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You may turn in your Bibles to 
Nahum chapter 2. Nahum the prophet, the seventh 
of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament. We considered 
Nahum chapter 1 last week under the title, The Comforting Truth 
of God's Judgment. The comforting truth of God's 
judgment. And some would wonder how that 
could be a comforting truth. Well, as we just sang in Psalm 
11, In fact, if you struggled singing Psalm 11, you're really 
going to have problems with Nahum 2 and 3 this morning. But you'll 
see the reason why in the psalm as to why God sends His justice 
and His judgment, for the Lord is righteous. Well, in Nahum 
chapter 1, we saw the doctrine of God, verses 2 to 6, or theology 
proper as the foundation upon which the remaining prophecy 
comes. And Nahum's name means comfort, 
it means consolation. He was the conveyor of this truth 
to Israel in the midst of the Assyrian Empire when they were 
gobbling up territory and continuing to ravage peoples. Well, God's 
word through Nahum is to trust in Him, for He will most certainly 
visit His enemies with judgment. We're going to take up both chapters 
2 and 3 this morning, so I'll just begin reading in chapter 
2 at verse 1. He who scatters has come up before 
your face. Man the fort. Watch the road. Strengthen your flanks. Fortify 
your power mightily. For the Lord will restore the 
excellence of Jacob like the excellence of Israel. For the 
emptiers have emptied them out and ruined their vine branches. 
The shields of his mighty men are made red. The valiant men 
are in scarlet. The chariots come with flaming 
torches in the day of his preparation, and the spears are brandished. 
The chariots rage in the streets. They jostle one another in the 
broad roads. They seem like torches. They 
run like lightning. He remembers his nobles. They 
stumble in their walk. They make haste to her walls, 
and the defense is prepared. The gates of the rivers are opened, 
and the palace is dissolved. It is decreed, she shall be led 
away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maidservants shall 
lead her as with the voice of doves, beating their breasts. Though Nineveh of old was like 
a pool of water, now they flee away. Halt, halt, they cry, but 
no one turns back. Take spoil of silver, take spoil 
of gold, There is no end of treasure or wealth of every desirable 
prize. She is empty, desolate and waste. The heart melts and the knees 
shake. Much pain is in every side and 
all their faces are drained of color. Where is the dwelling 
of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions? Where 
the lion walked, the lioness and lion's cub and no one made 
them afraid. The lion tore in pieces enough 
for his cub. killed for his lioness, filled 
his caves with prey and his dens with flesh. Behold, I am against 
you, says the Lord of hosts. I will burn your chariots in 
smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut 
off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers 
shall be heard no more. Woe to the bloody city. It is 
all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs. The 
noise of a whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping 
horses, of clattering chariots, horsemen charged with bright 
sword and glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, 
a great number of bodies, countless corpses. They stumble over the 
corpses. because of the multitude of harlotries 
of the seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who sells 
nations through her harlotries and families through her sorceries. 
Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts. I will lift 
your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your 
nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will cast abominable 
filth upon you, make you vile and make you a spectacle. It 
shall come to pass that all who look upon you will flee from 
you and say, Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? Where shall I seek comforters 
for you? Are you better than know Amon 
that was situated by the river, that had the waters around her, 
whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the sea? Ethiopia and 
Egypt were her strength, and it was boundless. Put and Lubim 
were your helpers, yet she was carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were 
dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots 
for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. You also will be drunk. You will 
be hidden. You also will seek refuge from 
the enemy. All your strongholds are fig 
trees with ripened figs. If they are shaken, they shall 
fall, or they fall into the mouth of the eater. Surely your people 
in your midst are women. The gates of your land are wide 
open for your enemies. Fire shall devour the bars of 
your gates. Draw your water for the siege. Fortify your strongholds. Go 
into the clay and tread the mortar. Make strong the brick kiln. There 
the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It 
will eat you up like a locust. Make yourself many like the locusts. Make yourself many like the swarming 
locusts. You have multiplied your merchants 
more than the stars of heaven. The locust plunders and flies 
away. Your commanders are like swarming 
locusts, and your generals like great grasshoppers, which camp 
in the hedges on a cold day. When the sun rises, they flee 
away, and the place where they are is not known. Your shepherds 
slumber, O King of Assyria. Your nobles rest in the dust. Your peoples are scattered on 
the mountains, and no one gathers them. Your injury has no healing. Your wound is severe. All who 
