Woe to the Ninevites (Nahum 3)

Announcements

We do have a handful of t-shirts left if you were unable to order one or if you’d like to purchase a second one. They’re $18 each and Natalie has the exact number of sizes left, so please feel free to talk with her after the service to see if we have any in your size. If we don’t and you weren’t able to order one this time around, don’t fret, we’ll order more at a later date and we might even consider doing hoodies depending on the cost, but again, that’ll be at a later date and we’ll have more time for ordering those items unlike this past time.

Sunday, August 22nd at 6pm, join us at the Altoona Curve for Faith Night. It’s an opportunity to enjoy a ball game and enjoy fellowship with one another—it really allows us to get to know each other outside of a church service; and I’d encourage everyone who is able and free that evening to join us. Tickets are $9 per person, we have 13 tickets left. You can come talk to me about it after the service. Tickets are first come, first serve; so talking with me sooner gives you a better chance of getting the tickets and getting multiple seats side-by-side.

I’m excited to announce what our new series are going to be—it’s not very often that you get to start two new series in a week’s time, but nonetheless, that is precisely what we’re doing this week. During this morning’s service, we’ll be finishing up our last sermon in Nahum, which will conclude our series on Nineveh. During this past Wednesday’s service, we concluded our series in the Letter to the Ephesians, which means that starting this coming Wednesday, we’re in new series during Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.

On Wednesday evenings, we’re going to leave the New Testament for some time and focus in on the Old Testament. In particular, we’ll be working on a series through the Psalms—verse-by-verse, line-by-line. The Psalms is a long compilation of Jewish poems written by various authors for the purpose of worshiping God and because of its size, simplicity, and ability to transcend time, the Jewish people as well as Christian people have grown to absolutely love and adore the book. The issue is that a lot of times when we read the Psalms, we don’t take the time to understand the psalm in its proper context, so that is precisely what we’re going to do as we study through the Psalms on Wednesday evenings.

On Sunday mornings after this week, we’re going to be working through a five-week series on the Purpose of the Church. Now, you all know that I am not typically a topical preacher, so let me inform you in how we’ll be working through this series. In the first week, we’re going to take a look at Acts 2, which is the recording of what is called Pentecost—Pentecost is agreed to be the beginning of the church in the New Testament. We’re not going to focus so much on the Holy Spirit descending in the first part of that chapter, but we’re going to take time to study through Peter’s Sermon during the mid-point of the text and then we’re going to look at the response for that sermon. The response for that sermon will then be the jumping point for every week of the series. Acts 2:42 tells us that after Peter preached this sermon, that those who believed “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” which resulted in further growth as a church. So, week one, we’ll look at the start of the church; week 2, we’ll focus in on the apostles’ teaching; week 3, we’ll look at what the Bible calls fellowship; week 4, we’ll look at the breaking of bread; and week 5, we’ll look at what the Bible means by prayers. As we do this, the hope is that we learn and understand what the purpose of the church is, which will help us to seek to do these things within our church.

I’m excited to start both series, I think they will both be greatly beneficial to our church as we seek to worship Jesus, equip believers, and make disciples.

Please continue to worship the LORD through your giving. To help you give, we have three different ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done by cash or check at the offering box in the back of the room. Checks ought to be written to Grace & Peace Bible Church and if you’d like a receipt for your cash gifts, please place it in an envelope with your name written on it; (2) if you’d prefer to give through a debit, credit, or ACH transfer, you can do so by texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] and by following the text prompts; or (3) you can visit us online at www.graceandpeacepa.com and select “Giving” in the menu-bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Psalm 24)

Psalm 24 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah 7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah

Congregational Singing

His Mercy is More

Nothing but the Blood

All I Have is Christ

Scripture Reading (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Ephesians 1:3–14 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Sermon

Introduction

Over the past few months, we’ve been working through a series titled Nineveh; and in this series, we’ve been working our way through the two Old Testament prophetic books that were written about the Ninevites, which were the group of people who lived in the capital of Assyria. In Jonah, which was the first of the two books, we read about an Israelite prophet who was sent by God to Nineveh to prophesy against the Ninevites, which he reluctantly does after a series of unfortunate events. Jonah finally makes it to Nineveh, preaches the shortest sermon possible, “in 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed” and the Ninevites hear him and listen to him; and the entire city repents from their evil ways and believes in Yahweh.

