Good morning brothers,
I’ve chosen to cover the three
chapters of Nahum in one morning because they are a comprehensive description
of the judgment of God on Nineveh and paint a unified picture. There are
numerous Biblical and historical illusions and references in these three
chapters, which is to say that we could easily spend more time in Nahum, as we
could in all the Minor Prophets, but since we’re doing an “overview” in these
prophets we’ll just spend one morning in Nahum.
Nineveh was destroyed in August 612
B.C. by an alliance of Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians after a two-month siege.
The first record we have of Nineveh occurs around 2100 B.C.; it became capital
of the Assyrian Empire around 722 B.C. By the time of Nahum, Nineveh was a large
city with massive fortifications, including a wall 40 – 50 feet high for its
inner defenses (I’m not going to get into the weeds about how large it was or
how many people because there are different ways to determine that since the
city had suburbs).
When reading Nahum’s prophecy of
the utter destruction of Nineveh, keep in mind that up until the 19th
century there was no evidence of Nineveh, and some people considered it
mythical. Nineveh is in proximity to the city of Mosul. My understanding is
that archaeologists have to dig around 40 feet deep to get to the first layer of
the Nineveh, and there is more than one layer because the city is so ancient. One
of the neat things archaeologists found is they royal library with 22,000 inscribed
clay tablets containing history and religious tradition, it’s been a great help
in understanding the ancient world.
Here is a glimpse of the
brutality of Nineveh, it’s a selection from the annals of Ashurnasirpal II, in
the 9th century B.C. (this is from Robertson’s commentary):
“I built a pillar over against
his city-gate, and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered
the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, and some upon
the pillar on stakes I impaled, and others I fixed to sakes around the pillar;
many within the border of my own land I flayed, and I spread their skins upon
the walls; and I cut off the limbs of
the high officers, of the high-royal officers who had rebelled. “
The quotation goes on in a
similar fashion, I’ll spare you more. Nice guy, don’t you think?
1:3 Compare Jonah 4:2, Exodus 34:6. God is longsuffering,
but a time of judgment comes sooner or later – 2 Peter 3:8 – 9.
1:7 Compare Isaiah 26:20. God
promises to be with His people in the midst of His judgment on the nations. I particularly
find comfort in Isaiah 26:20 (in context of course) and similar passages. God
is our refuge no matter what. This,
of course, doesn’t mean that we are spared either suffering or persecution, for
we are called to suffer; but it does mean that whatever does happen that our
Lord Jesus is with us and He is our shelter, our refuge, our rock.
1:13 Compare Isaiah 10:5 – 34 (see
how Isaiah 10:27 compares with Nahum 1:13). Nineveh and Assyria are a major
thread in the Bible; the city of Nineveh and the Empire of Assyria represent
those powers opposed to the Kingdom of God and the People of God, we find them
in every generation. God promises deliverance to His people from our
oppressors, in whatever form oppression may take – political, military,
religious, economic, sin, false teachers, etc. How this all works out is
another matter, and for me pretty much a mystery, at least in terms of our
temporal life on earth.
1:15 Compare with Isaiah 40:9; 52:6 – 7; Romans 10:15. In
the midst of all the mess of life we have Good News.
Nahum 2:6 – here’s a comment from a commentator (O. Palmer
Robertson):
“More likely the gates of the rivers refer to the sluices
which first would have been closed by the invaders and then opened so as to
flood the wall of the city, breaking it through. This interpretation
corresponds essentially with the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, an ancient
Greek historian who indicates that in the fall of Nineveh a series of heavy
rains swelled the Euphrates (an error for the Tigris), flooded parts of the
city, and overthrew the wall for a length of about two miles (twenty stadia).”
In conclusion, Revelation chapters
17 and 18 give us a picture of political, economic, and religious opposition to
God and His Kingdom; while in Revelation it is styled as “Babylon” (which we’ve
seen in our study of the Minor Prophets), we see the same characteristics in
the Bible in Assyria, Nineveh, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt – all of these Biblical
threads present the same picture of cultural, economic, military, governmental,
and religious opposition to the Kingdom of God and God’s People. In Revelation
these threads reach a crescendo.
What begins in Genesis 10:8 – 12 and Genesis 11:1 – 9 reaches its
conclusion in Revelation – we are first and foremost engaged in spiritual warfare
and we are assured that the Kingdom of our Father will prevail (Daniel Chapter
2) – we are overcomers, we are called to prevail and be a source of light and life
to others – we are not called to run away (Isaiah 60, Romans 8).
A closing observation: If we knew
the Biblical patterns, such as Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, etc. (patterns found
throughout Revelation) and the patterns of God’s deliverance in Christ (patterns
found throughout Revelation) we would spend a lot less time chasing our tails
on Fox News, CNN, talk radio, and whatever else you’d care to throw in there
and be focused on Jesus Christ and His Kingdom – because the forces of this age
are opposed to the Kingdom of God…whether those forces are “red” or “blue” or “purple”
– or whatever other color you want to throw in. Note that Babylon is described
as a “whore” in Revelation, whether an economic whore or a governmental whore
or a religious whore – the Great Whore wants to seduce us away from a
monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3) – there should be nothing in our lives in
competition with Jesus Christ (remember that in Hosea we were Gomer the
whore!).
Our Father says, “This is my
beloved Son, hear him!” (Matthew 17:5) And we reply, “Yeah but…”
