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.
Introduction
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
Overview: Two Chapters, One Judgment
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,
Destruction of Nineveh Described (Nahum 2)
notice the destruction of Nineveh described in chapter 2. There's five particulars.
Announcement of Judgment (vv. 1–2)
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,
Approach of the Soldiers (vv. 3–4)
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.
Attempt at Defense (v. 5)
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
Attack and Plunder of the City (vv. 6–10)
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."
Analogy of the Lion (vv. 11–13)
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
Destruction of Nineveh Explained (Nahum 3)
brings us to consider chapter 3, the destruction of Nineveh, explains specifically the theological explanation.
Her Sins (vv. 1, 4)
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.
Her Devastation (vv. 2–3)
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.
Her Judgment (vv. 5–7)
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.
Her Recompense and Epitaph (vv. 8–19)
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.
Application
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.
Closing Prayer
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.