Nahum 1:9-15.

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One of the puzzling things about being a Christian is the fact that we who trust in the Lord often have many troubles,

while some who never even think about the claims of Christianity appear to have everything go smoothly for them.

They are seldom ill.

They have plenty of work,

while many of the Lord’s people just seem unwanted.

The unsaved never give the impression that they are ever depressed about much and

all that they turn their hands to appears to prosper.

The psalmists spoke about this kind of situation in and 73 and other psalms.

The people of Judah in the seventh century B.C. must have felt as frustrated as we often do in our day,

when they saw the advances that wicked men were making in their land.

The invading Assyrians gave the impression that they were achieving one victory after another

as they advanced through country after country.

Every town which they attacked seemed to crumble before them.

Their influence and power were such that there is no doubt that they were the major power throughout the Middle East at that time.

Year after year oppressive Nineveh grew stronger and stronger.

We saw God’s response to that, two weeks ago when we last met in this text.

Where in v2 God is presented as jealous, vengeful and angry, in addition to being a fierce destroyer who has enemies.

presented as jealous, vengeful and angry, in addition to being a fierce destroyer who has enemies. His global power renders nature and nations powerless. Everything convulses before his wrath (1:3–6). One would be reluctant to approach or worship such a God. However, these verses serve an important foundational function for the rest of the book, presenting an aspect of God’s being which is too easily forgotten: his justice and righteousness in not countenancing sin. Whoever opposes his will, whether a pagan or one of his own people, is in danger of encountering this aspect of God’s nature (*cf. ; ).

His global power renders nature and nations powerless. Everything convulses before his wrath (1:3–6).

One would be reluctant to approach or worship such a God.

However, these verses serve an important foundational function for the rest of the book,

presenting an aspect of God’s being which is too easily forgotten: His justice and righteousness in not overlooking sin.

Whoever opposes His will, whether a pagan or one of His own people, is in danger of encountering this aspect of God’s nature (*cf. ; ).

Fortunately, wrathful judgment is not the only aspect of God’s nature encountered either in this book

or in the lives of those who seek Him.

Judgment is tempered by grace, and is at times delayed, though not cancelled (1:3).

Ultimately, justice and righteousness will result in peace (1:15; ; ; ).

Something to remember is, that as this curse is called down upon the heads of the Assyrians,

does not reflect a low view of them as people, but a high view of the importance of right and wrong.

Let’s look this morning that some of those wrongs and how God reacts.

Look first of all, that THE GREAT PROVOCATION. — One has gone out from you, who plots evil against the Lord, and is a wicked counselor.

Sennacherib framed an evil letter and and evil speech, not only against Hezekiah and his people but against God Himself.

This account of Sennacherib’s lying, deceit and wickedness is recorded in and 19.

Wicked statements there about God being at the same level as the other gods of the nations which had been delivered into the hands of Assyria already.

This was an attempt to sway the people, so that when Hezekiah would lead the people to seek the help of the Lord our God, that they would doubt God Himself.

The people of the Lord were being persuaded by Assyria’s king to come under his “protection” and not God’s.

This is wicked counsel. To seek protection in anyone or anything is to plot evil against the Lord.

— Whatever you plot against the Lord, he will bring it to complete destruction; oppression will not rise up a second time.

What a foolish wicked thing it is for you to plot against God, as if you could outwit divine wisdom and overpower omnipotence itself!

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1546). Peabody: Hendrickson.

We’ve learned that there is a great deal imagined against the Lord by the gates of hell, and against the interests of his kingdom in the world;

but it will prove a vain thing,

— Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his Anointed One:

He that sits in heaven laughs at the imaginations of the pretenders to scheme against Him, and will turn their counsels head over heels.

This is to provoke God. Whatever you plot against the Lord, He will bring it to an end, complete destruction.

Next we have THE GREAT DESTRUCTION BY GOD.

Which God would bring upon them for provoking Him.

This great destruction is going to land first upon their army.

— says... he will bring it to complete destruction;

It shall be totally cut off and ruined by one swift strike from the Lord.

One fatal stroke of the destroying angel slayed them on the spot.

— That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

v9 says that, “oppression will not rise up a second time.”

oppression will not rise up a second time.

