The Fall of Nineveh
Nahum: God of Wrath and Refuge • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:52
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· 11 viewsThe Divine Warrior crushes every boastful empire thus restoring the dignity of His people.
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Call to Worship
Call to Worship
1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.
8 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.
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Adoration
Adoration
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Confession
Confession
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Message
Message
15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.
1 The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.
6 The river gates are opened; the palace melts away;
7 its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!” they cry, but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
13 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
The Divine Warrior crushes every boastful empire thus restoring the dignity of His people.
The Divine Warrior crushes every boastful empire thus restoring the dignity of His people.
Almost every English Bible starts our reading at 1:15, but the Hebrew Bible begins chapter 2 here.
The content is identical; only the verse numbers shift.
15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!
The Divine Warrior Promises Peace
The Divine Warrior Promises Peace
Nahum picks up from Isaiah 52:7 when Isaiah prophesied about a day when God would judge His enemies.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
The overflow of the judgement that God would bring to His afflicted people was peace.
His was ushering in peace but through the judgment of His enemies.
Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.
Yahweh promises that the “worthless” people will never pass through them again.
Therefore they should keep their vows.
They should keep their feasts of celebration because they will be cut off entirely.
God is describing here the destruction of Assyria.
God judges nations and people through secondary means.
Even in the OT, God rarely uses natural disasters to judge.
Especially rare is His own coming near to judge.
The far majority of times in the OT, God judges through secondary means.
God hands people over to foreign nations and allows the violent to destroy them.
For instance, in the book of Judges, it says at least 7 times that…
14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
God judges nations by handing them over to stronger and more violent nations.
Has not God already chosen Assyria to be his servant and his instrument to discipline Israel?
Remember that God decided to use Assyria to destroy the Northern Kingdom.
He commissioned Assyria to attack His wayward people.
He used Assyria as an instrument of wrath.
If Assyria is God’s instrument to fulfill His purposes, why does God promise to destroy Assyria?
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! 6 Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
God was absolutely Sovereign to raise up Assyria to judge Israel.
Assyria was absolutely responsible for her actions and being a wicked nation.
God’s purposes are not opposed to human freedom.
Human freedom and His Sovereignty works together.
20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
The remaining of Nahum really is the detailed description of God’s dealings with the destruction of Nineveh.
So it may pass into your mind at some point,
The Divine Warrior Restores Dignity
The Divine Warrior Restores Dignity
“Why would we spend so much time considering such a dark passage?”
All these vivid details aren't just poetic fluff.
They were essential to convince Israel and Judah that Nineveh's fall was really coming.
Without the serious detail, no one would have believed it.
He destroys through war
He destroys through war
1 The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.
God just promised that they would be destroyed.
This is the Assyrian empire.
The Great Assyrians!
We may be tempted to think that God wants their defenses down so He can sneak one by them.
But that’s not it at all.
God actually predicts through the prophet Nahum that enemies are coming to Nineveh.
God wants them to be prepared for battle.
“Guard! Watch! Strengthen! Muster!”
He wants them to “man the ramparts” or “look out for them trying to destroy the walls.”
He wants them to “dress for battle”, or literally “to strengthen their strength mightily.”
In other words…
“It doesn’t matter if you’re the most prepared that you’ve ever been! The attack will conquer you!”
“Prepare all you want for judgment is sure!”
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
The man who protects the city is useless unless God does it. God says,
“Go ahead and put up the strongest defenses! But you’re being handed over!”
“Make your army as strong as possible, but it won’t matter!”
“Be as strong as you want because My purposes will stand!”
Application
Where does protection truly come from?
We’re often tempted to think that protection comes at our own hands.
We strap on strength.
We bolster in human capacity.
But without the LORD’s protection.
All our efforts are nothing.
Now notice God’s purposes in handing the Assyrians over to war…
He restores majesty to His people
He restores majesty to His people
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.
This is the last positive thing we will hear from the book of Nahum.
And it’s a promise that Yahweh will restore the dignity of His people.
Dignity comes from Yahweh.
Just don’t miss how Yahweh intends to do it.
How will God bring dignity?
The Divine Warrior brings Divine Retribution
The Divine Warrior brings Divine Retribution
Retribution is the repayment of what they have done.
Repayment for evil.
Repayment for the injustices.
Retribution is a crucial form of justice.
It’s a form of justice that must exist for justice to exist.
We aren’t fond of this idea that God will actually pay back the bad things done by them.
Divine retribution as a means of restoring dignity.
God is bringing dignity back to His people.
But it will be through judgment.
Now as Christians we need to stop here and reason for a moment.
“Are you really saying that every evil will be worked out with divine punishment on the earth?”
No, we don’t believe that every sin will in this life be met with equal and opposite repayment.
Thankfully, we see in Scripture that God is far more kind to rebels than they deserve.
Part of the kindness is the delay of the repayment they deserve.
Mingled with this kindness is also a great grievance.
That there will be those who have been grossly mistreated that will never see retribution in this lifetime.
“Are you saying then that repayment will happen to everyone?”
Yes, every person will be repaid.
This is actually how Paul can encourage Christian’s who were slaves to work heartily unto the Lord.
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
The question is, “Who will receive the payment?”
God promised the bring judgment and encouraged them to prepare themselves.
The Folly of Human Strength
The Folly of Human Strength
3 The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.
Assyrians wore blue or purple (Ezekiel 23:6), whereas the Babylonians often wore red (Ezekiel 23:14-15).
Nahum describes the quick and utter desolation coming for them from the Babylonians.
