The Jealous God, Part 1

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Message

Nahum 1:1–8 ESV

1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. 2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

There are few books in all of Scripture that set their focus outside of Israel.

We saw Jonah focused on God’s message to Nineveh.

He called them to repent, and they did.

Why the book of Nahum?

Nahum is one of the least read books in the Bible.

Rarely read.

Neglected and misunderstood.

It’s challenging for Westerner to identify with.

The book is for those who have suffered from oppressive engine of the world.

For those who have been run over, mangled, and harmed from the gross systems of this world.

Nahum is for you.

The book is also a warning to those who have yoked themselves with the gross systems of this world.

For all those who think that they can continue on oppressing and harming the weak, and vulnerable.

Nahum is for you.

The book is also a comfort to those who wonder, “How could God allow all this evil to go on? Will it ever end?”

Nahum is the reminder that God does not allow evil to go unchecked forever.

He will one day judge all things and make all things right.

Nahum is for you.

A common portrait of God in the Old Testament is that of a Divine Warrior.

He is the divine warrior that fights for his people.

This is the vision that Nahum experiences of the divine warrior coming near.

In thick cloud and darkness, the divine warrior has come to bring judgment.

The Divine Warrior’s jealousy assures us of His justice and refuge for His people.

Think of a Warrior being a loving husband that loves his wife.

He loves his wife deeply.

Now picture someone who tries to come between he and his wife.

What does a loving husband do in that situation?

The Divine Warrior is Jealous for His Glory

Jonah, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah Introduction to Nahum

When the end comes and Yahweh’s slow anger is unleashed, it is critical to know in whom you place your trust.

The Warrior appears to judge evil among the nations.

Nahum 1:1 ESV

1 An oracle concerning Nineveh.

Nahum focuses on the people of Nineveh.

The “oracle” or lit (Hb: burden) concerning Nineveh.

The message was that of a burden for Nahum to bring.

But the fact that it was for the people of Nineveh is striking.

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire.

The Assyrian were used by God particularly to judge the people of Israel.

The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom were destroyed by the Assyrian’s finally in 722 BC.

Samaria fell in 722 BC.

Nahum appears to be writing some time after that because of how Nahum continually references the destruction they brought to Israel.

Nahum prophesied of the fall of the Assyrian empire.

The Assyrians eventually fell in 612 BC.

The Assyrians were an especially brutal people toward their enemies.

They were the first “world superpower.”

Superpowers come and superpowers go, but God stands high and above over them.

There is nothing new.

They would often capture weaker and lesser peoples and enslave them to forced labor.

The Assyrians were a super-power of the ancient world.

Someone reading this in Nahum day would be shocked and surprised that this powerful Assyrian people could be toppled.

You wonder, how bad were these people?

The New Bible Commentary The Historical Situation

‘As for those common men who had spoken derogatory things against my god Asher and had plotted against me, the prince who reveres him,

These were bad dudes.

And it’s these Assyrians that God uses to judge the city of Samaria in 722 BC and bring destruction on His own people.

God had warned over and again about the coming destruction.

But now Yahweh is going to judge the one’s he used to judge His people.

Nahum is speaking with a dual focus: aimed at the “superpower” Assyrians, and comfort for the people of God.

Judgement to Assyria and hope for God’s people.

Who was Nahum?

Nahum 1:1 ESV

The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

Comforter to the People of God

Nahum’s name means “comforter” which is what he sought to bring to the people of Israel.

Though he was a comfort for the people of Israel, his message was one of destruction and judgment to the Assyrians.

Nahum preached the message that Jonah desired to preach.

As much as Jonah’s message was a message of mercy and God’s kindness, Nahum’s message was a message of judgment.

Remanent in the Northern Kingdom

Notice too where Nahum was from “of Elkosh” which was a small village around Galilee.

It would have been directly through this region that the Assyrian would have come as they raided the Northern Kingdom.

Nahum was a remanent in this region.

God is indeed grieved by the death of the innocent!

His love for His people. His goodness.

His justice all compel Him to make things right which have been done wrong.

Nahum 1:2 ESV

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

This is an unfortunately missed attribute of God for the 21st century modern reader.

We are so used to hearing the story of Jonah that highlights the mercy and compassion of Yahweh that we forget this truth we will examine today.

The Warrior burns with Holy Jealousy.

What kind of jealousy does God have?

Jealousy is often a negatively viewed attribute.

I think the reason it is viewed negatively is because we often experience the negative side of it.

Jealousy from Need

The needy sort of jealousy is honestly gross.

You can picture the type of juvenile form of jealousy of a young boy and girl sitting together.

The girl is immediately jealous of any attention the young man will give to another person.

It’s a kind of jealousy that springs from,

“Look at me!”

“Pay attention to me!”

“I don’t want you to focus on anything other than me!”

It’s a kind of needy, obsessive and frankly obnoxious form of jealousy.

This sort of jealousy knows nothing of the character of a Holy God.

Jealousy from Overflowing Love

We ought not think of God’s jealousy as weak, flimsy, and even needy.

