Today in God's Word—December 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
December 9, Nahum 3
There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? - Nahum 3:19
In Nahum 1, God decreed the impending doom of Nineveh. In Chapter 2, the Lord described the doom that was on its way to the wicked Assyrian city. In Chapter 3, we read why Nineveh deserved the doom that was soon to come.
Through Nahum's words, God assured both the Ninevites and the nations who would see the spectacular ruin that Nineveh brought this destruction upon themselves. The Lord pronounced a woe on the bloody city filled with lies and plunder. In another short collection of phrases, God described how the Babylonians with their chariots, swords and spears would leave heaps of dead Ninevites in their wake. The attackers would stumble over the corpses of the casualties. Nineveh would be destroyed because of its ungodly idolatry and cruel abuse. God would expose them to shame and make a spectacle of them. The judgment against them would not only deliver justice to the guilty city; Nineveh’s fall would remind other nations that God is sovereign over all.
Nineveh fell because God was against them. When God is against a nation or an individual, there is no hope for those who have made the Lord their enemy. No ally or wealth, no strategic position or military might could save them from humiliating, deadly defeat. The atrocities the Assyrians had committed against others would come back on their own heads as infants were dashed against the rock before their mothers' eyes. They would see and feel the shame of their elite citizens sold in the slave market. The Assyrians, who struck their opponents with paralyzing fear would know that fear themselves. Their own troops would be terrified and their city wide open to the invaders.
God admonished them to prepare for the onslaught. There would be no escape for the survivors. They would go away into captivity. Their leaders slept the sleep of death and the people were scattered.
Nahum predicted that Nineveh, once spared a hundred years before when they repented, would be spared no longer. Their repentance had evaporated, and so did their reprieve. The Assyrian capital and nation would suffer a fatal wound. It's more likely that the nations who witnessed Nineveh's fall clapped their hands as an ancient demonstration of horror, not celebration.
Nineveh, like Egypt and all other enemies of God's people deserved the severe judgment of God against them. God is in complete control of all the nations, and he would not be mocked by the godless nations. He would judge the wicked foes of his people.
This book is a solemn reminder to all nations and people that it is a deadly serious matter to fight against God and his people. If there is any comfort (the meaning of Nahum's name) to be found in these chapters, it is comfort for the faithful people of God. God assured the Israelites that he would take vengeance on their enemies, and one day restore them to himself. Think how much more joy we could know and how much less we would fret and complain if we believed those foundation principles of God's perfect righteousness and justice!
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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