100 years later, the book of Nahum was written and it was written for the express purpose of condemning the Ninevites for their wicked ways again. So, within 100 years of the miraculous repentance recorded in Jonah, the Ninevites are back to being exceedingly wicked and violent. Nahum starts by describing who God is and what the attributes are of God and it’s clear within the first chapter that the LORD is angry with the Ninevites and their sin. Chapter 2 starts to describe the judgment that Nineveh is about to face while sprinkling in some hope for the Israelites with the purpose of explaining that God is utterly opposed to wickedness but he remembers and restores his people.

This morning, we’re in the last chapter of Nahum, which turns from the fact that Nineveh would be judged to the reasons for their destruction. As Nahum closes off his book, he writes of the spiritually and morally depraved condition of the city, which will give us some insight into why the destruction of Nineveh is absolutely warranted.

I do want you to know that the sermon will be slightly different in two ways. Remember last week how I encouraged us not to get too distracted with the details because the details can distract us from actually understanding what the main point of the text is? This week’s passage is just like that, so I’m intentionally trying to keep us from getting too distracted with the details. In addition, because this is the last week that we have in this series, we’ll spend some time before the application doing a recap of the whole series so that when we do get into the application, we can get the application for this morning’s text and we can get the application for the whole series. Read with me Nahum 3.

Nahum 3 ESV

1 Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! 2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! 3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! 4 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. 5 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. 6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. 7 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? 8 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? 9 Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. 10 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. 11 You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. 12 All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. 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. 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?

As we study this passage and as we finish up this series, we’re going to take everything into four parts. Nahum through this passage gives us two reasons for Nineveh’s destruction, so those two reasons are the first two sections: (1) Reason 1: Nineveh’s Violence and Deceit (1-7) and (2) Reason 2: Nineveh’s Treatment of other Nations (8-11). Both of these sections provide us with specific reasons for the judgment of Nineveh, which centers around how the Ninevites treated other people. (3) Vs. 12-19, The final section of the text is almost satirical in nature as Nahum tells them that their defenses are utterly worthless against the LORD. (4) And like I mentioned, since we’re finishing up a whole series, the last portion of the sermon before the application will be a brief recap of the whole series before finishing up with application. All of which will help us to see just how seriously God takes sin and it will help us to understand that the only hope that any of us have is salvation through Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Illumination

Reason 1: Nineveh’s Violence and Deceit (1-7)

Nahum 3, starts with a vivid description of Nineveh being a city of blood, which clearly isn’t a description that you would want for you or your city. But as Nahum continues in the text, it’s very clear immediately that this description of Nineveh is warranted. Vs. 1-3 intensifies this description by providing the vivid imagery necessary to make Nahum’s case. “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 let me remind you not to get too caught up in the details—it could be easy for us to talk at length about what the crack of the whip sounds like or how many horsemen Nineveh had, but to do so would be to miss the point of the text.

We could spend plenty of time discussing at length about the ins and outs of the grammar, but remember that isn’t the point of this passage.

Nahum is writing in a poetic nature, which means that he’s providing details to help visualize what he’s saying, but the point isn’t the visualization of what he’s saying, the point is in what he’s saying.

So, what exactly is Nahum saying? Vs. 1, “Woe to the bloody city.”

We already know that the “bloody city” is referring to Nineveh, we know that just based off of context. The whole book is directed at Nineveh, Israel, and Jacob—neither Israel nor Jacob have a history that would compel Nahum to call them the bloody city, but Assyria, which Nineveh is a part of does.

