 14 that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in heaven. But we’re told in Matthew 25 that hell is prepared for the Devil and his angels and, sadly, anyone who rejects Christ’s offer of salvation.

The question every human being needs to answer is: Are you prepared to meet your Maker? He’s preparing a place for you in the next life. Where will you be spending eternity?

Nahum 1:15 – ¹⁵ Look to the mountains—the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace. Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely wiped out.

God’s wrath leads to peace. And not just peace in the sense that Judah would have freer travel or a better economy or a ceasefire with an enemy army. God’s peace is much more than that. The term is shalom, one we’ve all heard before. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says this word speaks of completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment, unimpaired relationships. These are the result of God’s activity in covenant with His people. This is God’s plan – to give us His peace. It won’t be fully realized until we’re in heaven, but this is the work God is accomplishing.

He is going to wipe out sin. He is going to destroy death. He is going to remove all wickedness from the universe.

Because of this, we can and should make a plan of action. There’s a great contrast between our first verse and the last verse. In the first verse we see God’s enemies making a plan of action that leads to their destruction. In the last verse, we see God’s friends making a plan of action that leads to celebration and communion and enjoyment of God’s presence.

He told Judah, “fulfill your vows, celebrate your festivals.” They were still 40 years from deliverance, but they could live in the reality of God’s plan now, even as they suffered, even as they waited, even as their circumstances weren’t ideal. A present celebration of the future reality.

When Nahum wrote, what was Judah doing? Generally, they were getting on board the Assyrian train. That was a very bad place to be. Instead, they could lock into a relationship with the Lord, Who was still loving them, still fighting for them, still making plans for them, still inviting them into His goodness and grace, still preparing life everlasting, life more abundantly for His people, because that’s what He loves to do. That’s what He’s still doing for those who will take refuge in Him.

You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Moat (Nahum 1:4-8)

In 1996, two American analysts coined the term shock and awe to describe the US Army’s onslaught against the Iraqi military during Operation Desert Storm. Shock and Awe is a strategy based on rapid dominance of an enemy through overwhelming force.

We may have come up with the slogan, but we didn’t come up with the strategy. Thousands of years before Gulf War I – in the same region of the world – the God of the Bible explained His shock and awe plan to destroy His Assyrian enemies.

In Nahum’s time, the Assyrian Empire was the dominant force in the known world. The capital city of Nineveh had immense fortifications – walls 100 feet tall, a moat 150 feet wide, 1,500 towers of defense. They had state-of-the-art chariots and battle strategies that allowed them to conquer cities very quickly. It’s been said that they had the first long-range army – able to travel as rapidly as armies did in World War I.

But all their power and dominance meant nothing when Jehovah declared war on them. The God of Judah would lay waste to the entire empire, with shocking intensity and awesome power.

In verses 1 through 3 of this chapter, we are told Who God is. Now, Nahum starts to describe what God does. And, what He does is breathtaking.

Nahum 1:4 – ⁴ He rebukes the sea and dries it up, and he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither; even the flower of Lebanon withers.

In our first study, we saw how Yahweh was described as the Master of wrath, riding the clouds, and coming in a whirlwind and storm. It’s easy for us to miss a point Nahum was trying to make to both the Assyrian audience and the people of Judah, many of which were worshipping the Assyrian gods (including Judah’s King Manasseh).

You see, Nahum makes a play on words. When he said Yahweh is fierce in wrath in verse 2, he says that He is the baal of wrath. The word means Lord or Master. The gods of Canaan and Assyria had the proper name, Baal, often followed with another name, like Baal-Hadad. He was the “major deity of the Hittites, Syrians, and Assyrians.” His titles were, “Almighty,””Lord of the Earth,” and “Rider of the Clouds.” As a god of the storms, Baal-Hadad was in charge of agriculture and the land’s fertility.

But Baal had a problem and his name was Yamm. Yamm is the name of the god of the rivers and sea. Yamm and Baal didn’t like each other. In the mythological stories, they would fight. Baal would ultimately triumph, but only after being killed and sent to the underworld, then rising from the dead. This happens again and again, year after year, in what is called the Baal Cycle.

