WSG 31-07-2016
The Book of Nahum
I would like to look at one verse from our Old Testament reading – from the book of Nahum.
Question: Has anyone here actually read the book of Nahum – and if you have read it can you remember what it is all about?
You might wonder why I even dipped into the book of Nahum, because I can quite honestly say, before Friday evening I had little idea what was in it.
Story: It all came about as I was chatting one evening with Pastor Christian Allenspach – who is staying with us together with his family.
Christian is a pastor of a rural Swiss church of about 200-300 people, to which my eldest son Jonny goes.
One evening last week, we got talking about books of the Bible that we find hard to get a handle on.
Mine is the book of Jonah - which I have been studying in a Skype Bible study group with my friend Martin Purnell in Northern Ireland.
But for Christian it was the book of Nahum.
Now I have been to the Church Jonny attends in Switzerland for the dedication of two of my grandchildren, Zane and Kayla and I have heard Christian preach and have found his preaching inspiring.
So I was intrigued.
So I decided to look up the book of Nahum which is the seventh of the 12 Minor Prophets in the Old Testament.
1. The Author.
We don’t know much about Nahum other than he was an Elkoshite .
Scholars believe the village of Elkosh is the modern day town of Alqosh, about 30 miles from Mosul in Iraq, and the tomb of Nahum is believed to be in the synagogue of Alqosh. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahum)
The book was probably written in the 7th Century BC in Jerusalem- just before the fall of Ninevah in 612 BC and after the sacking of Thebes in Egypt by the Assyrian King Assurbanipal in around 663 BC - referred to in Nahum 3.8.
The name Nahum means “comforter”, which he might well have been for Israel when he prophesied destruction of their arch enemy Assyria. But not for Nineveh.
When you look at the book of Nahum, you find it is a book primarily about judgement against the city of Ninevah.
What relevance does it have for us today, as Ninevah?
Why you might wonder, did God speak words of destruction against Ninevah?
One reason might be that the people of Ninevah were unusually cruel with the way they treated their enemies.
Their very name inspired FEAR.
In Nahum 3:1 we read
Woe to that bloody city.
It is all full of lies and robbery.
Its victim never departs.
I see a lot of similarities with the terror group ISIS in our society today
I see a lot of similarities with the terror group ISIS in our society today.
2. The City of NINEVAH
Ninevah was the capital of the great power of the time – Assyria.
We come across some of its kings in the Old Testament when Assyria clashes with Israel.
Kings like Sennacharib, who we read about in 2 Kings 19 and who - in the 8th Century BC - invaded the land of Israel and from whom Israel was miraculously delivered in the time of Hezekiah.
But the book of Nahum was not the first time that God had pronounced judgement on Ninevah
About 150 years earlier, God had sent his reluctant prophet JONAH to pronounce Judgement on Ninevah.
Jonah had expected a hostile reception at best, and at worst a slow and torturous death.
BUT the citizens of Ninevah truly repented when they heard Jonah’s words – and after that began to worship the one true God – the Elohim of Israel.
If I may be allowed a digression.
ELOHIM
Elohim is an interesting word in the Hebrew, because the Old Testament uses it both to describe
i) the false gods of the other nations as well as
ii) the one true God of Israel.
Elohim is a plural word the ‘im being the masculine plural.
When Elohim is used to describe the gods of the nations – the verb that follows is a plural verb.
No surprise in that.
However when Elohim is used to describe the God is Israel, the verb following is always SINGULAR.
Even in the name of the God of Israel, we have a hint of the Trinity revealed in the NT– plurality in unity.
But that was a digression! Let’s get back to the book of Nahum
For a number of years, after Jonah’s preaching Ninevah was a changed city
But sadly not for long and it slipped back into its old evil ways.
The people of Ninevah didn’t grasp the second chance that God had given their forefathers.
And so God brings Judgement
We read in Nahum of God’s judgement on Nineveh
"all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft" (Nahum 3:4 NIV).