Elliot Johnson, “Nineveh was truly a city of blood—blood spilled by her uncontrolled lust and murder. She earned this title by her ‘atrocious practice of cutting off hands and feet, ears and noses, gouging out eyes, lopping off heads, and then binding them to vines or heaping them up before city gates [and] the utter fiendishness by which captives could be impaled or flayed alive through a process in which their skin was gradually and completely removed.’”

Nineveh and Assyria were known for bloody violence and Nahum utilizes the first three verses to help us picture just how violent they were.

Their city was full of lies and plunder with no end to prey, which simply means that they were constantly attacking other people, they were constantly preying on those around them.

And Vs. 3, tells us how they did this. They would prey on other people by utilizing their military. “Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end—they stumble over the bodies.”

Elliot John’s description of what Nineveh was like is corroborated through Scripture—Scripture itself says that the dead bodies were without end. That there were corpses everywhere, so much so that the people would trip over the bodies.

It’s very easy for us to see how Nahum could call Nineveh “the bloody city,” but Nahum isn’t just describing the city to us. He’s actually pronouncing a lament or a woe against the city, he says “Woe to the bloody city.”

Woe utilized here in the Bible is an interjection and when utilized with prophetic literature, it’s utilized to introduce a dire threat.

Isaiah 5 utilizes the term woe to speak of those who oppress others or commit sin intentionally. Isaiah 5:11, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink.” Isaiah 5:18, “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood.” Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” And there are several other statements of woe throughout that chapter.

Habakkuk 2 speaks woe against those who “makes evil profit for his household” and to them who worships false idols made by man’s hand. Interestingly enough Habakkuk 2:12 pronounces woe against “him who builds a city with bloodshed, and founds a town with violence!”

Which sounds oddly like what the Ninevites did as the Assyrians built up this whole empire with violence and bloodshed.

The idea here is that Nahum isn’t just describing how violent and bloody the city is, he’s pronouncing the fact that punishment or judgment is so certain that they are as good as gone.

Nahum continues in Vs. 4-7, by utilizing a metaphor, which ties the first three verses to the next five verses. Vs. 4 says, “And all for the countless whorings of the prostitutes, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and people with her charms.”

Remember in Vs. 1, Nahum makes the argument that Nineveh was guilty of being a bloody city, “all full of lies and plunder” with “no end to the prey!”

Vs. 4, tells us how exactly Nineveh accomplished this and remember that Vs. 4 is a metaphor. Nahum is calling Nineveh a prostitute in the sense that Nineveh would entice other nations to come and experience the apparent prosperity of Nineveh.

Kenneth Barker points out that Nineveh would do this in two different ways—they would “[entice] poorer and weaker nations with its wealth. . . so Nineveh, like a scheming prostitute, has cunningly sold her military aid to other countries. The weaker nations fell victim to the allure of Assyria’s wealth and power. They looked to Assyria for protection and material wealth, but they soon learned that, like the prostitute, the promises of Assyria only led to destruction.”

An example of this is precisely what happened to Israel. King Ahaz refused to listen to Isaiah and decided to align himself with the king of Assyria.

Assyria came to the aid of King Ahaz and as payment for Assyria’s protection, the king of Assyria decided that they deserved the city of Damascus and took it from Israel and began ravaging the northern tribes of Israel.

So, Assyria would trick other weaker and poorer nations into trusting them and then they would assert their dominance in a way that resulted in that other nation’s demise.

In addition, real prostitution was a large part of the Assyrian life as a part of their worship of their false goddess Ishtar, who was known as a prostitute.

It would make sense then that a people group worshiping a false god known as the prostitute would partake in the same adultery and fornication that a prostitute would partake in.

Nahum cries out “Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder “And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, who betrays nations with her whorings.”

And then God makes a statement for the second time. In Vs. 5, “Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts.”

This statement was made in Nahum 2 after describing the destructive judgment that Nineveh was about to face. Whenever Scripture repeats itself, it is of great importance—why does the Bible tell us twice that the LORD is against the Ninevites?

Because the destruction of Nineveh is doubly promised. Why? Because God utterly opposes the wicked.

As part of their destruction, the Bible says that God “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?”

