Podcast Introduction

Today is Prophecy Friday and we’ll read the book of Nahum. I do have an on this date in church history for you. I’m calling today’s episode “Beyond the Pale.”  

Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Erda Estremera on Unsplash

Comments on Nahum 1-3

Nahum means “comforter”. There is comfort for God's people, to be sure. But for Nineveh, not so much.

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, and the book of Nahum was written about a hundred years after God sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn them that unless they repented, God's judgement would destroy them. You probably remember that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh to give the warning, because Nineveh was so evil that Jonah didn't want them to repent. Jonah didn't think they deserved a chance. But God is love and does not want anyone to perish, so He is patient and pleads with the sinner to turn from their wicked ways. And after Jonah was swallowed by the great fish, *he* repented and did deliver the warning to Nineveh. And Nineveh repented and thus avoided God's judgement.

But now, just a short hundred years later, they are a truly evil, foul and Godless city. They are a great and powerful city. According to one description I found, it was 60 miles across, with walls a hundred feet high. Many thousands of inhabitants. 

In chapter 3 it was referred to as a city of bloody violence. In reading through the Bible, there are occasional times where we are surprised by how descriptive its language is. But overall, it is quite reserved in its language. Such is this reference to Nineveh. "Bloody violence" doesn't even begin to describe what went on there. 

The Assyrian rulers were cruel in the extreme. And they were proud of their cruelty. Monuments that they had created to tell of their heinous acts have been found, and are now in museums. Listen to what some of them say:

· “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 pillar with their skins.”

· “Many within the border of my own land I flayed, and spread their skins upon the walls.”

· “I cut off the limbs of the officers, the royal officers who had rebelled.”

· “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 other I cut off their noses, their ears, and their fingers, 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.”

So yes, Nineveh was an evil, evil city. And there was much, much more that I haven't even mentioned. They truly were beyond the pale. God gave them a chance, but after a short time of repentance, they reverted back to their old ways.

So getting to the bottom line, Nineveh was completely and utterly destroyed. Some even doubted that ever even truly existed until ruins were discovered in 1840. 

Judah had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians and suffered greatly under them. And now finally, God is going to exact vengeance on them. Romans 8:31 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?". That is a comfort for those who have confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But on the other side of that coin, for those who are not His, it is equally true that if God is against you, then who can be for you? God was against Nineveh, and no one could save them.

Nineveh was once a great and mighty city. No one could conceive of its destruction. Everyone thought that such a city would always be great. But they turned to their own way, and they were brought down.

Is there a lesson for us here? I believe there is. We as a nation MUST return to God if we are going to ever see His blessing on us again. If we don't, our fall is sure. God gave Nahum a vision of the destruction of Nineveh.