The Death Of An Empire Part 3 Series

NAHUM part 3

Chapters 2 & 3 give details of the attack, siege, and fall of the Assyrian Empire.

Nineveh tried to defend itself.

The king calls the people to arms in 2:5

Nahum 2:5 (NIV)

5 He summons his picked troops, yet they stumble on their way. They dash to the city wall; the protective shield is put in place.

They most likely are stumbling in fear and panic at the size of the attacking force.

All of this does no good because God is fighting against Nineveh.

Nahum makes a declaration in 2:13 and 3:5

“I am against you, declares the Lord”

God is using Babylon and the Medes like He used Nineveh as instruments of judgment.

We find in 3:18 & 19 that the judgment is final.

Nahum 3:18-19 (NIV)

18 O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.

19 Nothing can heal your wound; your injury is fatal. Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?

Nineveh fell in the year 612 B.C. and was never rebuilt.

The territory became desolate

Now a part of Northern Iraq

Near the boarder of Turkey and Syria

Remember god gave them their chance and they blew it

It cost them their entire civilization their culture and their home.

Everything was gone and the entire world celebrated.

What can we draw from this account?

I think we have to look at from the context of all three chapters.

• We learned that God is a jealous God meaning that He is intolerant of disloyalty or infidelity.

• We learned from Chapter 1 verse 7 that God will us every chance to repent.

• We learned that even though there are times of punishment that God is a refuge in times of trouble when we trust Him.

• We learned that God had two requirements for His people.

o One was to spread the Word

o Two was to worship.

• Finally we get a glimpse of what happens when God is ignored and judgment is poured out. Complete, total annihilation.