Not only will Nineveh be destroyed, but it will be in a way that exposes Assyria. Not only will Nineveh be destroyed, but it will be in a way that causes other nations to look down on them and disregard them.

God says that he will “make [them] a spectacle.” Almost like when you’re driving down the road and off to the side of the road you can see something that was obviously hit by another vehicle. And you know that it reeks and you know that you don’t really want to look at it, but sometimes, you simply can’t help it—that’s what the destruction of Assyria and Nineveh is going to be like.

It’s going to be devastating and it’s going to cause great shame upon their nation and their city and their people and it’s going to be something that people simply can’t help but to look at.

But just like the roadkill on the side of the road, no one will grieve for Nineveh and no one will comfort Nineveh, in fact Nahum 3:19 says, “All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.” Everyone will be celebrating the demise of the wicked and evil Assyria.

So, the first reason of Nineveh’s incoming judgment is simply because of their wickedness and their violence. They were known as a bloody city and they were known for their deceitfulness and trickery and the LORD is utterly opposed to wickedness. Nahum then gives another reason for their incoming judgment and he does this by providing almost a case study for what Nineveh had done. Read with me Vs. 8-11.

Reason 2: Nineveh’s Treatment of other Nations (8-11)

Nahum 3:8–11 ESV

8 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? 9 Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. 10 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. 11 You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

Thebes was a prominent Egyptian city that sat on Nile River about 500 miles south of the Mediterranean sea. In roughly 900BC, Thebes was the largest city in Egypt with over 75,000 people and historian Ian Morris estimates that at that time, they might have been the largest city in the world.

Thebes was an incredibly wealthy city. The Greek poet Homer writes in the Iliad that, “in [the] Egyptian Thebes [there were] heaps of precious ingots.” Think of bars of gold and silver and Thebes had heaps of them.

Of course, any large and wealthy city would do whatever they could to protect themselves and as we know from history, Egypt itself during the ancient world was a world power with significant resources and of course, Egypt’s location provided great protection in and of itself.

Vs. 8, “Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?” You might ask, “How can Thebes in the middle of the dessert have water all around her.” Remember that it was built on the Nile, and through a series of moats, canals, and water channels they were able to surround most of the city within and without with water.

To get to the center of the city, enemies would have to cross numerous canals and thus the waters acted as a wall of some sort.

The sea that Vs. 8 speaks of isn’t the Mediterranean Sea, it’s actually the Red Sea, the same Red Sea that Moses crossed several hundreds of years before this point.

Vs. 9 continues and says that “Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.”

Vs. 9 speaks of several strategic and notable alliances that Thebes had with other cities and nations. Cush was in Ethiopia, the lower Nile region was known as Egypt during this time period, Put was on the coast of the Red Sea near the southern end of the Sea, and the Libyans inhabited everything west of Egypt.

The importance of this is that Thebes had allies in every direction around it and yet, Thebes still couldn’t survive.

Vs. 10, “Yet [Thebes] 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.”

What happened to Thebes is described with heinous and horrendous actions:

The people were taken into captivity, they became slaves

The children were physically torn apart, they were massacred

Those who held positions of authority and honor, the nobility were sold by casting lots

And all their great people were bound in chains.

Despite how great Thebes once was and despite the fact that they had several allies, they were unable to fend off the people who attacked them. The Bible doesn’t flat-out tell us who did this and for us to figure out who exactly did this, we have to look at an extra-biblical resource.

In 667 BC, Thebes was attacked and plundered by a king who left behind a record that has since been found. This is an English translation of that record.

“This city [referring to Thebes], I conquered it with the help of [and then he gives the names of two false gods]. Silver, gold, precious stones, all the wealth of the palace, rich cloth, precious linen, great horses, supervising men and women, two obelisks of splendid electrum, weighing 2,500 talents, the doors of temples I tore from their bases and carried them off . . . With this weighty [plunder] I left Thebes. Against Egypt and Kush I have lifted my spear and shown my power.”

The names of the two false gods are Ashur and Ishtar—Ishtar is the goddess that we’ve discussed several times as the one referred to as the prostitute.

