Nahum 3
Notes
Transcript
Woe to Nineveh
Woe to Nineveh
We continue on in describing the destruction of Nineveh. This gets a bit more intense than the last chapter and uses language in it’s most colorful ways to express. In all things though this points us to the supremecy of God.
The first three verses here almost sound like the narration for an action montage in the movie version.
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!
The flash of images just run through my mind with the intensity, reality of the chaos happening in Nineveh… or I should say that would be happening. This paints it as if it’s happening now. Whenever you’re reading this in the now. For them a yet future even for us one in the past. But the certainly of it in the reality of present stands out to me.
Woe to the bloody city...
The word Woe in Hebrew can mean a couple things, it can express lament like at a funeral where the surviving friends and family might express their woe. It’s not much of a modern English word but you get my meaning. The other is that of curse. God, Nahum, and the people of Israel are not lamenting the fall of Nineveh. They are cursing it. This bloody city is a city of bloodshed and is going to experience both meanings for a bloody city. The city that sheds blood and the city that is covered in the blood of it’s inhabitants who’ve all been slaughtered.
We pivot in verse four.
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.
Why did this all take place? The lust of a harlot… The harlot is Nineveh and the nations are her clientele. They’ve been seduced into joining themselves with her. Now she will reap the rewards of her prostitution.
This isn’t the only place we get this same type of imagery. We certainly went through this with Hosea and often the allusion points to Israel but other places it is not Israel and it is the enemy of God. In Revelation 17 we see the Great Prostitute who is the mother of prostitutes. We’re told at the end of the chapter Revelation 17:18 “And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”” Again a city likely representing an empire that has dominion over the earth is the harlot where judgment is poured out. Lots of parallels. The allure of prostitutes can be strong… Sex might not be your particular downfall but you have one and the harlot will be trading in that currency. Is it wealth, power, safety, escapism? The subtleties reach tentacles deep into places we don’t even realize. We must stay vigilant and guard our hearts. The people of God are warned to Revelation 18:4b–5 ““Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” I think in the same way that Lot had to get out of Edom so it could be destroyed and he wouldn’t be corrupted and destroyed with it.
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.
Like last week we have a clear declaration from God that He is against Nineveh. We also get in interesting punishment. Everyone will see your nakedness. They will be exposed. This isn’t the only place that’s ever said we had that show up back in Hosea 2:10 “Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.” This was actually a fairly common punishment for adultery in the ancient world, assuming the death penalty wasn’t used. But in Ezekial this is said about Jerusalem’s harlotry and also in Jeremiah 13:26 “I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen.” where the most similar phrasing is used. And you thought Game of Thrones just invented that punishment for Cersei Lannister when she was paraded through the streets naked with everyone shouting shame shame as she went by.
Consequences follow sin, period. Sometimes we forget that as Christians. God is a loving and forgiving God, he has saved us from His eternal wrath but that doesn’t mean he washed away all the consequences of our actions.
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?
This naturally follows, everything will be revealed and the rest of the world will be disgusted by it.
We pivot again and start comparing Nineveh to another world power that fell by God’s will.
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.
Assyria had conquered Thebes which in it’s time as the capitol of the Egyptian empire was also considered impenetrable. Many of the same geographic features that made the city protected existed in both places. Moreover The Egyptians had allies that didn’t hate them and would come to their aid if attacked so they should have had a better chance to survive invasion than Nineveh did. If Thebes could fall, Nineveh could fall.
What hope is there for a defense? A taunt that pretends to warn and encourage.
Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
Similar to last week a little taunt is set here, get ready big bro is comin’ for ya.
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.
It seems those preparations from verse fourteen won’t be enough… huh what a surprise. They will be devoured… If you remember our discussion about locusts and the many words for them we had back in the book of Joel this is a similar thing. Most mentions of locusts or grasshoppers are a different word for the same animal in a different context or stage of it’s life cycle. These small animals will consume the mightiest effort of man and it’s futile to think you can overpower them. You multiply, you spread yourselves out? They do it more, and your great people like the locusts will just disappear with no clue where they went off to.
In an almost conciliatory tone we start wrapping up.
Nahum 3:18–19a (ESV)
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.
This whole news though grim and graphic which is bitter for the Assyrians is a joy to the rest of the world.
Nahum 3:19b (ESV)
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
There is Joy in Justice. We thank God for Mercy in justice on our eternal account but we also rejoice for the justice in punishment.
Don’t be seduced by evil and get wrapped up in it’s consequences. Follow Jesus, obey his commands and teach others to do likewise.