And we know that they hav laid themselves open to divine wrath by their own actions and deeds:

— “For they will be “consumed like entangled thorns,

These thorns are entangle one another.

They make one another worse, and help each other to become more established against God.

They harden one another’s hearts and strengthen one another’s hands in their sin and therefore God will do with them what any greens-keeper does with a bundle of thorns.

He throws them into the fire.

“like the drink of a drunkard”

2. Those who are intoxicated with pride and rage; and the like shall be irrecoverably overthrown and destroyed.

Like drunkards, they shall they make themselves fools to be laughed at, at the last, they stumble and fall to their everlasting ruin.

“like straw that is fully dry.”

3. They shall be devoured as dry stubble when fully dry. This is to be irresistibly consumed by the flame.

Between v8 and 10 we have five metaphors to describe a sinners end.

v8, “with an overwhelming flood,” “into darkness,”

v10 “entangled among thorns,” “drunk from their wine,” and “consumed like dry stubble.”

Each metaphor in v10 isn’t bad in itself.

Bruckner, J. (2004). Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (p. 149). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

a thorn, wine, dry straw. But when they are turn in on themselves and comes to it’s own fatal end.

thorns to a tangle,

wine to a wino,

stubble in flames.

The pictures form progressive images of trouble:

first tangled,

then in a stupor, and

finally, dried to crackle crisply in consuming flames.

The destroying end will be final.

Not just the Assyrian army, but their leader, the king himself.

Remember that he plotted against the Lord. — “The Lord has issued an order concerning you:”

So a decree has gone forth:

“There will be no offspring to carry on your name.”

The great king will no longer be spoken of as a great king but a defeated king.

In we discover that after being assassinated by his sons, that another son reigned in his place.

Only to be demolished soon after.

We learn here that to plot against the Lord is to hasten evil upon ourselves and upon our own families.

We ruin our names by dishonoring His Name!

“I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.”

He lies under this perpetual mark of disgrace.

I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.

What a noise that grave must have made of this once formidable king, now so despised.

We learn that those who make themselves contemptible by their own sins, God will make contemptible by shameful punishments.

So completely destroyed was the city that in 330 B.C., when Alexander the Great came marching through the area,

there was not a single stone left on the spot where Nineveh once stood.

Consequently, as the years passed, skeptics began to say there never was a Nineveh, that it was just a biblical tall tale.

But in 1845, an archaeologist happened to hit something with his spade while digging in Iraq—

and by the time the project was completed, the city of Nineveh was uncovered.

So we have THE GREAT PROVOKING OF GOD & THE GREAT DESTRUCTION BY GOD.

So we have THE GREAT PROVOKING OF GOD & THE GREAT DESTRUCTION BY GOD.

Thirdly, we have THE GREAT DELIVERANCE. In which God would work for His own people.

The ruination of the enemies of the church is the salvation of the church.

— For I will now break off his yoke from you and tear off your shackles.

They were bound to the Assyrians.

The yoke and shackles of sin leave one bound over to the wrath of God.

What we read earlier in of the destroying angel. This is how God breaks the yoke of of Jerusalem’s neck.

When the destroying angel had done his work, Jerusalem’s bonds were burst asunder,

and it was set at liberty again.

This was a figure of the great salvation, by which the Jerusalem (that is above) is made free, is made free indeed.

God is a refuge (; ) who, in Jesus Christ, bids us come to him for rest ().

God’s kingdom has been decisively inaugurated in Christ to

save His people and

overthrow His and our enemies,

Glodo, M. J. (2013). Nahum. In B. Chapell & D. Ortlund (Eds.), Gospel Transformation Bible: English Standard Version (p. 1215). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

so that there is an end to bondage and fear (; , ; ).

— But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: — Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!

-15 — Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.

Look at our great deliverance!!! We were held in slavery all our lives because of fear.

The Christ comes and destroys the one who held us there, brings to us good news of great joy and grants us us a peace!

What’s God promise? At the end of v9, “oppression will not rise up a second time.”

Meaning that torment would not come again from these Assyrians.

He could say this because he knew that it was in His plan that the whole Assyrian Empire would shortly be utterly destroyed.

He’s going to destroy the “wicked” counselor (v11).

