NAHUM’S MESSAGE ABOUT GOD

 

 

Nahum 1:1-7

 

Prayer

 

We don't know much about Nahum:

          1. He was a prophet.

          2. He was a native of Elkosh (probably a Galilean village).

          3. He lived about 650 years before Christ.

And   4. He prophesied the destruction of Nineveh.

 

 

Nineveh is the city where Jonah preached.

Jonah wanted it destroyed.

 

 

But God asked, “Should I not spare Nineveh that great city wherein are more         

than six score thousand person.”

More than 120,000 people lived in Nineveh.

 

 

God wanted to spare it.

He told Jonah to preach there.

 

 

Jonah tried to run away.

But a whale changed his mind.

 

 

He went and preached.

A revival broke out.

 

 

God spared the city.

And now, about 150 years have passed.

 

 

Nineveh was still a great city filled with merchants.

Nahum said Nineveh had “multiplied her merchants above the stars of

heaven” (Nah. 8:i6).

 

 

Nineveh was wealthy.

He said, Nineveh had “immense stores of gold and silver” (Nah. 2:9).

 

 

Nineveh was filled with influential people.

He said Nineveh had “Crowned ones, nobles, marshals and captains as        

plentiful as locusts and great grasshoppers.”

 

 

But Nineveh was a wicked place.

Nahum called it, “The bloody city;”

 

 

He said it was “full of lies and robberies.”

This new generation had no respect for God.

 

 

So God sent a second prophet to Nineveh.

This time it was Nahum.

 

 

And this time God told His prophet to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh.

Nahum didn't try to run away.

 

 

But before he prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, he told the Ninevites    

what God is like.

Today, I want to speak on Nahum's Message about God.

 

 

I will make eight points.

1st---God is Jealous (Nahum 1:2).

 

 

This is His very own description of Himself when He gave the Ten      

Commandments.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

 

 

“For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.”

God is jealous about His glory.

 

 

He wants us to give Him first place;

To acknowledge who He is and what He does.

 

 

Our blessings are not accidents.

Our blessings are the goodness of God.

 

 

God is jealous about His people.

He loves His people.

 

 

He vowed to protect His people.

He feels compelled to react when His people are threatened.

 

 

So know that God is a jealous God;

That we cannot give our worship to other gods;

 

 

And the world cannot persecute His people and get away with it forever.

2nd---“The Lord revengeth” (Nahum 1:2).

 

 

Could this be true?

Does God seek revenge?

 

 

Let's get the picture.

Israel had divided into a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom.

The Northern Kingdom abandoned God.

So God used Nineveh to destroy it.

 

 

But the Southern Kingdom was still faithful to God.

And He did not want His faithful people harmed.

 

 

But Nineveh was attacking them too.

So God said tell Nineveh, “The Lord revengeth.”

 

 

“Tell Nineveh the Lord takes revenge on those who abuse His people.”

 “Tell Nineveh the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee.”

 

 

“I will make thy grave; for thou art vile” (Nahum 1:14).

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.

 

 

The king ignored Nahum.

He did a stupid thing.

 

 

He surrounded Jerusalem with a large army.

So God sent the death angel and killed 185,000 of his troops.

 

 

The survivors were forced to withdraw (Isaiah 36-37).

A short time later, the king went in to pray to his false gods.

 

 

His sons slipped in behind him and assassinated him.

God revenges His people.

 

 

This is why God will send the Battle of Armageddon.

He said, “I will also gather all nations, and bring them down into the valley of          

Jehoshaphat,”

“And will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel,”

“Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land”

(Joel 3:2).

 

 

The world can tell Israel to dismantle the settlements on the West Bank.

The world can divide the land and give part of it to the PLO.

 

 

The world can surround Jerusalem with a large army.

But the world needs to know that “The Lord revengeth.”

 

 

3rd---God will pour out His wrath on those who constantly oppose Him.

Nahum said, “The Lord reserveth wrath for His enemies” (Nahum 1.2).

