Several years ago, The Huffington Post ran a series of cartoons depicting the fears that both children and adults have. They titled the series “Childhood Fears vs. Adult Fears.” Here they are:
• Childhood fear: Doctors. Adult fear: Doctor's bills.
• Childhood fear: Bad dreams. Adult fear: Unfulfilled dreams.
• Childhood fear: Strangers. Adult fear: Crippling social anxiety.
• Childhood fear: Clowns. Adult fear: Clowns
(Suzie Strutner, “Childhood Fears vs. Adult Fears, In 4 Hilarious Comics,” Huffington Post, 10-17-16; www.PreachingToday.com).
It seems that many adults never outgrow their fears. How about you? What are you afraid of? Well, whatever it is, God has a word of comfort for you from Nahum, the prophet, whose very name means “comfort.”
Nahum was speaking to the little nation of Judah a little over 600 years before Christ, which was under threat from the Assyrian Empire (sometime between 663 and 612 B.C.). The Assyrians had recently overrun Israel (722 B.C.), Judah’s neighbor to the north, and were encroaching upon Judah itself. In fact, Assyria had defeated much of Judah and had even surrounded Jerusalem in 701 B.C. when Hezekiah was king. Hezekiah prayed for deliverance and God miraculously stopped the Assyrian invasion (2 Kings 19:35-37; Isaiah 37:36-38). But during much of the next king’s reign, Judah had to pay tribute to Assyria just to keep them at bay.
The Assyrians were cruel. They piled the heads of their enemy soldiers in front of the cities they captured. They impaled enemy soldiers on stakes and stripped off their skin. They burned young men and women alive. One of the Assyrian kings boasted about a leader he captured, “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” (Johnson, Bible Knowledge Commentary).
Such was the threat that Judah faced when the prophet Nahum spoke words of warning to the Assyrians, which were words of comfort to the Jews. They are also words of comfort to all of God’s people, to you, no matter what threat you face.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of Nahum, the book of Nahum towards the end of the Old Testament, the book of Nahum, where you will see God’s words of comfort for you and for all who depend on Him.
Nahum 1:1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh (ESV).
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, in which Jonah had preached over a hundred years before this. Then, the Assyrians repented of their sins and turned to the Lord. There was great revival, but that revival lasted no more than one generation. Soon, the Assyrians were back to their cruel and sinful ways, which put them under God’s wrath again.
Nahum 1:2-6 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him (ESV).
God’s wrath burns against His enemies, but He is good to those who depend on Him.
Nahum 1:7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him (ESV).
In the midst of the fire of God’s wrath, He provides a safe place for those who take refuge in Him.
Nahum 1:8-13 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor. Thus says the LORD, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart” (ESV).
God will completely destroy His enemies and remove your affliction.
Nahum 1:14 The LORD has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile” (ESV).
To His enemies, God says He will destroy their reputation, cut off their idols, and put them in the grave, but there is good news for God’s people.
Nahum 1:15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off (ESV).
Keep worshipping the Lord even in the midst of your fears, because God will take everything you fear away. In fact, even though this is yet to happen, it is as good as done! Nahum speaks as if God has already destroyed His enemies and delivered His people.
Just a few years after Nahum spoke these words, Nineveh fell to Babylon in 612 B.C., which completely razed the city. One commentator says, “So complete was its destruction that when Xenophon passed by the site about 200 years later, he thought the mounds were the ruins of some other city. And Alexander the Great, fighting in a battle nearby, did not realize that he was near the ruins of Nineveh” (Johnson, Bible Knowledge Commentary).
It is certain. What you fear today will be gone tomorrow! So…
FIND COMFORT IN A GOD WHO WILL AVENGE HIS ENEMIES AND PROTECT HIS PEOPLE.
Trust in the Lord who will defeat evil and deliver those who take refuge in Him. In fact, praise God in your pain, which He will soon take away.
In the Pentecostal Evangel, Randy Hoyt tells the heart wrenching story about losing his wife in childbirth. He writes:
Doctors and nurses were doing everything possible for my wife, the mother of my seven children, yet I could see the hopelessness in their faces. Through an emergency C-section during the fifth month of her pregnancy, it was discovered the detached placenta had grown through the uterus and attached itself to her bladder. Bleeding was so profuse during surgery that Kris was given 30 units of blood. As the night wore on, her battle for life became desperate.
I cried out, “God, what do you want? I know you can heal her; why don't you?” In the middle of my darkest night, God began to speak. I wanted a miracle. He wanted to discuss his nature.
“Do you believe I am a loving God?” the Spirit asked.
