10.26.22
Nahum– God Judges Apostasy
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knows them that trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of its place, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. (Nahum 1:7-8)
Virtually nothing is known of Nahum. He is said to be from Elkosh (1), but its location is uncertain. It is possibly Capernaum, which means ‘Village-of-Nahum.’ His name means ‘compassionate’ or ‘full of comfort,’ but his message was not one of comfort to the Assyrians. It would, however, bring comfort to Judah.
Nahum was a prophet of God. Where did the prophetic office originate? God designed the office to be able to make known His will to His people. (Deuteronomy 18:15-22)
The approximate time of writing was 630 BC. He wrote between when the Egyptian city of Thebes was destroyed by the Assyrians (3:8), and when Assyria fell. It was Assyria who destroyed powerful Thebes. Assyria with its capital of Nineveh could now expect the same destruction. King Josiah would have been on the throne of Judah. Nahum was a close contemporary of Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Jeremiah.
Though Nahum’s message was to Judah, he barely mentioned the Southern Kingdom. His focus was the empire of Assyria and its capital Nineveh. His book is a sequel to the Book of Jonah. The key to the book is found in 1:3, The LORD is slow to anger and great in power. You might recall that Jonah grudgingly preached to Nineveh and it repented. However, after their short-lived repentance, they lapsed back into idolatry and paganism. They continued to be Israel’s enemy as they destroyed Samaria and scattered the Northern Kingdom. They almost captured Judah during the reign of Hezekiah, but the LORD miraculously intervened. The message that Jonah preached is now repeated by Nahum more than two hundred years later.
Yet at the time of his writing, nothing could seem more unlikely. Nineveh was at the height of its power. The city was large, strong and impregnable. Its thick walls towered more than 100 feet into the air. It was surrounded by the Tigris River on one side and a moat on the other sides. It maintained its own food and water supply. Who could destroy Nineveh?
Most of the prophets who spoke of coming judgment also spoke of a way of escape. But Nineveh had gone too far—there was no turning back. Judgment was certain (3:19). While God is pronouncing divine vengeance upon the bloody city, He is consoling Judah with promises of future deliverance (1:12 b, 13, 15).
When Nineveh was destroyed, it was destroyed for good. When Alexander the Great pushed eastward, he walked over the former sight of Nineveh, not realizing that the seat of an empire lay beneath his feet. Its site was not discovered until 1842. It stood across the Tigris River from present day Mosul, in northern Iraq.
The outline of the book is simple. Judgment upon Nineveh is declared in chapter 1. It is described in chapter 2 as we see the conquering Medo-Persian army in red with their spears, swords and chariots. Heavy rains caused the walls to open and the Persians marched in (2:6) to loot and burn. In chapter 3 we see why this judgment is deserved, for they are like a beautiful harlot, lovely on the outside and filthy within. Though God will forgive our sin when we repent, He will not forgive when we persist.
Our lovely Lord Jesus is seen as the Sovereign over the nations (1:3), and the One who will bring justice to the oppressed (1:12b, 13, 15).