God is Just
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Introduction
Introduction
As we open to Nahum chapter three, we are going to close out the book with this final chapter. We turn from the fact of the judgment to the reasons for it. More precisely to the justification of it. God in declaring judgment against Nineveh (and Assyria) is just. God is just in declaring judgment against not only Nineveh but against all of humanity.
As we look at the spiritual depravity of Nineveh, we are forced to look at the condition of our own time and our own nation and world. God is long-suffering but there is a time when His hand of judgment must come down. He is completely just in doing so also.
25 You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?”
5 You have rebuked the nations: You have destroyed the wicked; you have erased their name forever and ever.
We see three reasons Nineveh deserved judgment - these same reasons will condemn all under the just hand of God at the Day of Judgment.
1 Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey. 2 The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot! 3 Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over their dead.
4 Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who treats nations and clans like merchandise by her prostitution and sorcery, 5 I am against you. This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.
6 I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you. 7 Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying, “Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her?” Where can I find anyone to comfort you? 8 Are you better than Thebes that sat along the Nile with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, the river her wall?
9 Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength; Put and Libya were among her allies. 10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her children were also dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains. 11 You also will become drunk; you will hide. You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are fig trees with figs that ripened first; when shaken, they fall— right into the mouth of the eater! 13 Look, your troops are like women among you; your land’s city gates are wide open to your enemies. Fire will devour the bars of your gates. 14 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Step into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick-mold!
15 The fire will devour you there; the sword will cut you down. It will devour you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust; multiply like the swarming locust! 16 You have made your merchants more numerous than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away.
17 Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are. 18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather them together.
19 There is no remedy for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands because of you, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?
Ripe For Judgement
Ripe For Judgement
1 Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey. 2 The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot! 3 Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over their dead.
4 Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who treats nations and clans like merchandise by her prostitution and sorcery, 5 I am against you. This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.
6 I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you. 7 Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying, “Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her?” Where can I find anyone to comfort you?
Nahum declares WOE to Nineveh even has a nickname for them, the city of blood. Nineveh truly was a city of blood - blood she spilled through her unquenchable thirst and lust for committing violence against other nations. This title was earned through her atrocious practice of cutting off hands and feet, ears and noses, gouging out eyes, lopping off heads, and then binding them to vines or heaping them up before the city gates and the utter fiendishness by which captives could be impaled or flayed alive through a process by which their skin was gradually and completely removed. The rulers of Assyria were terribly cruel indeed, but they went further by boasting of their cruelty on monuments, monuments that exist in museums to this day. Commentator James Montgomery Boice quotes some of the choice boasts from various monuments
I cut off their heads and formed them into pillars
Bubo son of Buba, I flayed in the city of Arbela and I spread his skin upon the city wall
I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillars with their skins
Many within the border of my own land I flayed, and spread their skins on the walls
I cut off limbs of the officers, the royal officers
3,000 captives I burned with fire
Their corpses I formed into pillars
From some I cut off their hands and their fingers and from others I cut off their noses, their ears, and of many I put out their eyes
I made one pillar of the living and another of heads, I bound their heads to posts round about the city
The Assyrians not only were violent but also deceitful and clever diplomats who lied to other nations and broke promises.
31 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and each may drink water from his own cistern
They slaughtered people without regard for age,sex, and they would pile the corpses up in piles like lumber as a warning to others. The shedding of innocent blood is a serious sin that God detests and promises to judge.
11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, 12 the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die. 13 Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.
16 Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
16 The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him: 17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
Depraved leaders who commit such violence will one day answer to God for their crimes against Him and against mankind.
Nahum follows the guilt of Nineveh with some rather incredible descriptions of the final assault upon the great city. Progressing from whips, to wheels and horses of chariots, to charging horsemen (cavalry) with swords and spears, to widespread violence and slaughter, an utter picture of the sheer carnage. These describe the attack on Nineveh - although it is reminiscent of Nineveh’s exploits. It is justice that the violence Nineveh perpetrated against others would be done to them.
God says “I am against you - this is the declaration of the LORD of Armies. In being against them, God is just in judgment and declares that judgment against Nineveh is designed and executed with the purpose of exposing their shame. I will lift your skirt over your face and display your nakedness. Treat them contemptible and make a spectacle of them. Her shameless acts would be matched by shameless exposure. God is against Nineveh but against all who would treat human life with such disregard. Nineveh’s glory would be turned to filth - literally flung excrement.
The climax of Nineveh’s shame would be that non would show sympathy upon her and no one would be found to comfort her in her trouble. The once attractive harlot would cause others to recoil at the sight of her.
Grace Ignored
Grace Ignored
8 Are you better than Thebes that sat along the Nile with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, the river her wall? 9 Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.
10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her children were also dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains. 11 You also will become drunk; you will hide. You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are fig trees with figs that ripened first; when shaken, they fall— right into the mouth of the eater! 13 Look, your troops are like women among you; your land’s city gates are wide open to your enemies. Fire will devour the bars of your gates. 14 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Step into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick-mold!
15 The fire will devour you there; the sword will cut you down. It will devour you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust; multiply like the swarming locust! 16 You have made your merchants more numerous than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away.
17 Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are.