 

 

Some don't believe in the wrath of God.

But God hates sin.

 

 

And constant sin triggers His wrath.

His wrath is something that flashes forth;

 

 

Something that brings woe;

Something that is not to be trifled with.

 

 

It is the wrath of the Creator;

The wrath of an all powerful being.

 

 

Notice, that Nahum asked, “Who can stand before His indignation;”

“And who can abide the fierceness of His anger” (Nahum 1:6)?

 

 

“Indignation” is one of the names of the Tribulation Period.

Listen to Rev. 6:12-17:

Its about the indignation or the Tribulation Period.

“I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great          

earthquake;”

 

 

“And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as    

blood;”

“And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her       

untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

 

 

“And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every      

mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the      

chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free        

man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains:”

 

 

“And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on as, and hide us from the face of       

him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb;”

“For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

 

 

Nahum asked, “Who can stand before His indignation?”

John asked, “Who shall be able to stand?”

 

 

The answer is, “No one!”

Dr. Edward Rommen said, “Refusal of God's mercy means acceptance of    

God's consequential wrath.”

 

 

He said, “Perhaps we need to view salvation and judgment as two sides of the        

same coin” (Decision Magazine-Oct. 1995).

“If salvation is being offered to all who believe, then the obvious implication

is that condemnation is being offered to those who do not believe.”

 

 

 

This is the point.

We are offered a choice.

 

 

We can choose mercy and salvation;

But if we don't choose mercy and salvation we are choosing judgment and    

wrath.

 

 

Mercy and salvation are offered over and over again.

But those who refuse the good things of God.

 

 

Are choosing the bad things.

Through Jesus, God offers as the opportunity to spend eternity in heaven.

 

 

But those who reject Jesus, are choosing to spend eternity in hell.

They don't intend to go there.

 

 

But they are choosing to go there.

4th---“The Lord is slow to anger” (Nahum 1:3).

 

 

God holds back His anger.

He gives us time to repent.

 

 

God said He would destroy the world with a flood.

He told Noah to warn the people.

 

 

Noah preached 120 years.

Then, the flood came.

 

 

God said He would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

He told Abraham.

His angels told Got.

Lot told his sons-in-law.

 

 

The angels got Lot out.

Then, the fire and brimstone fell.

 

 

God said He would destroy Nineveh.

He told Jonah to warn the Ninevites.

 

 

They repented.

He gave them another 150 years.

 

 

He is the Master of the second chance, the third, the fourth, etc.

He delights in giving people time to repent.

 

 

But if people do not repent, their doom is just as certain as those who died in         

the flood.

It may be 120 years in coming.

 

 

But it will come.

There are those alive today who are already under the condemnation of God.

 

 

God is no hurry to punish them.

But their doom is sealed, if they do not repent.

 

 

And they are ignoring every opportunity to do it.

5th---“The Lord will not acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3).

 

 

God's wrath never flashes forth when people repent.

But He is holy.

And He will n0t allow sinners to get away with their sin forever.

His Word would not be true, if He did.

 

 

So those who refuse to repent will not be acquitted.

A man was caught stealing jewels.

 

 

He told the judge, “My arms did it.”

He said, “I shouldn't be cast into prison for what my arms did.”

 

 

The judge said, “I'm sentencing your arms to 30 years in prison.”

“You can decide, if you want to go with them.”

 

 

This thief did not fool the judge.

We won't fool the Lord.

 

 

And the Lord will not acquit the wicked.

6th---“God is great in power” (Nahum 1:3).

 

 

Nahum describes the power of God in a threefold way:

One, he said God has “His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the     

clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3).

 

 

Tornados and storms are powerful.

They can do great damage.

 

 

Hurricane Gilbert struck the coast of Florida a few years ago with winds that

exceeded 215 mph.

The damage ran into the billions.

 

 

 

But God's power is greater than tornados and storms.

Two, Nahum said God, “rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry and drieth up all         

the rivers.”