The word “wicked” also means ‘worthlessness’ like a cloth that has become a rag and the rag is now completely worn out!

Unsaved counsel is worthless. It’s the same ol, sad story of stupidity.

Bentley, M. (1994). Balancing the Books: Micah and Nahum Simply Explained (p. 104). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.

This worn out counsel is absolutely over.

Only one siege against Nineveh will do (1:9) because she is entangled, drunk, and dried up.

— This is what the Lord says: Though they are strong and numerous, they will still be mowed down, and he will pass away. Though I have punished you, I will punish you no longer.

The Lord declared, ‘They will be cut off and pass away.’

Numbers do not concern the Lord.

It is not those who appear to be full of strength who will win the victory.

It is those who have the Lord on their side who will overcome.

It is ‘not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Armies’ ().

Paul writes something very similar when he asks, ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ ().

We may feel that life is one great battle.

We may wonder how much longer we can last out against all the pressures of life.

But the Lord Himself tells us that

although our enemies may seem to be very numerous and powerful,

despite the fact that they appear to have persuaded many others to side with them against us,

despite the fact that they appear to have persuaded many others to side with them against us,

yet they will soon be cut off and pass away.

God will bring them to an end (1:9), and they will end up in darkness (1:8).

Elijah felt very alone on Mount Carmel.

He assumed that he was the only one who remained true to Israel’s God.

However, he discovered that there were 450 other people who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

So when we feel that everyone has deserted us, we should remember that the Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ ().

‘So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” ’().

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?” ’

().

Here in Nahum the Lord promised Judah that their punishment would come to an end (1:12).

It was God himself who had caused his people to suffer for their sin of disobedience to himself and his law.

But he told them that the agony would not go on for ever.

They would still have to go through the exile in Babylon.

However, there would be a time in the future when they would have to suffer no longer.

The yoke of the oppression of their enemies (which had bound them fast) would be broken (1:13).

In fact, God himself would take their shackles away.

He did that when he sent his own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for them.

Through Christ’s death, everyone who trusts in him will discover that he is a refuge for them (cf. 1:7).

To those who are true believers the Lord said, ‘I will afflict you no more,’ because all of their sins have been taken away by the death of Jesus on the cross.

Then Nahum almost breaks out with song in verse 15:

— Look to the mountains— the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace. Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely wiped out.

Nahum visualizes the runner on the mountain ridge road, carrying the news that Nineveh has fallen.

He calls for the celebration of festivals in the new safety of the countryside.

He calls for the people to do what they have promised in vows made while praying for deliverance.

No longer will they be overwhelmed by a wicked, invading army.

Peace and its security will come.

Such prophecy brings hope to those who have trusted in the Lord.

Where we are directed to look to the mountains.

— In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,

— says that, “Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City; the mountain of the Lord of Armies will be called the Holy Mountain.”

describes the gospel with all its blessings, under this figurative language.

— On this mountain, the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine.

The church, in the Song of Solomon is described like this: — Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.

Oh dear sinner, you need to get to the mountain of myrrh, where Christ’s fragrance will avail you!

His fragrant offering refreshes the believer until the day of glory!

The mountains spoken of here are the hills of Jerusalem and Judah. Nahum was exhorting the people to look up to those hills (cf. ).

One day before long they would see the swift-running feet of a messenger.

Bentley, M. (1994). Balancing the Books: Micah and Nahum Simply Explained (p. 108). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.

The message he was going to bring was one of good news.

He would tell them of peace for the whole of Judah.

He would say that the enemy had been defeated.

They would learn that the Assyrian threat had been removed and they would then be free to go and celebrate their religious feasts ().

They could be sure that they would have no more trouble from their awful enemy.

Finally, Paul takes up part of this same message in where he says, ‘It is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ ”

Here the messenger is a preacher who brings good news, and this news is called ‘the gospel’ (meaning ‘good news’).

It tells of deliverance from sin through the victory won through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And these same blessings flowing from Christ’s death are available for all who will come to him in repentance and faith.

Final vindication and just is coming. We can be patient in hope.

Bentley, M. (1994). Balancing the Books: Micah and Nahum Simply Explained (p. 109). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.

— Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.