Nahum 1

Nahum 1:1-15

NAHUM AND THE DOOM OF NINEVEH Nahum 1:1 to Nahum 3:19THE discussion of the Minor Prophets provides a great opportunity for such speakers as our great Humorist George Ade describes in his story on “The Preacher Who Flew His Kite High”. If one wants to quote from learned authorities, these Minor Prophets provide occasion. There is so much about them that is not known, and never can be known that they provide an almost unlimited field for the speculations of the uninspired. In consequence, a great array of names is associated with the discussion of every one of these Books. Like Ade’s minister, one may “quote from learned authorities” all the way from Iceland to Italy, and find himself especially provided with German names.I should regard a review of these names, together with their opinions, as worth my while if there was anything like agreement in their conclusions; but since their discussions resolve themselves into debates which leave every man a dissenter from his fellows, I count the process folly, and propose instead that we frankly admit the difficulties of date, place of writing, possible interpolations, etc. and settle down upon the most probable conclusion as a proper introduction of the study of the Book.It seems likely that Nahum was a native of Galilee, until the time of the invasion of his land, and the deportation of the Ten Tribes, when he was driven out, taking up his residence in Jerusalem. From this point he witnessed the siege of the city by Sennacherib, and was filled with joy at the destruction of the Assyrian hosts in the reign of Hezekiah; and was moved by the Spirit of God to see in this memorable event an earnest of the coming downfall of the enemy of his people, involving the complete overthrow of Nineveh and the Empire of which she was then the central city.

The date of his prophecy was about 712 B. C. He was therefore a contemporary of Isaiah and Micah. This by way of introduction. Now we shall turn to the study of the Book. It is a convenient arrangement and fairly complete I think, to discuss this Book under three Suggestions.THE FURY OF THE LORD Immediately after giving the introduction “The burden of Nineveh, The Book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite”, we have his initial sentence of prophecy“God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; * * the Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies”. This terrible sentence was full of consolation to God’s oppressed people. It was evidently directed against the Assyrian at whose hands they had suffered every indignity and hardship. And yet the Prophet of God conserves Jehovah’s character, and in the same sentence describes His method of procedure,“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3). There are many sermons in that single text. I want therefore that we should dwell upon it this morning. Here men behold God in the hour of His righteous wrath, and yet in that hour three things must ever be remembered.He is slow to anger!

This is not the first time that Nineveh has offended. In our study of the Book of Jonah we saw that great city filled with such wickedness as incited God’s purpose of judgment.

He said, “Their wickedness is come up before Me”. Jonah was dispatched to declare judgment, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”!But at the preaching of Jonah they seemed to repent—proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth “from the greatest of them even to the least of them”It is easier, however, to clothe oneself in sackcloth and cover oneself with ashes than to quit the sins to which one has long been accustomed. We are not surprised therefore to learn, that danger overpast, the Ninevites returned again to their iniquities as the sow returns to the wallow.That it grieved God to witness this degeneracy, no one would question; but that He waits a hundred years before sending another prophet to declare their just doom, illustrates Nahum’s claim, “The Lord is slow to anger”.He is a God of such grace that the fruitless tree will not be cut down until another year’s cultivation has failed to bring fruit from it; of such grace that the world will not be flooded until many prophets have pleaded with it, and Noah himself has warned it for more than a century; of such grace, that even Sodom receives angel’s visits, if not a visit from the Son Himself, and hears the declaration from Divine lips, ere the fire falls. It is sometimes said of a hasty man “With him it is a word and a blow.” But such a remark can never be made of God. He is slow to anger!The Psalmist said,“I saw the prosperity of the wicked. * * “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. “Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. * * “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. * * “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; “Until I went into the sanctuary of God”. I wonder if coming into the presence of God, if being permitted that high privilege, does not convince every saved sinner of this great truth, “The Lord is slow to anger”.He is great in power! (Nahum 1:3). There is a natural relation between the sentences “The Lord is slow to anger” and “great in power”. The small, the insignificant, are quick to anger. God’s very greatness is here shown in His self-control. No man need fear that he will be smitten by Divine petulance. Patience will have been exhausted when penalty is inflicted. But when all patience is gone, not because God has lost it, but because man has despised it, power will still be with Jehovah, for “The Lord is * * great in power”.The Prophet continues“The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. “The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. “Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him” (Nahum 1:3; Nahum 1:5-6). Joseph Parker reminds the men and women who spell nature with a capital N and boast their worship of it that their worship is “climatic and Barometric.” “They are great on sunny Sabbath mornings when the sky is bright and the birds’ throats are bursting with music. Then you will find them walking abroad and declaring that in Nature’s Temple they have worshiped Nature’s God. But when the same God sends rain, they hid themselves to cover, and they do not find it in church either. When the same God sends thunder and lightning, they are filled with alarm. When the earth quakes at their feet, they lose all confidence in Nature’s God and appeal to Jehovah to save them. And their fears are better than their profession; for it proves that after all their fine speeches they understand that Jehovah is ‘great in power’ and whether the storm shall sweep them as with the besom of destruction, or they shall be saved out of it by a plain providence, depends upon the will of Him who “hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm”.

