God is Against You

Nahum 2

We have started to look at the book of Nahum and we have noted how the prophecy of Nahum comes some one hundred years after the prophecy of Jonah.

During the ministry of Jonah Nineveh had turned away from its sin under the preaching of the prophet but by this time, Nineveh had repented of its repentance, and had begun to do the same things that had brought forth the threat of judgment before through the prophet Jonah. The prophet Nahum was sent to minister to the southern kingdom of Judah at the time of the invasion of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. King Sennacherib had mounted his attacks from his capital city of Nineveh, and invaded Israel at the time of the prophet Isaiah, It was from this great city too that the armies of the Assyrians frequently came against the land of Judah and of Israel. But God moved to protect his people and met and destroyed these enemies of the king overnight.

Nahum means "consolation," or "comfort," and as the Assyrian army was spread out around the city of Jerusalem, the prophet was given a message of consolation. You can imagine how consoling it was when the armies were right there with their terrible reputation as ruthless warriors, burning and destroying, raping and pillaging, killing the children and sparing no one, to have this prophet stand up in Jerusalem and declare to them that God would destroy Nineveh, the capital city of their enemies.

This is one of those parts of prophecy in scripture which already has been fulfilled. Many parts of prophetic scripture remain to be fulfilled, and many of the predictions of the Old Testament prophets look beyond our own day to a time when the Lord will come again. But as we look at this book, we see prophecies that have long since come to pass. This is one of the great proofs that the Book of God is from God, for there is a description here of exactly how this destruction would occur, given years before it took place and it was fulfilled. Those who are interested in apologetics might use this in talking with some who challenge the fact that the Word of God is predictive.

But you will see that the message that Nahum had to proclaim was a revelation of the wrath of God. There is no doctrine quite as repugnant to people today as that of the wrath of God. There are preachers who would quite openly say that they do not preach it. This is one doctrine which many would like to forget. There are some who picture God as a kindly gentleman with a merry twinkle in his eye who cannot bear the thought of punishing anyone or judging anyone. Nevertheless, it was Nahum's task to unfold the anger of God and in this prophecy the God of Sinai flashes forth in awful fury, a God before whom man must stand silent and trembling. You cannot read this prophecy without sensing something of the solemnity of this tremendous picture of God.

Now in the chapter that is before us God speaks of how He is going to bring His wrath upon the city of Nineveh. In chapter 1 God laid down His judgement and decreed His wrath. He told them what it was going to be. Here we are going to see how God is going to discharge His wrath in practice. Perhaps we could take verse 13, the last verse of the chapter to be the key verse. Here we read the words of God to the people of Nineveh Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will 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. How solemn it is when we have God proclaim to us that He is against us. You know the people of the Lord have the tremendous comfort of being able to say that the Lord is with us. This was a phrase that was used repeatedly in the story of Joseph that the Lord was with Joseph. Paul was able to assert in Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? There is none who can be more powerful than God. There will be those who will be against us but who are they in the face of the God of heaven. That is what Paul is saying. God is stronger than those who are against us, And God will be with us and protect us. What a different picture if this God is against us as God was against the people of Nineveh in their rebellion against Him. What a frightful thing it is for God to declare that He is against you and God is against you if you are in rebellion against Him. That is why you need to heed this message. I want you to see what Nahum had to say to these people about the God who was against them.

I The Power of This God

First then I want you to see the power of this God who is against you. Look at verse 1 He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God when He is unleashing the power of His wrath. Those who imagine themselves to be untouchable are the very ones whom God will bring crashing down. There is no strength or defense that can stand up against the Almighty. Nineveh was fortunate enough to receive the opportunity to repent under the preaching of Jonah; but here we see nothing but decreed devastation. There comes a time when God’s patience has been exhausted.

