Nahum week 4
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God declares His verdict against Nineveh.
God declares His verdict against Nineveh.
9 What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor.
12 Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.”
14 The Lord has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
Resistance is futile!
How often do we think we know what’s best for our lives?
It’s so tempting to just rush through our day without taking time to listen to God’s leading.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
What about the revival of Jonah?
Did the repentance of Jonah’s time last?
Jesus spoke about the people of Nineveh.
41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Opening Up Nahum Had Jonah Brought a Revival to Nineveh?
According to 2 Kings 14:25 Jonah prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II, (c. 782–753 BC), when the king on the throne at Nineveh was Ashur-Dan III, (772–754 BC). He had begun a period of conquest, and it was probably after one campaign that Jonah arrived. Following him was Ashur-Nirari V, (754–744 BC), and then came the warrior, Tiglath-Pileser III, who campaigned against Israel and started the deportation programme that was completed by his son, Shalmaneser V. The ten tribes were absorbed into the empire, never to return.
It really didn’t take long for Nineveh to return to it’s violent ways…if it ever left them.
The Israelites were all too familiar with this tendency to turn away from God.
15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
What does it look like for us to truly repent from sin?
What do we need to remember when we struggle with repeating sin?
Not only is resistance futile, it’s wrong too.
11 From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor.
Who is Nahum talking about?
Opening Up Nahum So Who Are You Talking about, Nahum?
Nahum gives us a clue as to whom he is referring to by mentioning the overthrow of Thebes in Egypt in Nahum 3:8–11. This took place in 663 BC and Nahum prophesied after that time and before the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. The action against Thebes was carried out by the last great king of Assyria, Ashurbanipal, (669–627 BC), who was the son and successor of Esarhaddon. As his records show, he was not only a scholarly man but a ruthless leader of the army and an implacable enemy to many.
God is more powerful than all foes.
God redeems
12 Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.”
Throughout the Bible God goes out of His way to save His people because He loves them and is far more powerful than all enemies.
Today we know that
God is OMNISCIENT—
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
God is OMNIPRESENT
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
God is OMNIPOTENT
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
We can trust God to save and provide.
God guards and loves His people.
14 The Lord has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
Remember even king Sannicrib was slain in the temple of his God.
37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
Idols and false gods pass away but God never fails.
What false gods ask for our worship today?
What do we tend to trust in today other than God?
Conclusion
Let’s read Isaiah 44:6-23
6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
8 Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.
10 Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?
11 Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.
12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.
13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.
14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.
15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.
16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!”
17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”
20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
21 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel.
Idol worship looks stupid here.
Yet do people do this sort of worship today?
Where do we see idol worship today?
How is it so tempting to worship idols when it looks so foolish from the outside?
What else have we learned from our time in Nahum today?