In an hour like that, evil men are made afraid. They reason that if the natural elements can exhibit such wrath, who shall be able to stand when God shall speak in judgment?That same hour, however, is a source of consolation to the saint for he can say, “It is my Father’s hand” and be free from fear. “The God that reigns on high, And thunders when He please, That rides upon the stormy sky, And manages the seas,

“This awful God is ours, Our Father and our love, He shall send down His Heavenly powers To carry us above.” He will not acquit the wicked! (Nahum 1:3). The very same God who is slow to anger, sees to it that sinners are punished. Concerning this evil city the Prophet has said, “With an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. * * He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time” (Nahum 1:8-9).Evidently He proposed when he did deal with Nineveh to wipe her from the face of the earth. “The Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name he sown. * * I will make thy grave; for thou art vile” (Nahum 1:14).Is this the God whose Name is Love? Certainly! I can imagine no more unscriptural, insane conception of God, than that which they hold who think that when they have said “God is love” they have preached a whole Gospel, and effectually disposed of all justice, brought an end to all judgment. I can conceive of the devil as acquitting the wicked without repentance on the part of the latter.

I can conceive of him as winking at all kinds of transgressions, but I cannot conceive of God as doing the same. Our best illustrations of divinity are found in good men, and our best type of his satanic majesty is seen in sinful men.

Elevate the evil man and the good man to places of power and what will be the result? God’s man will call the guilty to account. Satan’s man will be a mayor or governor in whom the worst element will delight. Jacob Riis speaks of Tweed as ruling in New York City, and tells how, drunk with power and plunder, he insolently defied the outraged community. In his day, the sinners of New York rejoiced. They seldom had to come to judgment and some saints were foolish enough to defend him by saying, “He never squealed, and he was so good to the poor.”How naturally that sounds to a Minneapolitan!

What else would you expect of a bad man?—the man who is out for buying votes, than that he should let off the guilty with ease? What else would you expect from a good man than such a course as Attorney Folk of Missouri once took?

If God acquitted the guilty, He could be impeached from office. Men would have a perfect right to set up another King in His stead. We grow tired of all this sickly sentimentality about the goodness of God as employed by some people. God is good! Infinitely too good to let guilt go on forever without calling it to judgment. Joseph Parker was right when he said, “It is a poor ministry that has no perdition in it.

It may be a popular ministry. There have been persons who would not go to church because they could not endure the minister who taught that God would execute wrath against evil doers.”But let all such understand that they are not protesting against the preacher, nor yet against the Prophet Nahum who said it, but against the very God whose character demands it, and who will by no means dear the guilty!