While the prophecy of Nahum does not tell who the one who dashed in pieces was, history shows us it was a coalition of Babylonians and Medes. Somewhere around 612 BC an allied army composed of Medes and Persians, rebelling Chaldeans and Babylonians, together with Scythians and Cimmerians besieged the city and sacked it, leading to the destruction of the city. After that Babylon became the new world empire. But while that is true I want you to see that God would be the ultimate attacker. It is God who orders all of these events and who sends the judgement upon the city of Nineveh. The God who is coming against you is a God who dashes in pieces. The word in Hebrew that is translated dasheth to pieces is a word that speaks of being pulverised into fine dust. Then the word that is translated come up before thy face also means against thy face. In other words, the attacker, this breaker in pieces was coming against them in full frontal attack and will pulverise them into dust. And you will notice that this is stated in the past tense. It was stated as if this had already happened. This is what we call the prophetic past where prophets often stated things as if they had already happened to emphasise the certainty of what was going to take place. And what I want you to see this evening is that the coming judgement on who reject God is a certainty. I want you to see that the themes of God’s vengeance and God’s justice are themes that run right through the Bible. In Psalm 94:1 the Psalmist addresses the God to whom vengeance belongeth. And he goes on to speak of those who are proud and who exploit the widows and break in pieces God’s people and he asks how long they are going to get away with it. Then the Psalmist says this in verses 16 to 18 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. And the Psalmist is confident that the God to whom vengeance belongeth is going to reward the evil doers for their sin. I want you to think with me of the picture of the returning King in the Book of Revelation. I want you to see with me how the Lord Jesus will appear when He comes again. Turn with me to Revelation 19:11-16. It says And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Now this is not a pleasant picture. It is one of the treading of the winepress of the wrath of God. But we cannot shy away from this picture because this is how the Bible reveals what is going to take place and there is no point in me as a preacher hiding this. Men and women it is far better for you to know about this so that you can make proper preparation to escape this because escape is possible. The Lord Jesus Christ has made a way of escape by His death and work on the cross of Calvary. That is the message of love in the gospel. That you do not need to face this. But if you reject the way of escape this is what is facing you in your sin and you need to know that.

But what I just want you to see now is that God is more powerful that any Preparation. Having announced the arrival of Nineveh’s dasher in pieces, Nahum issued a fourfold command using the rhetorical device of irony. Look at verse 1 keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. Nahum taunts Nineveh, inviting them to prepare their defences, even though their preparations will be for naught. The idea is that the Assyrians stop listening to God, so God is telling them “You can do all the preparation you want and you can have the mightiest fortifications and the best ammunition but it is not going to make any difference against me. Verse 5 says They shall make haste to the wall thereof, And the defence shall be prepared.

And you know there are many people with their defences prepared against God’s claims upon them. You are ready if someone faces you with the gospel. Maybe your defence is a profession of atheism. Like the fool you say that there is no God. Maybe it is a defence of hypocrisy. You will accuse God’s people of hypocrisy or inconsistency and you think that is a good argument as to why you should not be saved. Maybe it is the defence of disinterest and your defence is to try to ignore the claims of the gospel. You put your metaphorical fingers in your ears and you shut out what the word of God or the preacher has to say. But whatever way that you have prepared your defences I want you to see that they are not going to stand at the end of the day. God will mock your petty excuses. Through this command, Nahum encouraged the Ninevites to secure their gates—although he knew this would be impossible. Nahum is inviting the Ninevites to an endeavour of futility. What they have done to so many other nations is about to be done to them. And men and women there is no real defence against God. You cannot hope to fight against God and win. That is futile

Though the prophet urged the Ninevites to defend their city, to trust in their own power, he knew they would not be able to do so because they were under the wrath of the LORD, the great avenger (Nahum 1:14–15). God’s wrath is typically poured out in one of two ways: 1) God giving people what they asked for, which leads to their own destruction (Romans 1:24,26,28), or 2) God giving people the evil they wished upon others. In this case, Nineveh is going to be sieged and conquered, just as they had done to many other nations.

Not only is God more powerful than any defence but God is more powerful than our presumptions. You see the people of Nineveh presumed that because they had been the greatest power in the world and because they had the defences of the mighty walls and the river that surrounded them that nobody could breach the walls. They were willing to sit back and trust in their own military engineering and their confidence was in the bulwarks and the walls that they had erected and they thought that conquest of the city of Nineveh was will nigh impossible. And so they felt they could afford to sit back and sneer at any message that told them otherwise. They presumed on their own power and their own ingenuity that this was always going to enable them to stand. And we live in a day when many are doing the same thing. People presume that Science is against God and they presume that science has explained God way. They presume that everything for them is going to be all right at the end of the day. They presume that the love of God is such that he can wink at sin and He is not going to condemn them. But I want to tell you that it is a very shaky foundation to build your eternity upon if you are building it on presumption. What a foolish thing to be just hoping that it is going to be all right in the end. Isn’t it wiser to be sure that everything is going to be all right. You wouldn’t set out on a holiday with a vague hope that you will get there and be able to get home again. You would not just hope that you will be on time or that you will have clothes to wear or that you will have a flight or boat home. You make preparations. You book the tickets and you pack what you need. And you will be sure that you have the right tickets and that you are going at the right time from the right place. You will not just presume but you will want to know that all is ready and prepared. Men and women God is more powerful than our presumptions. Many presume that all is well and it is not at all. I wonder if that is you. You are presuming on the grace and mercy of God but you have never really been changed by the saving power of Christ. We need to make sure that our presumptions are true and right and Biblical, There are too many people and they are leaning on a broken reed. You cannot just go on presuming that everything is okay. Like the Ninevites you may find that it is not okay when it is too late.

