Key Verse:
Nahum 1:2 NKJV
2
God is jealous, and the Lord avenges;
The Lord avenges and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
Nahum 1:2 CJB (Complete Jewish Bible)
2
Adonai is a jealous and vengeful God.
Adonai avenges; he knows how to be angry.
Adonai takes vengeance on his foes
and stores up wrath for his enemies.
God’s anger is always managed according to His righteousness.
What you need to know
This week’s lesson will focus on Nahum’s prophecy against Ninevah, the capital of Assyria. Assyria was an ancient Empire built and ruled by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah. Nimrod built the cities of Ninevah and Babylon. Assyria rose to power around 2500 BC and remained so until its collapse in the time of Nahum, the prophet. Assyria is mentioned in Genesis (chapter 10), the book of Job (the Chaldeans), and throughout the Old Testament, primarily as adversaries to the people of God.
During the reign of Jeroboam II (782 - 750 BC) God sent Jonah to preach to Ninevah, the capital of Assyria at that time. In response to Jonah’s message, Ninevah repented. For sixty or so years Israel knew peace and prosperity as a result of Assyria’s repentance.
The time span from last week’s lesson from Isaiah, chapter 9, to this week’s lesson on The Book of Nahum, Chapter One is roughly around one hundred years. Isaiah prophesied to a young King Ahaz, the king of Judah around 732 BC. The young king refused God’s help and instead chose to exercise a political option and request help from the kingdom of Assyria. That proved to be disastrous for Israel (not Judah). By 721 BC the destruction and exile of Israel to Assyria was complete. Northern Israel, or more specifically, Samaria was no more.
Another hundred years pass before God calls Nahum to ministry. Israel has remained in exile over that time. Assyria will be called into account for the severity of their cruelty against Israel. Nahum is God’s voice for that moment. Today’s lesson is more a lesson of God’s character and righteousness. This short prelude serves as an example of God’s overwhelming majesty and power over even a great nation like Assyria.
The Lesson
Nahum 1:1 NKJV
1 The burden against Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Elkosh was a city of Assyria. Based on his name, Nahum appears to have been a Jewish exile, possibly from the region of Capernaum in the region of Galilee. Note the similarity of his name, Nahum to Caper-na-um. More likely than not, his parents or grandparents were exiled from Northern Israel at the time of the exile, around 721 BC and Nahum was probably born in Elkosh, which would have been a city in Assyria during that time. That city is known presently as Alqosh in northern Iraq. Nahum’s name means comforter, which illustrates the hopefulness of his parents and their desire for Israel. The ‘burden’ of the message God gave to Nahum may have been a reflection of that desire that God’s displaced people had for Israel.
Nahum 1:2 NKJV
2
God is jealous, and the Lord avenges;
The Lord avenges and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
As a resident of Elkosh, Nahum is speaking directly to Assyrians. He begins by clearly stating the Lord’s displeasure with the sorry state of His people and His unmitigated anger at the nation responsible for it, Assyria. For his listeners, he must have seemed foolhardy. Who was he to preach of God being greater than Assyria? Assyria was a world power 500 years before the time of Abraham. Surely the God of Israel posed no threat to such a great nation.
Nahum 1:3 NKJV
3
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
And will not at all acquit the wicked.
The Lord has His way
In the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet.
But Nahum persists. God is great in power. If Assyria has remained, it is only because God is merciful and slow to anger. However, make no mistake. God will not allow injustice to go unpunished. When a nation has aroused the anger of the Lord, His power is matchless. Far greater than any earthly empire. He who rules Heaven rules all.
Nahum 1:6 NKJV
6
Who can stand before His indignation?
And who can endure the fierceness of His anger?
His fury is poured out like fire,
And the rocks are thrown down by Him.
To the faces of his oppressors, Nahum continues to extol the power and fierce majesty of the unseeable God of Israel. It was common for ancient rulers to present themselves as ‘gods’ to their subjects. Nahum challenges Ninevah, the royal city of Assyria, to present their ‘champion’; their king in opposition. Who can stand against God? Can any mere ruler stand against the creator of all? Certainly not!
Nahum 1:7 NKJV
7
The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble;
And He knows those who trust in Him.
Yet, God is good. He will show mercy to the just. He will protect those who are His, even in the midst of the storm. He will be a shelter in times of trouble. A very present help in times of need. He never removes His gaze from those who are called by His name.
Nahum 1: 8 NKJV
8
But with an overflowing flood
He will make an utter end of its place,
And darkness will pursue His enemies.
And yet, God is able to shield His people while sweeping away their enemies from that same space. Not only will he remove them, but He will chase them from the places they have occupied, namely Israel. And the implication is that they will continually flee from fear of the Holy God of Israel.
Nahum 1:11-12 KNJV
12 Thus says the Lord:
“Though they are [a]safe, and likewise many,
Yet in this manner, they will be cut down
When he passes through.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more;
13
For now, I will break off his yoke from you,
And burst your bonds apart.”
Nahum’s message now for the Assyrians who are still listening and the Hebrews who are also gathered around him is at once a confirmation that what Goa has promised, He is able to perform. God will see the enemies of His people defeated and He will see the yoke of oppression removed from His people’s shoulders. Yes God had allowed their oppression, but woe to those who celebrated their hand in God’s judgment as validation for their own self-righteousness. Nahum proclaimed Assyria’s soon-to-come destruction.
Nahum 1:15 NKJV
15
Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!
O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,
Perform your vows.
For the [a]wicked one shall no more pass through you;
He is utterly cut off.
Isaiah 52:7 NKJV
7
How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Nahum now draws from the musings of the great prophet, Isaiah. Beautiful are the feet of those who will proclaim God’s good news from the mountain top, or even from the valley in the shadow of death. Wherever the Gospel is preached, hope is present. In the context of today’s lesson, Nahum’s burden brings hope to a people who were a generation removed from their homeland.
Nahum’s message to Assyria was essentially the same as Jonah had preached almost 200 years earlier. In Jonah’s day, Ninevah repented and Assyria was saved. This time, Assyria rejected Nahum’s message and was completely destroyed within five years of Nahum’s preaching. Their ancient might was nothing compared to God Almighty, Who used the nations around them to conquer them completely.
Beloved, justice must not be ignored. When it seems that He does not hear the cry of the oppressed, fear not. God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. He is simply extending an invitation of peace to the oppressor. However, if they continue to ignore the invitation to grace, and continue to trample the lives of the oppressed; the poor, the immigrant, the widows, the elderly, the needy, God will respond. For the elite to continue to act in this way is for them to refuse the grace and mercy of the Lord, and thus, to incur His eventual wrath. Pray that God will send messengers in this day who are willing to preach against injustice in any form to those who are the arbiters of injustice in the earth today. Jesus' sermon on the mount provided the blueprint. We need to but follow His example.
Selah
wb
Romans 10:14-15 NKJV
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who [b]preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
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