It’s as if Nahum gets a peak inside the walls of Nineveh while the siege is being set up.
What do you notice is happening?
4 The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.
Madness.
Chaos.
Confusion.
An army that was marked by strength, significance, and military prowess is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
They are confused.
They “rush to and fro” not knowing where to go.
They “dart” around trying to figure out how to defend themselves.
They “stumble as they go” because they are being conquered and have lost their ability to fight.
Illustration — The Titanic
No amount of preparedness allows a person to be prepared when God is against them.
“Not even God Himself could sink this ship.”
— The Shipbuilder, 1911
Human strength was no match for Yahweh’s purposes.
Application to Unbelievers
Most people aren’t as bold and brash to say out loud
“I can live however I want!”
All with no fear of God’s judgment.
“I don’t need any help!”
I want to caution you that at the end of time, God will give you exactly what you want.
You will stand upon your own strength.
It was utter folly for the Assyrians to believe they could escape Yahweh’s plans and purposes.
Historicity and Significance of Prophecies being fulfilled.
The Bible is different from any other collection of documents from the ancient world.
Many other documents do not care to place themselves into actual history.
But the Bible is utterly different because it demands that events actually took place.
If Nahum’s prophecy did not happen, it would be just another rambling from an insane religious zealot.
But if Nahum was correct about Nineveh some 50 years before the attack took place, it’s not mere luck.
It’s prophecy.
Application
The Bible is absolutely trustworthy.
Unlike merely a document compiled by men.
Scholars trip over themselves trying to undermine it.
But even after all the scrutiny, we see the truthfulness before us.
Destruction of the City
Destruction of the City
Nahum gets specific here.
It’s not just that the city will be destroyed, but HOW it will be destroyed.
It will be destroyed in the following way…
6 The river gates are opened; the palace melts away;
Nahum prophesied some 40 to 50 years before the time of the city’s destruction.
But do you know how it was destroyed?
The Assyrian king was a pagan.
So it was very unlikely he had ever read Nahum.
But ancient historians tell us that the last king of Assyria held to an old oracle:
“Now he had an oracle handed down from his ancestors that none should capture Nineveh by force of arms unless the river first become an enemy to the city.” —Diodorus Siculus,
It was his assurance that no army could ever breach those massive walls.
But long before that legend circulated in Assyria.
The Lord had already spoken through His prophet Nahum: ‘The river gates are opened; the palace melts away’ (Nahum 2:6).
The king trusted a myth; God issued a prophecy.
In 612 BC, the Babylonians either rerouted the Tigris or used the Khoser river that ran through it to destroy the city wall.
And when judgment came in 612 BC, the swollen river burst through Nineveh’s defenses exactly as Nahum declared.
The very thing they trusted for protection became the instrument of their destruction.
God does not merely defeat His foes.
He overturns their preparations.
He dismantles their confidence.
He judges them through the very strengths in which they boasted.
History matters because we have a faith that touches base with the real world.
Our faith transcends this world because the God who dwells in eternity, but this eternal God interacts and works in time and space.
7 its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
When Nineveh was destroyed, their “goddess” that they believe was the “goddess of love” was completely removed.
All those who attended to her were taken away.
But again notice the specific details that Nahum gives about it.
8 Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.
Again we see how Nahum is described with explicit water terms.
Their city has become like a pool of water.
And the walls of that pool are broken down.
A pool without walls becomes a momentary water slide away from it’s inhabitance.
“Halt! Halt!” they cry, but none turns back.
The water that filled the city of Nineveh will be a metaphor for how quickly and decisively their enemies will deal with them.
9 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.
History again recounts that the King of Nineveh at the time collected all the “gold and silver” to himself.
He collected it all and burnt it with all of his concubines, and wealth.
The historical account tells us that not only was Nineveh flowing with water, but it was flowing with the melted precious metals from the kings spoils.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!
We need to pause and again ask the question.
Why does this matter for us?
It matters because Nineveh is a microcosm of God’s intentions with the nations.
Revelation 18 tells us the destiny of the nations by using the imagery of a woman named Babylon.
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
This loud, boastful prostitute named Babylon is the embodiment of all the evil kingdoms of the world.
We often think in the framework of individuals:
individual reward
individual judgment
individual declarations
This is good and right because the Bible usually addresses people in this way.
But the Bible also addresses people as a group!
See not only will there be individuals before the great white throne.
But people will seemingly not lose their identity as the ethnicity God has put them in.
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
But what will be the fate of nations that stand in opposition to the rulership of the Lord Jesus Christ?
3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
So when you see the destruction of Nineveh, don’t just hyper-spiritualize this.
There will be a destiny for every nation.
There will be a destiny for every people.
Every ethnicity.
And every individual.
Will they stand in opposition to the Yahweh of Angel Armies?
Or will they stand with Yahweh of Angel Armies?
The Silence of the Lion
The Silence of the Lion
Remember the symbol that embodied Assyria.
The king of Assyria strangling a lion to show power, and strength.
Destroyed entirely.
11 Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
Assyria has acted like a lion. Like a lion who has their den and feeds the young lions with the flesh of the weak.
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
The city that once rest under the shade of God’s mercy now stands at the bottom of the fully loaded wrath of God.
Their repentance was short lived and it quickly faded.
The blessing of God is to hear Isaiah 43:2…
I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you…
But we hear here the curse of God is
13 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
See there is coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ will bring to judgment against every evil.
The Divine Warrior crushes every boastful empire thus restoring the dignity of His people.
The Divine Warrior crushes every boastful empire thus restoring the dignity of His people.
Benediction
Benediction