hear news of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom 
has not your wickedness passed continually? Amen. Let us pray. Our sovereign God, we come now 
before You and we pray that You would give us ears to hear Your 
Word. What may appear to be an irrelevant portion of Holy Scripture, 
God, is, I fear, all too relevant for the nations of the earth 
in the 21st century. I pray that You would give us, 
as Your people, grace, Father, to receive Your Word, to receive 
the comfort from this text, and as well to beware, to take heed, 
to realize that You are a righteous God. and that you will visit 
with judgment all those who have sinned against you. We pray, 
Father, for this nation of Canada and for the United States, God, 
we pray have mercy upon these lands and pity the nations of 
the earth, God, and constrain the peoples to come by your grace 
and for your glory. And how we thank you for the 
grace and mercy that you've shown us. How we thank you for the 
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been 
crucified to us and we to the world. We pray that that cross 
would be all the more appreciated by each one here, that we would 
just boast in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Do forgive 
us now, God, for all of our sins, and we pray through Jesus our 
Savior. Amen. A. W. Tozer wrote, The vague and 
tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has 
become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes 
their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of 
iniquity while death draws every day nearer and the command to 
repent goes unheeded. The vague and tenuous hope that 
God is too kind to punish the ungodly. Well, we'll see that 
this is not simply a doctrine confined to Nahum, the 7th century 
BC prophet, who spoke of the fall of the Assyrian Empire generally, 
and the city of Nineveh, its capital, specifically. But even 
in the Scripture reading this morning, we see that God visits 
with judgment those who do not exercise mercy. God will call 
all of us to stand before His judgment seat, and He will visit 
us with judgment for deeds done in the body, whether good or 
bad. This is a very applicable message 
to both individuals and as well to nations. And we're going to 
take up the exposition in two specifics. Chapter 2, we'll look 
at the destruction of Nineveh described, and chapter 3 is the 
destruction of Nineveh explained. There's a lot of similarity between 
the two chapters, but there does seem to be this difference. Chapter 
2 is a prophetic announcement of the fall of the city of Nineveh. We know that from chapter 1, 
verse 1. The burden against Nineveh, the 
book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkashite. You remember about 
a hundred years prior to this, the prophet Jonah was sent to 
Nineveh. The prophet Jonah was to go throughout 
the city and declare that God's judgment was upon them and that 
unless they repented, they would know that judgment. Well, by 
God's grace, the city did repent, but by man's folly, they did 
not continue. And so, about a hundred years 
later, Nahum is raised up, and he is sent to come and preach 
the fall of Nineveh. So, chapter 2 is a historical 
or prophetic description. It is a prophetic description 
from the point of view of the prophet. He prophesied before 
this happened, though history does verify everything he said 
was carried out to a T. And then chapter 3 functions 
more as a theological explanation. Though it appears to repeat a 
lot of the same subject matter, there is a theological bent to 
chapter 3. You'll notice that God uses the 
first person pronoun various times, I will do this, I will 
do this, I will do this. So, in other words, when the 
Babylonians and the Medes and the Scythians are in there destroying 
the city of Nineveh, it is God, the sovereign king, who is orchestrating 
this and who is coming through these historical events in judgment 
against this great city, Nineveh, which was the capital of the 
Assyrian Empire. Well, notice the destruction 
of Nineveh described in chapter 2. There's five particulars. The first is the announcement 
of judgment, verses 1 and 2. And both chapters, the prophet 
does this. He announces the coming judgment. And I think it's very similar 
to when Assyria challenged Israel, probably about 50 years prior 
to the time of Nahum. In 701 BC, Sennacherib was the 
king of the Assyrian Empire. And Sennacherib tried to take 
Jerusalem. And while they were outside the 
gates of Jerusalem, the representative of Sennacherib, a man by the 
name of Rabshakeh, you can read of this in 2 Kings 18, you can 
read of it in Isaiah 36. This Rabshakeh basically taunted 
the armies of Israel. He basically said, you know, 
we have gobbled up places throughout this land and none of the gods 
of the people have been able to stop us. And so basically 
his question is, how will your Yahweh, how will your Jehovah 
be able to stop us? And of course the people make 
no answer and in that historical instance the angel of Yahweh 
comes and destroys 185,000 in the Assyrian army. Here the Prophet announces, it's 
almost like he's taking that same posture of Rabshakeh and 
he's taunting the city. He's challenging them, he's asking 
them, he's even calling them to prepare themselves for the 
coming siege. Don't make any mistake about 
it. This prophecy is filled with 
taunt and with insult. He is showing them their futility 
before the thrice holy God. He says that Nineveh is to prepare, 
verse 1, he who scatters has come up before your face. Now 
again, historically, the Babylonians, the Medes and the Scythians. 
