“Nasty Nineveh Needed Nahum’s News!”
Nahum 1:1-15
David P. Nolte
A reclaimed drug addict had been clean for 10 years when, due to an injury, he was put on pain killers. The action of those pills excited his addiction and he was hooked on drugs even more deeply than before. His 10 good years were dissolved in the wake of his re-addiction. He reminds me of Nineveh.
Two weeks ago we saw Jonah gladly proclaiming the demise of Nineveh, capital city of Assyria. Much to his disappointment, he ended up winning the hearts of the Ninevites for the Lord. Much to his dismay, the whole city, including the king, and reaching to the lowest servant, repented. Much to his disliking, they were thus spared God’s wrath and were recipients of His mercy.
About 140 years have passed and the city has reverted to wickedness, godlessness and violence. God sent the prophet Nahum to proclaim coming judgement. Let’s read the text:
“The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him. The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, And will pursue His enemies into darkness. Whatever you devise against the LORD, He will make a complete end of it. Distress will not rise up twice. Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed As stubble completely withered. From you has gone forth One who plotted evil against the LORD, A wicked counselor. Thus says the LORD, ‘Though they are at full strength and likewise many, Even so, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer. So now, I will break his yoke bar from upon you, And I will tear off your shackles. 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.’ Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; Pay your vows. For never again will the wicked one pass through you; He is cut off completely.” Nahum 1:1-15 (NASB).
We can note that Nasty Nineveh Needed Nahaum’s News. He had bad news and he had good news. The bad news was that:
I. GOD IS A FORMIDABLE FOE TO THE WICKED:
A. “A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.”
1. People like to hear about God’s gentleness, patience, grace, lovingkindness, and mercy – and those are certainly His traits, even toward enemies.
2. But those who vaunt themselves in determined, stubborn, calcified, wilful rebellion, unbelief and disobedience need the message that they will find Him a Formidable foe. No one can stand against God in His wrath.
B. I am convinced that had Nineveh responded to Nahum’s message as they did to Jonah’s, they would have ceased being God’s enemies and He’d cease being theirs!
1. Nevertheless, God is ready and able to punish and destroy nations, religions, and people who arrogantly thumb their noses at His goodness and reject His Son.
2. He said to Ezekiel, “If you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.” Ezekiel 3:19 (NASB).
3. And, “Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him.”
4. “The LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
C. The guilty are the unrepentant who indulge sin with no thought of stopping it.
D. We create our own alienation from God, we make Him our enemy when we are calcified in and cherish sin in our hearts. As long as we remain in the state of guilt, were are separated from God’s mercy. If you make God your enemy, you lose!
E. This reminds me of a story. One day a respected young lawyer was walking down the wooden sidewalk of a little western town when he noticed a buckboard racing down the town’s street, out of control. Something had obviously spooked the horses, sending them full gallop down the street. As the lawyer watched this incident unfold, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, that a little boy, unaware of the impending danger, started to cross the street. Without even thinking, the lawyer made a dash for the child, barely scooping him out of the path of the oncoming buckboard, and certain death.
Years went by, and eventually the lawyer became a judge. One day a young man was brought before him, accused of murder. He was tried and found guilty by the jury. When time for sentencing came, the judge said, “Young man, you have been tried by a jury of your peers and found guilty of murder in the first degree. For your crime you will be taken to the gallows one week from today, where you will be hanged by the neck until dead.”
At that moment the identity of this judge finally dawned on the young man. This was the man who had saved his life so many years before. With this realization, the young murderer said, “But judge wait! I remember you now. You’re the man that saved my life when I was just a kid. Can’t you help me now? Can’t you give me another chance?”
“Yes,” said the judge. “I remember that day so long ago. But that was then, and this is now. Then I was your savior. Now I am your judge.” With that, the judge brought down his gavel, and the young man was taken away.