And of course what the prophet meant by Infidelity, was spiritual unfaithfulness.
So on the one hand, the book of Nahum is actually a Book of discomfort to the Assyrians. who were persecuting the people of God.
But on the other hand it is actually a book of comfort for the nation of Judah who are being oppressed by the Assyrian people through their kings
With that short introduction, I would like to focus on just one verse from Nahum 1.
The Lord is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble
And he knows those who trust him.
Just recently, the Dennison Forum had this to say about World Events
“While democracy made headlines in Philadelphia, its enemies continued to do the same around the world.
French President Francois Hollande declared the murder of an eighty-five-year-old priest in Normandy to be an ISIS-inspired attack.
Police had identified one of the killers as a suspected terrorist, but they failed to stop him.
Authorities have flagged more than ten thousand radicalized individuals in France.”
Their country is by no means the only nation under siege.
Syrian state TV is reporting that forty-four were killed in a massive bombing there.
Suicide bombers killed thirteen people in Somalia.
Israeli forces have killed the Hamas militant responsible for a drive-by shooting that killed a rabbi earlier this month.
And that's just this morning's news.
The article goes on to say:
Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face? What can we do?
The message of Nahum 1:7 this morning is apposite for today. We fear the forces of world terrorism – of ISIS or al Qaeda and related organisation
And so we need to be reminding
God is good.
He - and no one else - is our stronghold in the times of trouble
And finally He knows those who trust him.
Although we can be depressed by the news, God doesn’t spend much time listening to the negative news of the BBC or ITV news as he has an agenda of his own that no news agency has fathomed out.
It is amazing what God is doing in our age among Muslims.
His hand of judgement is being held back for a season.
He is reaching out to Muslims in Dreams and Visions – not to offer judgement but to offer comfort
I have been reading a book “Dreams and Visions” by Tom Doyle about Muslims who have had an encounter with Christ that has turned their world upside down.
Let me share a couple of stories:
1. Noor
In one of the stories, Noor, a Muslim woman had a vision of Jesus one evening and at the end of the vision she asked Jesus how she could learn more about the faith.
In the vision, Jesus pointed to a man who Noor hadn’t really noticed, a man who, Jesus said, would be in the market the next day on Friday morning and he would tell her more
So Noor went down to the market.
That morning Kamal Assam, a Christian felt God was calling him to go down to the market, Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili market.
It wasn’t the sort of place Kamal liked to frequent as it was full of pickpockets and undesirables. But in obedience he went.
Suddenly a woman in a black hijab shouted out ” You are the one”
Kamal was shocked and scared. What if this woman’s husband was there. Kamal would at best be assaulted and at worst killed.
The woman came over and said
” You were in my dream last night. Those clothes. You were wearing those clothes.”
Kamal, as he was dressed that morning, had appeared in Noor’s vision of Jesus.
And through that encounter Noor became a disciple in Jesus
Let me tell you a second story – the story of Fatima.
You might think that it is sad, but I am sure her faith will inspire others.
2. Fatima
In Saudi Arabia, a young woman called Fatima al-Mutairi became a Christian.
She came from a pristine Muslim family.
But on the Internet she met people, many of whom had had a vision of Jesus.
She said:
“Each person recounted a powerful, gentle Person who had overwhelmed them, not with an unendurable shame as the Muslin leaders did but with a pure love that reached deep inside.”
With time, she learnt more about Jesus through her internet church and eventually she committed her life to Jesus.
She kept her faith secret for some time until her brother, a Muslim cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s Commission of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice found out.
He beat her cruelly and broke her bones. He cut out her tongue and then burnt her alive – what they euphemistically call an “honour killing”.
It can still in this day and age be costly to be a Christian.
This is inspiring is what Fatima wrote and posted on the Internet after her brother found out about her faith and locked her in her room for the four hours before he killed her. She knew he was going to kill her and she wrote this
“May the Lord Jesus guide you O Muslims and enlighten your hearts that you might love others……
We worship the Lord Jesus, the light of the world.