With insight and vision from God Nahum asks Nineveh are you better than Thebes? Thebes, that was along the Nile and had water surrounding her - protected by the sea and the river. Cush and Egypt were her support and strength. Put and Libya were allies. Despite these things Thebes became an exile and went into captivity. Despite all that they thought made them safe and protected them - they still fell victim to Assyria’s might. Utterly slaughtered and bound into exile. Assyria conquered Thebes in 663 BC
God then speaks that Nineveh will likewise become drunk. You will also seek refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are fig trees, with ripened figs. As easily as ripe fruit falls from a shaken tree - so too will the strongholds and fortresses of Nineveh. The soldiers will be as women among them - not fighters and not up for the fight. Your city gates will be wide open to your enemies (thanks to a flood) Fire will devour the bars of your gate ( a literal fire but also fire is a picture of judgment).
140 years prior Nineveh had repented and accepted the grace and mercy offered by God, and because of their repentance and sincere turning from evil that generation was spared. This generation however was intent upon their evil, and they on top of that they not only rejected the grace of God again - they relied upon their own strength and their own supposed power for security. To ignore God’s grace is to make yourself ripe for judgment.
Draw water for siege, strengthen your fortresses. Step into the clay and tread the mortar, take hold of the brick-mold. A sense of ironic ridicule here. Nahum is calling on Nineveh to defend themselves. When under siege water is the most pressing need. The enemy will tear out the wall and the walls would need to be repaired. As Nineveh tries and tries to defend herself the efforts would prove futile. Then comes the fire and the sword bringing with it disaster and their utter doom.
five groups of people are identified to describe the extent of Assyria’s national chaos. They are:
Merchants who are like locusts
Princes like grasshoppers
Scribes like clouds of locusts
Shepherds that are asleep and not doing their job, thus no one is guiding and protecting the people
Nobles that are slumbering
These verses are mocking Assyria and everything that they think is great. God is ripping apart their civic structure. All that they trust and rely on will be proven to be false one at a time and very definitely.
What are you trusting and respecting in? What has your attention and honor? What are we trusting in for security? When you feel stressed and anxious, where do you really go? That will fail if God is against you!
Rotten to the Core
Rotten to the Core
18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather them together. 19 There is no remedy for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands because of you, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?
While it doesnt mention the King of Assyria at the time of the prophecy - we do know that it is most likely one of two kings - Sinsharishkun who was ruling when Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC. It could also have been Ashuruballit (612-609) who tried to hold the Assyrian Empire together in the city of Haran until it completely crumbled three years after Nineveh was destroyed. His leaders were dead and the people not taken as captives were scattered never again to be gathered. The empire which for centuries had been an unstoppable force would be totally decimated.
The devastation of the city burned looted and overrun would look like a wound and a severe critical injury. One without remedy. Describing the truth of the completeness of her fall never to be rebuilt which archeology has confirmed. There is also a sense that the wound and unjury of rejecting God’s grace and choosing to continue in their own ways has been the final blow, the death strike. To reject the grace of God is to be without remedy for the judgment of our sin.
On top of dealing themselves the death blow, Nineveh and Assyria as a whole was seen as deserving of this justice executed by God in judgment against them. All who hear about their downfall will not be surprised but rather would applaud it. Their cruelty was known by all around them. God in His love is absolutely just in judging this empire.
Old Yeller - a great book and wonderful movie. In the end _spoiler alert_ the dog had to be put down because it became rabid. It was a just thing to do, the dog was dead already for the disease was incurable but was still dangerous in the meantime.
Love is doing what is best and good and just for those whom you care about. God judged the Assyrian empire after years, and decades and centuries to repent and when they refused and God had to destroy them.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We do not find any clear prophecy about Christ, such as are found in many of the Prophets. Remember though all Scripture is God breathed. As the Son, Jesus is the eternal Word of God. As God the Son, He is also Yahweh in the Old Testament. So the voice that speaks here is the voice of Christ, along with the Father and Holy Spirit who agree as one. We like to think about the grace of God. We tend to shy away from all Scripture, in both the Old and New Testament, which talks about God’s wrath and judgment.
Nahum stands as a warning not to presume upon God’s grace. It describes to us of a God who cares and is merciful as well as slow to wrath. It reveals a gracious God who is willing to forgive those who would repent. He is a stronghold to those who trust in Him. But He is also a God of wrath jealousy, vengeance, judgment and justice. This is consistently revealed throughout all of Scripture.
God is willing to forgive the repentant, regardless of nation or culture. The same God who had forgiven Nineveh in the days of Jonah is the same God who showed grace to Israel when they transgressed. But at the same time, God will punish the unrepentant, equally regardless of nationality or culture. The same Babylonians whom God raised up to punish Nineveh would ravage the unrepentant Jerusalem as well. God’s grace urges repentance. But if grace is trampled upon as common, be sure the vengeance of God will come as well.
Whereas Nahum is about the judgment upon the nation of Assyria and a warning to Judah as well, this is not the only level we must be aware of. This is equally true to His church as well. If anything. God has even higher requirements for justice and righteousness as well. If one comes into the church as a born-again believer, it is because he or she has received grace. But grace leads from sin. It does not justify sin. Paul tells us that it is entirely wrong to continue in sin so that grace might abound. (Romans 6:1) God will judge churches as well as individuals who trample upon His grace. His vengeance is certain and He is just. This is why God’s church must live out repentance every day. We should not use our status as “His people” to live lives of sin and relish in the world. Rather we are to be examples proclaiming God’s grace in Jesus Christ who took the just judgment we deserved on the cross. The judgment of God is one day coming upon all the earth. Its wickedness is as great as it was in Nineveh. Vengeance is certain so find your safety in Him. the world will try to protect itself from the wrath of God, but unless they receive the grace of God and repent they will likewise perish in judgment from God who is just.