Woe To The Bloody City
Text: Nahum 1:1-6
Introduction: In over 23 years of ministry I don’t think I have ever preached a message from the book of Nahum. Not only that, but in all my years as a Christian I don’t believe I have ever heard a message on Nahum, and I would take an educated guess and say that most of you haven’t either. Nahum is one of the books of the Bible that we read and pass by. Rarely do we sit down and think about it. Maybe that’s because of the content of the book. It’s not an upbeat prophecy. There is little in it, it would seem, to leave us encouraged: it speaks to us of the fierce wrath of God.
Sometimes I wonder if we really believe in God’s wrath. Do we really believe that God will judge the world someday? That He will send sinners to the Lake of Fire? I know we believe it up here, in our heads, but I wonder do we believe it down here in our hearts? And the reason I ask that is because we often lack any real urgency in our evangelism. As Christians we like to emphasise God’s love, mercy, grace and forgiveness. God is all these things; in fact that was in part what Micah revealed about Him , as we saw in our previous study: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:18-19) But Nahum is the flipside of Micah. The other side to God. He speaks to us not of God pardoning sin, but of God punishing sin. Charles H. Spurgeon once said, “He who does not believe that God will punish sin will not believe He will pardon it through the blood of His Son.” Isn’t it interesting that the people, who deny the efficacy of Christ’s blood atonement, often deny also any notion of eternal punishment?
So, Nahum sets us straight in our understanding of who God is and what God is like, and this he does so by declaring God’s awful judgment upon Nineveh. That brings us back to Jonah. Jonah came preaching to that great city and it repented and was spared, but over 100 years have passed by and the city, now the capital of Assyria, has reverted to its old ways. This time its day of grace has passed, and Nahum declares its doom.
Like so many of the Minor Prophets we know so very little about Nahum. His name means “Comfort” and his message was a message of comfort to a people who lived under the constant threat of Assyrian invasion. It is surmised that he may have come from the North of Israel, from the Galilee area, in fact the hometown of the apostle Peter, from Capernaum, which lit., means “Village of Nahum”. However, Nahum did not minister to Israel in the North, rather headdresses Judah, and it seems that he also wrote from Judah.
Let’s examine this little book of Nahum:
I. Declaration of God’s Judgment – 1:1-15
A. In our opening text, we Nahum employs every Hebrew word to describes God’s anger.
1. “God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: … Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.” (Nahum 1:2-3 & 6)
2. Jealousy? Revenge? Anger? Rage? Indignation? Fierceness? Are these really characteristics we associate with God?
3. Yes they are. But they are aspects of God that we prefer to ignore, to shut out of our thinking.
4. You see we like to think of God, even as we did last week as a God of forgiveness, mercy, grace, love and compassion.
5. But if that is the only side to God we see, well we end up with a fuzzy image of God, a false god, a god who is indifferent to the sins of men.
6. But that is not the God of the Bible, so although Nahum’s prophecy does not make for an entertaining read, he does us a marvellous service by setting the balance of understanding of who God is and what God is like – his prophecy is the counter weight to Jonah and Micah.
7. The apostle Paul wrote, “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.”
a. That is the balanced view.
b. Yes, God is good in his mercy, love and grace, but my goodness, God when He judges is severe in his wrath and revenge.
B. Now let’s think for a moment of this idea of God’s jealousy.
1. You see the wrath of God is rooted right here, in the fact that He is a jealous God.
2. We use that word “jealous” rather carelessly when we equate it with envy. God is not envious.
3. Envy desires that which is not mine, but jealousy protects that which is mine.
4. Now for generations these Ninevites had been threatening, extorting and slaughtering the Jewish people.
5. By the time of Nahum’s prophecy they had carried away the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in fact this may be the very reason we find Nahum living in Judah, though a native of Capernaum. He may well have been a refugee from the North.
6. So for best part of 200 years these Ninevites as Assyria’s main military base had been at the heart of Jewish oppression.
7. Did that matter to God?
a. Well, let me ask you this, how would you feel if your little boy or girl came home from school one day crying because of bullies?
b. Or how would you feel if your wife came home from town having been the victim of a mugging?
c. You would be more than a little angry wouldn’t you? Do you know where that comes from, it stems from jealousy; the perfectly righteous zeal we have to protect those who love us.
d. God is a jealous God, and sometime that jealousy will give way to revenge and wrath.
