A Harlot, Locusts, Clapping--The End

Fornication

Nahum 3:1–19 ESV

Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms. Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you? Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! 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! You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. 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. Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. 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?

Scripture: Nahum 3:1-19

Sermon Title: A Harlot, Locusts, Clapping—The End

           We have reached the end of Nahum with our reading today, and this chapter re-emphasizes the destruction of Nineveh. It’s a passage that can put images of battle in your mind. I must say, last week I received a nice sketch last week from one of the Roloff boys, they did a great job of depicting Nineveh under siege and battling with soldiers and chariots. There’s plenty more that can be drawn from today’s passage with brickwork and locusts, and the ways that different countries viewed the fall of this city. Our passage also compares Nineveh to the city of Thebes, which seemed well-fortified, maybe even considered invincible, yet it had fallen to the Assyrians. It describes how Nineveh’s defenders will not appear, and, in fact, its fall will be cheered for.

           Yet you can tell in the title of this message, “A Harlot, Locusts, Clapping—The End” that there are some graphic parts to this as well. I want to reiterate: my intent is not to be crude. I don’t just try to make difficult conversations for parents whose children might ask them what these words mean. There are other parts of this chapter with disturbing imagery of actions done by these armies in the past. I’d love to read over them as if they weren’t part of the Bible and not even part of human behavior or history, but they’re here. The evils of non-God-fearing nations are noted—they are seen by God and will be judged by him. That said, in my study, the word and the concept of the harlot stood out to me. This isn’t the only time in Scripture that a people or their actions are labeled like this. Given that God is the one who does this labeling, it’s worth looking at why he might use terms like this.

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is one of those passages when it would be nice to just say “Amen” and move on from. It’s heavy, and like I told you on week one of this series—while there is some hope sprinkled through this book, “overall it’s not one with much to smile about. It’s quite scary at times.” When you’re hearing about the falls of great cities, disaster and judgment, the lack of comfort and aid, and we ourselves live in a great country, where most of us feel at peace, safe, and secure—this is particularly uncomfortable. Even knowing the wickedness of the city of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire—we’ve stated they deserved this—knowing that doesn’t cause it to feel any more uplifting or encouraging. Let’s get right into it, though.

           Our first point this morning: the imagery of prostitution in the Bible describes unfaithfulness to God. Prostitution, giving oneself to another person for money or gifts or favors, enticing someone to get something in exchange for sex, without relationship, without commitment, is talked about many times in the Bible. Some cases are the literal sexual acts involved in prostitution. In many foreign religions, it was often incorporated into the worship of their idols and false gods. There were prostitutes at their temples. Our God considers that a sinful act; prostitution should neither be an act of worship nor simply part of life.

But prostitution is also used metaphorically, especially in the Prophets. When we read verse 4, “the wanton lust of a harlot…who enslaved nations by her prostitution”—these three words I’ve underlined on the screen share a root in the Hebrew word “zanah.” Zanah is defined as to “commit fornication [or to] be a harlot.” Other times it’s used in the NIV and in other translations, you might find the words “adultery,” “immorality,” “a prostitute,” “whore,” “illicit favors,” “promiscuity.” I think you get the picture—we’re not talking about sex in the only relationship that God intended it to be in—the covenant of marriage, between a man and a woman only, a truly loving expression of God-given desires. Zanah is a shameful thing.

Through the prophet Nahum, God spoke about a foreign nation with these terms. Nineveh was “the city of blood, full of lies…never without victims…” It was filled with dead people because of the way it acted enticing and enslaving the nations, giving themselves away and able to get back whatever they wanted. Yet this wasn’t just how God viewed his people’s enemies.

God used the word zanah in various forms to talk about his own people. In calling Judah and Jerusalem to account in Isaiah chapter 1, we read, “See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her—but now murderers!…Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.” God wasn’t calling them to account specifically for sexual sins, but injustices, bribes, partiality.

We see the theme developed across Jeremiah chapters 2 through 4. Jeremiah was told to tell Jerusalem how God remembered, “‘…the devotion of [her] youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert…Israel was holy to the LORD.’” Yet over time, “‘…You broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, “I will never serve you!” Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute…’” Into chapter 3, “‘…You have lived as a prostitute with many lovers—would you now return to me?’ declares the LORD. ‘Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished?... You have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame…’” In chapter 4, the LORD proclaimed a similar outcome for Jerusalem to Nineveh, including that when she tries to appeal to those she’s given herself to, “Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.”

In Ezekiel 16, again for Jerusalem, God describes how he raised this child who was “despised” from birth, “I made you grow like a plant of the field…Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.” He describes how he lavishly cared for his bride, “You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD. But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute.” He describes how all the things he had given her, she traded and gave away and used in idolatry. Eventually these choices will lead to her demise, would lead to Judah’s destruction. At that point, the Lord says, “I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.”

In the book of Nahum, Nineveh, a non-God-fearing city and people had no sense of faithfulness or the need for that to God. Yet as you’re hopefully seeing throughout these other prophets, when God watched his own people fall away over and over again, they weren’t so different. It’s not a stretch to say that when God’s people today, when those who are still coming to faith as well as those of us who are believers already consider how God views our sin, it is to such a heavy degree that it’s like the unfaithful partner. God has made a promise, a vow, a covenant with us, and we’ve said, “I do,” or are engaged to say that, but then we go and cheat on him. He’s given us perfect, faithful love, and yet our sin tries to say, “Thanks, I want you around God, but I also want this other thing. I know I have your love, so I’m going to give myself more over to this other partner.” Whether we view ourselves in the role of the prostitute or falling to the prostitute, there is nothing but misery or enslavement, being trapped by, that partner that sin is.