This was written by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and he concludes the paragraph by saying, “With full hands I have returned to Nineveh, in good health.”

It was Nineveh who conquered Thebes. It was Nineveh who forced the people in Thebes to become slaves; it was Nineveh who massacred the children; and it was Nineveh who sold the people of Thebes into slavery.

And just like what Nineveh did to Thebes, Vs. 11 says, “You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.”

Reason number two for the incoming judgment of Nineveh is quite simply put, their treatment of other people. They not only invaded Thebes, they murdered children, they sold people into slavery, and they stole gold, silver, precious stones, horses, people, and even the doors off of the temples of the people they conquered. And they didn’t just do this to Thebes, they did it to every nation that surrounded them and they had been doing this for at least 1,800 years.

Now that judgment was coming against the Ninevites and the Assyrians, what they will find out is that their defenses are utterly useless. Remember a few years after the writing of Nahum, the Medes and Babylonians attack Nineveh. We’ve read some of Nahum’s description of what that judgment was going to look like. As Nahum closes off this book, he gives a little more insight into just how defenseless Nineveh will be. Read with me Vs. 12-19.

Nineveh’s Defense will be Useless (12-19)

Nahum 3:12–19 ESV

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

The last eight verses of Nahum are a satirical statement from Nahum to the Ninevites to prepare themselves for war. It’s satirical in the sense that Nahum is ridiculing the Ninevites—he’s mocking them for what is about to happen. Vs. 12, “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.”

The idea that Nahum is expressing here is that as Nineveh was under attack from the Medes and Babylonians, Nineveh would realize that all of their defenses were too weak. The imagery of the fig tree with ripe figs is utilized to describe how easily their fortresses would fall in the hands of the enemy.

Don’t get tripped up in Vs. 13, when the Bible says “behold, your troops are women in your midst.” Remember that during this time period, women didn’t serve in the military (even in extremely violent societies like the Assyrians).

This verse isn’t saying anything against women in the military, what this verse is saying is that the Assyrian troops who were known for their military prowess would act as if they’ve essentially never been trained before—they would be weak and defenseless in the onslaught of the Medes and Babylonians.

Even their walls, which were built to defend the city, are wide open to the enemies, why is that?

Remember Nahum 2’s description of the onslaught that they had faced from the waters of the reservoir? It wouldn’t be much for floodwaters to decimate the gates of a city, which would leave the gates completely open for those who want to come in and set fire to whatever remains.

Remember Nahum is writing with a sense of irony and he continues in that satirical mindset through the text, “Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold!”

But ultimately, no matter what Nineveh does to prepare for the battle, Vs. 15-19 makes it clear that it is all utterly worthless for them. “There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust.”

In Vs. 15, there’s a call for the Ninevites to increase their numbers like locusts in order to defend themselves more adequately. And then Nahum utilizes the imagery of a locust for a few more statements:

Vs. 16, “You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spread its wings and flies away.” Nineveh had acquired vast amounts of wealth by trading and if you consider Nahum 3:1, they probably did much of that trade deceptively. But now those merchants would come to loot Nineveh, which is expressed with the phrase “the locust spreads its wings and flies away.

In the middle east, they often have issues with locusts eating their crops and typically the way that it would happen is that a swarm of locusts would descend on a field and they wouldn’t leave until there wasn’t anymore food left, and that’s the imagery that Nahum is utilizing to express how the merchants would act as they looted Nineveh.

The idea of a locust is continued in vs. 17, though the ESV uses the term “grasshoppers” to describe the princes of Nineveh. The idea being that now that there isn’t prosperity or sustenance left, the princes and scribes have scattered like a locust would when the sun rises during the day.

All of these statements are similar to Nahum’s statement in Chapter 2 that the remaining people are like water leaking from a reservoir. Everyone who can is running, everyone who is left is scattered.

Vs. 18, utilizes the imagery of a shepherd for the leaders of Assyria, who slumbered through the battle. The “sleep” being referred to and the “slumber” being referenced would both be metaphors for death.

