Major Messages from the Minor Prophets: Understanding God's Judgment—Nahum

Hollywood loves sequels. If a movie is a hit and makes several millions of dollars, why not make a sequel that’ll, hopefully, make even more. ILLUS. Consider the Star Wars saga. The eight movies, released over a period between 1977 and 2015 have generated $8 billion dollars at the box office alone. Hollywood has learned the value of sequels in the movie industry. Book publishers will often encourage writers to create a sequel, a follow-up to a best seller. You may not have realized it, but the Bible contains a sequel, too. Nahum is sort of "Jonah: The Sequel."

Jonah is the story of a disobedient prophet who refused to follow God's call to preach to Nineveh. He boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction; was thrown overboard because he had caused a great storm; was swallowed by a great fish; then was thrown up on dry ground and given a second chance to go to Nineveh. He eventually went to Nineveh, but he still didn't want to deliver God's message of repentance.

Why such reluctance on Jonah’s part? Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the mortal enemy of Israel, and the entire Fertile Crescent. Nineveh was a wicked city, the epitome of everything Jonah hated in the Gentile world. The name of the city—Nineveh—was a synonym for godless tyranny. Ninevites had a reputation for cruelty that is hard to fathom in our day. Their specialty was brutality of a violent kind. When their armies captured a city or a country, the soldiers would perform unspeakable atrocities—skinning people alive, decapitation, mutilation, ripping out tongues, making a pyramid of human heads, piercing the chin with a rope, and forcing prisoners to live in kennels like dogs. It would be fair to say that everyone feared and hated the Assyrians.

Eventually Jonah preached God's message of repentance to Nineveh. He told them that if they did not give up their brutal practices, oppression of surrounding nations, and their evil ways God would crush them. And, as you know, much to Jonah's chagrin, Nineveh repented. Her people sought God. The truth about their sinfulness cut them to the heart. God spared Nineveh His judgment—at least for a time.

When Nahum writes his prophecy, some 100 years have passed. Jonah’s grandchildren are telling their children stories of great revival at the preaching of great, great grandpa Jonah. New kings have ascended the Assyrian Empire's throne. You can guess what happened. That repentance? They repented of it. They turned around on their turnaround. The time of sorrow over evil became a hiccup in their legacy of oppression and brutality. Their cruelty increased. They once again sought to capture, torture, and enslave other nations. Assyria had attacked and destroyed Israel. They killed tens of thousands, and took 50,000 into captivity. They invaded Judah and overran all the outlying towns, and then lay siege to Jerusalem from which God miraculously delivered them.

In those days of trouble God sent Nahum with a divine message of judgment for Nineveh. His words provide us with great understanding of God's judgment.

I. THE MAN: JUDGMENT FOR ONE CAN MEAN COMFORT TO OTHERS

1. the book begins: "The oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite" (Nahum 1:1 HCSB)

a. the book's author is Nahum, whose name means comfort

1) this is appropriate since his message of the coming judgment on Nineveh comforted Judah after their suffering at Assyria's hand

ILLUS. When Romania was still under communist rule, Laszlo Tokes, a Christian pastor who helped spark the democratic revolution in that country, later told friends in the West that the Book of Revelation was the favorite book of the Bible for his people. They loved the book of Revelation because, he said, it was written by John, pastor of the church in Ephesus, when he was exiled. Romanian Christians knew what it was like to be exiled and imprisoned. They suffered as the early Christians suffered. Desperately abused and subjected to cruelty, they read Revelation, and heared the clear message: God is God, and he judges those who are against Him. God is personally committed to seeing that evil does not triumph. This, said Laszlo, is very different from how you North American Christians look at Revelation. You're fascinated with historical details, trying to work out precise future plans and speculations. You wonder about rapture, and hope you will never suffer. We, he said, suffer, and in that suffering hear God speak to us through the prophet.

2. the way the Romanians looked at Revelation while under Communist rule is how the Jews heard Nahum

a. it was a message of comfort in the midst of their suffering, a word of hope in a dark time of evil, a message that all is not lost

b. God maintains final control

3. it does us good to be reminded that God is still God

a. He has the final word on pain, injustice, abuse, and unfairness

b. when we think evil and wicked people win while good and decent people are punished, it is best to not complete the scorecard until the final whistle blows

1) at that point God will make the correct judgment call

4. the wicked will be punished and the righteous will be rewarded

a. that knowledge gives us comfort

II. THE MESSAGE: GOD'S POWER WILL PUNISH WRONG

1. Nahum's prophecy was directed toward Nineveh

a. they had returned to their wicked and evil ways and were treating nations as objects of commerce to be bought and sold, then discarded when they lost their value

2. Nahum spoke his message in the form of an oracle or a divine word that pronounced judgment on a foreign nation

a. the summation of Nahum's message: "Beware, I am against you. This is the declaration of the LORD of Hosts. I will make your chariots go up in smoke and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the sound of your messengers will never be heard again" (Nahum 2:13, HCSB)

b. I am against you—these are some of the most chilling words in the entire Bible

1) who would want the God of Creation against them?

2) what a frightful prospect—the Lord of Heaven's armies, actively opposing you

c. If God is against us, what does it matter who is for us?

