An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
God's Wrath Against Nineveh
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The Lord is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the Lord?
He will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
who plotted evil against the Lord,
a worthless counselor.
12 Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds apart.”
14 The Lord has given commandment about you:
“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off. Nahum 1 ESV
Nahum 1
Nahum of Elkosh - The book bears the name of the prophet who brought the oracles of God against the city of Nineveh. His name means "comfort, consolation".
In the case of Nahum, nothing is provided except that he was an Elkoshite (1:1), referring either to his birthplace or his place of ministry. Attempts to identify the location of Elkosh have been unsuccessful. Suggestions include Al Qosh, situated in northern Iraq (thus Nahum would have been a descendant of the exiles taken to Assyria in 722 B.C.), Capernaum (“town of Nahum”), or a location in southern Judah (cf. 1:15). His birthplace or locale is not significant to the interpretation of the book. - GTY
An oracle concerning Nineveh - Now we remember this city as a capital of Assyria, and this is the same city that saw revival some decades earlier (possibly 100 years prior), under the reluctant ministry of Jonah. She has fallen back into her old ways, as it is only ever a generation from doing so, and of note is that the wind truly blows where it wishes, it is God that saves and only God Who can sustain, you cannot be born into being born again, but you must be born again.
ii. Nineveh was an ancient and famous city. It was founded by the first world dictator, Nimrod (Genesis 10:11). “From Nineveh’s walls, temples, palaces, inscriptions, and reliefs, mute yet elaborate witness is given to a city that flourished up to its destruction in 612 B.C. Accordingly, the magnificent buildings, artistic designs, and water-supply projects of Nineveh have resulted in its being likened to ancient Versailles” (Major Cities of the Biblical World). - E Word
…6Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”… John 3: 6-8
The Lord is a jealous and avenging God - One of the definitions of jealousy from the Oxford dictionary, I think most fitting here, and I will show Scripture to go along with this, but the definition is: "fiercely protective of one's rights or possessions."
· God is jealous: How can it be said that God is jealous? “God’s jealousy is love in action. He refuses to share the human heart with any rival, not because He is selfish and wants us all for Himself, but because He knows that upon that loyalty to Him depends our very moral life… God is not jealous of us: He is jealous for us.” (Redpath in Law and Liberty) E Word
1I hope you will bear with a little of my foolishness, but you are already doing that. 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.… 2 Corinthians 11: 1-3
…28Joshua son of Nun, the attendant to Moses since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” 29But Moses replied, “Are you jealous on my account? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would place His Spirit on them!” 30Then Moses returned to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.… Numbers 11: 28-30
6Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 7On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, 8followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,…
…9but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. 10Then the LORD said to Moses, 11“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal.… Numbers 25: 6-11
The Lord is slow to anger - This passage is a perfect testament to giving the whole counsel of God, yet some would preach only 5 words, "the Lord is slow to anger", or, "God is love", seeking to provide solace for the soul that actually needs to repent. Look at the verse above, God is also "avenging and wrathful", the Lamb that was slain is also the Lion of Judah. You cannot be an honest witness, and you will not be innocent of their blood if you do not give the whole counsel of God. Again, this is coming to Nineveh after they had witnessed God's patience during the ministry of Jonah, some 100 years prior, when the message was basically, "repent, because in 40 days God is going to destroy this place." They repented and God relented for 100 more years.
…3So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? 5But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.… Romans 2: 3-5
The Lord will by no means clear the guilty - Taking the totality of Scripture, it becomes a rebuke to those that think God changes His mind about sin, or just writes it off, no, either He pays or you pay, there is the cross, or your own righteousness, which the Bible describes as filthy rags. Your works, your being a good person, finding people that agree with you about that, all that leads to eternal damnation. His is a just weight and balance, so look at these two lives:
First, Moses, now Moses was the meekest of men, interceding even on behalf of those who had made themselves his enemies, but remember when God told him to speak to the rock, and instead he struck it, so God's response to this was that he lose the thing that he had so long looked forward to; Moses did not enter the Promised Land. God was jealous of His honor, and His prophet had disobeyed Him.
David, he was called "a man after God's own heart," yet he was an adulterer and a murderer. Now David had a heart after God, so he mourned and repented of his sin, yet the sword never left his house. God took his child. His son killed his other son, then Absalom went after his father, then Absalom died, and yet every horrible thing that ever happened to David here was nothing in comparison to eternity. God is just, and so there are consequences for our sins, and we see some that seem to go through this life without repercussions, yet this life is not even a memorable span of time in comparison to eternity.
1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? 3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?… Romans 6: 1-3
14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! 16Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?… Romans 6: 14-16
…13For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.… Galatians 6: 13-15
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry - His capacity to follow through with His creation is beyond our comprehension and ability. He spoke things into being, and it follows quite simply and scientifically, because everything we see, hear and touch has language, the very fabric of who we are, millions of lines of coded DNA, and when He talks to the sea it splits and allows His people passage. Jesus showed His disciples Who He was on the Lake of Galilee.
…38But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?” 39Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm. 40“Why are you so afraid?” He asked. “Do you still have no faith?”… Mark 4: 38-40
Who can stand before His indignation - The answer is not me, not you, and a mere vision of His holiness was enough to traumatize the prophets. His glory reflected off the face of Moses was terrifying to the people, and they asked that God not speak directly to them. You will not win a debate with God, you will talk much smack down here during the time of His patience, but you will wet yourself and pass out at only a vision of Him.
…28Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. 29“ For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12: 28-29
He knows those who take refuge in Him - This is an intimate knowledge, He knows of those who are not His, He separated the sheep from the goats, but those who He has granted faith, He alone is their refuge. They put no trust in themselves, their own works, men, angels or governments, they are completely reliant on God, regardless of circumstances here. He remains their hope.
Not only does He know them in the sense of identification, but also in the sense of relationship. Trust implies relationship, and God knows those who trust in Him. “Once more, dear friends, this word ‘know’ here means loving communion… God knows us; he knows our prayers and tears, he knows our wishes, he knows that we are not what we want to be, but he knows what we do desire to be. He knows our aspirations, our sighs, our groans, our secret longings, our own chastenings of spirit when we fail; he has entered into it all. He says, ‘Yes, dear child, I know all about you; I have been with you when you thought you were alone. I have read what you could not read, the secrets of your own heart that you could not decipher I have known them all, and I still know them’” (Spurgeon).
…14You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.… John 15: 14-16
From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord - This reminds us of when Assyria had taken the Northern kingdom and then later had it's heart set upon Jerusalem, in the Southern kingdom of Judah. Sennacherib sent his messenger, Rabshakeh, to dishearten the people of Jerusalem, hoping for a quick surrender. God interceded for Jerusalem and He had a plan for the time of Assyria's full cup as well.
No more shall your name be perpetuated - This Assyrian king's line would be cut off.
I will make your grave, for you are vile - Nineveh had reached the fullness of her sin, and God's wrath was ready to be poured out. Interesting language, the city remained buried for a long time, and much of the remains were discovered during digs in the 1800s.
The feet of him who brings good news - Judah's deliverance from Assyria.
…6Therefore My people will know My name; therefore they will know on that day that I am He who speaks. Here I am!” 7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 8Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, together they shout for joy. For every eye will see when the LORD returns to Zion.… Isaiah 52: 6-8
…14How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 16But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”… Romans 10: 14-16
…14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.… Ephesians 6: 14-16
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