Thus, what Nahum says in Vs. 18, is that your leadership has been put to death and thus, they are silent and unable to lead the people.

So the people are scattered on the mountains with no one left to gather them together.

And then Nahum finishes the book with one final verse, “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?”

If I could put that in our modern vernacular, I would say it similarly to how the NLT translates this verse, “There is no healing for your wound; your injury is fatal. All who hear of your destruction will clap their hands for joy. Where can anyone be found who has not suffered from your continual cruelty?”

Kenneth Barker, “‘In the final lines of his oracle the prophet precludes all hope for a restored Nineveh. The proud city will be destroyed irreparably, the Assyrian kingship is inescapably doomed.’ Nahum emphasized the fatal wounds of the king of Assyria and his subjects. God had assured Nineveh’s destruction; Judah’s deliverance would be complete.”

So, the two reasons that Nahum gives for the coming judgment of Nineveh are that the Ninevites were violent and deceitful and because of the way that they treated the people around them. Their exceedingly wicked lifestyle along with the fact that they had been continuously wicked over hundreds of years compelled the LORD in his justness to finally judge the Ninevites.

Now, before we close up with application, because we’re finishing a series this morning, I want to take a few minutes to wrap up the whole series—I don’t think I need to do a full recap of both books because I’ve intentionally tried to do recaps periodically throughout the series to help us keep both books in context. I would like to answer one question that you might have asked before we jump into application.

Besides the fact that Jonah and Nahum are written about the same people groups—the Israelites and the Ninevites, you might have been wondering why I chose to do both of these books together. Or quite frankly, you might be asking, “why would we even study through Nahum, it’s so difficult to understand and the message seems to be dreary.”

Conclusion of the Series

So, let’s start with, why would we study Jonah and Nahum together?

First off, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

This would include every passage within the Bible—passages that you might skim through like the genealogies in Matthew and Luke or the Law through Leviticus. This also includes passages such as the census taken in the book of Numbers, the prophetic material that we don’t really understand from Revelation, and yes, that also includes books like Nahum, which might seem hard to understand and might be a bit dreary.

The very fact that Nahum is part of the Bible, which we believe to be breathed out by God is cause for us to read Nahum and re-read Nahum, and then read it again. And it is cause for us to do everything within our power to understand what the original author intended to say to the original audience in order to apply the text to our lives today. We study Nahum, because Nahum is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; and by studying Nahum, we spiritually mature in a way that prepares us for the work that the LORD has for us.

So, we studied Jonah and Nahum primarily to delight in God’s Word, to learn, to be reproved, to be corrected, and to be trained in righteousness. We studied both Jonah and Nahum in order to be “equipped for every good work.”

Secondly, because Jonah and Nahum have the same overarching principles. As we think through the past month and a half worth of sermons and we think about God’s repeated warnings to Nineveh, the Ninevites’ initial repentance but ultimate rejection of God; and we consider how Israel had to deal with Nineveh for several centuries, but God still remembered and restored his people—as we think on all of those things, it becomes clear what the primary message throughout both Jonah and Nahum is and I’ve said it multiple times throughout the series:

God is utterly against the wicked; but God remembers and restores his own people

What we’ve seen in Jonah and Nahum is that the perceived prosperity of the wicked is only temporary, just like the perceived suffering of the righteous is only temporary. God is not mocked, what you sow is what you will reap. The Ninevites sowed wickedness and evil, so they reaped destruction. The Israelites, though they suffered temporarily under the hand of Assyria were remembered by God and restored to their former majesty.

What we’ve seen in Jonah and Nahum is that God gives the opportunity to repent to everyone, but not everyone responds in repentance and because of God’s justness and righteousness; sin needs to be judged.

What we’ve seen in Jonah and Nahum is the difference between repentance and belief in God; and utter rejection of God.

So, the question then becomes, how do we apply all of this? Normally, we divide up how we apply the text into the three basic divisions of the text, but because all three parts of this text are essentially saying the same thing, we’re going to take all three sections as one; and then we’ll close off the whole series with application for the whole series—so, how do we apply all of chapter 3 and then how do we apply the whole series to our lives?

