Take Two: Nahum 3, Proverbs 5

Chapter 3 is a pronouncement against Nineveh again. It is part of the mystery/oracle that Nahum saw and this time...it begins with the results of the battle and works backward. He explains their fate and then give the rationale/reason...followed by the challenge to strengthen if they like...even though it will do no good, because their evil and unrepentent hearts have doomed them.

You see their fate in Nahum 3:1-3. The scene looks like something from Braveheart...with widespread death and destruction. The death is the product of the battle...but it is really because God has judged the wickedness of these people and will destroy them for it (Nahum 3:4). Remember, to deliver and bring comfort to His people, God has to destroy their oppressors. He does not destroy them in order to bless His people; rather, His people are blessed as God deals righteously with evil oppressors.

You can see that God's motivation is to stand against evil and to bring low the unrighteousness of men in Nahum 3:5-7. They will be defeated because God is against them. They chose to draw strength and comfort in their military might and reputation and set themselves against God...so God is against them and will destroy all that they have trusted in apart from Him.

Some in Assyria would have questioned whether their strong city could ever be taken as Nahum prophesies. Nahum 3:8-10 points backward into recent history for them...to No-Amon/L0 ammon/ Thebes...which while strong...had also fallen. The Assyrians/Ninevites knew this story well. While Thebes was considered a great and impenetrable city in Egypt and strategically situated...the ASSYRIANS had defeated it. It surprised everyone...since they thought that Thebes could never fall. The parallel that Nahum draws becomes more apparent...

Nahum 3:12-17 is the challenge/taunt to fortify if you will. Call in the reserves. Man your battle stations. Do all that you can...but when the Day comes...your men will be as women (Nahum 3:13) and will run...your guards on the wall will flee (Nahum 3:17). You will be utterly destroyed and your people will be scattered...never again to rise to power (Nahum 3:18). Why? Because you have committed evil time and again and have not turned back. Your wound (evil) is incurable and your destruction will not bring mourning from the nations...but they will rejoice. They rejoice...not at the Assyrian destruction...but at the justice of God making right the injustice perpetrated by Assyria against the peoples of the known world.

Did this happen? Most certainly. God's fulfillment of this prophesy is recorded in history.

Will God "right" all injustices in this world? Absolutely. He recorded it in the New Testament and we see it as the Second Coming of Christ.

Is there hope for those who perpetrate injustice? The same hope for them is the hope every Christian has experienced. For those who will turn from their sin and turn to a Holy God...there is always hope...and that Hope is found in the mercy of God.

Did Nineveh know this? Yes. Only a century before they were spared due to their repentance at the preaching of Jonah.

Should/Do we know this? What are you trusting in? Is it the hope of God's mercy...or is it in your own independence and strength? There is hope for all who turn to Him.

Proverbs 5:14 is the takeaway today. It struck me in its context (Prov 5:7-13) because it reminds us that merely being in the "midst of the assembly of the congregation," in the presence of teaching and instruction will not deliver a person. It is not enough to know what is right. One must also do what is right.

Grace,