II The Perpetuity of this God

But not only do I want you to see the Power of the God who is against you but notice the perpetuity of the God who is against you. He says I am against thee saith the LORD of Hosts There are many frightening words in Scripture, and this is certainly one of them. No one wants to be in a situation where God is against you. Yet that happens often, especially in regards to nations, but also to individuals. When you read through the prophets in the Bible perhaps you will have noticed this phrase regularly appearing. For example in Jeremiah 50:31 God speaks to Babylon and says Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. In Jeremiah 51:25 God repeats his opposition to Babylon. He says Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. But I want you to see the way that the eternal nature of God is emphasised here. The name I am is the covenant name of God. It speaks of His being eternally present. The name I am is Jehovah. But you will notice that this is emphasised because he says saith the LORD of Hosts He is also identified here as Jehovah of hosts which is a title that asserts the Lord’s role as commander in chief of the heavenly armies. But again you notice the use of the name of God Jehovah.

And in the Bible Jehovah God is revealed as the One

who is the same yesterday today and forever. And this mighty God says I am against thee . The God who is Jehovah and who does not change is against you. He is the great I am. This is Jehovah, He is the God who is ever the same. He is in the forever present. Scientists at the minute are coming to the conclusion that time is an illusion and that the reality is that there is one great now. Well God dwells in the one great now. And here He is stating that He is ever against you. He is always against you. There will never be a time when He is not against you. Now that is a solemn thing to contemplate.

And there you have an allusion to the eternal nature of the punishment of the wicked. If God is constantly and eternally against the sinner then the punishment of sin has got to be constant and eternal. One of the German commentators who wrote a book on sin has made this comment, “No one is surer of applause than the man who discovers some new method of evading justice under the pretext of humanity.” And we have many preachers in the pulpits and many hearers in the pews who do want to evade the justice of God and do it under the pretext of humanity by suggesting that a God of love could never send anyone to an endless punishment of separation from him. But men and women I want you to realise that the punishment that God gives for sin is eternal. That is what the Bible says and what the Lord Jesus taught. He says in Matthew 25:46 speaking of the ungodly And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: and as I have said you need to hear the truth. The need of giving this solemn subject a prominent place in our witness is apparent, for it is our bounden duty to warn sinners of their fearful peril, and to bid them flee from the wrath to come (Mat 3:7). To remain silent is criminal; to substitute anything for it is to set before the wicked a false hope. Indeed it would be unloving. If I was to know about a great danger and stand back and not warn people who were heading towards it I would be in some way guilty of their death or injury and it is the same with the eternity of hell. The job of the preacher has got to be to warn men and women to flee from the wrath to come. The great importance of expounding this doctrine, freely and frequently, also appears in that, excepting the cross of Christ, nothing else so manifests the heinousness of sin—whereas every modification of eternal punishment only serves to minimize the evil of it. You know how terrible sin is when you see the punishment for it. Today we sometimes see people who have committed the most heinous crimes and they get only a few years and to many it has devalued the crime. You think of how people felt at the Good Friday agreement and the release of terrorists. People felt as if the death of their loved one had been devalued. But in God’s justice the punishment has to fit the crime and that merits eternal punishment

I want you to see the Prominence of this Truth in the Bible. For example, in Matthew 25:46 we read the words of the Lord Jesus where it says And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. And I want you to see that the text could not be clearer. This is everlasting punishment. That word everlasting is the same Greek word that is used in Hebrews 9:14 to describe the eternal Spirit. Again, in Romans 16:26 it uses the same word to speak of the everlasting God. The same word in the Greek language in which the New Testament was originally written was used in all three of these passages. The word means eternal, everlasting, without end, never to cease. Hell and the punishment meted out there will last as long as God forever. In 2 Thessalonians 1: 7-9 we have a description of the second coming of Christ and it says the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Hell is a place of darkness. Jude 13 speaks of "the blackness of darkness" to which the false teachers he is specifically talking about will be confined forever. God is light (1 John 1:5) and the Father of lights (Jas. 1:17). Hell is described as darkness because it is the place farthest removed from God. There will be no God to listen to pleas for mercy or give hope of release.