So here’s Nahum saying, “There’s a master of wrath coming. And He doesn’t get captured by His enemies. He’s not afraid of the seas or the rivers. He’s not stuck in an annual cycle where He has to struggle for supremacy. The real Rider on the clouds has total control over all creation.”

Now, Nahum is – on one level – meeting his audience where they are, using language that would get their attention. But he is not saying that Baal and Yahweh are the same god. People sometimes do that today and say things like “Christians and Muslims both worship the God of Abraham.” Or, “The Jesus of the Bible and the Jesus that the Mormons believe in are the same Person.” These are not the same people. One is a false god, the other is the true God.

Nahum alludes to the fact that his God is the One, real, proven God. When he says, “My God dries up seas and rivers,” it’s actually true. The children of Israel crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground. Decades later, the tribes crossed the Jordan, though it was at flood stage.

Our God actually does things. Not just in mythology, but in reality. What does He say about His doings? What is He doing in this day and age? We discover those things in His Word.

The Assyrians should’ve paid close attention because, during these years when Nahum wrote, they were experiencing a severe drought. I’m convinced by the scholars who put Nahum’s writing around 654 BC. In 657 BC, we have this record from one of Assyria’s royal astrologers: “The rains were so scanty this year that no harvest was reaped.” The land was drying up.

Where was Baal? Well, he didn’t exist. Yahweh does exist, and He was coming with ferocity. The drought announced His approach. All of creation gives way to Him. Nothing stands in His way.

These three regions mentioned – Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon – were known for lush growth. Bashan was famous for its pastures, Carmel for its vineyards, Lebanon for its forests. These regions were the least likely to be affected by drought. But the Lord says, “This wrath is going to be so severe, even this garden spots won’t survive.” Those places were beautiful and significant to the world economy, but not more important than righteousness and justice.

Nahum 1:5 – ⁵ The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth trembles at his presence—the world and all who live in it.

Rivers can be diverted. New technologies replace the old. Kingdoms rise and fall. But mountains? Mountains endure. There isn’t anything more permanent, more imposing than a mountain.

Speaking of the Caucasus mountain range, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:

“If all the people who had ever lived had opened their arms as wide as they could to carry all that they had ever made, or ever thought of making, and piled it up in swelling heaps, they could not have raised such an unbelievable mountain range.”

About 150 miles from Nineveh, right in the middle of the Assyrian empire under Ashurbanipal, there was a volcano named Nemrot. It was named after Nimrod, the ancient builder of Nineveh.

In 657 BC there wasn’t just a drought, there was also an eruption at Nemrot. It’s believed that a nearby city was suddenly consumed by the catastrophe. An Assyrian Pompeii.

So, with these events fresh in the minds of the readers, the Lord says, “I’m coming. Green pastures will wither. Mountains will melt in My presence. When I show up, the whole earth shakes.” If a city was helpless before the eruption of one volcano, what could they do when the Maker of volcanoes arrives in wrath? What good is a moat? What good is a wall? What good is an armory?

In this verse, we see all of creation giving way to the Lord. Creation knows the truth. There are some remarkable verses in the Bible about what creation knows about God.

Psalm 104:21 – ²¹ The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

Revelation 5:13 – ¹³ I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

Job 12:7-9 – ⁷ But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. ⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you. ⁹ Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?

Man rebels. Creation obeys. It groans in anticipation of God’s redemptive work to be completed.

Nahum 1:6 – ⁶ Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before him.

The answer to these questions is obvious: No one. God cannot be held back. He can’t be tricked. There’s no slipping out the back door before He notices you’re getting away.

“Withstand” is a term used of warriors trying to hold their ground in battle. What a tragic lunacy that human beings fight against God. We fight Him in our hearts, but we literally fight Him, too.

In Revelation 16, we read about mountains being leveled, a great storm bringing destruction to the earth – how God dries up the Euphrates river. What do the kings of the earth do? They gather together in the valley of Jezreel, in Hebrew, Armageddon. And when the Lord Jesus arrives, the armies of earth turn to wage war against Him.

The end of the story is very similar to what we see in miniature with Nineveh. The term Nahum uses for the hills “melting” in verse 5 means dissolved. Here’s what Peter says about the next time the Lord comes to earth:

2 Peter 3:12 – Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat.

There is no escape for the enemies of God. Rocks here in verse 6 can refer to high rocks on which you take refuge. But no fortress will be safe. God is coming to judge.