God was no more acting in keeping with His character when He saved Noah and his household than when He smote the rest of the world with His flood; when He delivered Lot out of Sodom, than when He destroyed the city with fire and brimstone! The physician who comes and cuts the cancer from my flesh hurts me deeply and destroys a part of my body, but that is no sign that he is not my best friend. Removing a diseased part is for the interest of life itself. Ah, beloved, even the fury of Jehovah finds its expression always along the lines of love, life, and holiness.But I call your attention to the second suggestion.THE FALL OF NINEVEH The Prophet’s sentence is“He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face * *. “The shield of His mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet” etc. (Nahum 2:1; Nahum 2:3). Then follows a description of sacking the city (Nahum 2:13).“Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I mil burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard”. These words demand two remarks. Sentence was spoken when Nineveh seemed secure.McClintock and Strong in their Encyclopedia say, “That the prophecy was written before the final downfall of Nineveh and its capture by the Medes and Chaldeans (about B. C. 625) will be admitted. The allusions to the Assyrian power imply that this was still unbroken (Nahum 1:12; Nahum 2:13; Nahum 3:15-17). The glory of the kingdom was at its brightest in the reign of EsarHaddon B. C. 680-660, who for thirteen years made Babylon the seat of the empire.”It is altogether likely that Ninevites gave little concern to what Micah had said. The average sinner pays little heed to God’s predicted judgments. The only judgment that appeals to him is the imminent one, or better still, the evident one.We are told that in 1712, Mr.

Whitson, having calculated the return of a comet for the 24th of October, at five minutes past five o’clock in the morning, gave out his information to the public, and accompanied this by the statement that the world would burn up on the Friday following; and the untutored people believed him. Here was a danger at hand, and before Friday came around many Londoners had left on barges and boats for mid-ocean, thinking that would be a safer place if the elements should melt with fervent heat. A Dutch ship cast all its powder into the river. A hundred and thirty-five clergymen were called to Lamberth to offer special prayer, there being none in the service for such an occasion. A gentleman who had neglected family prayers for five years resumed the same, and, on Thursday evening, persuaded his wife to put off a ball until they saw whether the comet appeared or not. Three young society women were known to burn their novels and buy every one of them a Bible and a copy of Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying”; while more than 7,000 men, living in illegal marriage relations, secured the necessary documents and had a ceremony said.

All this because a man, by a scientific calculation, determined the time of the appearance of a comet and miscalculated the result of its coming. The same people who were terror stricken when they saw that comet put into the heavens, according to prediction, were unconcerned about the prophecies of God and His predicted judgments for the wicked, when it is as certain as the sun shining in heaven that not one jot or tittle of these latter shall fail.The antediluvians reap the result of such indifference; the scoffing Sodomites share in the same; the sinners of today refuse to learn the lesson.

Arthur Pierson tells how those German astronomers left the stone at Aiken, South Carolina on which their meridian circuit rested in observing the transit of Venus in 1884, to stand for the use of those who in June 2,004 shall need to watch another transit and then he remarks—“Think of it—the faith of science in the inflexible order of nature! One hundred and nineteen years hence—three times, at least, within that space a generation will have perished; thrones will have been emptied of occupant after occupant; empires will have passed away; changes, whose number and gravity are too great now to be conceived, will have taken place; nay, human history may have come to its great last crisis and the millennial march may have begun; but punctual to a second, without delay or failure, Venus will make her transit across the sun’s disc. So while scoffers sneer and doubters question, while empires vanish and nations perish, prophecy moves steadily onward, and nears its grand fulfillment. To a second of time and to the last minute jot or tittle of detail, the prophetic word shall be fulfilled.”Sentence was executed in accordance with the Prophet’s speech. There are self-styled scholars who play the parts of critics and pick the Minor Prophets to pieces as improbable. Prof.

Ira Price, himself a noted Archaeologist, speaking of the work of such men said, “My science is daily wrecking their conclusions and proving the truthfulness of the Word.” These prophecies of Nahum are a case in point. Dr.