Let’s move on to our second point: the theme of prostitution in the Bible highlights the wonders of God’s covenant love. There’s no doubt, whether we’re looking at Nineveh or at Judah and Israel, that God has judgment for unfaithfulness to him. This whole book of Nahum has been about judgment that is coming because of what these people have done. We heard those terrifying words from chapter 2 verse 13 repeated in chapter 3 verse 5, “‘I am against you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” And then he goes on to show how he will ridicule and treat with contempt and humiliate this harlot of a city. This image of a woman who thought she all sorts of companions and lovers to turn to and lean on when she called, now none will mourn for or comfort her.

How does that highlight the wonders of God’s covenant love? Part of this judgment was because of this city’s treatment of God and his covenant people Israel and Judah. Going back to chapter 1 verses 12 and 15, “This is what the LORD says: ‘…Although I have afflicted you, O Judah, I will afflict you no more…’” “Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.” That was echoed in chapter 2 verse 2, “The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines.” Even though God had judged them for their sins, their judgment was not without end.

Yet let’s carry this into the New Testament, into a passage like Ephesians 5:22-33. This was Christie and I’s wedding text, and it frequently shows up in different ways throughout weddings. This is that passage that begins, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the LORD…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” We come to the end of the chapter hearing about the two becoming one flesh, and then Paul writes, “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” We hear about submission, about love, about Christ’s sacrifice, about the mystery of Christ and the church. Good marriages imitate Christ’s love for the church and the church’s love for Christ.

Yet listen to what I skipped over. “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.”

If we can see that part of the story of the Old Testament is the account of God’s people as unfaithful in their sin, as prostituting themselves to false gods and lovers that ultimately cannot do anything, then the New Testament—specifically Christ shows us how God rescues the marriage. Christ is the head, the husband in the relationship, the church is his bride, his wife, the one he loves and will not hate. Yet when Christ sees his wife cheating on him what does he do? He gives himself up for her, even to death on the cross. He redeems her, takes her bad, washes her—all the stains, all the mistreatment, all the make-up and pretty herself up on her own—Christ washes everything that we try to do for ourselves and makes us “holy and blameless.”

He keeps on loving us. Even though we’ve tried to say his love isn’t enough, not fulfilling enough, not enriching enough, I want what others can give me—God, you’re great, but I think I want what’s over there, too. There are times, as we see throughout the Old Testament, as maybe we’ve had in personal experience, where God lets us cheat on him, to entertain other loves, but eventually we come to know there is nothing like his love. In his mercy, he has decided not to humiliate us, to expose us, to bring us down completely like he did to Nineveh, but to clean us up and welcome us home. While we may want to shy away from the theme of prostitution in the Bible—as something too dirty, too graphic, too strange, is it possible that God’s redeeming love becomes even more vibrant when we consider it?

So, we come to our final point and the conclusion of this series: where do we go from here? Verses 14 through 19 describe the last breaths of Nineveh—before the book is closed or the screen goes black, before life completely fades away, the merchants are stripping the land and flying away like locusts, the guards and officials are also like locusts, but in the sense that they are numerous and yet suddenly disappear, leaving their posts. The Ninevites are left as a scattered and shepherd-less flock. They are dying without help, to the clapping celebration of those who they have mistreated all this time.

What do we do? One part is to heed the advice of the late British scholar Peter Craigie, “…We must, at the end, be careful not to oversimplify Nahum’s message. He is not a political scientist, but a visionary theologian, or better, a poet. He presents not so much a doctrine of justice, which can be converted into political theory or liberation theology, but an affirmation of divine justice. He speaks as one who believes that God will act, not as one who is God’s self-proclaimed lieutenant, thirsting for the battlefield so that he can engage in the slaughter of which he speaks. If we have grasped Nahum’s message, we will not volunteer to join the ranks of Nineveh’s attackers; rather, we shall seek to transform the evil within the nation to which we belong.”

Knowing what happens when a nation falls into such wickedness and chases after other gods and who is unrighteous and undiscerningly with wealth and power should lead us to examine the world around us. It should lead us, not just to make judgments and scoff—saying things like, “We know where they’re headed,” but to transform the evil, to speak against it, to rebuke and correct, to warn people like Jonah did. We’re able to truthfully say that our God is not only just but also forgiving; he is gracious and slow to anger for all who call on his name in faith.

We aren’t just to call people on their sin—to make them aware of it, but to call people out of sin. There are plenty of people who can point the finger, who cheer the fall of bad people. Yet for those who will repent and believe, Christians have the opportunity to proclaim a message of grace and truth. That includes the message Jesus spoke to a woman caught in adultery, “‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’” Go and sin no more.

As we live and we take up that task, we also guard ourselves with God’s truth. The imagery of a harlot, a prostitute, doesn’t end in the Old Testament. In Revelation chapters 17, 18, and 19, we meet “the great prostitute,” the woman on whose forehead is written, “MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” One of the things John reveals about her is in Revelation 17:6, “I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus,” and in verse 18, “‘The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.’”

Repeated a few times is that the nations and kings and merchants have all been with her, but in Revelation 18, starting at verse 4, a voice speaks from heaven, “‘…Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes…In one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

All unfaithfulness against God will one day be judged and come to a final end. But brothers and sisters, hold onto and share this hope, that all who have been unfaithful to him yet seek his forgiveness in faith, will be purified by the blood of Jesus, will be brought back redeemed into the marriage. Let us all, then, stivie to glorify him, to live as a faithful spouse, grateful that he does and will cleanse any and all of our impurities. Amen.