C. Vengeance is another word we have a negative connotation of.
1. That’s because all of our lives we have been told revenge is wrong.
2. Actually revenge is only wrong when carried out by those who have no authority to do so.
3. Revenge is right when it is rooted in justice, and where there has been an honest assessment of right and wrong, with a measured response to the crime.
a. In human terms revenge lies with government – Rom 13:1-5.
b. God has instituted government, in part, to avenge the wrongs that people do.
(i) Rulers are described as a “terror”
(ii) They are supposed to instil fear in wrong doers
(iii) The government is a sword bearer
(iv) A revenger
c. Do you know that one oif the reason we have so much lawlessness in our land today lies in the fact that successive governments have relinquished their powers as revengers of the people.
(i) They have made the villain the victim, and are far more interested in rehabilitating him than redressing the wrong they do.
(ii) They pamper and wrist slap instead of punishing and avenging.
(iii) And do you know what happens after a while, people start to fell wronged, aggrieved, and some will want to take the law into their own hands.
d. You see revenge, in the right hands, is right.
4. And God is right to revenge.
a. He has the right to pay back, to punish and destroy, those who are intent on wilfully disobeying him.
b. He will avenge those He loves, those who are closest to Him.
D. Look at that third word there, “wrath”.
1. Do you know what that word suggests? It suggests “rapid breathing”.
a. Have you noticed how someone breathes when they are angry?
2. And the word “indignation” describes someone “foaming at the mouth.
3. Is God really this angry with man?
a. Psalms 2:12; 7:11: 76:7
b. I think it is fair to say God is angry at the sins of men.
4. “But wait a minute, Nahum says not that God is angry, but that He is slow to anger, and great in power…”
a. Here is something we must learn about God: God’s wrath restrained is really God’s wrath reserved.
b. Nahum is not arguing for the grace of God here he is making the point that God will not acquit the wicked, that sinners, although apparently getting away with sin today are simply storing up wrath for tomorrow.
5. Fierceness intimates heat and fury His burning. God is HOT with anger, but “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” (Eccles 8:11)
E. Don’t be fooled by God’s delay – judgment will fall without mercy upon all who oppose Him and His will.
1. There will be a settling of the accounts someday.
II. The Description of God’s Judgment – Nahum 2:1-13,
A. Let’s get back to Nineveh.
B. One of the proofs of the Bible is fulfilled prophecy, and Nahum provides one of the most remarkable prophecies of all when he speaks against Nineveh.
1. History verifies over and over the accuracy of Nahum’s predictions.
2. Of course they weren’t Nahum’s predictions at all – he was but the mouthpiece, the penman – these are God’s Words, and we mustn’t lose sight of that.
C. What did Nahum say would become of Nineveh?
1. Nineveh would be destroyed by a flood – see 2:6-8, also 1:8.
a. You will recall from our time in Jonah that Nineveh was a conurbation of 4 cities, and around these cities ran a 100 ft high wall, wide enough to take 3 chariots abreast and protected by 1500 watch towers which were 200 ft tall.
(i) It was pretty much impregnable
b. So what happened?
c. Nineveh was situated on the east bank of the Tigris River, and flowing right through the heart of the city was a tributary of the mighty Tigris, the River Khosr.
(i) To protect against flooding the people built flood defences all along the River Khosr.
d. Fifty years after Nahum’s prophecy, the Babylonians arrived to besiege Nineveh, and this they did for three years.
e. In the third year there was heavy rain. The Tigris began to swell, eventually bursting its banks.
f. The wall of water met the wall of Nineveh –it was man against nature, and guess who won? A 2.5-mile long section of Nineveh’s walls gave way and collapsed.
g. Not only that, but within the level of the River Khosr also rose and the water broke the levees, and Nineveh became a lake.
h. Her defences now breached she was at the mercy of the Babylonians.
2. Nineveh would be destroyed by fire – see 2:13a; 3;15a
a. The excavations at Nineveh revealed charred wood, charcoal and a layer of ash 2 inches thick, they exposed.
