Nahum 3:1-19

Nahum is a bit hard to read because it is harsh.

The justice of God is fair but nonetheless hard to hear.

Onward to Nahum 3:1-19.

In this chapter, we get a blend of the description of the judgement that will fall on Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, God speaking directly and a final concluding announcement of judgement.

The judgement described, vv. 1-4.

The bold texts below are from the NET. Read it aloud. The translation seems to be trying to capture the cadences of a preached message of doom. It begins with a description of why judgement will fall on them.

Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed!
She is full of lies;
she is filled with plunder;
she has hoarded her spoil!

It is then followed by this series of images you can see and hear in drumbeat like fashion:

The chariot drivers will crack their whips;
the chariot wheels will shake the ground;
the chariot horses will gallop;
the war chariots will bolt forward!
The charioteers will charge ahead;
their swords will flash
and their spears will glimmer!
There will be many people slain;
there will be piles of the dead,
and countless casualties –
so many that people will stumble over the corpses.

Nahum then returns once again as to why this nation deserves judgement.
Because you have acted like a wanton prostitute –
a seductive mistress who practices sorcery,
who enslaves nations by her harlotry,
and entices peoples by her sorcery –

Periodically, in the text of Nahum, God speaks directly. We have seen this before in 1:12-14 and 2:13. We see this again in 3:5-7.

"I am against you," declares the Lord who commands armies.
"I will strip off your clothes!
I will show your nakedness to the nations
and your shame to the kingdoms;
I will pelt you with filth;
I will treat you with contempt;
I will make you a public spectacle.
Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust;
they will say, 'Nineveh has been devastated!
Who will lament for her?'
There will be no one to comfort you!"

Again the drumbeat cadence of repetitions of doom. We would prefer to think about how God loves the world and sent His Son Jesus to be the Savior and we definitely should immerse ourselves in the truth of God's grace. But if God is truly a God who will receive the sinner who turns from their sins, what is God suppose to do about the sinner who doesn't turn from their sin? What is God to do about an nation that has sinned and won't change its ways? Would God be worthy of worship if God forgives the repentant sinner but doesn't judge the one who refuses to repent?

In vv. 8-11, we get an anchor into another historic reality of that era of ancient history in the citation of the judgement of Thebes which fell in 663 BCE. Assyria would fall in 612. Turns out in a bit of justice, it was the Assyrians who sacked Thebes though this article cites the date as 661. Nonetheless, what irony that those who destroyed Thebes would suffer the same fate!

You are no more secure than Thebes –
she was located on the banks of the Nile;
the waters surrounded her,
her rampart was the sea,
the water was her wall.
Cush and Egypt had limitless strength;
Put and the Libyans were among her allies.
Yet she went into captivity as an exile;
even her infants were smashed to pieces at the head of every street.
They cast lots for her nobility;
all her dignitaries were bound with chains.
You too will act like drunkards;
you will go into hiding;
you too will seek refuge from the enemy.

Nahum returns once again to a doleful recitation of the doom that will fall upon Nineveh in vv. 12-17.

All your fortifications will be like fig trees with first-ripe fruit:
If they are shaken, their figs will fall into the mouth of the eater!
Your warriors will be like women in your midst;
the gates of your land will be wide open to your enemies;
fire will consume the bars of your gates.
Draw yourselves water for a siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Trample the mud and tread the clay!
Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!
There the fire will consume you;
the sword will cut you down;
it will devour you like the young locust would.
Multiply yourself like the young locust;
multiply yourself like the flying locust!
Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven!
They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away.
Your courtiers are like locusts,
your officials are like a swarm of locusts!
They encamp in the walls on a cold day,
yet when the sun rises, they fly away;
and no one knows where they are.

The methods of poetry can be used to potent effect with its evocation of images and sound and smells thorough word choices. Even the very pattern of repetition of ideas slightly changed with each line contributes to the mood. And here the doom and despair just hammers home hard.