Application

Chapter 3 Application—In Chapter 3, we see two reasons for Nineveh’s judgment and we see the defenselessness of Nineveh against the judgment of God. A large portion of Chapter 3 is dedicated to explain in vivid detail the reasons for Nineveh’s destruction, which included large amounts of violence against other people and quite frankly, the poor and inhumane treatment by the Ninevites to those around them. These weren’t the only two reasons for their judgment, you can think of them almost like cherries on top—they had a long history of sin, these were just the sins that pushed God to act. In the latter half of the chapter, Nahum satirically and ironically tells the Ninevites to get prepared for the siege despite knowing that they have no hope because their end was assured. There’s two application points for this chapter and it depends on whether you are acting wickedly or having wickedness acted upon you:

If you are one who is wicked:

Chapter 3 shows us that for those who are in unrepentant wickedness (like the Ninevites), there is a fearful expectation of judgment—you will be judged for your wickedness (even if you think or you feel that you will get away with your wickedness).

And Chapter 3 shows us that you are utterly guilty for your wickedness and because God is just, he will not overlook that sin, you need to repent and call on his name in order to be forgiven.

Chapter 3 shows us that for those who have yet to repent, there is a record of wrongdoing that is kept against you. You may not be guilty of being violent and you may not be guilty of treating your neighbors with such contempt and evil, but Romans 3:23 teaches us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Regardless of your precise sinful behavior, you have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and there is a record of your wrongdoing that you are guilty of.

But Romans 3:24-25 continues by teaching us that “[we] are justified by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Because of the great love with which God has loved us, he has provided a means for that record of wrongs to be blotted out. All that needs to be done is to do what Peter says in Acts 2:38, “Repent of your sins and turn to God . . . and [call] on the name of the LORD.”

If you are one who is acting wickedly, Chapter 3 teaches that your sin will not be forgotten even if you think that no one is watching or no one cares. God cares and he waits for you to repent and call on him, but if you choose not to, there is a fearful expectation of judgment coming for you.

If wickedness has been committed against you and you are a believer:

Rest assured that in all cases, even if it looks as if the wicked prosper and get away with doing whatever they want, God will hold them accountable.

Numbers 32:23 makes the statement, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Regardless of whether or not other people find out about the sins of the wicked, no one can run from the consequences of sin.

So, you might ask, what do I do if I find myself in a situation where wickedness has been done against me?

First off, if it’s a situation of abuse, do not stay in a situation where you are being abused—call the police, seek help from others, get out of that situation.

Secondly, if the situation doesn’t consist of abuse but there has been wickedness committed against you—perhaps someone stole from you or someone committed any sin against you—if they repent, forgive them; but if they don’t repent, don’t dwell on their wickedness, realize that God will hold them accountable for their sins.

Regardless of what exact evil has been committed against you—don’t think that they’ve gotten away with their sin, pray for their conviction of sins and repentance from wickedness, and don’t get embittered.

Know that the LORD will restore his own people and if you are his, you will be restored.

Conclusion of the Series—over the past month-and-a-half, we’ve taken a close look at both Jonah and Nahum. Both books go into great detail about the city of Nineveh, the Assyrian Empire, and the great wickedness that came from Nineveh. Jonah focused more on the prophet Jonah, but the ultimate point of the book was the repentance of Nineveh. Jonah preaches a lackluster sermon and the Ninevites repent. Nahum focuses more on the judgment of the Ninevites because the ultimate point of the book was the judgment of Nineveh for returning to their evil and wicked ways. Interspersed within both books (particularly in Nahum), there are statements concerning the return of Judah and Israel to their former majesty because the LORD restores his people. There are two application points that we can draw out of both books based on one overarching theme—the LORD absolutely opposes wickedness, but the LORD will remember and restore his own people:

The LORD Absolutely Opposes Wickedness—sometimes in our modern world, we tend to be very light on sin. We’ll justify our own sin by saying it’s just a small sin or we’ll justify other people’s sins (particularly if we don’t think their sin hurts others or if we think their sin is minor) but the problem is that the Bible never makes light any sin—in fact, the Bible describes sins as abhorrent to the LORD and James makes the argument that if you’re guilty of one sin (no matter how small it might seem), you’re guilty of breaking the whole Law of God. In the case of the Ninevites, they committed what we would consider absolutely terrible and horrendous sins and crimes, but in light of James, your white lie at the grocery store is just as terrible and horrendous; cheating, lying, stealing, and all of our “small sins” that we might think of as acceptable is just as abhorrent to the LORD.

When we’re light on sin, we reveal that we don’t have a very high view of God or his Word. How do I know this? Because 2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us that “all Scripture is breathed out by God.” If we truly believe that the Bible is completely breathed out by God and we know through reading Scripture that God takes a strong stance against all sin—if we take sin lightly, it either means that we don’t care what God has said in his Word or we don’t think his Word is reliable enough to take what it says seriously.

Let’s nip the last one in the bud immediately, the Word of God is absolutely reliable and thus, we should take it seriously. But if you’re light on sin despite the Word of God being reliable, ask yourself, “why don’t you care what God has said in his Word?”

And then repent from that sinful mindset and seek to change your view of God’s Word.

Because God utterly opposes wickedness, those who are truly his ought to utterly oppose wickedness—it doesn’t matter if you don’t think that that particular sin is a big deal. It doesn’t matter if that sin seemingly doesn’t hurt anyone. God hates all sins and if you are his, you ought to hate all sins.

How do we do this?

You don’t hate the sin if you openly and without repentance commit that sin—so pray that the LORD convicts you of all sins—and then repent and seek to eradicate sin from your life. This is not a passive pursuit, this is an active pursuit of hunting sin within your life, repenting, and removing it.

You aren’t opposed to sin if you support those who commit sin—do you think when Nineveh was committing their horrendous war crimes that Israel was supportive of their crimes? Do you think Israel stood on the side-lines shouting for joy when Nineveh conquered another nation? No! They celebrated when judgment came upon Nineveh because of the wickedness of Nineveh.

That isn’t to say that you necessarily need to celebrate when people’s sins are found out, but you definitely shouldn’t be celebrating their sins. Instead, you need to point people in a loving way to what Scripture says and you need to point them to the hope that’s only found in Jesus Christ.

How do you oppose wickedness? You learn to hate all sin, and you repent from your own sin and remove it from your life; and you seek to point those who are wicked to Jesus and belief in him.

The LORD will Remember and Restore his Own People—We live in a world (and I’ve said this several times throughout this series) in which the wicked seem to prosper and those who try to live righteously seem to suffer. Knowing that Assyria oppressed Israel for several generations, don’t you think that Israel could also say the same thing? The wicked seem to prosper and we always seem to suffer.

In Jonah, we don’t really see too much about how the LORD planned to restore the Israelites because the focus is more on Nineveh actually repenting, but in Nahum we see God repeatedly remind the Israelites that he would remember them and he would restore them.

And while we aren’t the nation of Israel and we cannot expect God’s promises to the nation of Israel to apply necessarily to the USA, the principle remains the same. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are part of God’s people.

This means that even when you are oppressed, distressed, heavy-laden, worked to the bone—even when your life is complicated and discouraging:

Jesus remembers you and he will restore you. We just have to remember that sometimes the restoration won’t happen until the next life.

We sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that this current life is our best life, but in reality what the Bible says is that our eternal life with Jesus is our best life—the best is yet to come.

Cause this truth to provide comfort in times of sorrow, to help you in times of distress, and to compel you to worship, honor, and praise the LORD in all times.

Put simply, Nahum 3 and both Jonah and Nahum teach us to: (1) repent from wicked behavior, (2) oppose wickedness of all sorts, (3) point people to Jesus Christ, and (4) rest in knowing that you are safe and secure in Jesus Christ and celebrate that the best is yet to come.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Be Thou my Vision