3. Nineveh would be plundered and pillaged – see 2:9-10.
a. According to the Babylonian Chronicles, “Great quantities of spoil from the city, beyond counting, they carried off. The city [they turned] into a mound and ruin heap.”
4. As the city fell its inhabitant were drunk – see 1:10 & 3:11
a. Apparently the soldiers were provided with much wine by their king, and whilst they were drunk the enemy attacked.
5. There would be a great slaughter – see 3:3.
a. According to history “So great was the multitude of the slain, that the flowing stream, mingled with their blood, changed its colour for a considerable distance.”
6. Nineveh’s idols would be destroyed – see 1:14
a. When the site of the Temple of Ishtar at Nineveh was excavated by the British Museum they found the image of the goddess Ishtar laying headless among the debris.
7. Nineveh’s destruction would be final – 1:9 & 14
a. From that day to this Nineveh never recovered. Today, Nineveh’s location, near to Mosul, Iraq, is marked by two large mounds, which were only discovered and excavated for the first in the mid 1800’s and early 20th century.
8. All of this and more Nahum foretold. Now, tell me God’s Word isn’t sure, and His prophecies certain.
III. The Defence of God’s Judgment. – 3:1-19.
A. Chapter 3 opens with the curse, “Woe to the bloody city!”
1. That is God’s estimate of Nineveh.
2. Not only that, but notice in 3:5, “Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts.”
a. Paul said, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” but equally, if God be against us, who can be for us?
b. Did you know that God is against some people?
c. That there are those whom he refers to as His enemies.
(i) “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4
(ii) “I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.” (Deuteronomy 32:41)
(iii) “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.” (Psalm 68:1)
(iv) “Therefore saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.” (Isaiah 1:24)
3. Notice what else God said about them - see 1:14c
B. The Ninevites were a cruel and bloody people, who expressed, without restraint, the awful condition of man’s depravity and the sinfulness of the human heart.
1. One of their kings, Shalmaneser II, boasted of one of his conquests saying, “A pyramid of heads I reared in front of his city. Their youths and their maidens I burnt up in flames.”
2. Another, Sennacherib, wrote of his enemies, I cut their throats like lambs. I cut off their precious lives as [one cuts] string. Like the many waters of a storm I made [the contents of] their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth… Their hands I cut off.”
3. And yet another, Ashurbanipal, wrote of a captured leader, “I pierced his chin with my keen hand dagger. Through his jaw… I passed a rope, put a dog chain upon him and made him occupy… a kennel.”
4. No wonder God said they were a vile people, and that Nineveh was a bloody city.
5. In truth, Nineveh got what she deserved, not just because of what she did, but also because of whom she conspiring to do it against, Judah – God’s people.
6. You see God was protecting His own, proving Himself a jealous God. And you know what? God still protects His own, and still punishes those who hurt them.
a. Luke 18:6-8
b. Romans 12:17-21
c. Revelation 6:10-11; 19:1-2
d. That’s a sobering message for persecuting nations.
C. By decrying Nineveh and determining her doom Nahum was ministering onto the people of Judah, he was comforting the souls as they sat threatened under the shadow of Assyrian power.
1. See Nahum 1:15
2. The prophet was encouraging regarding Assyria, inviting them to go on serving God as normal without looking over the shoulder wondering when the Assyrians might come. God was taking care of it.
3. Some day, yet in the future Israel shall again be surrounded by enemies seeking her extinction – but in that day Jesus Christ, not Nahum will be the one standing on the Mount of Olives, declaring peace upon Jerusalem and avenging her once again.
Conclusion: Yes, God is love, yes He is gracious, merciful compassionate, kind, but he is also holy, just, jealous, vengeful, angry, indignant and fierceness. He is both good and severe. His mercy knows no bounds, but his judgment knows no mercy. That is why the writer of Hebrews wrote that, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and that “our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 10:31 & 12:29)
God’s holiness is not be messed with; His righteousness no trifle.
But by far, the thing that God is most jealous about is Jesus. There are may things a man may get away with in this life, may even be forgiven for, but rejecting Jesus is not one of them. God is deadly serious about Christ, and He will avenge His blood above all else.
“Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29)
God is too loving to send a man who rejects Christ to hell? Don’t you believe it. He is too holy, too righteous and too fierce not to. “Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.” (Nahum 1:6)