Layard, whose researches of the ruins of Nineveh were extensive, speaks of the words of Nahum spoken 2500 years before he did his work, and declares that he finds every evidence of their fulfillment to the letter. He uncovered the pavement at the Gateway and found it marked with the ruts of the chariot wheels, as Nahum had said in Nahum 3:2. The ivory ornaments, the metal bowls, vases and saucers, most beautifully embossed and engraved, which he discovered, are accepted as described by Nahum 2:9 —“the spoil of silver, * * the spoil of gold: * * there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture”. While the prophecy, “I will * * set thee as a gazingstock” is strangely fulfilled when we find the remains of this ancient city on exhibit in the museums of Europe. Beloved, the very literalness with which God fulfills His every word should be a consolation to saints and a warning to sinners. When God says to His own people, “I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins”, they should shout for joy.

God keepeth His Word. But when God says, “The wicked shall not be unpunished”, evil men have occasion for alarm for “God is not slack concerning His promise”.Some years ago, at La Porte, Texas, a young man who had come to the assembly grounds expecting to dance in the pavilion, but found Dr.

Dixon there delivering a sermon, listened long enough to be convicted and angered. He walked two or three rods to an eating house and, while taking some refreshments, swore at Dixon, and as Dixon had been preaching on the Holy Ghost, profaned also His Name. A few moments later he walked over to the bathhouse, attired himself in a bathing suit, and leaped from the pier into the water.The tide was out and the bay more shallow than he had calculated. His head struck the sands; his neck broke. A few minutes later he was brought back to the rooms where he had blasphemed the Holy Ghost, dead. It was just as God had said, “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1).Whether we are concerned with the predictions of men makes little difference, but when God speaks, let all the people attend to His sentences at the peril of their souls. Nineveh went as He had said!THE The last chapter of this Book is given to the defense of the Divine character and judgments. The Prophet maintains that Nineveh has been treated with justice.Her bloody character brought judgment!“Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery” (Nahum 3:1). We have already heard a description of what it was in Jonah’s days. It was worse in Nahum’s days; a hundred years worse. Cities seldom grow in virtue! Their custom is to grow in vice. In commenting upon this passage, both Joseph Parker and Charles Spurgeon felt led to describe the sins of London, and to say, “It is the worst city in the world.” If you read Jacob Riis “Battle with the Slums” you will find that he thinks New York City is the worst. If you talk with a Chicagoan who concerns himself with the morals of that great metropolis, he will tell you that she is unrivalled in iniquity.

I could take almost any man sitting before me this morning down the street tonight and convince him by two-hours’ walk, that Minneapolis is modern Sodom.. Some years ago a man who was perfectly familiar with La Crosse, Wisconsin, affirmed to me that her immoralities could not be surpassed; another gave me a mere description of Cedar Rapids, la. and a few days ago I listened to a man who, with tears in his eyes, told me a tale of debauch, involving even the professed Christians and church-members of a little city nearer at hand, that made me wonder why God had not swept it with a cyclone already, or cracked the earth beneath it and swallowed it up.

Beloved, it may not be a mere accident that Galveston was drowned, that Chicago burned, or San Francisco was buried, or even that New Richmond, Wisconsin, was destroyed.“The Lord [who] hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm” knows just where the bloody city is, just when its cup of iniquity is full, and “Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him”. If there is one obligation more incumbent than another upon Christian men at this time, it is that of seeing that our cities are not built in blood. When years ago the Federation of Churches made a canvass of the 15th Assembly District, New York City, they found that the churches, schools, and other educational agencies, marshalled a frontage of 756 feet, while the saloon fronts stretched themselves over nearly a mile so that the compiler of these pregnant facts, said “Saloon social ideals are minting themselves on the minds of the people at the ratio of seven saloon thoughts to one educational thought.” This is the institution that some men and most of congress want back. All our cities had such plague spots, and some of us were content if we could only keep the plague in spots. Legislate the saloon evil away from the door of the well-to-do resident and locate it over against the poor tenement where children, who have no home attractions, will be tempted more than they are able to bear; and all this defended on the cowardly basis that we can do nothing to change it, or by that worse speech “It brings financial profit to the city or country,” which is the insanity of men’s greed for success.I tell you that for every dollar which comes into the treasury of a city, blood-stained and tear-rusted, and every cent which citizens receive by lying, theft, robbery, and oppression, they will be called to account.

