Read: Nahum 1
Just like
Jonah, Nahum was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel and was sent to Nineveh
with a message of destruction. He went
there about 150-200 years after Jonah preached his message to the Ninevites but
circumstances were very different. After
Jonah went to Nineveh Assyria’s borders expanded and they tried to invade the
Northern Kingdom of Israel but failed. Slowly
they became victorious and began to exile the tribes of Israel leaving only
Judah in the Southern Kingdom. It was a
huge catastrophe for the people of God. The
conversion of the Ninevites in response to the preaching of Jonah over a
century earlier had been short lived.
They soon became ruthless, returning to their former wicked ways. Following Jonah, Zephaniah, as part of
his message to Judah, prophesied the destruction of Assyrian’s and that Nineveh
would become a wasteland. It was Nahum
whom God would send to Nineveh with their final warning. Although God is slow to anger their time had
run out. God was not letting them off
the hook. We can see God’s sovereignty
as He allowed the nation of Assyria to rise and become a powerful empire and
then He brings it to an end. It is God
who controls history and the prophets acted as the mouthpiece of God to warn the
people of God’s ways.
Chapter 1 of
Nahum is an acrostic poem where each verse begins with the next letter of the
Hebrew alphabet. It proclaims that
Nineveh will fall. God’s enemies will be
punished by Him and God’s people will be delivered from their oppression. What is bad news for Nineveh is good news for
God’s children. This chapter gives us
insight into what God is like. Although
God is love, and although He is forgiving, people still need to ask for His
forgiveness and change their ways. To
those who turn to Him He is a refuge but for those who plot against Him He is
filled with vengeance and wrath. Jonah
went to Nineveh to preach repentance showing us that no one is beyond God’s
reach but for those who will not repent or fall back into their sinful ways
there will be consequences. Nahum shows
us that God does not delight in punishing but He will act against the
guilty. In order for there to be love
there must be justice as well, God embodies both.
Prayer and Journaling
1. Verse
3 tells us that God is slow to anger but that He will not leave the guilty
unpunished. Thank the Lord for His love
and for His justice. What else does this
chapter tell you about the character of God?
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the power of God in this chapter and
spend some time meditating on it.
2. Verse
7 tells us that God is good, a refuge in times of trouble for those who trust
in Him. Ask the Lord to show you a time
when He was your refuge? How has He been
your helper in times of trouble? Thank
Him for this!
3. When
we read the prophets we can take comfort in God’s consistency. God is always the same, He does not change in
character; His is a unique combination of justice and mercy. Even today we can trust that God will exercise
mercy as long as He can but when it is persistently refused He must exercise
justice. Thank God for His
never-changing character.
