Sermon Tone Analysis

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

Text: Nahum 2:13

Theme: God will judge all who do not bow the knee to Him.

Date: 11/06/2016 File name: MinorProphets_12b.wpd

ID Number: 228

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