Nahum 1:7 – ⁷ The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; he cares for those who take refuge in him.

We have this dramatic contrast between the furious wrath of God and His tender grace. If you are a friend of God, you don’t need to cower in terror before Him. His power is exercised toward you in kindness and goodness. In every way, God is good. In His actions, in His choices, in His attitudes, in His character, in His behavior, in His desires, in His reasonings. He is always good.

Again we see a contrast: Here are the Assyrians, hiding behind tall walls, or running up to a craggy fortress, hoping that will shield them from judgment. Meanwhile, God says, “No, I am the fortress. I am the refuge. I am the Rock of salvation.” And He promises to embrace those who trust in Him. What a wonderful thought: That the strength of God’s embrace is equal to the power of His wrath.

Why did God part the Red Sea? Why did He part the Jordan? Why did He go to war with Death and Grave? So that His people could know His love. So His people could be wrapped in His tender embrace. So we would have a place of refuge from evil, from guilt, from failure, and shame.

The Lord proved this truth to the people of Judah again and again, but He had specifically saved them on their day of distress when Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, was besieged by the Assyrian army. In an astonishing, miraculous turn of events, God delivered them from disaster.

Sadly, just a few years later, the people of Judah had abandoned their trust in the Lord and wriggled free of His embrace. Now they, too, were headed toward judgment.

Nahum 1:8 – ⁸ But he will completely destroy Nineveh with an overwhelming flood, and he will chase his enemies into darkness.

Nahum’s statement here is historic fact to us, but it would’ve been a bold claim of faith at the time. Remember – Assyria dominated the world. Judah was under Assyria’s thumb. How could the world’s greatest superpower be toppled from her place?

Well, Nahum had seen it. He had heard it from God. He believed the promises and knew God does what He says. And so, even though the circumstances said the opposite, Nahum trusted the Lord.

He said God’s judgment is like a flood. The truth is, a literal flood would play a prominent role in the fall of Nineveh. During a siege, the Tigris river suddenly overflowed and washed away two and a half miles of Nineveh’s walls and the foundations of the palace.

But this was not just about getting rid of a city. The Lord would chase the Assyrian people “into darkness.” Again, there is a subtle contrast between Yahweh and Assyria’s Baal. Their god would be dragged into the underworld once a year. Our God is the One chasing His enemies into the grave. He is not only Lord over creation, He is Lord over the next life, too.

Nineveh is not specifically named in the Hebrew text. Some Bible translations add it for clarity. The truth is, this wasn’t just a one-time thing God was doing to Nineveh. God judges. We talked about that last week. These images from Nahum give us a bunch of foreshadowing for the next time the Lord will arrive on earth. When He does, He’s coming with judgment, not for one city or one empire, but against the whole world. He will be a refuge for those who trust in Him, but His wrath will be unescapable for those who don’t.

We’re seeing Who God is and what He does in this opening chapter. It gives at least four present day truths to apply to our lives and keep in our minds.

First, Jesus Christ is most definitely God. This is certainly not the only place that proves that, but add it to the pile. When Jesus came to earth the first time, He commanded the wind and the waves. He could speak and a fig tree withered. When He gave up His spirit on the cross, the earth shook. Rocks were split. Tombs were opened. The God of Nahum is the God of the Gospels.

Jesus is our Refuge. In the storms, in the midst of wind and waves, we are safe with Him. He said “I have overcome the world,” and so we do not need to be afraid. He is our Helper and Shepherd and Rock of strength. On Christ the solid Rock we stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Second, God is not to be trifled with. Look at His power. Look at His justice. Look at His attitude toward sin. If you’re a Christian, you do not need to cower before Him, but we should concern ourselves with honoring Him, obeying Him, and pleasing Him.

Third, embrace the God Who longs to embrace you. Fill your heart with reminders of His tender care. His strength is poured out toward you in goodness and grace and kindness.

