A Refuge and a Flood

My plan is to begin this sermon differently than normal because Nahum is an unusual book of the bible. I don’t feel like there’s another book of the bible like it. So, in order to help you better understand this book and FEEL the weight of the message in it, I want to spend some time reading the entire book. Don’t worry, it’s not that long, it’s only 47 verses long and it’s written like a narrative story. I’m also not going to have the words of the book on the screen for this portion because I want you to simply listen. I want you to try to feel what it would have felt like for Nahum to bring this message to God’s people and for you to be sitting in the room when he gave it.

[Read Nahum]

The theme of this book is, “The Lord is sovereign over all and will judge Nineveh.” It’s the direct counterpart to the book of Jonah. When Pastor Kurt preached on Jonah, he said that the main theme of Jonah was God’s compassion. When Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, God showed great compassion on that city. When we get to the book of Nahum, about a hundred years later, the time for repentance has passed. It’s been taken off the table. This book is NOT about God’s compassion, but about God’s judgment.

I kinda laughed when I first looked at the overall structure of this book. It was: 1) The Public Announcement of Judgment, 2) The Dramatic Depiction of Judgement, 3) The Surety of Judgement. So, basically the outline of the book is: God announces that Nineveh will be judged, then goes into detail describing how they will be judged and what it will look like, then ends the book by telling them not to fool themselves—it’s going to happen. Judged. Judged. Judged. Three fold.

And the depictions of the judgment coming on Nineveh don’t beat around the bush either. We read passages like, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.” (Nahum 1:2, ESV) and “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.” (Nahum 1:6, ESV) and “But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.” (Nahum 1:8, ESV). There’s this picture that not only is God going to destroy them and bring them into judgment, but he’s not going to stop—he’s going to continue to hunt them down and pursue them until they are completely wiped out. I couldn’t help but have the lyrics to a Johnny Cash song running through my mind the entire week, “You can run on for a long time, Run on for a long time, Run on for a long time, Sooner or later God’ll cut you down, Sooner or later God’ll cut you down.”

Just about the time you get done reading these passages in chapter one, and start to get a little uncomfortable with it all, most people are expecting Nahum to lighten things up a bit. That’s not what he does. Instead he dives in deeper and basically says, “Let me show you what this destruction is going to look like.” Rather than easing off, he begins elaborating on the destruction. God describes himself as The Scatterer coming into the city. We are given a picture of the city preparing for battle, gathering all of their men and their weapons for battle, running about wildly trying to prepare for this battle. But in the end we read, “Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!” (Nahum 2:10, ESV). Desolation. Complete Destruction.

Then God says something that should shake us to the core: “Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts...” (Nahum 2:13, ESV). He says it again in chapter 3. This is the opposite of the passage, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, ESV). This is saying the exact opposite: If God is against you, who can be for you? What can you do? What can stop him from completely wiping you out? Nobody. Nothing.

This line kinda says it all: “The Lord has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated...”” (Nahum 1:14, ESV). This is not just about being destroyed and completely destroyed, this is about destroying them to the point that they aren’t even remembered. Interestingly, about two hundred years there’s this historical record about a Greek army marching over the ruins of Nineveh with NO IDEA that it even had existed in the past. It was destroyed and completely forgotten. And, as a side note, it had been destroyed EXACTLY the way Nahum prophesied it would be destroyed—there’s historical and archeological evidence that backs that up.

Now, here’s the part that may catch everyone off guard a bit. This is pretty dark and doom and gloom and Nahum bases all of this on the character of God. All throughout the first chapter of this book there are multiple statements that say, “The Lord is...” showing us that God is coming after Nineveh in this way because of who he is—it’s flowing from his character. Here’s the list we see in the book. The Lord is: jealous, avenging, wrathful, slow to anger, great in power, and good. We typically like to focus on the good and the slow to anger portions of that list (and the grace and mercy...), but God is all of these other things too. As I teach in the Doctrine course over at CWC, God is not a collection of his attributes—a little love, a little grace, a little wrath, etc. He’s all of the them all the time. So, we make a massive mistake when we try to downplay some of these other attributes of God.

If you didn’t notice, this list of attributes should sound pretty familiar. This list of attributes comes from the story when Moses asks to see God. God says that he will pass by him and proclaim his name to Moses—who He is. Then we read, “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”” (Exodus 34:6–7, ESV). Nahum’s point is that because God is all of these things all the time, THATS WHY he’s bringing this judgment on Nineveh.

The Apostle Paul does a good job helping us to understand the slow to anger aspect of God in Romans: “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:3–5, ESV). God isn’t slow to anger—or patient—because he doesn’t care about your sinfulness or because “it’s fine” for you to keep on rebelling against him. NO. He’s giving you the time and opportunity to repent. The longer you take to repent, the more wrath is stored up against you. If you never repent, that wrath WILL be poured out on you.

That’s the other aspect of this that comes up in Exodus 33 but also in Nahum. We read, “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.” (Nahum 1:3, ESV). The phrase “by no means” is the strongest form of saying “NO” that is possible in the Hebrew language. The is absolutely positively no way that God is going to clear the guilty. It’s not going to happen. It’s actually impossible based on what we know about God’s character. He is a JUST God. If he ignored the guilty and rebellious, that would be UNJUST and would be against his character. God cannot act against his character. So, he HAS TO bring judgment on the guilty. He’s can’t just look the other way. This is the God we worship and we must not forget it or even try to downplay this aspect of his character. Nahum is a strong reminder for us about this reality.