We left Muhammed and we are no longer on his path. We follow Jesus the Messiah, the clear truth…………….
And by God I am unto death a Christian……
Take from me this word and note it well. You see Jesus is my Lord and He is the Best of Protectors.
And she finished her last message to her internet friends as follows:
As to my last words, I pray to the Lord of the worlds. Jesus is the Messiah, the Light of clear Guidance.
That he changes notions and sets the scales of justice aright.
And that he spread Love among you Oh Muslims.”
(from Dreams and Visions Tom Doyle page 60-61)
The Book of Nahum shows us that God will bring Judgement one day when there is sin in the city in a big way.
But God was even more gracious as he sent a further prophet Zephaniah just after Nahum to predict yet again the destruction of the city. (see Zephaniah 2:4–15)
But they did not listen either.
God is a God of second chances but when they continue not to heed the warning - IT IS THEN TOO LATE
Ninevah fell in 612 BC never to rise again.
The book of Nahum is a two fold book
On the one hand Nahum pronounces God’s judgment on the unrighteous people in Ninevah.
But on the other hand he brings solace to God’s chosen people whom the Assyrians oppressed
That is what the Word of God does.
Many an evil man or woman has been turned to Jesus by reading the word of God.
Paul of Tarsus was as wicked as Fatima’s brother.
He thought it was his duty to God to kill Christians and put them in prison – UNTIL Jesus met him on the Road to Damascus.
And Paul never ever forgot the evil he had done to the early Church before his conversion.
It left a stain on him, even though he was forgiven
For those who are not living a Christian life, the book
of Nahum is a warning that JUDGEMENT will come.
In Nahum 2:5 God says that he is against them .
God will judge us by our deeds as he judged Ninevah.
One day we will be called to account for the way we have behaved.
But the GOOD NEWS is that there is GRACE. Jesus has taken the sentence of the death for our sins on himself on the Cross
But there is a cost to ourselves.
If we want to avail ourselves of the Cross then we have to become his disciples as we become a child of God.
And God is no mug - as Nahum reminds us He knows those who really trust in Him
But even as he pronounces the sentence of destruction to the City , he sends out his disciples to offer GOOD NEWS>
We read in Nahum 1:15
Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good news
Who proclaims peace
O Judah keep your appointed feast
Perform your vows
For the wicked shall no more pass through you
He is utterly cut off.
God still loves mankind enough to call them to repentance
And to the disciple of Christ, Nahum has this to say
And it is only his grace that allows us time to repent, so don't presume on God's goodwill. Listen today and turn around and come to Christ
God warns for a reason - he wants us to change our hearts and our lifestyles.
Ninevah had had its warning 150 years earlier through Jonah and neglected to make it a deep down change.
It even had a third opportunity when Zephaniah spoke Judgement, probably given around 622 BC when the good King Josiah brought in his YHWH-ic reforms
Let it be our prayer today that we may take solace from the book of Nahum today
May we experience that God is good (to us)
May we experience that God is our stronghold (and we can deposit all our fears both real and imaginary with him) and
Finally may our relationship with Jesus be so robust that we will KNOW we are a people that God-knows who-trust-him (Nahum 1:7)
Are you one of those, who KNOWS that God KNOWS that you trust in Him?
You will know if you have a close relationship with Jesus.
Because at the end of our life – it is that relationship with Christ that COUNTS.
Are you a disciple who has accepted Jesus death on the Cross in our place for our sins
This is what the theologians call the PENAL SUBSTITUTION THEORY. Jesus took our sin and so we are seen as righteous in God’s sight
For where we will spend eternity will be determined on whether or not we are prepared to become a disciple of Jesus.
Until God says it’s too late it is never too late.
If you are worried that you are standing in the City of Ninevah rather than in the land of Judah,
If you are unsure of your faith,
please make a time to come and see Barbara or me
To talk through and make sure you are in the land of Judah and not in the City of Ninevah – metaphorically speaking
May the Book of Nahum will be is a solace to you rather than a judgement