Theologically, it's God. In fact, we need to read chapter 
2 verse 1 in comparison with chapter 2 verse 13, where Jehovah 
says, Behold, I am against you. He is the divine scatterer. He is the divine warrior. He is the King of Glory who is 
coming to judge the living and the dead. He who scatters has 
come up before your face. Man the fort. Watch the road. Strengthen your flanks. Fortify 
your power mightily. You see what the Prophet is doing. 
Man the battle stations. Get into position. You have angered 
the High King of Heaven, and He will ride upon His cloud, 
and He will come in the whirlwind, and He will seek to destroy you. 
Go ahead, take up your arms, see what you can do to defend 
yourself against the Great God Most High. As always, when there 
is a word of condemnation, it functions as a word of comfort 
for the people of God. Notice, in verse 2, there's a 
for. There's a reason why God is coming 
in judgment against Nineveh. Well, it's in verse 2. For the 
Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob like the excellence 
of Israel. For the emptiers have emptied 
them out and ruined their vine branches. God loves His people. He will protect them. And while 
He's against Nineveh, He is with His own. In fact, that's one 
of the chief promises that the New Covenant Christian delights 
in. Romans 8.31, if the Lord is with 
us, What can man do? Who can be against 
us in that instance? This is a wonderful living illustration 
of that. Judgment for Nineveh, lights 
out for the Assyrian Empire, means blessing for the people 
of God. Notice, secondly, Nahum describes 
the approach of the soldiers, verses 3 and 4. The shields of 
his mighty men are made red, the valiant men are in scarlet. 
The chariots come with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, 
and the spears are brandished. The chariots rage in the streets. 
They jostle one another in the broad roads. They seem like torches. They run like lightning." It's 
as if Nahum, by vision, is transported right into the thick of battle. 
In fact, His descriptions in Nahum chapter 3, verses 2 and 
3 are so vivid and so almost wild that you can put yourself 
in this place and see with your own eyes the Lord God coming 
in vengeance. Now this reference to red and 
scarlet, Ezekiel tells us Babylonian soldiers wore those colors. Nahum 
is describing the historical instance in which Nineveh would 
fall, but it would be God orchestrating everything according to His own 
power. Notice the attempt at a defense 
in verse 5. He remembers His nobles. They 
stumble in their walk. They make haste to her walls 
and the defense is prepared. So they're getting attacked, 
and what do they do? They man the battle stations. They take 
up the sword. They get in their positions of 
defense. They seek, as far as they're able to, to defend the 
city. Unfortunately for them, they 
don't realize it's not just Babylonians and Medes and Scythians that 
they've got to gun down, that they've got to fight against 
with the sword. They have incensed and angered the triune God of 
heaven and earth. Remember back in chapter 1 verse 
3, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not 
at all acquit the wicked. Wasn't that interesting that 
Nahum would put that in about the patience or longsuffering 
of God. Why? Because the Christian or 
the believer interprets God's patience as his indifference. God's patience or longsuffering 
becomes in our lives something of the thought that God doesn't 
care. He doesn't care that our children 
are being taken from us. He doesn't care that we are falling 
prey to the Assyrian invaders. He doesn't care that our territory 
is being taken away from us. And for the wicked, they judge 
the patience of God as indifference as well. And since He's indifferent, 
we'll just go ahead and carry on. We'll just do whatever it 
is that we're going to do. Nahum says that He's slow to 
anger and He's great in power, but you need to remember He will 
not at all acquit the wicked. He will most certainly visit 
the wicked with judgment and that's what he is describing 
now. The wicked seek to defend their city. But then notice verses 
6 to 10 he describes the attack upon the city. The city is compromised, 
verse 6. Remember last week we showed 
or demonstrated or at least mentioned how the city of Nineveh was positioned 
in such a way that it appeared to be impregnable. In fact, probably 
the men who built that city said, with the men who made the Titanic, 
even God himself couldn't sink this. It seemed to be impregnable, 
set up on a hill, massive gates surrounding it, massive walls, 
so thick, so wide in some places, that three chariots could race 
along it. It had the geography and its 
advantage. It had the rivers surrounding 
it. Well, historically what happened is when the Medes, the Babylonians, 
and the Scythians came to siege the city, they were assisted 
by rain. They were assisted by flood. 
Remember, Napoleon tried that. He tried to get to Russia to 
invade, only he didn't realize that General Snow and General 
Ice were formidable enemies. A winter in Russia doesn't do 
very good for your morale or for your life. They had to turn 
back. Well, in this instance, as the 
soldiers come to destroy Nineveh, the rains cause the rivers to 
flood over and sections of the wall are broken down so that 
the enemy armies come trotting right in with their swords swinging 
and their whips blazing and their chariots and their horses. The 
gates of the rivers are opened, verse 6, and the palaces dissolve. Now you can see why. God-haters, 
liberals, liberal critics would say, Nahum was so right on, he 
couldn't have been a prophet. He had to be writing history. 