God will be saying, “Behold, I am against thee, * * and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame” (Nahum 3:5).Her judgment was approved, by all, as just. Nahum says of Nineveh,“It shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee? (Nahum 3:7) “There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually”? (Nahum 3:19). The Prophet foresees, here, that the former friends of this city will desert her and say her sentence is just, and it will be in vain to seek comforters for her; while those against whom she has behaved herself wickedly shall clap their hands for joy when they behold her judgment. Such also will be the fate of all sinners. There is no fellowship of sympathy for the man who has continued in sin against God until his doom is sealed. Dives did not find one friend in hell. Many of you have read “Vathek” by William Beckford, and it is commonly conceded that Beckford is here reciting his personal history, including even the torments of conscience on account of sin. Think of the description which he gives of the final state of the wicked!

Almost the same instant the voice of judgment announced to the Caliph, Nouronihar, the five princes, and the princess, the awful and irrevocable decrees, their hearts immediately took fire, and they at once lost the most precious of the gifts of heaven-hope. These unhappy beings recoiled with looks of the most furious distraction; Vathek beheld in the eyes of Nouronihar nothing but rage and vengeance, nor could she discern aught in his but aversion and despair.

The two princes who were friends, and until that moment had preserved their attachment, shrunk back, gnashing their teeth with mutual and unchangeable hatred. Kalailh and his sister made reciprocal gestures of imprecation, but the two other princes testified their horror for each other by the most ghastly convulsions, and screams that could not be smothered; all severally plunged themselves into the accursed multitude, there to wander in an eternity of unabating anguish.Then Beckford adds, “Such was, and such should be the punishment of unrestrained passions and atrocious actions!” What a marvelous illustration Beckford’s words are that the sinner will consent to the judgment of the sinful.But the Prophet says, “All that hear the bruit of thee shall clap their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually”?It is no wonder that God’s people rejoiced in the downfall of this enemy, nor can one make it appear irreligious. What Christian regretted the overthrow of the Turkish power, and end to all Turkish supremacy, even though it should have involved the destruction of what we call the unspeakable Turk? Have not his abominations invited the severest dealing and if God should be pleased to bring him to an utter end would not the world be vastly better off, and the civilized at least clap their hands for joy? So also of the bloody Soviet! And one can very easily carry this thought up to that greater judgment when Jesus Christ shall overthrow every enemy and bring to utter defeat the Adversary and all his hosts.

In fact, is it not true that good men pray ardently for the coming of such a day and the sight of that very event? I once heard Dr.

Justin Fulton say that when at last the prophecy in the Apocalyptic vision was realized and an angel came down out of Heaven and laid hold on the Dragon “the old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him * * and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him” he would like to stand where he could see the whole proceedings and lift his voice in song, “Halleluiah It Is Done.” And where is the Christian who would not rejoice with him, and who does not pray with Dr. Lowell Mason, “Hasten, Lord, the glorious time, When beneath Messiahs sway, Every nation, every clime, Shall the Gospel call obey. Mightiest kings His power shall own, Heathen tribes His Name adore; Satan and his host overthrown, Bound in chains, shall hurt no more.

“Then shall wars and tumults cease, Then be banished grief and pain; Righteousness and joy and peace, Undisturbed shall ever reign. Bless we then our gracious Lord; Ever praise His glorious Name; All His mighty acts record, All His wondrous love proclaim.”