039. IV. The Certainty Of Nineveh’s Fate (3:1-19)

IV THE CERTAINTY OF NINEVEH’S FATE (Nahum 3:1-19) The well deserved capture of Nineveh, the harlot city (Nahum 3:1-4). Woe to the city of blood and falsehood and endless robbery! Her time of reckoning has come. An army is at her gates! Hear the crack of the charioteer’s whip and the rumbling of the wheels, the galloping horses, and the rattle of the chariots bounding along. See the ‘horsemen as they charge, their swords flashing in the air, their polished spears glistening. The contest is fierce, the battle-field a charnel-house, the bodies of the slain heaps over which the victors stumble. And why this carnage? Because she has used her prestige and her charms in alluring and bringing to ruin every nation under heaven. She is a corrupter of the world.

Jehovah will deal with her as she deserves (Nahum 3:5-7). At last, O Nineveh, you must reckon with Jehovah himself. He will deal with you as pitilessly as your own brutal soldiery has been wont to deal with hapless captives. Since you have delighted to play the harlot, a harlot’s punishment shall you have. Shamefully exposed and covered with filth, you shall be pilloried for all to gaze at,—a fate so terrible that many shall shrink from looking upon you, so well deserved that none shall be found to pity you. Her defenses will prove useless (Nahum 3:8-13). Do you listen scornfully to this threat, saying in your heart, “My defenses are secure. Who can capture me by assault?” Are you stronger than the mighty Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, situated on the broad Nile, which she considered a sure defense, while Ethiopia and all the provinces of Egypt lent her aid, and Put and the Lybians came to her assistance? Yet, all these availed nothing; she was carried off captive. The cruel Assyrian soldiers massacred her weaker population, while her nobles were laden with fetters and only spared from slaughter that they might become abject slaves. So shall you be drunken with the cup of God’s wrath, and be entirely powerless to make a defense. In vain will you seek a safe refuge from your enemy. Your fortresses, apparently so strong, shall be like ripe figs which drop the moment they are touched. Your defenders lose all courage at the news that the entrances to your land have been forced and the fortresses burned. At the critical moment her defenders will completely fail her (Nahum 3:14-17). The danger is now at your doors. Make every preparation for defense. Take care that the supply of water is ample; strengthen the defenses. Hasten to tread the clay and mold the bricks to repair all breaches. Put forth your utmost effort It is of no avail! When you are most active, fire shall consume your palaces, and the sword your people. However many your numbers, however numerous your traders, they shall depart as quickly as the locust which sheds its skin and flees. Your princes and officers too shall be like the locusts which, though torpid when the day is cold, come to life with the first rays of the brightening sun, and take their rapid flight. So will these worthies seek shelter at their first opportunity. Her fall irretrievable and unlamented (Nahum 3:18-19). Your real kings, O Assyria, are long since dead; your nobles are at rest All have been slain, your people hopelessly scattered on the mountains. There is no recovery for the nation; your wound is fatal, your ruin irretrievable. Yet no one will mourn for you. Rather will every man that hears the rumor of your downfall rejoice and exult, for where can one find a people on the earth which has not felt your unceasing brutality!