There's no way he wrote before 612 BC because everything he 
says was played out so accurately. No, he knew because God moved 
him. The city is compromised. Notice 
the city falls, verse 7. She shall be led away captive. She shall be brought up. Her 
maidservant shall lead her as with the voice of doves beating 
their breasts. And then the city is plundered, 
verses 8 to 10. What happens when an invading 
army comes? They take stuff, don't they? 
They take the silver, they take the gold, they take the ornaments, 
they take everything that they can use. This is one of the benefits 
of being the victor in a war. That's what he's prophesying. 
Notice verse 9, take spoil of silver, take spoil of gold. There is no end of treasure or 
wealth of every desirable prize. Verse 10, she is empty, desolate 
and waste. The heart melts and the knees 
shake. What is that? Fear. You ever 
been in a situation where your knees are knocking together? 
Well, when the invading hordes are in your city taking everything 
you love and cleave to and hold dear, that promotes fear. That was what was going on or 
that's what would happen in this city of Nineveh. Much pain is 
in every side and all their faces are drained of color. Robertson 
said, they who for generations have made a way of life out of 
striking fear in the hearts of others, now know firsthand the 
horrors of divine judgment. Mark Devere in a sermon preached 
on Nahum's prophecy said this with reference to her fall, with 
reference to Nineveh's fall. Nineveh's end was absolutely 
traumatic. The Medes, in an alliance with 
Babylon and the Scythians, laid siege to the city in 612 BC and 
then found themselves aided by rain and rising rivers. These 
rivers that had aided in the city's protection flooded up 
against the city's walls until great sections of the walls fell 
away, just as Nahum had predicted. The attackers then poured into 
the city and sacked it. Before the invaders could grab 
him, a serious king gathered himself and his household together 
in an immense funeral pyre and burned himself, his wives and 
his concubines to ashes. The invaders running rampant 
in the city plundered Nineveh dry. When the site of ancient 
Nineveh was discovered and excavated in the 19th century, don't miss 
that. It fell in 612 BC. It wasn't 
found until 1842. The devastation was thorough. The prophet was not kidding. 
There were some Greeks in battle about 300 years after the fall 
of Nineveh that were having to retreat over that portion of 
geography that had no clue that there had been a major city in 
that place. You see, one of the take-home 
lessons of the book of Nahum is this. God is not mocked. And while modern man may try 
to fool himself that God's kindness would ever prohibit him from 
demonstrating this kind of wrath and judgment, I think Nahum is 
but a snapshot, a small picture of what the day of judgment will 
be for each one of us who stands in the presence of Jesus. This 
God is righteous. He says, when the site of ancient 
Nineveh was discovered and excavated in the 19th century, archaeologists 
found no stores of silver and gold objects, as they were hoping 
they would. Don't you think as an archaeologist, 
yeah, you want to be cool and find old stuff? And the gold 
that's there, right? I mean, face it. You're not in 
it just to say what wonderful things you've done in terms of 
finding. You'd like to find gold and silver. 
Well, because of what Nahum prophesied and because of what happened 
in 612 BC, those archaeologists found the city, but they didn't 
find any gold or silver. Why? Because take spoil of silver, 
take spoil of gold, there is no end of treasure or wealth 
of every desirable price. It was absolutely empty. Everything 
was taken, stripped, bare. She is empty, desolate, and waste." 
Notice the analogy of a lion in verses 11 to 13. This is interesting. Assyria pictured herself as a 
lion in her fierceness. God, in fact, refers to her attack 
upon Israel in Isaiah and in Jeremiah as lion-like. In fact, 
Walter Kaiser says that Assyria represented herself in sculptures 
and friezes, a proud lion. But that majestic king of the 
veldt would endure as the nation's symbol only in her archaeological 
remains. The lion would be routed from 
its high lair for all the wickedness and evil it had perpetrated before 
the Lord of the universe. Notice, verse 11, where is the 
dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions? 
where the lion walked the lioness and lion's cub, and no one made 
them afraid. The lion tore in pieces enough 
for his cubs, killed for his lionesses, filled his caves with 
prey, and his dens with flesh." The question is, where are they 
at? After this desolation has come, 
where is the lair of this mighty lion? Remember this lion that 
used to kill its prey? Remember this lion that used 
to collect its prey and bring it back to its lioness and to 
its cubs? Hey, think about this for just 
a minute. I was thinking about this during the week, and I thought 
we should all think about it on a Sunday. How do lions kill? They ravage, don't they? God 
has made them killing machines. In fact, in some places in the 
Old Testament, God used lions to carry out his judgment. But 
just let your memory or your imagination go for just a minute. 