3. the phrase "The Lord of hosts" referred to the power of God and appears often in the Old Testament in military contexts

a. the Lord himself intended to reduce Nineveh's strength to rubbish

“I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.” (Nahum 2:13, NIV84)

b. the four evidences of the coming end of Nineveh due to God's judgment were:

1) Nineveh's chariots would be burned

2) the sword would devour its soldiers

3) no prey would be brought back to Nineveh, and

4) the voice of its messengers would be stilled

ILLUS. That’s a reference to the official chroniclers who recorded the King’s exploits. When archeologist finally found Nineveh and excavated it, hundreds of stone panels were discovered that chronicled the violence and the bravado of the Assyrian Kings and their conquests. After God was through with them, there would be no story left to tell and no one left to tell it.

4. God would have the final word

a. He would defeat, destroy, and annihilate Nineveh

b. Isaiah 36 and 37 record the story of Assyria's defeat

1) while the Assyrian army camped outside Jerusalem the Lord's angel came in the night and killed 185,000 soldiers

a) the remainder was forced to retreat

2) soon after, as King Sennacherib prayed in the temple of Ashur, his own sons assassinated him

3) not long after that the Babylonian army overwhelmed and destroyed Nineveh

c. Nahum provided a peek at how the defeat would take place: "The river gates are opened; the palace melts away" (Nahum 2:6 ESV).

ILLUS. According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Babylon laid siege to Nineveh. In the third year of the siege there were extraordinarily heavy rains. The River Euphrates overflowed, flooded the city, and collapsed a large section of the wall. The king of Nineveh figured that all was lost, so he collected all his wealth, his wives, his concubines, and his eunuch into the palace, and set fire to it, killing everyone. The enemy entered at the breach the waters had made and took the city.

1) just as Nahum prophesied 35 years before the event, the Babylonians came in through the river gates to discover the palace in flames

5. the message of God’s judgment is often one we would rather not discuss

a. Americans, on the whole, tend to believe that God’s judgment is for the other guy, the other nation, the world’s really bad people ... like Muslim terrorists

b. we tend to excuse our own nation’s sins when it comes to God’s judgment

ILLUS. Some of you may remember shortly after the terrorist attack on 9/11 2001, a number of prominent American pastors—most notably Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson openly said that this could well be God’s judgment on America. They were thoroughly excoriated by the press, and even many fellow Christians. How could anyone think that this was God’s judgment on America? WE’RE THE GOOD GUYS!

c. because of our history and heritage we tend to exclude the possibility of punishment for the nation’s sins

1) we would rather not believe that there are consequences for our actions—like the destruction of 60 million babies since Abortion was legalized

6. Christian should know differently

III. THE MEANING: THE GOD OF LOVE IS ALSO THE GOD OF JUDGMENT

1. for most Americans, the idea of judgment does not fit with the picture we want of a loving God

a. it stretches our minds to envision a God of judgment

b. somehow that idea does not mesh with the goodness of God

2. but the fact is that God brings judgment, because it’s the flip side of His goodness—if God is good, He cannot not punish evil, and those who are against Him

• “Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 96:10, NIV84)

• “He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.” (Psalm 110:6, NIV84)

• “The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and put the wicked to the sword,’ ” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 25:31, NIV84)

• “The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” (Revelation 11:18, NIV84)

a. how could a loving God not punish the evildoer?

3. we need to remember an important truth about God’s judment

a. God executes his judgment out of his love

b. we often execute our judgment out of hate

c. God does not judge because of the deep satisfaction it brings Him to inflict pain and suffering

4. God is not amoral

a. He is loving but also just

b. in loving justice he will powerfully adjudicate over his creation

5. if God is a God of judgement, it means that He is Judge

a. many people are uncomfortable with God's role as the Judge

1) they prefer the meek and mild Savior

2) they want love and forgiveness, but not the accountability and judgment

b. in the Bible, we have a clear picture that Jesus, the One who was slain for our sins, will be the One executing judgment on our sin

1) God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is the only One qualified to be both Savior and Judge

ILLUS. Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY tells that story of a teenage pedestrian on his iPhone who did not notice an oncoming truck as he crossed a busy boulevard in New York City. Just before the young man stepped in front of the speeding vehicle, a strong hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him back safely to the curb. Red with fear and adrenaline, the teen thanked the elderly man for saving him. Several weeks later the same teenager was in court to stand trial for stealing a car. When the boy looked up at the judge, he recognized him. "Hey, you're that man who saved me a few weeks back when the truck was coming," exclaimed the young man. "Surely you can do something now!" "Sorry, son," replied the magistrate. "On that day I was your savior. Today I am your judge!"

6. Jesus longs for people to come to repentance

a. but when we stand before God, the Judge, the opportunity is gone

b. at that time judgment will be executed

Nahum serves as a warning, driving us to the cross of Jesus. For there we see God's perfect combination of love and justice. His poured out His wrath against sin on Jesus. His love is evidenced in Jesus' willingness to die for our sins, receiving the punishment so that we could be set free. All we need to do is to go to Jesus, repenting of our sins, trusting in his free gift of salvation, not for a moment or for a season, like the Assyrians, but fully and forever.

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