The God Who Fights for You

Introduction:

People have often quoted the last part of , “If God is for us, who can be against us?” there is much truth to that statement. The “us” in that statement is God’s people. It is not a particular nation, but His children. Those that align their lives with God. Jesus said in , “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” With God, there is no middle ground. There is no sitting on the fence. Not choosing God, is the same as rejecting God.

With this in mind, we would do well to remember that you are either reconciled to God or you’re not. There is no in between, and because of that, you are either reconciled to God or you’re not. With those absolutes in mind, we see throughout history how God has dealt with people. Go takes care of His people. Sometimes it may not seem like it at the time, but he does, and eventually, all those that are against God will reap the consequences to their indecision, and those that are on God’s side will understand what it truly means to have God on their side.

This morning, we are going to look at the side of God we don’t always like to talk about, but it must be addressed. We must make sure we have the correct picture of God. God is a loving God, and he is holy and righteous, and because of those character traits, those that are set against God have to be dealt with. God is a God that punishes and a God that protects. He punishes those that are set against Him, and will fight for those that are joined with Him, and because the Lord is the all-powerful warrior, we can expect Him to punish all those who are opposed to Him, and also protect his people.

Background:

Not much is known about Nahum other than he was an Elkoshite which is either his birthplace or where he prophesied. Ultimately, not much is known about many of the minor prophets, but their messages are still just a relevant.

The substance of Nahum’s prophecy was concerning the fall of Nineveh. This ties the prophecy of Nahum to the work of Jonah. Jonah was written about 100 years before Nahum was and we read in the book of Jonah regarding the revival that took place. By most estimates, Nahum was written between 663 and 612 BC which would place the writing between the fall of Thebes (663) and Nineveh (612).

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, and was located near the modern-day city of Mosul, Iraq. Nineveh was quite an evil city, and that was the main reason Jonah did not want to go to them because he saw that they had done the people of Israel wrong and it was because of the Assyrians that the northern kingdom of Israel was completely decimated. points to the size of the city’s population of 120,000 and that they had no knowledge of what was right or wrong.

When Jonah preached to Nineveh, they experienced a great revival, but some things apparently didn’t change, and we now see that 100 years later, God sends Nahum to prophesy God’s judgment against them.

Nahum is a rather short book (3 chapters), and some of the major themes it covers are, God’s judgment over those that are against Him, and His protection of those that are faithful to Him. The first chapter deals with the announcement of coming judgment by God, chapter 2 deals with a detailed judgment which paints a very grim picture for Nineveh, and chapter 3 covers the indictment of Nineveh which present three major charges against Nineveh: (1) full of lies and plunder (3.1), (2) the countless whoring of the prostitute (3.4), and (3) they are no better than Thebes (3.8).

God’s response to His enemies (1.1-3a)

Nahum 1:1–3 ESV

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. 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. 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.

There are a couple of character traits in this passage that must be addressed regarding God. God’s jealousy and God’s wrath (vengeance). One thing we must understand about these traits, is they are holy and righteous traits. When we think of them in terms relating to God, we must sterilize those traits. Unlike humankind, they are not driven by any form of sin. They are pure traits.

The first character trait is God’s jealousy. One thing we must understand about God’s jealousy is that God does not tolerate other entities or instruments as objects of a person’s worship. God demands our exclusive worship that is not adulterated by idols or anything that takes prominence before God.

Exodus 20:4–5 ESV

“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. 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,

Anything, and I mean anything that takes precedence over worshipping God and pulls our loyalty from Him can and will become sinful. God has been and will remain jealous for the affection and loyalty for the undivided allegiance of His people.

Matthew 10:37 ESV

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

The second trait of God that this passage addresses is God’s wrath. One commentator defines God’s wrath as “God’s settled hostility toward sin, His refusal to compromise with it, and His resolve to condemn it.” God’s holy and righteous character demand that sin be dealt with. Sin has consequences, and for those that are apart from Jesus, that consequence is eternal separation from God:

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Anyone that has not been reconciled to God through Jesus, is considered to be an enemy of God, and will be separated from Him, and eventually will be dealt with.