Hell is a place of fire. Matthew 13:42 speaks of it as a furnace of fire. Matthew 25:41 calls it an everlasting fire. Mark 9:44-45 says the fire is never quenched. Revelation 21:8 refers to it as the lake of fire. There will be no relief from its fires because Revelation 14:11 says the smoke from the fires of torment ascends forever and ever.

There is no point in an everlasting fire or a fire that is never quenched or whose smoke ascends forever and ever if the punishment is not forever. No men and women no matter how you would want to hide from it and deny it I want you to see that this is the settled testimony of the word of God.

But not only is there the prominence of this truth but there is the practicality of it. Why does God reveal these awful things? He does it so that men and women would have the opportunity to flee from this. You see the wonderful good news is that God has provided a way of escape. And that escape is provided by Christ and by the cross of Calvary. You see the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross of Calvary and there subjected Himself to death on that cross. And we are told that on the cross the Lord Jesus Christ became our substitute. We are told in Isaiah 53 :5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

And the same chapter reveals that at the cross the wrath of God was poured out on Christ so that He took our eternal punishment. Verse 10 of Isaiah 53 says Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,

Why did the Father bruise Him? Because in the moment of the cross He was taking the eternal punishment that otherwise was our due. And why did He take my eternal punishment? Why was the wrath of God that was my due put upon Him. Let me give a simple answer in the form of the hymn

There was no other good enough

To pay the price of sin

He only could unlock the gate

Of heaven and let us in

Men and women you need not perish today. You can come to eternal life. You can be saved!

It is said that about 200 years ago, the tomb of the great conqueror Charlemagne was opened. The sight the workmen saw was startling. There was his body in a sitting position, clothed in the most elaborate of kingly garments, with a scepter in his bony hand. On his knee lay a New Testament passage, with a cold, lifeless finger pointed to Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

III The Prohibition of This God

But there is one more thing that I want you to see and that is the prohibition of this God. Look again at what the Lord says in the text. It says and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. God stops the mouths of the messengers.

In chapter 1:15 Nahum had mentioned messengers,. He said Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off. Here Nahum seems to quote a text from Isaiah, who had prophesied in Judah for a long time, including the days of the Assyrian invasion. Isaiah had written in Isaiah 52:7)., “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” And in Isaiah this seems to be a prophecy of the arrival and reign of the Messiah. The apostle Paul interpreted the passage that way in Romans 10:15 where Paul says And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! . And the good things obviously are the things of the gospel of Christ. But in Nahum it refers to the announced fall of Nineveh. He is saying how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim and announce this destruction. Just as Isaiah saw the prophesied release of the people of God from their Babylonian captivity to be a token of that final and perfect release from sin and its bondage through Christ, so does Nahum see the fall of Assyria’s capital as a promise of the ultimate defeat of all wickedness by the triumph of Christ.

But you see that the messengers bring good tidings. The gospel is the message of good tidings. The gospel is a message of good news. It is the good news that you can be forgiven and that you do not need to face the wrath of God. And that good news is ultimately founded in Christ. It is the news that we have been speaking about that there is a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. But I want you to see here that the Lord is going to bring about a situation where there are going to be no more messengers for Nineveh. Nineveh has come to the point where there are going to be no more Jonah’s coming in to warn them to repent and to offer them a way of escape. They have come to that time when there is going to be no remedy. You know men and women nations and people can get themselves to the place where there is no remedy. The phrase is sometimes used about sinning away your day of grace. We come to a God who is longsuffering. Nahum said this in the opening chapter. Nahum 1:3 says The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, But there comes a time when the longsuffering of God comes to an end and when there is no more offer of mercy. As we read in Genesis 6. God says My Spirit shall not always strive with man

Now men and women God is and has been speaking to you. You have the wonderful privilege of hearing the word of God. What a mercy it is that the Lord has sent someone to preach the gospel and to bring to you God’s wonderful offer of mercy. God says that the feet of those who carry the message of peace are beautiful. But what if God was to stop the messengers. You need to remember that there is coming a day when you will hear this message no more. It may be the last time that you will sit in a gospel meeting. Maybe you will so resist God that He will stop speaking or He will take away your ability to come to meetings or it may be that you will perish and when you perish I want to tell you that there is no more message of mercy and message of grace. But what if God stops speaking. You can presume that God will always speak but God will not always speak. That is why you need to get right with God now. That is why you need to heed the message when God in His mercy is speaking, Behold now is the accepted time Behold now is the day of salvation. The good news is that you do not need to suffer the wrath of God. But only the Lord Jesus Christ can save your soul and meet the need of your heart.