Maybe you haven't ever seen the National Geographic in print, 
or you've not seen it on the video, or whatever. But a lion 
will grab an animal and bury its face into it, and eat the 
blood, and eat the meat, and rip it apart. Our sensitivities 
can be a little bit violated when we think about how lions 
hunt and eat. I mean, they don't go to Costco. They don't go to 
Superstore. They don't swipe. They're not as dignified as us. And then we might begin to think, 
well, you know, that's the way God made lions. It's one of those 
necessary things. You know, I may not like it, 
but that's how a lion has to eat. How about when man, the 
image-bearer of God, conducts himself like that? That ought 
to offend our sensitivities. You know, a lot of times we come 
to these judgment passages in the Scripture, and we want to 
blame God. We want to say things like, well, that's not very good. 
That's not very kind. That's not very nice that God 
would judge these people. As if it was somehow good, kind, 
or nice that these people carried on like lions, that these people 
carried on like beasts in the field. Judgment is right. God's justice is sure. Remember 
Nahum 1.7, the Lord is good. His goodness necessitates His 
wrath. His goodness and His righteousness 
demands the execution of judgment. And then God explains or applies 
this analogy. Verse 13, Behold, I am against 
you, says the Lord of hosts. I will burn your chariots in 
smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut 
off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers 
shall be heard no more." That brings us to consider chapter 
3, the destruction of Nineveh, explains specifically the theological 
explanation. Notice, first of all, her sins. God doesn't just pick nations 
out at random and say, you know, I'm going to get them. I'm just 
going to let them have it. God judges sin. And Nahum explains 
for us very clearly what the sins are in Nahum 3 verses 1 
and 4. And this is where I submit that 
we need to be afraid, because these are the types of sins that 
go on each and every day in the country in which we live. These 
are the kinds of sins that go on each and every day in just 
about every country in the world. And if Nahum teaches us anything, 
he also teaches us that there is a corporate dimension to God's 
judgment. A corporate dimension. In other 
words, God destroys Nineveh. Just a few of the Ninevites, 
not just the leadership, but when God comes in judgment, He 
destroys the entirety. The Proverbs are certain. Righteousness 
exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. And when we live 
in the midst of a people that engage in this kind of wickedness 
and celebrate it, we ought to be very afraid. That's my encouragement 
to each and every one of us. The city or the empire was guilty 
of murder. Woe to the bloody city! Now I 
just wonder, in all the wickedness that Nineveh could conjure, if 
there was abortion clinics in Nineveh. if Planned Parenthood 
set up shop with a Nineveh chapter. Woe to the bloody city! We live in a day and age where 
murder is not only encouraged, but it's financed with tax dollars. Woe to the bloody city! You know, 
we think we're so advanced and so arrived, and yet, in many 
respects were probably a whole lot worse than barbaric Nineveh. What's another sin she's guilty 
of? Deceit. Deceit. It is full of lies and 
robbery. Well, how? Probably in the bottom 
echelons of society to the upper echelons of society. Her kings and her leaders were 
masters of deception, making treaties with people, lying to 
people, taunting people, increasing their territory in any way they 
could. Hey, if we've got to lie a little 
bit, that's okay. It's not okay. You see, God has 
this stubbornness about Him where He actually punishes those who 
sin against Him. That's why it just amazes me 
when we try to fix things in society and we use immoral things 
to fix them. What is that? You're just heaping 
coal upon the fire. We've got this problem. This 
is what we're going to do to solve this problem. Well, don't 
you know that's immoral? It doesn't matter. We're going 
to fix the problem. Well, you see, God has a problem with your 
fixing of problems when they're built on and founded on immorality. Lies and deception never avail 
with the High King of Heaven. Notice they're described as harlots, 
verse 4, because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive 
harlot, the mistress of sorceries who sells nations through her 
harlotries and families through her sorceries. God does not take 
false religion lightly. Assyria had a lot of false gods. Assyria tried to ply her wares 
with other nations. They multiplied their wickedness 
and affected other peoples. Worship the Asherah. In fact, 
very often Israel would be affected and infected by this. And you 
know, this whole section teaches us something as well. There's 
a common misconception among Bible believers that Israel, 
was unique before God as a theocracy, and so God judged them according 
to his law. The other nations were somehow off the hook. No, 
not according to Nahum 3. See, God has this one standard 
by which he holds men accountable. He has one standard by which 
he will judge the living and the dead. It is his law. Prior 
to the giving of the law at Sinai, God reigned hell on Sodom and 
Gomorrah for violating his holy standard. In his instructions 
