Here’s a quick refresher of the first 2 chapters of Nahum. Years ago, in the time of Jonah, when
Nineveh was warned of God’s warning of judgement, they repented and God withheld
his punishment. Nineveh had responded with humility, sorrow, and repentance,
but as we mentioned last week, Nineveh quickly returned to its barbaric and
wicked ways and it seems as if God had no response at all, at least until now.
Nahum’s vision began with showing why God is moving again against Nineveh, and
how God is going to move against Nineveh. In the culture of the time, it shows
the Assyrians that Nineveh’s gods cannot protect her. Yahweh, Judah’s God, is
more powerful, no earthly empire can stand against Judah’s God. We don’t battle
the powers by ourselves, the Lord battles for and with us.
The Lord gives Nahum a glimpse in his vision of what the punishment of Nineveh is going to look
like. It’s going to look a lot like the carnage and destruction Nineveh had
brought onto so many other nations. Nahum sees, “The
crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses, and jolting chariots!
Charging cavalry, flashing swords, and glittering spears! Many casualties,
piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—all
because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of
sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her
witchcraft.” The Lord’s justice is going to be harsh and hard. Her evil
is going to be dealt with by the God of justice who allows evil to survive for
only a time before holding the perpetrators of evil and injustice responsible.
The Lord is slow to anger, but he also doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished. In
Nahum, this is about an empire, but this is the comfort and hope that we hold
onto for today as well. For those who have had to flee their country due to
persecution or violence, the refugee’s hope is that God will hold those responsible
for the persecution and violence responsible. For those who have been hurt
through domestic violence, who have been violated by someone else and are
working through the hurt and brokenness it, these are cries to God to hold
those who hurt and destroy others to be held accountable.
Nahum reveals that the Lord is going to shame Nineveh; to bring them to their knees by revealing who they
really are and how their actions have shaped their identity and character. “I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift
your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the
kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.” Nineveh’s compared to a prostitute chasing
after power and wealth, selling herself and her soul. The Lord will shame her
in public so all the nations will see what the consequences of unfaithfulness and
wickedness is. This vision of Nahum is more for Israel than for Nineveh,
calling Israel back to faithfulness to God since Israel keeps chasing after the
gods of the other nations; willing to sell themselves to fill all their desires
and lusts.
These are echoes to the purity laws found in Leviticus
given after God freed Israel from slavery to Egypt.
The purity laws are given to the people to remind them that they are in a
covenant relationship with Yahweh and expected to keep themselves pure for
Yahweh. Yahweh commits himself to a devoted relationship with his people. The
image of this relationship is like that of a husband and wife. This is the
point behind the marriage of the prophet Hosea to unfaithful Gomer where the
Lord keeps telling Hosea to take his unfaithful wife back as a symbol of Lord’s
unconditional love for his people. Paul picks up on this in his letter to the
Ephesians, comparing Jesus’ relationship to the church as a groom who loves his
wife sacrificially and is making her holy through his love.
The imagery of warfare and water come up again and again in Nahum’s vision. The vision is
fulfilled just a few years later. Historian Michael Barrett tells us, “Nineveh
fell to a Medo-Babylonian coalition in 612 BC. The Babylonian Chronicle
describes a two-month siege against Nineveh that was ultimately aided by the
flooding of the Tigris, which enabled the Babylonian forces to breach Nineveh’s
seemingly impregnable defensive walls. Likewise, Nahum links Nineveh’s fall to
a flood indicating that the prophet was predicting precisely what Babylon would
do.” Another commentator writes, “Traces of dams (“gates,” or sluices) for regulating
the supply are still visible, so that the whole city could be surrounded with a
water barrier (as referred to in) Nahum 2:8 (Nineveh is
like a pool, and its water is draining away, “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one
turns back”) …. The moats or canals, flooded by the Ninevites before the
siege to repel the foe, were made a dry bed to march into the city, by the foe
turning the waters into a different channel: as Cyrus did in the siege of
Babylon [Maurer]…. there was an old prophecy that it should not be taken till
the river became its enemy; so in the third year of the siege, the river by a
flood broke down the walls twenty furlongs, and the king thereupon burnt
himself and his palace and all his concubines and wealth together, and the
enemy entered by the breach in the wall.”
In the Sunday School room, they have Psalm 20:7 on the wall, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Nineveh depended on their chariots and horses, but the Lord proves
more powerful than their chariots, horses, or gods. The Babylonians, whom the
Lord uses to defeat Nineveh, divert the water from the river Tigris away from
the moat, allowing their army to march against Nineveh on dry ground. We hear
echoes to when the Lord creates a path through the sea on dry ground for the
Israelites to walk to safety and then uses the water to crush the might of
Egypt. Egypt trusted in their might, believing the Red Sea has defeated Israel,
until the Lord defeats them using the water of the sea against them; Nineveh
trusts in the Tigris to protect them until it doesn’t.
Nahum reminds Nineveh and Israel of the fate of the
city Thebes,
“Are you better than Thebes, situated on the
Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.
Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her
allies. Yet she was taken captive and went into exile.” Yahweh is warning them to be careful about what or who they put their
trust in; unless it’s the Lord, it’s likely to fail you at some point. The Lord
won’t fail us. We see the Lord’s commitment to us in Jesus coming to join us
here on earth and reminding us of the Father’s commitment to us; calling and
inviting us to follow him and come close to the Father. Jesus engages Satan and
his powers in a battle that we’re so often unaware of, a battle for our hearts,
minds, and souls. Revelation, another vision, gives us a picture of Jesus as a
warrior going up against the beast, the dragon, and Satan, the unholy trinity,
and defeating them and throwing them into the lake of fire.
Jesus comes to save us from the oppression of sin and the chains that sin wraps around our
hearts, minds, and souls. Just as Israel was drawn to the gods of the nations
around them, and these gods kept failing them and leading them into slavery and
oppression, in the same way we are drawn to the gods of our time and the
promises they make to free us and bring us riches, pleasure, power, and
acceptance, and yet they always fail us at some point, leaving us to deal with
the brokenness, the hurt, the rejection, and the feelings of hopelessness and
defeat. Jesus calls us to place our trust and faith in him and the Father. To
help us with this and experience his healing and restoration, Jesus gives us
his Spirit to comfort us, to guide us to Jesus, and remind us of his promises
of forgiveness from our sin.
Nahum is all about warfare and punishment, yet it is only a small part of the gospel story.
Because of the brokenness, violence, and wickedness that came into the world
through sin, Jesus comes to battle it, but for the purpose of restoring what
our sin has twisted. In another vision later on, John in Revelation 21 gives us
a picture of this is going to look like. Revelation, “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I
saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the
people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself
will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order
of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne
said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these
words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will
give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are
victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my
children.”
In the middle of all the hard of life, we look to Jesus who brings hope and new life. Trust
in him.
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