Sitting beside my wife's bed, amid the chaos of ICU, I needed to answer that question. I could have said, “No, God cannot be a loving God. Look around here. My wife is dying. My newborn daughter may die. I have to go home and tell six children that their mother will not come home again, ever.”
But that night God gave me the grace to see him as he is.
“Yes,” I told him. “You are a loving God. No matter what happens here tonight I will not question your nature.”
Kris's condition worsened.
Kris understood that all life is precious and was determined to give our child all she had to help her in her struggle to live. In the end, it cost Kris her life. Grace lived 16 days.
“What about our plans, God?” I asked. “Who will teach the kids, guide them, and love them like their mother?”
God laid it on the heart of a man to head up an effort which became known as “Help Bring Hope to the Hoyt Kids.” In six months, hundreds of people worked, sent money, donated supplies, and poured love into our family. Churches provided food daily; on weekends, as many as 50 people were fed.
I received more than 500 letters, e-mails and cards from people who said they were praying for us.
I am writing this in the house God has given us. The medical bills are gone. The house is paid for. I am working as well as schooling my children.
One night I lay awake, tormented with the memory of Kris fighting for her life. I tried to remember her with the light of life in her eyes, but all I could see was death. I could feel myself falling into depression when suddenly before me was a vision of Kris, so perfectly alive in Christ, shining and healthy. No pain, just pure joy on her face.
“See her as she is now,” the Holy Spirit seemed to say. “She is alive.”
Someday we will all be together with Jesus and our daughter Grace.
I asked God for the life of my wife; I received instead a lesson on the nature of God. God is good. Armed with that knowledge, I have no fear for today or the future. God will always be enough for any situation (Randy Hoyt, “Seeing God,” Pentecostal Evangel, 1-21-01, pp.14-15; www.PreachingToday.com).
While the Lord is “avenging and wrathful” towards His enemies (Nahum 1:2), He is indeed “good” to those who take refuge in Him (Nahum 1:7). Please, let that truth drive your fear away no matter what life throws at you.
When you feel threatened, find comfort, 1st of all. in a God who will avenge His enemies and protect His people. Then 2nd…
FIND COMFORT IN A GOD WHO WILL ABOLISH HIS ENEMIES AND RESTORE HIS PEOPLE.
Trust in the Lord, who will destroy evil people and turn His people around. Depend on God, who will bring down your threat and bring you up again.
Nahum 2:1-2 The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength. For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches (ESV).
Micah tells the wicked Ninevites to get ready for war, because God is getting ready to restore the majesty of His people, to bring them up from shame into glory. Then Micah describes the Assyrians’ frantic activity, their panic, as they know their destruction is upon them.
Micah 2:3-12 The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning. He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up. The river gates are opened; the palace melts away; its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!” they cry, but none turns back. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things. Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale! Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh (ESV).
Assyrian kings prided themselves in their ability to kill lions and compared their own ferocity to that of lions. But now, their lair is empty, and the so-called “lions” are gone.
Micah 2:13 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard (ESV).
God will completely eradicate the Assyrians, burning their chariots, killing their young soldiers, releasing their prey, and silencing their voice. God will take down the threat against Judah and restore Judah’s fortunes again.
This is good news for God’s people and good news for you who depend on the Lord. God will completely eradicate any threat against you, even the threat of death. That’s because death is no longer an enemy for the believer. It’s an entrance into glory!
Romans 8:1-2 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Through His death on the cross, Christ paid the death penalty for your sin. Then He rose again, having conquered sin and death, and now He offers eternal life to anyone who believes in Him. Please, if you haven’t done it already, trust Christ with your life so you have nothing to fear ever again.
I’m a huge fan of science fiction movies where the superhero goes after the super-villain and saves the world. Most of the time, the super-villain also wants to save the world, not by redeeming a fallen human race, but by totally eliminating every human being.
For instance, in the 2010 movie the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the super-villain Owlman wants to destroy the cancer called humanity by destroying Earth.
In the 2005 Batman Begins movie, the villain Ra's al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows, tells Batman: “Gotham's time has come. Like Constantinople or Rome before it the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustice. It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die. This is the most important function of the League of Shadows. It is one we've performed for centuries.”
And later on, when the two face each other once again, he says: “The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.”
In The Dark Knight Rises, the bad guy Bane tells Batman that he has come to carry on the League of Shadows' mission in the wake of Ra's' death. Batman prevented their attempt in Batman Begins, but Bane has returned to finish the job by mercilessly wiping out Gotham.
Finally, in my favorite science fiction movie, The Matrix, Agent Smith calls humanity “a virus.” Take a look (Show The Matrix—Human beings are a disease scene, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mgS1Lwr8gq8). “You're a plague,” he says, “and we… are the cure” (Quotes are from IMDb, the Internet Movie Database; www.PreachingToday.com).