He needs nothing from you and I.

To say that God is love demands He is jealous.

He better become jealous of his wife’s attention.

It would actually be inappropriate for him to NOT be jealous.

His jealousy of the situation was not out of neediness, but out of love.

His jealousy is an expression of his love for his wife.

His wrath toward his enemies is not only an expression of his love, but it demands it.

Exodus 20:4–5 ESV

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

Again it’s not out of neediness and poverty but from His abundance that He describes Himself as jealous.

To give devotion, worship, or honor to any other ‘god’ is to whore after another husband.

And this provokes the LORD to anger.

This provokes the LORD to jealousy.

Exodus 34:14 ESV

14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)…

Now we ought to remember what I mentioned during Jonah.

Jonah preached while the Northern Kingdom still existed.

They were practicing gross idolatry and immorality.

They had even set up another golden calf in the Northern part of Dan in Israel.

But in 722 BC, God allowed the Northern Kingdom to fall to the hands of the Assyrians.

God’s jealousy boiled over on their idolatry and they were destroyed.

Nahum then is one of the remaining remnant of this Northern Kingdom.

And he is a prophet of “comfort” for the Southern Kingdom.

Nahum 1:2 ESV

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

The Warrior avenges His enemies.

Vengeance is to repay a person for the wrong they have committed.

The Bible tells us that we are never to repay our enemies, but leave it to His wrath.

Romans 12:19 ESV

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

“vengeance is not evil, it is a form of justice. Just punishment is when the severity of the punishment equals the severity of the crime, and when that just punishment has been exacted, vengeance has been accomplished.” —Sproul, Romans

We often think that vengeance is somehow wrong, but this would be mistaken.

Just because the Bible tells us that we shouldn’t exact vengeance doesn’t mean that God will.

Vengeance is actually a form of justice and to go without it neglects an important feature of justice.

God has “passed over” much offense.

To pass over for a time an offense does not mean that the offender will get away with it.

It means that the one exacting justice is compassionate toward the offender.

But there is coming a day that the full-vented wrath of a Holy God.

Nahum 1:3 ESV

3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

The Warrior is slow to anger yet great in power.

Nahum reminds his readers of the most quoted text the Bible quotes within itself: Exodus 34:6-7.

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Now what do you notice is missing from Nahum’s quotation of Exodus 34:6-7?

The fact that He is forgiving.

Because for Nineveh, He has forgiven them before.

But their forgiveness has run out because they refuse to repent.

Now all that awaits them is judgment

Slow to Anger

God is “long of nose” which is an idiom for the fact that it takes a long time for His “nose” to get red.

It takes a long time for Him to get angry.

He’s not like you and I because we can be easily upset.

He’s not like that.

But don’t miss the overwhelming storm of what happens when His nose finally becomes red.

Great in Power

Not only is He slow to anger, but He is great in power.

His power extends over and above all other powers.

Now think before we go any further how utterly terrifying it would be to know that you have made angry the God who is slow to anger.

And you have offended the One who is Great in Power.

Unwilling to Clear the Guilty

If you were an Assyrian, you may think,

“We have ruled for so long! God hasn’t judged us yet, I don’t think He ever will!”

That’s incorrect.

Though God overlooked sin for a while, He will not leave it unpunished.

2 Peter 3:8–10 ESV

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

There will not be anyone at the end of time that has gotten away with anything.

Nothing will be hidden to God.

Nothing will go unnoticed.

Maybe you think, “Well, this is all nice and good, but that’s just an OT expression of God!”

James 4:4–5 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

We get examples like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.

Acts 4:36–37 ESV

36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Barnabas stands as an example of a generous man who from a heart of generosity sold a field to help the fellowship.

Ananias and Sapphira stand as examples of selfish hypocrisy which cared more about looking generous rather than being generous.

The sin here is not that they kept it, the sin is in fact that they lied about how much the field was sold for to be looked well of.

This is why Peter says that they lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3).

Acts 5:1–4 ESV

1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

God is jealous for the holiness of His people. But God is also jealous toward the misuse of the downcast and afflicted.

The Divine Warrior Assures Justice and Protection

Nahum 1:6 ESV

6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

The Warrior executes justice to His Enemies

Nahum is the blood curdling reminder that all humanity stands under the wrath of God. All humanity awaits a day of judgement.

John 3:36 ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

This means that all humanity already stands under the wrath of God. Awaiting the final judgment. Notice the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time. There is a reason we sing about the Lion and the Lamb (Revelation 5:5-7).

It’s here that the great paradox of Scripture is made clear. The Lion conquers by dying under the full wrath of God. The wrath of God that sinners deserve without measure. The wrath of God that will eventually be poured fully and finally on the nations. Jesus Christ drank that wrath down to the bottom.

1 Thessalonians 5:8–10 ESV

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Nahum 1:7–8 ESV

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

The Warrior protects those who take refuge in Him.

The same God who shakes the mountain in fury shields His people with mercy.

The Divine Warrior’s jealousy assures us of His justice and refuge for His people.

Benediction