Final Nahum Study

April 15, 2021, Nahum 3:12-19

The doom of Nineveh

When we hear of the passing of other humans we should take it to heart and consider our own mortality.

Opening Up Nahum Chapter 11: God Announces Nineveh’s Doom (3:12–19)

John Donne (1571–1631) wrote: ‘Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’

Ecclesiastes 7:2 ESV

2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

Nineveh’s nature lesson. Nahum 3:12

By the time God was ready to destroy Nineveh it would be like taking candy from a baby!

The politically incorrect insult. Nahum 3:13

There was nothing Nineveh could do to prevent what God was going to do.

Nineveh relied on:

Location

Nahum 3:8 ESV

8 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?

Allies

Nahum 3:9 ESV

9 Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

Fortresses

Nahum 3:12 ESV

12 All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.

Well trained army

Nahum 3:13 ESV

13 Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.

What things do we rely on in the United States in 2021 to give us security?

What lessons should we take from the fate of Nineveh knowing they had some of the same things to depend on?

A hopeless defense.

Nahum 3:14–19 ESV

14 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! 15 There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! 16 You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. 17 Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are. 18 Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. 19 There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

God mocks Nineveh 3:14.

God challenges them to make the best preparation making bricks to fortify the city against attack. Despite this, extra fortifications will do nothing to protect the city against an attack ordained by God.

To be clear, no diligence, brilliance, good planning, or hard work would save Nineveh.

The destruction of the hard work: Nahum 3:15

Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah 4. The Hopelessness of Defense (3:14–19a)

“The walls of the city of Nineveh will become the borders of their tomb, not their defense.”

In the prophets “fire” symbolized defeat and destruction

From a tactical stand point most attackers would burn a city after taking it. This would both punish the residents and free the victors to move on to attack the next target.

Four words for locust

Nahum uses 4 words for locust here:

In Nahum 3:15 Nahum uses the word for a young locust most associated with the clouds of locusts that destroy whole countries’ crops. The locust in reality and metaphor represented overwhelming destruction that you could only watch and do nothing about.

Such was the future of Nineveh.

The second word for locust in Nahum 3:15 refers to a mature older locust this is also a creature that swarms and eats.

Nahum then goes on to describe the leading men of Nineveh like locusts in Nahum 3:16. They are swarms of locusts that stay for a moment but stay to save no one.

Nineveh couldn’t count on it’s commerce to save it.

Hopelessness and desertion

The princes of the country would be those who deserted it.

The leaders of Nineveh would leave and the country would fall.

Nahum 3:19 ESV

19 There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

Nahum’s destruction would be complete!

Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah 5. The Joy in Justice (3:19b)

Those who read the Book of Nahum should not miss the point that God cares for the weak and needy of the world and is working in history to correct oppression. Let us make sure that we recognize God’s work and seek to correct oppression and participate in the work of God in his world. For us who read the Book of Nahum today, a strong message comes through. We can easily stand with Nahum and point the finger of guilt at our enemies. We quickly volunteer for God’s army, hardly able to wait for his call to battle against the hated enemy. God calls us to another listening post as we read Nahum. He calls us to stand with the court of the king of Nineveh and listen to God’s description of who we are in his sight. He calls us to take off our battle uniforms and watch God at work. “We must never forget that the whole Book of Nahum is a celebration of divine, not human, action. Nahum leaves vengeance in the hands of God.” So must we. When we listen to Nahum from this vantage point, something entirely unexpected happens. The hymn of hate is directed against us. We stand in the tension between the God who is full of wrath and yet good and slow to anger. We come to see that God is calling us to bear our cross, yes even to Calvary and death. We are not only “to resist evil, not only to correct it, but also sometimes simply to suffer it, confident in the assurance that God will finally cleanse his earth of all corruption.”114 Then for us Nahum becomes more than anything else a great call to repentance.

Discussion

What did Jesus teach in Matthew 25:41 about God’s judgement and how does that apply to our study of Nahum today?

What did Jesus teach about God’s love in John 14:1-4 and how also does that apply to our study of Nahum today?

Life is surprisingly brief. How can we challenge each other and ourselves to use time wisely?

Many view the second coming of Jesus as either wishful thinking or not something that’s going to happen. How do we view this topic? How does our study of Nahum help us to think about the topic of the second coming of Jesus?

What else have you learned from our study of Nahum?

Next week

No small group next Thursday but the following week we will dive into our small group study of “Taboo Topics” the first one will be “Identity, what is our irreducible minimum?”