A certain judgment

I sometimes wonder when I’m ever going to finish 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. I seriously have just a handful of chapters to finish with these two books, but these prophets keep getting in the way. 🙂

I suppose the Israelites felt the same way. The prophets kept getting in the way of the people’s sinful way of life, and so the people probably just wished they would shut up.

In this case, however, the Israelites probably took great comfort in this book. In fact, Nahum’s very name means “comfort” or “consolation.”

And in this book, Nahum predicts the fall of Israel’s oppressors, the Assyrians, namely their capital city of Nineveh.

As we’ve already read in Jonah, God had been about to judge the Ninevites for their sin.

Initially, they had humbled themselves and repented. But they soon reverted to their old ways, and God was once again about to bring judgment upon them.

This time, however, there would be no repentance, and judgment did come.

It’s not exactly clear when this prophecy was written.

It was probably written sometime between the reign of Manasseh and his grandson Josiah. So putting the prophecy here is a bit arbitrary.

But anyway, the book starts with portraying God as a God of wrath, a picture people commonly associate with the “God of the Old Testament” (as if he were different from the God of the New Testament).

Nahum writes,

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.

The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. (Nahum 1:2)

“Sounds pretty wrathful to me, Bruce,” you may say.

True, but it also says in verse 3 that “the Lord is slow to anger.”

And that was very true for Nineveh. God was quick to spare the Ninevites when they repented earlier. And he gave them much more time after they started sinning again to repent.

If this book was written in the time of Manasseh, they had at least 50 years, and if it was written in the time of Josiah, they may have had as many as 30 years to repent.

And yet they didn’t, despite God’s warning that,

The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. (Nahum 1:3)

Ultimately that’s the whole of this book. To those who put their trust in him and follow him,

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)

But of Nineveh, Nahum says,

He will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into darkness. (Nahum 1:8)

And again,

It is decreed that the city be exiled and carried away. Its slave girls moan like doves and beat upon their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool, and its water is draining away.

“Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.

Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures!

She is pillaged, plundered, stripped! Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale. (Nahum 2:7–10)

Why was God doing this? He makes it very clear in chapter 3.

Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!

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 harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. (Nahum 3:1–4)

For years the Ninevites had preyed on other nations, killing many and plundering their cities out of their lust for power and wealth.

Not only that, they had prostituted themselves to false gods and taught other nations to do the same.

So God said,

I am against you…I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’

Where can I find anyone to comfort you?” (Nahum 3:5–7)

Because of their atrocities, no one would ever mourn Nineveh. Nahum concludes by saying,

Nothing can heal your wound; your injury is fatal.

Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty? (Nahum 3:19)

What can we take from this?

Judgment is certain.

God is a God of patience and mercy. He waits far longer than I would for people to repent. He takes no pleasure in seeing people die.

But the time will come when God’s patience runs out, and then judgment will come.

It came for the Ninevites, and it will come for each one of us.

The writer of Hebrews said,

Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

The question you need to ask yourself is: “Are you ready?”