Prayer 101 - Part 70: Christ In Nahum
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Outline
Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11-12
Nineveh was built by Nimrod and his followers. He was the first dictator in the world. Located on the east bank of the Tigris River about 885 kilometres from Samaria which was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Nineveh was protected by an outer wall and an inner wall. The inner wall was 15 metres wide and 130 metres high. Three chariots could race upon the top of the wall. 129 kilometres in circumference and 600,000 people who could be supported by crops grown within the walls of the city. It had 1200 towers and 14 gates. The king’s palace was made of the finest cedar, cypress, and alabaster that money could buy, with a great hall that measured 12 by 46 metres. His fighting force was unparalleled, as indicated by a 46-acre armoury that took six years to build.
For many in our world today, the idea that Christ will return to destroy the world is unimaginable. Even though Scripture clearly describes Him as a warrior who will one day be drenched in the blood of His enemies (Isa. 63:2-3, Rev. 19:13), the concept of a wrathful God who punishes sin is pure fiction in the minds of unbelievers.
“Where is the promise of His coming?” they say (2 Pet. 3:4). The world appears to continue on in a manner whereby sinners wallow in their sin with complete abandon, promote it with a growing boldness, thinking themselves to be able to live their lives just as they wish free of any divine consequences.
Unlike Jonah, 100 years previous whose message was grace, Nahum’s message, written somewhere between 626-612 BC, is a message of judgment.
Nahum 1: Nineveh’s Judge
God’s wrath is to be feared - Nahum 1:1-8
Good News to the Jews - Nahum 1:12,13,15
Bad News to Nineveh - Nahum 1:9-11,14
Nahum 2: Nineveh’s Judgment
The invasion outlined - Nahum 2:1-12
The instigator revealed - Nahum 2:13
Nahum 3: Nineveh’s Doom
Her sins exposed - Nahum 3:1-7
Her vulnerabilities unveiled - Nahum 3:8-19
Writing decades before the fall of Nineveh, during the reign of King Manasseh in Judah, Nahum not only predicted the outpouring of God’s wrath upon Assyria, he pronounced it—and for good reason. Assyria was not only an unusually bloodthirsty nation (committing atrocities such as impaling captives, burning women and children in front of their relatives, skinning people alive, and creating monuments out of severed heads), but they went even one step further by attacking the people of God and comparing Yahweh on the same level as to the deities of other nearby nations (2 Kings 18:31-35).
In 612 BC, the Babylonians (and others), clothed in red, marched up the left bank of the Tigris River and surrounded Nineveh, just as Nahum said (Nah. 2:3). The unusually hard rains that year caused the river to flood and wash away portions of the wall, allowing the enemy soldiers to enter the city through the breach, just as Nahum said (Nah. 2:6). The resultant bloodshed and looting were astronomical, just as Nahum said (Nah. 2:9-10). And though secular historians fail to report it, the destruction of Nineveh was by the hand of God, just as Nahum said (Nah. 3:6-7).
God had warned Assyria, saying, “Behold I am against you” (Nah. 2:13). And it wasn’t an empty threat. Where, then, is Assyria today? Gone. “The Lord has issued a command concerning you: ‘Your name will no longer be perpetuated. I will cut off idol and image from the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible” (Nah. 1:14). Furthermore, Nahum stated, “There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable” (Nah. 3:19a).
The wrath of God brings down the mightiest of nations; they are regarded by Him as less than nothing (Isa. 40:17, Dan. 4:35). All will bow to Yahweh—either on bended knee or broken knee (Phil. 2:10-11).
Could there have been a way out for nation’s who turn their back on God?
2 Chron 7:14
1 John 1:9
The MESSAGE TODAY is the same. There is a time of wrath coming to this world. Jesus is coming for His church.
All those who are not part of His church shall be left behind to endure the seven year tribulation that is coming. Today is the day of salvation. There is an urgency for those of us who believe to reach out and share the Gospel with all those whom we come in contact with.
“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked….The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.” Nahum 1:3,7-8
Among the many lessons this prophecy teaches us, we are reminded that God governs even the greatest of world powers. Consider the world powers in our world today. God’s wrath against sin is real. Those who hurt God’s people will not get away with it. And past fulfillments of God’s wrath serve as warnings of future fulfillments of God’s wrath.
Considering this, the only response is to seek refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the words of the apostle Paul provide great comfort to those who have done so, reminding us that if God is for us, it matters not who is against us (Rom. 8:31). Conversely, however, unbelievers ought to recognise just the opposite: if God is against you, it matters not who is for you.