Fourth, let’s keep in mind that God Who came to Sinai, Who came to Nineveh, Who came to Bethlehem is coming again. He has shown it. He’s written it down. He’s promised it. And so, we should hold that hope and live accordingly. He is going to chase His enemies into darkness, but carry His people into glory and rest, forever and ever.

I’ve Got Good News And Bad News And They’re Both The Same (Nahum 1:1-3)

The Fragile State Index ranks the nations of the world according to government control, public services, corruption and criminality, things like that. In their latest report, they have Somalia as the most fragile country in the world and Norway as the most stable. About 40 nations are considered more stable than the United States, including Israel, the UK, Estonia, and the Czech Republic.

650 years before Christ was born, the kingdom of Assyria was the strongest in the world, but it ranked number one on God’s Guilty State Index. His mercy had expired. And God, Who loves to reveal His work to His people, showed a man named Nahum what was about to happen.

Nahum 1:1 – The pronouncement concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

Nahum had good news and bad news and they were both the same: Nineveh would be totally destroyed. It’s bad news for Assyria, but the rest of the world would clap their hands in celebration.

Assyria was the very first world empire. Their history stretches back to 5,000 BC when Nimrod first built the city of Nineveh. Through the centuries, Assyrian history can be divided into three major eras: Old, Middle, and Neo. In the books of Kings, Chronicles, and the Prophets, the Assyrians loom large. That’s during the Neo-Assyrian period – the time when they were the strongest and scariest.

Around 760 BC, Jonah preached to Nineveh. At the time, it was a great Assyrian city, but not yet the capital. The Bible records that the entire population of Nineveh (600,000-1,000,000 people) turned to the Lord and were saved. Judgement was delayed for about 150 years.

But the revival didn’t last and it didn’t spread the other cities of Assyria. About 40 years after Jonah visited, around 722 BC, Assyria’s king Sargon II and his army invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and destroyed it, leaving the nation of Judah in the south. During the time of Sargon and the three descendants that came after him, Assyria swelled in size and power.

Around 700 BC, King Sennacherib not only made Nineveh the capital of the empire, but started building it into “a metropolis of legendary size and splendor.” In fact, he made it into the largest urban center ever created in the Ancient Near East.

Through the 670’s and 660’s BC, the Assyrian empire continued its domination of the Biblical world. Their strength was unmatched. Their territory was vast. Their ferocity legendary. They terrorized Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt, Arabia, and the regions we know today as Iran and Armenia. There is an account where a certain king was threatened by Sargon and responded by stabbing himself in the heart. That was preferable than facing the Assyrian Army.

At the height of their strength, an unknown Jewish man published a little book. In it, he says the most powerful empire the world had ever known, the empire that swallowed up nations and cultures wherever it went, was suddenly going to cease to exist. This would’ve sounded impossible. Ridiculous. Unhinged. This is Assyria we’re talking about, not some little Philistine clan.

But Nahum was confident. He had seen it in advance. And when God says something is going to be done it will be done. There may be an interval – in Nahum’s case it would be about 40 years, but God’s history cannot be stopped.

Verse 1 opens with, “The pronouncement concerning Nineveh.” The term means oracle or burden. Matthew Henry calls it the millstone that Nahum was hanging around Nineveh’s neck. There would be no second, second chance – no last minute delay. The Lord had published their eulogy.

This is the only prophetic book that’s actually called a “book.” From what we can tell, Nahum arranged this work not as a preacher, but as a writer or composer. It seems that he intended this book to be used in liturgy – for God’s people to recite or sing it together at certain occasions.

Scholars marvel at Nahum’s poetic excellence. They call him “brilliant,” – the “poet laureate of the Minor Prophets.” They say that this book has almost perfect symmetry  and is full of all sorts of marvelous, literary style. One writer says, “In its poetic form the book of Nahum has no superior within the prophetic literature of the [Old Testament].”

Aside from his poetic skill, we don’t know a lot about Nahum. All we’re told is that he is an Elkoshite. It’s probably telling us that he was from the town of Elkosh, but over the centuries there have been a lot of suggestions about what that means. One tradition is that this village was later renamed “The village of Nahum,” or, as we’ve heard it Capernaum. That’s one theory.

His name means “comfort.” And so, as one commentator calls him, Mr. Compassion from Capernaum has a message of hope: Everyone in Nineveh is going to die.

