Nahum: The Sure Judgment of God

Michael teaches on the book of Nahum, which delivered a potent decree of God's judgment in three short chapters. Nahum's message is clear: God is indeed a God of wrath. Is it possible, however, that God's wrath demonstrates His love?   Nahum prophesies to the Ninevites 100-150 years after Jonah’s reluctant ministry, which resulted in the greatest “revival” in Old Testament record. Nineveh is an interesting chapter because it was a serious capital. It was surrounded by massive 100-foot walls, 200 towers set around the wall for defense, 150-foot wide, 60-foot deep moat surrounded this incredible fortress. The city was massive. Its grandeur couldn’t rival Jerusalem’s at its zenith. Nineveh responded to Jonah’s message in 760BC. However, In less than 40 years (by 722BC) they had regressed completely back to their old ways. Sargon II destroyed Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel at that time. 10 tribes were dispersed in that area, and under Sennacherib the Assyrians nearly captured Jerusalem, then under King Hezekiah’s reign, in 701 BC. By the time of Nahum, circa 660BC, Assyria was at the height of its power and wealth under Ashurbanipal, whose reign from 669-633BC exceeded all other Assyrian kings. Nineveh was his capital and fortress, but Ashurbanipal’s sons were no match for the future their father had established and their power failed. Nahum is God’s voice of an overflowing flood (Nahum 1:8), which literally came true when the Tigris overflowed and destroyed part of Nineveh’s wall. Babylonians took advantage of the opportunity, breached the wall through the destroyed sections and invaded, plundered, burned, and destroyed the city. Nahum 3:11 prophesied that Nineveh would “be hidden” and indeed it was until the site was discovered in 1842. Nahum stated that God was coming not with a call to repentance, but with the sword of judgment. While Jonah brought God’s warning of judgment unless they repented, Nahum brings God’s vice of judgment in cold terms, a pronouncement of death.