to Israel to dispossess the land of Canaan, he uses his law as 
the measure that they had broken. You see, Nahum here is insistent 
that the word of God applies to everyone, to all men everywhere. Whether they be kings of Assyria, 
leaders in Nineveh, in the high places in America or Canada or 
Africa or wherever they are, God has instituted them and they 
will ultimately answer to Him. Notice, secondly, her devastation. We won't develop this too much 
as we've seen it already in chapter 2, but notice Nahum's description, 
verses 2 and 3. Literary masterpiece, the noise 
of a whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, 
of clattering chariots, horsemen charged with bright sword and 
glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, 
a great number of bodies, countless corpses. They stumble over the 
corpses. It's like you're standing right 
in the middle of Nineveh as the Medes and the Babylonians are 
spinning their whips and casting their swords and riding on their 
horses and their chariots. And He's describing what He's 
seeing there. That ought to promote fear. That 
ought to promote something of a holy awe. Our God does not 
take our sin lightly. Our God does not excuse the abominations 
of the nations. Our God does see what's happening 
and He will most certainly deal with it. Notice her judgment. This is where God speaks very 
specifically in verses 5 to 7. God would uncover her nakedness. God would uncover her nakedness. You search the prophets, you'll 
find this applied to Israel. Israel, when she would go a-whoring 
from God, would be treated like a whore. He would uncover her 
nakedness. This is also found in Revelation 
17, verses 15 and 16. Babylon will be made naked. Notice, God would display her 
nakedness. Not just make her naked, but 
parade her, as an object lesson. You know, today, when a man does 
something wrong, what happens? He ends up on CNN. He ends up 
on the front page of the newspaper for everybody to see what it 
is He's done. There's no difference in Nahum's 
day. God will parade them. God would cast filth upon her. 
Again, it's used in Malachi 2 where the covenant people went astray 
from the Lord God and He would humiliate them. And then God 
would present her as a spectacle, verse 6b, and make you a spectacle. It shall come to pass, verse 
7, that all who look upon you will flee from you and say, Nineveh 
is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? Where shall 
I seek comforters for you? You know what the answer is. 
No one's going to bemoan her and there will be no comforters. 
In fact, the peoples around are going to rejoice because this 
God hating rebellious nation has gotten what she deserved. We think we're smarter than God. 
Oh, you know, that's not right. God is right. God's justice is 
right. God's ways are right. Notice 
her recompense. Recompense means her payback. 
Her requital, we might say. Verses 8 to 10. Are you better 
than no, Amon? Are you better than Thebes? That's 
what it is. It's a Hebrew version, city of 
Ammon, which is Thebes. It was the capital of Egypt. Now, Thebes had an interesting 
place in history as well, or geographically speaking. She 
was surrounded by rivers. She had fortification. She was 
a city that probably the architects boasted who could sink this one, 
not even God himself. I mean, Thebes was dialed in, 
and not only did Thebes have geography to protect, but she 
had strong allies that wanted to help her. You see what the 
prophet's saying? Are you better than Thebes? He's 
taunting them. Nahum probably wouldn't be asked 
to preach in most churches, because we'd find him a little offensive. 
We'd find him a little harsh. We'd say, oh, you're like that 
Elijah that actually makes fun of the prophets of Carmel. You're 
like John the Baptist who calls people brood of vipers. You know, 
that really doesn't work today. In fact, we don't even want to 
call them sermons. We want to call them messages. We don't 
want to offend anybody, Nahum. Are you better than Thebes? Are 
you better than Noah and Ammon with all of their geographical 
fortification and all of their allies? You know, interestingly 
enough, or ironically enough, you know who destroyed Thebes? 
Assyria. Oh, and let me just remind you 
how you did it. Verse 10. Yet she was carried 
away. She went into captivity. Her 
young children also were dashed to pieces. That's how Assyria 
dealt with men. That's how Assyria invaded cities. At the head of every street they 
cast lots for her honorable men and all her great men were bound 
in chains. Notice, Nineveh would suffer 
likewise, verses 11 to 13. They would be like a staggering 
drunk. You know, this week I was sitting 
in the study there, and I heard somebody that was a staggering 
drunk outside. You say, well, how do you know 
that just by the way he sounded? Come on, you know. Not forming 
real words and all that sort of thing. I mean, I always think 
if he comes over and starts kicking windows, he'll be easy to subdue. 
Staggering drunks don't present much of a threat. Now, if they're 
300 pounds and rock hard, full of muscle, They've got some other 
chemicals going on in there, then I don't want to mess with 
them. But by and large, staggering drunks are pretty easy to handle. And you know, the image is rich 
here as well. What does God give to nations but the cup of His 
wrath? A staggering drunk is getting the cup of God's wrath. 