How is that a message of comfort? It was a comfort to God’s people, who for more than 100 years had been subjugated, threatened, and crushed by the Assyrian Empire. A century of fear and violence, and serfdom. God was going to put a stop to it. God was going to rescue them.

Nahum 1:2 – ² The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is fierce in wrath. The Lord takes vengeance against his foes; he is furious with his enemies.

Nahum’s vision shows what would happen to the city of Nineveh, but it’s really a book about God. It is a book about His power and justice – how His long-suffering mercy does, eventually expire. It’s about His absolute standard of right and wrong and how it applies to everyone.

The Lord said, “Nineveh, you are My foe. You are my enemy, and I pour out wrath against My enemies.”

Of course, there had been a time when the people of Nineveh became the friends of God. Read it in Jonah chapter 3. They turned to God from their sin and received His mercy. We learned that anyone can become a friend of God. But then they turned away from God back to their sin.

Nahum will mention Nineveh’s fall as future. That happened in 612 BC. He also mentions the destruction of the city of Thebes as a past event. That happened in 664 BC. So, he’s writing in a 50 year window. But scholars narrow it down more, using different criteria. It seems likely that we’re somewhere around 654 BC. That would mean that Ashurbanipal is king of Assyria and Manasseh is king of Judah. Assyria is incredibly strong and Israel is incredibly weak, physically and spiritually.

God says He is a jealous avenger. The Lord will use some very graphic language in this book. Sometimes we shy away from thinking of God’s wrath the way He depicts it on these pages. It feels inappropriate or unloving. In fact, some have labeled Nahum a false prophet, spewing a hymn of hate. But that isn’t true. And God isn’t wrong for His wrath and vengeance.

We have a hard-wired understanding of how important justice is. Why do we cheer when the heroes kill the villains? Why is The Avengers the most successful franchise of all time? Because evil must be stopped. Guilt must be punished. Wrong must be made right.

We have that inherent understanding because God has written His moral law on our hearts. But now our hearts and the whole world around us has been corrupted by sin. And sin proliferates until God brings either revival or judgment. He does not take sin lightly. He is compassionate, He is merciful, but ultimately sin must be dealt with, both on a personal level and a national level.

We’re told God is jealous. That means, on the one hand, that He is zealous for justice. But it also a reminder that He is jealous for you – for your heart. The great desire of the God of the universe is to be in a loving, personal relationship with you. When we turn and say, “No, this is god,” or, “I’m god in my life,” it breaks the Lord’s heart. And when nations do that, they are telling God, “Instead of Your warmth, we’d rather have Your wrath.”

Nahum tells us that God is fierce in wrath. It means He is the Master of wrath. We think so quickly that God is a God of love – and He is – but He is also the Lord of wrath. He must wield His holy wrath, otherwise justice cannot exist and evil would triumph.

Nineveh had it coming. But, remember, they had had it coming for centuries. This wasn’t an impulsive outburst of anger for the Lord. He had waited and waited and tried and tried to give them a chance to repent. Nahum shows the tension between God’s wrath and His mercy in verse 3.

Nahum 1:3 – ³ The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.

We are told many times that the Lord is slow to anger. Exodus, Numbers, Joel, Nehemiah, Psalms. In every instance, the phrase “slow to anger” is followed up by a description of God’s love and mercy…but not here. For the Assyrians, time was up. No more mercy. Now, in place of mercy we see God’s power.

The Lord calls out to the Ninevites and says, “I see you and I’m cutting a path straight for you.” You see, God is meek, but He is not weak. He is Judge of the universe and the guilty will not walk free.

The city of Nineveh was a spectacular fortress. The kings had spent decades building it up. Her walls were 100 feet tall and wide enough for three chariots to ride abreast along the top. It’s said that there were 1,500 guard towers of defense. The city was surrounded by a moat, 150 feet wide and 50 feet deep.

The army of Assyria was unmatched. Their society was the first to make war a science. Their kings used to call themselves “The rulers of the universe.” And now, at the pinnacle of their power, the real Ruler of the universe said, “I”m coming. And walls and moats and towers won’t help you, because I walk on the clouds. I come in the whirlwind.” We’ll see that weather would play a decisive role in the fall of this great city.