Romans 8:7 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Just as God responded to Nineveh because of their idolatry and hostility toward Him, there will come a time that God will deal with His present-day enemies as well, and we must remember that in God’s sovereignty, He can use anything He so desires as a tool to deal with His enemies.

God’s Unlimited Resources (1.3b-6)

Nahum

Nahum 1:3–6 ESV

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. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 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.

God paints a very dark picture here. Because He is sovereign, He has the entire universe at His disposal to deal with His enemies. Here he paints a picture that people can understand. He uses images that the people are familiar with, and this is what gives His people hope. The fact that God promises to deal with His enemies and those that are at opposition to His people is a comfort that God is passing on to those that are listening to the prophecy.

We must remember, that God deals with his enemies in His time and not when we expect. Just as Jonah expected an immediate judgment on Nineveh when he was there, it took over 100 years for Nineveh to fall. This passage presents God’s patience in the first part of verse three where it says, “the Lord is slow to anger.” We must realize that even though we expect God to deal with people or situations quickly, God is slow to anger. This should bring comfort to us since we all have our faults.

There is a centuries old teaching that God is angry with humanity because sin entered the world. I don’t believe this is the case. We are separated from God by sin, and it’s the sin that God is angry with. God’s character doesn’t provide any room for sin, and His righteousness demands that sin be dealt with, and the only way that sin could be dealt with was the cross of Jesus. Once we accept Jesus into our lives, we are no longer at enmity with God strictly on the grounds that Jesus paid the debt we could not pay on our own. Now, don’t get me wrong, sin never sits well with God even in the life of the believer, but since we have an advocate with God through Jesus christ, we are reconciled by the blood that He shed on our behalf.

Romans 5:8–10 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5.8-9

The Lord’s Contrasting Activities (1.7-10)

Nahum 1:7–10 ESV

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

Nahum 1:7–8 ESV

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

In the last two verses, we see a contrast in the activities of God and how He operates. We read here how he relates to those that place their faith in him and those that are against him, and here is where we find our hope. Look how verse 7 describe God: good, a stronghold. It brings to mind the old hymn, by Martin Luther written around 1527:

In the last two verses, we see a contrast in the activities of God and how He operates. We read here how he relates to those that place their faith in him and those that are against him, and here is where we find our hope. Look how verse 7 describe God: good, a stronghold. It brings to mind the old hymn, by Martin Luther written around 1527:

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”

God is our strength and our shield. We are not strangers to him in any way and will protect those that belong to him.

On the other hand, those that are opposed to Him will bear the consequences of their actions (on inaction). There will come a time when all of God’s adversaries will be completely eradicated from the face of the earth and dealt with appropriately (cf. Revelation chapters 5 & 19). Eventually, God will demand a reckoning for those that are aligned against him, and that is not good news for them, but it is good news for us, because that means God has won, and Jesus as the mighty warrior will see to it that evil will be done away with.

Application:

So now we face the “So what?” What does that mean for us today?

If you have a personal relationship with the Lord, you can rejoice in His protection.

Jesus promised in that He will be with us to the end of the age, and that is our hope. God promises to never leave us nor forsake us in and . This is our hope as Christians. If we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ we can be assured that God goes with us regardless of where we go, and we can know that as long as we are following His will, he will protect us from all sorts of evil. All he asks is at the end of the day, we have a personal relationship with Him, and we are afforded all kinds of protections.

Trust and rely on God as your protector.

Psalm 46:1–3 ESV

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

Psalm 46.1-

When the world falls completely apart, God is our refuge and our strength. When everything feels like it is crumbling around us, God is constant. These are promises we can cling to. We my find ourselves in the midst of a storm, and we can cling to God for our protection. It’s not just a physical protection, but an eternal, spiritual protection. All we have to do is put our faith and hope in Jesus Christ, and we can be assured of that protection.

Conclusion:

The question remains this morning, what side are you on? Have you chosen to side with God, or are you still at odds with His character? If you are at odds, I urge you this morning to make sure you are aligned with Him, and seek refuge in His protection.