Nahum
Notes
Transcript
Handout
As we look at the book of Nahum this morning we will be looking at an oracle… Nahum 1:1
The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Oracle:
It was a weighty or burdensome kind of message to deliver. It is a common term in the prophetic writings This oracle is a threatening message about Nineveh’s doom.
The book carries a serious and heavy tone.
Nahum would probably not be the first book you take someone to when introducing them to God...
That being said: it is Vital and Crucial that we know and understand these things about this God we serve!
Nineveh
Nineveh
A key arrogant Capital city in the Assyrian Empire
Powerful unprintable inner and outer walls
Around 759 B.C. Jonah had gone to the city of Nineveh about 30 years prior to the Assyrians
Assyria took the northern kingdom of Israel into captivity in 722 B.C.
The fall of Nineveh, predicted in Nahum, occurred in 612 B.C
This prophecy was probably written around the time of 650 B.C.
Judah is under the heavy YOKE of the Assyrians Nahum 1:13
From 759 B.C. to 650 B.C. we see the nation that turned to God now plot against God and be wicked and evil! (just over a century)
Nahum Overview
Nahum Overview
Nahum is a prophetic book, once again in the minor prophets due to its brevity.
We find various forms of literature yet none that scholars all agree upon.
The Moody Bible Commentary Introduction
Waylon Bailey has identified a structure built around the kind of language that Nahum uses in each chapter: “Chapter 1 uses hymnic and oracular language to describe the character of God. Chapter 2 uses oracular and battle description language to announce the Lord’s judgment on Nineveh. Chapter 3 uses the language of funeral woes and dirges along with historical comparison to pronounce death on Assyria”
As we read Nahum we see clear distinctions in each chapter…
Chapter 1: The certainty of God’s Judgement on Nineveh
We see God’s wrath on sin and evil
We see a side of His character that is vital to see and understand
God’s faithfulness to those who are His
Chapter 2: The vivid description of God’s Judgement on Nineveh
We see the attack and the defeat with plundering
Nahum 2:1 do your best but God will prevail...
We see details that would come to be over the next 30 some years and be complete in 612 B.C.
Nahum 2:5-6 the attacks came when they were drunk and the river within her overflowed
Nahum 2:13 sums up God’s hostility against Nineveh
Chapter 3: The reason for God’s Judgement
Her evil ways, her wickedness
Nahum 3:4 states her evil
Her violence they will in turn receive what they have dealt
Nahum 3:5-7;19 sums it up...
Nineveh and the Assyrians are examples to the world and to Judah hearing this too that God deals with sin and evil! and that He fulfills His Word!
God Is Holy!
God Is Holy!
Look at how God declares Himself in the first six verses of this book… Nahum 1:2-6
Look at the adjectives describing God...
avenging / wrathful / jealous
whirlwind / storm / rebukes
like fire
He will not leave the guilty unpunished
Look at this GOD!!! Look at the two questions posed concerning Him… Rhetorical really
Who can stand before His indignation? (RAGE)
Who can endure the burning of His anger? (His furry)
To avoid recognizing these aspects of God’s character is to poorly recognize the God we serve!!!
We see God pictured this way and then we read Nahum 1:7
How can we see God as “good” as we look at His wrath?
The key is you and I need to see SIN for what it is. We need to learn to see SIN as He sees SIN!!!
We should hate evil as He hates evil Romans 6:23
Our sin / ALL sin deserves death… (Then what is Sin you ask… Romans 3:23)
Sin is falling short of His GLORY / His HOLINESS / His PERFECTION
You and I fall short every time!!! BUT HE IS GOOD… The Lord is good,
This is what makes Nahum 1:3 so amazing … “He is slow to anger & great in power” 2 Peter 3:9 shares this too
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
THAT’S THE POWER… His patience to seek repentance from all who will seek Him… John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
God has a heart for the world!
GOD WANTS THE WORLD TO KNOW HIM
GOD WANTS THE WORLD TO KNOW HIM
Exod 5:2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”
Exod 6:7 … and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Exod 7:5 “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.”
Exod 7:17 Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.
Exod 8:22 “But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms of flies will be there, in order that you may know that I, the Lord, am in the midst of the land.
Exod 9:14 “For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
Exod 9:29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.
Exod 14:4 “Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
Exod 14:18 “Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.”
Egypt
Israel
Ahab and Jezabel
King Nebuchadnezzar a Babylonian
The Edomites
The Persian King Xerxes
Nineveh…
They repented once, but do not test the patience of the Lord. Mark the words of scripture here before you today… GOD WILL JUDGE SIN!
AND… He judged it once for all at Calvary… Nahum 1:7
The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.
Does He KNOW YOU? Have you repented of your sin and sought refuge? Let Nineveh be a warning to you today.