The Lord told them He was coming to judge because they were guilty. What were they guilty of? Well, the book breaks into 3 parts. Chapter 1 is a song of triumph. Chapter 2 is a taunting letter to the king, describing what’s going to happen to his capital city. Chapter 3 gives us the reasons for their judgment and God’s justification.

So, what were they guilty of? Nineveh was called a “city of blood.” The violence of the Assyrian empire is shocking. The kings would often flay their enemies alive and set them on fire. At times, they would preserve the skin of their victims in salt to put on display as a decoration in their palace. They made one defeated ruler walk through the city with the severed head of another defeated ruler hanging around his neck, then publicly slaughtered him like an animal. They forced the sons of defeated kings to grind their fathers bones in the city gates. They mutilated their captives, and constantly impaled people on poles.

These kings decorated their palace walls with carvings of torture and brutality.  During Nahum’s time, Ashurbanipal would force emissaries coming to see him to lick the doorsill of his palace. He was truly a sadist. This was a city of blood – an empire built by bloodshed.

The Lord also condemns them for being a city full of deceit and plunder, wanton materialism and sorcery. The king had a fanatical devotion to divination. The people, too, had all sorts of rituals and incantations for different problems or situations in life. They rejected the God Who had revealed Himself to them and instead worshiped the creation.

Violence, materialism, idolatry, cruelty, deceit. These made Nineveh guilty in the eyes of God.

The problem is that Jerusalem was guilty of the same things. Ezekiel and Micah use these descriptors of Judah. It wasn’t just a Gentile problem. And if Assyria deserved wrath, what about Judah? Nahum’s king was Manasseh. The worst king Judah would ever have. 2 Chronicles 33 tells us that God tried to speak to Manasseh and his people but they wouldn’t listen. They did worse evil than the nations around them. But God’s standard is constant, so, judgment came to them, too.

What about the United States? Where are we on the Guilty State Index? It’s easy to criticize or pile on. I get uncomfortable when I hear people say things like, “If God doesn’t judge America, He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” God doesn’t owe anyone an apology. And I don’t want to suggest that it would be a super terrific time if God poured out His wrath on the United States.

At the same time, we have to look around and say, “Things are not good.” People argue over whether America was a Christian nation at its founding. Ok. We’re not a Christian nation now. In the same way that Nineveh was no longer a believing city. Instead, we are a nation full of violence, materialism, perversion, hatred, wicked spirituality. This is not a good position to be in. This is not a society that pleases God with its justice and righteousness and compassion and humility.

I’ll say this: Assyria was one of the worst societies of all time. What they considered good and normal was horrifying. But you know what? Even the Assyrians thought abortion was wrong.

God has an unwavering standard of good. People talk about being on the “right” side of history. We need to get on the right side of theology. Our society needs revival. Revival does not start at the ballot box. Change of leadership can happen as a result of revival, but revival starts right here in the house of God. It starts with me. It starts with my repentance and devotion to God and His truth. Righteousness is what shields a nation from the wrath of God. Being God’s friend is what matters in a life and in a community.

As we read this little book it begs the question: Did Nineveh actually receive this message? We’re not sure. There’s no specific record of Nahum sending it. I will say this: God works hard to get the message out. Look at Jonah. We know He loved the Assyrian people, warts and all.

And I think this is an interesting element to consider: Nineveh was home to an immense library. In fact, it’s considered the world’s first “universal” library. Ashurbanipal sought to assemble all the written knowledge of Mesopotamia. It had all sorts of books. History and sorcery and philosophy and old epics and botanical works. They’ve even found collections of jokes and riddles there.

Isn’t it interesting that, of all the prophetic writings, Nahum’s is the only book? The only one prepared not as a sermon, but something to be read? Perhaps they received it after all.

God wants to get His word out. He wants people to know the reality of sin and judgment so that they can be saved from it. What Nahum drives home is that the Lord is coming with destruction for His foes and deliverance for His friends. We can trust Him to do what He said and we should concern ourselves with being in right relationship with Him for our own blessing, our own benefit, and for the sake of the society around us that is in desperate need of God’s mercy.