These super-villains want to bring justice to the earth, but they have no mercy or sorrow. They do not offer redemption. On the other hand, God judges sin with perfect justice, but in His love and mercy, He offers the way of salvation through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.
Please, trust Christ with your life and let Him save you from your sin. Then you will have nothing to fear. And if you ever do feel threatened, 1st, find comfort in a God, who will avenge His enemies and protect His people. 2nd, find comfort in a God, who will abolish His enemies and restore His people. And 3rd…
FIND COMFORT IN A GOD WHO WILL EMBARRASS HIS ENEMIES, CAUSING HIS PEOPLE TO REJOICE.
Trust the Lord who will bring disgrace to evil people and joy to His people. Depend on God who will shame those who threaten you and delight you who rely on Him.
Nahum 3:1-4 Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms (ESV).
Ninevah, the bloody city, will be full of dead bodies because of her lust for power like the lust of a prostitute. This may also be a reference to Ishtar, the Assyrian goddess of sex and war, who was called a prostitute and some of whose exploits were acts of savagery (Johnson, Bible Knowledge Commentary).
Nahum 3:5-7 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you? (ESV)
God will humiliate Ninevah until she is so ruined that there will be no one left to mourn her demise. As one commentator put it: “The once-attractive [prostitute] would be exposed in shame and would no longer be attractive to anyone” (Johnson, Bible Exposition Commentary).
Nahum 3:8-13 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars (ESV).
God will humiliate Ninevah just like Ninevah humiliated the Egyptian city of Thebes just a few years earlier in 663 B.C.
Nahum 3:14-17 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are (ESV).
Even though the people of Ninevah prepare for a siege, most of them will die, and the rest of them will fly away like locusts and grasshoppers.
Nahum 3:18-19 Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? (ESV)
Most of the world will applaud Ninevah’s demise because of the endless cruelty, the “evil,” the Assyrians brought to so many nations. While God humiliates Nineveh, Judah and the other nations rejoice! That’s the story not only for Judah, but for all who turn to the Lord for refuge, for you who put your life in God’s hands.
So, when you feel threatened, 1st, Find comfort in a God who will avenge His enemies and protect His people. 2nd, Find comfort in a God who will abolish His enemies and restore His people. And 3rd, Find comfort in a God who will embarrass His enemies, causing His people to rejoice.
Eddie Jaku calls himself “the happiest man in the world” even though he’s over a hundred years old and a Holocaust survivor. He was born in Germany and thought he lived in the most civilized, most cultured, and certainly the most educated country in Europe. In a recent TED talk, He said, “I was German first, and German second, and Jewish at home” (www.youtube. com/watch?v=scCvi3vY4jQ).
On November 9, 1938, after Nazi forces burned synagogues and destroyed Jewish homes, stores and other property, Jaku returned home from boarding school to an empty home. In the morning, he was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. Over the course of years, Jaku and his family reunited, escaped and lived in hiding. But in 1943, they were arrested again and sent to Auschwitz.
Jaku said, “I was finally transported to my hell on Earth, Auschwitz. My parents and my sister were also transported to Auschwitz, and I was never to see my parents again.” More than six million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust. In 1945, Jaku was sent on a “death march” but escaped into the wilderness. American soldiers rescued him in June of that year.
Jaku said that after the war, he was miserable—until he met his wife, Flore, and started a family. He said, “Eighty years ago, I didn't think I (would) have a wife and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This is a blessing.”
Jaku said that despite his experiences, he does not hate anyone. “Hate is a disease that may destroy your enemy but will also destroy you in the process.” Then later he added, “Happiness does not fall from the sky. It’s in your hands” (Kerry Breen, “This 101-year-old Holocaust survivor calls himself 'the happiest man on Earth,’” Today, 5-11-21; www.PreachingToday.com).
In other words, happiness doesn’t just happen. Happiness is a choice. My dear friends, please, choose happiness over hatred. Choose joy over bitter resentment. Choose praise over revenge, because God will deal with those who threaten you just like He did to Nineveh and just like He did to the Nazi’s.
I close with these words from Warren Wiersbe:
The hymn-writer wrote, “Change and decay in all around I see.” Change and decay are enemies that most people fear… When we are young, change is a treat; but as we grow older, change becomes a threat. But when Jesus Christ is in control of your life, you need never fear change or decay… When you are part of eternity, the decay of the material only hastens the perfecting of the spiritual, if you walk by faith in Christ (Warren W. Wiersbe, “His Name Is Wonderful.” Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
It’s that simple. Just walk by faith in Christ today and lose your fear.