F. So, for the unrepentant, He who would be Savior becomes judge. God will judge righteously and impartially, and the bad news for His enemies is good news for us. That good news is that
II. GOD IS A FAITHFUL FRIEND TO THE REPENTANT:
A. “The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.” .... “Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; Pay your vows. For never again will the wicked one pass through you; He is cut off completely.”
B. How true these words of good will:
1. “The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.” Psalm 103:8-14 (NLT2).
2. Isaiah wrote, “Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7 (NASB).
3. Ezekiel wrote, “Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'” Ezekiel 33:11 (NASB).
4. Charles Finney said, “God Has No Pleasure In The Sinner's Death. God cannot have pleasure in the sinner's death, because his character forbids it. God is not only by nature a moral agent, but he is in character a good moral agent -- a being of infinite benevolence.”
C. God’s nature is to hate evil and to love sinners. So Habakkuk wrote, “In wrath remember mercy.” 3:2 (NASB).. The Message version puts it this way, “As you bring judgment, as you surely must, remember mercy.”
1. Because God is Holy and Righteous He cannot simply tolerate or brush away or close His eyes to the wickedness of nations or individuals. His judgment must inevitably come on Christ-rejecters. Mankind has rejected Him, denied Him, tried to kick Him out – and there will be judgment. He is a Formidable foe!
2. Because God is Loving, kind, gracious and merciful He cannot retract His offer of forgiveness to the repentant. He is a Faithful friend.
D. What are the characteristics of true friends?
1. They are unselfish – they are givers not just takers.
2. They are watching our backs and defend us when we are reviled or slandered.
3. They know all about us (skeletons in the closet, elephants in the room, failures, weaknesses, warts and zits) – and they still love us.
4. They are dependable and won’t desert us: From Aesop's fables comes this story: “Two travelers were on the road together, when a bear suddenly appeared on the scene. Before he observed them, one man made for a tree at the side of the road, and climbed up into the branches and hid there. The other man was not so nimble as his companion; and, as he could not escape, he threw himself on the ground and pretended to be dead.
The bear came up and sniffed all around him, but he kept perfectly still and held his breath; for he had heard that a bear will not touch a dead body. The bear sniffed him again and left.
When the coast was clear, the traveler in the tree came down, and asked the other what it was the bear had whispered to him when he put his mouth to his ear. The other replied, ‘He told me never again travel with a friend who deserts you at the first sign of danger.’”
5. They are constant – not on-again, off-again; not fair-weather friends (a friend when we are ok and don’t need anything but disappear when we do) nor are they foul-weather friends (only our friend when they need something and vanish when things are good) but they are friends whichever way the winds blow.
6. They seek us out when we might for one reason or another avoid them, fail them, forsake them or forget them.
E. God meets all those qualifications, and more! When Adam and Eve fell into sin, God came near. He had said that on the day they ate the forbidden fruit, they would die. Mattie Montgomery said, “Yet we see so much of God’s loving heart and kind intentions in this whole encounter. He didn’t call out angrily, ‘How dare you!’ or ‘You have betrayed me!’ or ‘Get out of my sight!’ Instead, He asked Adam, ‘Where are you?’ What an odd question. But as John Bevere points out in The Fear of the Lord, ‘Anytime God asks a question, He is not looking for information.’ It’s not as if God didn’t know exactly where Adam and Eve were, after all. He asked the question because He was giving Adam room to respond, to move toward God in his sin. I suspect, too, that His tone was tender rather than stern, an invitation to come out of hiding rather than scaring him away. That God would show such tenderness to Adam even in his rebellion is a beautiful picture of His love for us all in our fallenness and brokenness. Yet God’s question still evoked fear in Adam. He knew the enormity of what he had done.’”
F. And God knows the enormity of our sin – he knows what we have done and what we would do if we could get away with it. And He is still offering salvation and peace with God. “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” Romans 5:6-11 (NLT2)
He is your friend – be His! ”What A Friend We Have In Jesus!”