That's what you'll be like. You'll be like a panicked fugitive, 
11b. You also will seek refuge from 
the enemy. You're going to run, and you're 
going to hide. The strong lion, when the invaders 
come, you're out of there. They would be like a ripened 
fig tree, ripe for the picking. Amos used that vision of ripened 
fruit. It's ripe for the picking. Its 
time is now. He says they would be like, much 
to the chagrin of feminists of our day, they would be a city 
full of women! What's he mean? Weak. Weak. I'm not trying to belittle 
my sisters here, but you know physically. Physically. You're the weaker vessel. Peter 
says you're the weaker vessel and we're to give honor to you. 
As a general rule, you don't want your military might in the 
defense of the city to rest upon your women. That's hopefully 
not as harsh as it may sound, but that's what the prophet says. 
Surely your people in your midst are women. He says the gates 
of your land are wide open for your enemies. He speaks of their 
futile resistance. Her preparation would not prevail, 
verses 14 and 15. Her vast numbers would not prevail, 
verses 15 and 16. Her leaders would not prevail, 
verses 17 and 18. Look at the courage of Nahum 
in verse 18. What's he doing? He's addressing the king of Assyria. 
You see, when Jehovah is behind you, you get emboldened. You 
get a dose of courage. You stand before the king of 
Assyria and you say, you're going down. You're like that picture 
that we love to look at of John Knox hanging over his pulpit, 
preaching at the Queen of England, putting his finger right in her 
face. Or like that preacher, I forget the exact name of the 
brother, but he was in a pulpit and one of the kings of England 
was sitting there and he was talking to his wife. The preacher 
bypassed it one or two times, but as the king kept on talking, 
The preacher looked at him in the eyes and said, the beasts 
of the field hear when the lion roars. You will listen to the 
word of God. That's what Nahum's doing. You're 
shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Your nobles rest in 
the dust. Your people are scattered on 
the mountains. No one gathers them. We notice from Nahum 1.1 
that he wrote this prophecy. But he could have spoken it as 
well. Jonah was dispatched to the city. Jonah was told to preach 
within the city. Maybe Nahum had audience with 
the king himself. And he's shaking his finger in 
his face saying, you have incensed, you have angered the God of heaven 
and earth. You will fall. You will be judged. And then notice her epitaph. 
It's as if it's written over her grave. Her destruction is 
final, verse 19, your injury has no healing, your wound is 
severe. Her destruction is a cause of 
rejoicing. All who hear news of you will 
clap their hands over you. And her destruction is fitting. For upon whom has not your wickedness 
passed continually? That's the prophet name. We learn 
a few lessons and then we close. The first, we've already highlighted 
it, the sovereignty of God. You hear that lesson a lot in 
this church. You probably hear it every Sunday. 
You know, that's one of the part in your note-taking you put in. 
That's all we've got. You can't miss it. He who scatters, 
chapter 2, verse 1. I am against you, chapter 2, 
verse 13. Ralph Davis commenting on a section 
in 1 Kings says this. This is basic biblical theology. Yahweh uses evil men to punish 
other evil men, and later judges the evil instruments he used 
for their own evil. If you've got a problem with 
that, you need to search the Scriptures. Well, that's not 
fair. Read your Bible. Isaiah 10 tells 
us God raised up Assyria, used them to chase in Israel, and 
then He judged Assyria. Jeremiah 27, 1-7, God speaks 
of Nebuchadnezzar as My servant. Now, to be honest with you, brethren, 
I'd much rather live in a universe where Nebuchadnezzar is the servant 
of God than functioning on his own. I don't like when madmen 
function on their own. I like to know that God has a 
leash on His madmen, that God uses madmen to accomplish His 
own purpose, that even though I may miss it while I'm in it, 
I know that God is working all things according to the counsel 
of His own will, and He's doing it for my good. Secondly, The horror of chapter 
2, verse 13. As I said, Romans 8.31 serves 
as one of the blessed promises in all of Scripture for the people 
of God. If God is with us, if God is for us, who can be against 
us? Well, Nahum gives us the opposite 
of that. Nahum gives us the contra. Nahum 
gives us the other side. If God is against you, who can 
be for you? See, there were no allies to 
come and aid Nineveh in this siege. If there were allies, 
they would have fallen along with Nineveh. Because when God 
is against you, if you have not believed the Gospel, if you have 
not repented of your sins, if you are not hidden safely in 
the Lord Jesus, and God is against you, there is none who can help 
you. And then notice the picture. 