 

 

“Bashan languisheth and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon 1anguisheth”      

(Nahum 1:4).

Nahum was saying three of the most fertile areas on earth are suffering drought

because of the power of God.

 

 

The rivers and seas dried up, and the prosperity of those areas disappeared.

Three, Nahum said the “mountains quake at Him and the hills melt and the    

earth is burned at His presence, yea the world and a11 that dwell therein”

(Nahum 1:5).

 

 

This world will be destroyed by fire.

Peter said, “the heavens and the earth are reserved unto fire” (II Peter 3:7).

 

 

Nahum gave another prophecy.

Its about Nineveh.

 

 

“The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved”   

(Nahum 2:6).

A Greek Historian (Diodorus Siculus) recorded that Nineveh was attacked by         

Babylon.

 

 

There was a wall around the city.

And the king of Assyria whose palace was at Nineveh closed the gates.

 

 

He stationed troops on the walls.

He felt secure.

 

 

Then, a great rain fell.

There was a river running through Nineveh.

 

 

It got out of its banks.

The flood waters washed the dirt under the city wall near the river.

 

 

A large section of the city wall collapsed.

The river receded.

 

 

The Babylonians fought their way through the opening.

They conquered Nineveh.

 

 

The king saw enemy troops pouring in.

He gathered his family inside the palace.

 

 

He ordered his troops to burn it to the ground.

Nahum prophesied, “The gates of the rivers and the palace shall be     

dissolved.”

 

 

The gates collapsed.

And the palace became a pile of ashes.

 

 

This is the point.

The power of God is irresistible.

 

 

We all know people who think they will go to heaven without Jesus;

People who think they will stand before God without Jesus and be acquitted

of their sins.

 

 

 

They don't have a ghost of a chance.

Jesus said, “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into        

life maimed than, having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never

shall be quenched.”

 

 

“And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter lame into

life than, having two feet, to be cast into hell into the fire that never shall be

quenched” (Mark 9:42-45).

We cannot hold back the power of God.

 

 

It is absolutely necessary that we do things God's way.

7th---“The Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble” (Nahum 1:7).

 

 

This is the good news.

We have talked about the great power of God;

 

 

The power that spoke the world into being;

The power that destroyed 185,000 troops;

 

 

The power that causes earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes,

The power that dries up rivers and seas,

 

 

The power that collapses city walls and palaces.

Now, we learn that this great power can work for us.

 

 

This great power can come to our aid in times of trouble.

Paul talked about it.

 

 

He asked, “If God be for us, who can be against us” (Rom. 8:31)?

If this kind of power is on our side, what do we have to be afraid of?

 

People can smash us into a thousand pieces.

But God can put us back together.

 

 

Disease can destroy our body.

But God can raise us from the dead.

 

 

Fire can destroy the world.

But not one spark will touch us.

 

 

Satan can make us fall.

But God can pick us up.

 

 

Notice, that Nahum said, “The Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble.”

He didn't say trouble won't come into our life.

 

 

He said God will help us when it does.

A boy asked a missionary, if he believed in God.

 

 

The missionary said, “Yes.”

The boy asked, “Is God, really God?”

 

 

The missionary said, “Yes.”

Finally, the boy asked, “Why do you worry so much then?”

 

 

God can handle our problems.

And He has promised to help us in the day of trouble.

 

 

8th---“The Lord knoweth them that trust Him.”

This time, I think Nahum was looking far into the future.

 

He was looking at the cross.

Jesus knows those who trust Him.

 

 

He said, “I know my sheep” (Jn. 10:14).

Our name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

 

 

In closing, Nahum wanted the Ninevites to know what God is like.

God is jealous.

 

 

He takes revenge to establish justice;

To protect His name;

 

 

To protect His people.

His wrath is great.

 

 

He is slow to anger.

He will not acquit those who reach the point of no return.

 

 

His power is great.

He will protect those who trust Jesus.

 

 

And Jesus knows the difference between the lost and the saved.

Are you saved?