Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we open to Nahum chapter three, we are going to close out the book with this final chapter.

We turn from the fact of the judgment to the reasons for it.

More precisely to the justification of it.

God in declaring judgment against Nineveh (and Assyria) is just.

God is just in declaring judgment against not only Nineveh but against all of humanity.

As we look at the spiritual depravity of Nineveh, we are forced to look at the condition of our own time and our own nation and world.

God is long-suffering but there is a time when His hand of judgment must come down.

He is completely just in doing so also.

We see three reasons Nineveh deserved judgment - these same reasons will condemn all under the just hand of God at the Day of Judgment.

Ripe For Judgement

Nahum declares WOE to Nineveh even has a nickname for them, the city of blood.

Nineveh truly was a city of blood - blood she spilled through her unquenchable thirst and lust for committing violence against other nations.

This title was earned through 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 the city gates and the utter fiendishness by which captives could be impaled or flayed alive through a process by which their skin was gradually and completely removed.

The rulers of Assyria were terribly cruel indeed, but they went further by boasting of their cruelty on monuments, monuments that exist in museums to this day.

Commentator James Montgomery Boice quotes some of the choice boasts from various monuments

I cut off their heads and formed them into pillars

Bubo son of Buba, I flayed in the city of Arbela and I spread his skin upon the city wall

I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillars with their skins

Many within the border of my own land I flayed, and spread their skins on the walls

I cut off limbs of the officers, the royal officers

3,000 captives I burned with fire

Their corpses I formed into pillars

From some I cut off their hands and their fingers and from others I cut off their noses, their ears, and of many I put out their eyes

I made one pillar of the living and another of heads, I bound their heads to posts round about the city

The Assyrians not only were violent but also deceitful and clever diplomats who lied to other nations and broke promises.

They slaughtered people without regard for age,sex, and they would pile the corpses up in piles like lumber as a warning to others.

The shedding of innocent blood is a serious sin that God detests and promises to judge.

Depraved leaders who commit such violence will one day answer to God for their crimes against Him and against mankind.

Nahum follows the guilt of Nineveh with some rather incredible descriptions of the final assault upon the great city.

Progressing from whips, to wheels and horses of chariots, to charging horsemen (cavalry) with swords and spears, to widespread violence and slaughter, an utter picture of the sheer carnage.

These describe the attack on Nineveh - although it is reminiscent of Nineveh’s exploits.

It is justice that the violence Nineveh perpetrated against others would be done to them.

God says “I am against you - this is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.

In being against them, God is just in judgment and declares that judgment against Nineveh is designed and executed with the purpose of exposing their shame.

I will lift your skirt over your face and display your nakedness.

Treat them contemptible and make a spectacle of them.

Her shameless acts would be matched by shameless exposure.

God is against Nineveh but against all who would treat human life with such disregard.

Nineveh’s glory would be turned to filth - literally flung excrement.

The climax of Nineveh’s shame would be that non would show sympathy upon her and no one would be found to comfort her in her trouble.

The once attractive harlot would cause others to recoil at the sight of her.

Grace Ignored

With insight and vision from God Nahum asks Nineveh are you better than Thebes?

Thebes, that was along the Nile and had water surrounding her - protected by the sea and the river.

Cush and Egypt were her support and strength.

Put and Libya were allies.

Despite these things Thebes became an exile and went into captivity.

Despite all that they thought made them safe and protected them - they still fell victim to Assyria’s might.

Utterly slaughtered and bound into exile.

Assyria conquered Thebes in 663 BC

God then speaks that Nineveh will likewise become drunk.

You will also seek refuge from the enemy.

All your fortresses are fig trees, with ripened figs.

As easily as ripe fruit falls from a shaken tree - so too will the strongholds and fortresses of Nineveh.

The soldiers will be as women among them - not fighters and not up for the fight.

Your city gates will be wide open to your enemies (thanks to a flood) Fire will devour the bars of your gate ( a literal fire but also fire is a picture of judgment).

140 years prior Nineveh had repented and accepted the grace and mercy offered by God, and because of their repentance and sincere turning from evil that generation was spared.

This generation however was intent upon their evil, and they on top of that they not only rejected the grace of God again - they relied upon their own strength and their own supposed power for security.

To ignore God’s grace is to make yourself ripe for judgment.

Draw water for siege, strengthen your fortresses.

Step into the clay and tread the mortar, take hold of the brick-mold.

A sense of ironic ridicule here.

Nahum is calling on Nineveh to defend themselves.

When under siege water is the most pressing need.

The enemy will tear out the wall and the walls would need to be repaired.

As Nineveh tries and tries to defend herself the efforts would prove futile.

Then comes the fire and the sword bringing with it disaster and their utter doom.

five groups of people are identified to describe the extent of Assyria’s national chaos.

They are:

Merchants who are like locusts

Princes like grasshoppers

Scribes like clouds of locusts

Shepherds that are asleep and not doing their job, thus no one is guiding and protecting the people

Nobles that are slumbering

These verses are mocking Assyria and everything that they think is great.

God is ripping apart their civic structure.

All that they trust and rely on will be proven to be false one at a time and very definitely.

What are you trusting and respecting in?

What has your attention and honor?

What are we trusting in for security?

When you feel stressed and anxious, where do you really go?

That will fail if God is against you!

Rotten to the Core

While it doesnt mention the King of Assyria at the time of the prophecy - we do know that it is most likely one of two kings - Sinsharishkun who was ruling when Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC.

It could also have been Ashuruballit (612-609) who tried to hold the Assyrian Empire together in the city of Haran until it completely crumbled three years after Nineveh was destroyed.

His leaders were dead and the people not taken as captives were scattered never again to be gathered.

The empire which for centuries had been an unstoppable force would be totally decimated.

The devastation of the city burned looted and overrun would look like a wound and a severe critical injury.

One without remedy.

Describing the truth of the completeness of her fall never to be rebuilt which archeology has confirmed.

There is also a sense that the wound and unjury of rejecting God’s grace and choosing to continue in their own ways has been the final blow, the death strike.

To reject the grace of God is to be without remedy for the judgment of our sin.

On top of dealing themselves the death blow, Nineveh and Assyria as a whole was seen as deserving of this justice executed by God in judgment against them.

All who hear about their downfall will not be surprised but rather would applaud it.

Their cruelty was known by all around them.

God in His love is absolutely just in judging this empire.

Old Yeller - a great book and wonderful movie.

In the end _spoiler alert_ the dog had to be put down because it became rabid.

It was a just thing to do, the dog was dead already for the disease was incurable but was still dangerous in the meantime.