I already referenced it. This is just a small picture 
of the final judgment. Verse 10, she is empty, desolate 
and waste. The heart melts. This is chapter 
2, verse 10. The heart melts and the knees 
shake. Much pain is in every side and all their faces are 
drained of color. I read a story over the week 
of a pastor that took his little girl, I don't know, she was under 
10, got her in the car and took her to the city dump. They just 
looked at the dump. It's a good idea here. And while 
they're looking at the dump, they see old Barbie dolls and 
old furniture and junk, right? But all that junk wasn't junk 
of time. All that stuff used to be in 
people's houses. It was stuff they worked hard 
for. It was stuff they valued and they prized. It was stuff 
they held dear to. The lesson for this little girl 
is, everything we love and hold to and cleave to, in the end, 
can end up in the dump. All of our diversions, all of 
our legitimate hobbies, all of our experiences, everything that 
we love to do, are ultimately heading for the dump. You may 
not like that, but that's where it goes. You know, you might 
have a collection of something. My figurines. What's going to 
happen to my figurines when I die? Well, if someone doesn't like 
those figurines, they're going to the dump. Or they're going 
to the Bible's permission and then the dump. We all like to 
buy junk, keep it for a while, give it to someone else, they 
give it to someone else. It ultimately ends up at the 
dump. How many things do we value and prize that make no difference? You see, when Nahum sees this 
city, empty, desolate, destroyed, I'm sure in his own heart of 
hearts, it caused a change in the way that he viewed life. 
Doesn't it amaze you, the tiny things that captivate our attention? You know, last Sunday night, 
I read a quote from Lloyd-Jones about the modern church and about 
how the church is trying to entertain and try to be so wily. He says, we're even more wily 
than the devil today, getting people in. I kid you not, the 
next day or the day after, I get something from the ministerial 
about this service that's going to be held at a church to bless 
pets. And I love my pets, man. They 
have brought great joy to my little life. But consistently, over the 11 
years that I've been in Chilliwack, two pastors go to the pro-life 
walk. Two. Now they could be busy, 
the others. They could have a lot of things 
going on. They could have theological disagreement. Okay. But you know, 
our priorities are kind of messed up. Our priorities are kind of 
off kilter at times. We've got all these problems, 
governmentally, right now. We have a major, huge, magnificent 
issue. So what do we do? Let's swing 
mud on our counterpart. Let's just tell everybody what 
a messed up guy he is. Okay, but what are you doing 
to fix the problems? It happens in the church, man. 
It happens in the church. We get 
so caught up with so little. Yet the big things, they escape 
us. Nahum calls us to consider the 
final judgment. And then the prophet Nahum does 
one other thing. We'll close on this. Notice the 
last verse. is a question. The final question. Nahum does 
this. He asks a series of questions 
in his prophecy. But the book ends with a question. Out of the 66 books in the Bible, 
there are two books that end in a question. They are, interestingly 
enough, Jonah and Nahum. Both written with the same target. Nineveh. Jonah's book ends with 
a question formulated to highlight God's mercy, right? It ends with a question to the 
prophet, should I not pity Nineveh, in which there are 120,000 persons 
that don't know their left from their right and much livestock 
too? That's a question. It's designed 
to highlight God's mercy. Nahum ends with a question designed 
to highlight this truth. If you do not respond to God's 
mercy, it gives way to justice. You cannot get rid of it. You 
cannot escape it. As I mentioned before, there's 
a holy stubbornness with our God. When you don't kiss the 
Son, when you don't bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, He takes His 
rod of iron and He smashes. That's what David says in Psalm 
2, "'Tis the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in his way 
when his wrath is kindled but a little.'" So these two questions 
and these two prophets targeting the city of Nineveh are designed 
to highlight God's mercy and God's justice. I think the church 
today needs to begin to shine the light on that second question. 
Because God is the judge, and there is one way of salvation, 
and it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well, let us pray. 
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the vivid 
description of your judgment. And God, may it truly inspire 
fear in our own hearts as we consider our nation, as we consider 
the nations of the earth, as we consider our children and 
our loved ones and our family members. God, help us not to 
be so fixated on the passing, on the temporal, on the temporary 
things in this world that cause us to be consumed with the fact 
that our God is in heaven, that our Lord Jesus Christ will come 
again to judge the living and the dead, and that, Father, we 
ought to, as far as we're able, call men. to repentance and faith. We pray that you'd bless us as 
individuals and bless this church. God, we pray that you would help 
us to be faithful in this high calling that you have given to 
us. And I pray that you would go with each one of us now and 
sober us and cause us to reflect upon these prophets, cause us 
to see their application in our own day and age. And we ask through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.