Nahum ends with one final parting shot in vv. 18-19 which forms a counter-point to Nahum 1:15-2:2 which described the fall of Assyria and Nineveh from the perspective of celebration for the oppressed Israelites. For the oppressed, proclaim on the mountains the good news of Assyria's fall. For the Assyrians, are see themselves scattered like sheep on the mountain. For the Israelites, they can celebrate and experience restoration. For Nineveh, it is the end of line, their demise and destruction if a fatal injury and incurable wound.

Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria!
Your officers are slumbering!
Your people are scattered like sheep on the mountains
and there is no one to regather them!
Your destruction is like an incurable wound;
your demise is like a fatal injury!
All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy,
for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!

Lord, your rulership in this world is breaking in for at the Cross of Christ there is good news. Your victory has begun but has not been completed yet. Help me as an individual and help us as a people who follow you to fight the wickedness within ourselves and strive to combat the wickedness in our society that destroys lives. God speed the days of restoration and heighten the visibility of your goodness in this world. Amen.

Nahum 2:11-13

Let's recap up to this point.

In Nahum 1:1 we are introduced to Nahum. Beyond what is in this verse, we know nothing else about him.

Nahum 1:2-8 stressed the character of God
Nahum 1:9-11 began the announcement of the judgment upon Nineveh.
God is referred to in the third person in this section.

Nahum 1:12-14 God spoke of judgment in first person.

Nahum 1:15-2:10 the judgment against Nineveh is described in very vivid terms.

And now let's enter a brief reflection on Nahum 2:11-13 where the imagery is of a lion (Nineveh) now decimated. Additionally, God spoke again in first person in verse 13 using the image of a lion for Nineveh.

Verses 11-12
Where now is the den of the lions,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion, lioness, and lion cub once prowled
and no one disturbed them?
The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed
and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses;
he filled his lairs with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.

The lion is probably the most fierce animal in the ancient world. Elephants might be bigger but the sight of a lion pouncing on its prey and tearing it apart must have been one of the most scary and awe-inspiring sights. In the NETBible study note #77 on this passage, it said the Assyrians saw themselves as lions. Thus, this part here turns their national image of themselves on its head.

This section concluded with God speaking out against them.

"I am against you!" declares the Lord who commands armies:
I will burn your chariots with fire;
the sword will devour your young lions;
you will no longer prey upon the land;
the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard."
NETBible

We usually prefer thinking in more positive terms: if God is for us, who can be against us?

Here it is turned upside down, if God is against us, what chance do we have?

And indeed, Assyria was utterly destroyed.

How do we stand in the face of God in response to a passage like this?

I recently heard a lecture on the life of John Calvin. The speaker, Fred Sanders, admitted he was trained at a seminary that wasn't supportive of all of Calvin's theological ideas. But he believed he learned very much about how to approach the Scriptures in an honest and thorough way by reading John Calvin's magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Sanders admired Calvin's attitude of "doing theology before the face of God." In the end, Sanders shared, when we "do theology" we are trying to express our understanding of God and in order to do it seriously, we have to be willing to say our theology back to God.

Because of this endorsement from a non-Calvinist, I have decided I'll try to read this famous work. I suspect it will be in fits and starts as it is a very large work and not always the easiest reading!

I came across this in Chapter II, part II:
"... he embraces him not less as the avenger of wickedness than as the rewarder of the righteous; because he perceives that it equally appertains to his glory to store up punishment for the one, and eternal life for the other."

Yes, God is the God of the simple but profound truth, "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong."

As I read Nahum, do I also embrace this God who is the "avenger of wickedness?"

Lord, as one who wants to understand your ways and live for you, it isn't easy to think about the hard things of God. But, indeed, if I am to praise your goodness and kind mercies, I need to praise you for your justice that will fall upon those who are wicked. In this passage in Nahum, I see that no one escapes and judgment fell upon an evil nation. Lord, have mercy and help bring about repentance and reconciliation in the world today in all its hard places. Thy Kingdom come and with may the fullness of justice and restoration and reversal come too. Amen.