God’s people have been reminded of this reality as well. Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian empire—maybe I should have mentioned that sooner. By the time that Nahum comes onto the scene, the Assyrian empire has already conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and hauled them into exile—in a way. This was God’s punishment on the northern kingdom for their repeated disobedience and rebellion. God absolutely cannot clear the guilty. Once Assyria, conquered the Northern Kingdom, they made their way into the Southern Kingdom of Judah to do some damage there. One of the southern kings decided to strike a deal with them, rather than be wiped out by them. So, the southern kingdom had been afflicting them and causing them strife for quite a while by this point. So, God’s people know all about the wickedness and the brutality of the Assyrians. They’ve experienced it first hand and have dealt with their wickedness for quite some time.

That’s important to know because it helps you understand a couple confusing aspects of this book. First, this letter is actually written to Judah. It’s not written to Nineveh. It’s not an announcement to Nineveh that they will be destroyed but an announcement to Judah that Nineveh will be destroyed. Second, guess what the name Nahum means? It means “Comforter”... Does that seem right? The prophet of one of the darkest gloomiest books of the Bible’s name is “Comforter”? Then, when we get to the end of chapter one we read, “Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!” (Nahum 1:15, ESV). What!?! We know this passage, right? Why is he talking about Good News in the midst of describing all of this judgment and destruction? Let’s read the rest of that verse to better understand what’s going on: “Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.” (Nahum 1:15, ESV). He’s telling Judah that the Good News is that their oppressors—Nineveh, the Assyrians—will be removed from them and be cut off. They will not longer restrict or prevent them from worshiping God. They will no longer afflict and oppress them. That’s good news, right?

Judgment seen as Good News. Does that make you uncomfortable? It does for most people. To be honest, this entire book makes people very uncomfortable. But judgement is good news in many ways. First, this is a beautiful message that God WILL judge all injustice and that God WILL make things right in the long run. In my previous church, I had a member who served as a prosecuting attorney for a number of years, and she dealt with a lot of rape and abuse victims. She said, THIS was good news to them. As of right now, it seems as though these people got away with injustice, and it seems like they will continue on with their wickedness without anyone knowing. BUT, sooner or later God will cut them down. Sooner or later, God WILL bring justice and will undo all of the wrongs that have happened in the world and all of the injustice.

And the point I want to make along with that is that we don’t need to be ashamed or afraid of saying these things. Sometimes we try to downplay the judgment of God, or mutter it under our breath, or just try to ignore it. Not Nahum. Nahum ELABORATES on the judgment. He paints a clear picture of the judgment so that everyone is clear about what is going on and they feel it in their bones. We can do that too. This is the God we worship. We should never be ashamed of that or try to downplay who He is.

I also this this is a warning to Judah. This is good news for Judah, but also a warning. It’s a warning that this could also happen to them if they continue in their rebellion. God IS slow to anger, but he’s slow to anger because He desires repentance. Eventually the time for repentance is over and the judgment will come. Sadly, the judgment does come for Judah too. Babylon, the same nation that destroys Nineveh and conquers the Assyrian empire, will eventually come and destroy Judah and haul their people into exile. If you choose to continue in your rebellion and sin, and refuse to repent, God WILL by no means clear the guilty. He will definitely bring judgment.

The verse that kind of sums up this entire book is: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.” (Nahum 1:7–8, ESV). The picture here is of two different groups of people. There are those who take refuge in him and there are those who are his enemies. God will pursue his enemies into darkness and make a complete end of them—he will wipe them out. However, for those who take refuge in him, he knows you and is a stronghold in the day of trouble.

You are one or the other. There’s no middle ground. Actually, to say this even more starkly, every single person in this room—including myself—is either currently and enemy of God or once was an enemy of God. Those are the only two options. You either are currently rebelling against God and storing up wrath for yourself on the day of judgment OR you were, but Christ bore that wrath in your place when you put your faith and trust in him.

For those in this room who may be an enemy of God, this should be your wakeup call. Don’t keep dinging around. Don’t think that God is going to ignore your rebellion. Don’t think your going to “get away with it”. You can run on for a long time, sooner or later God will cut you down. Rather, turn to Christ, repent in faith, seek forgiveness and be delivered from the judgment and wrath that is being stored up for you right now. Don’t wait. Do it NOW and take refuge in Him.

For those who have taken refuge in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, I also pray that this book shakes you a little. That you get fairly uncomfortable with the judgment of God on wickedness...because that’s what you deserve. Don’t ever forget it. That’s what Christ saved you from. Ultimately, every single dark and gloomy word of judgment that is described in this book was poured out on Jesus Christ—and MORE—so that you don’t have to bear it or endure it yourself. Take a moment to thank Him for his salvation. Take a moment to praise Him for saving your from this wrath that will be poured out on his enemies.

And be reminded of the good news of this passage: God destroys his enemies. That’s good news. God will destroy Satan. He has been utterly defeated and will be destroyed and made nothing. That’s good news. God will destroy Sin. Sin has been utterly defeated and will be destroyed and made nothing. God is doing that in your life right now—destroying the enemy of sin in your life. That’s good news!

God will also destroy his enemies. For those who have found refuge in Him and become part of his family, the old part of you—your sinful nature, the enemy of God—was destroyed and you were made a new creation in Christ. That’s good news.

We can also pray that God would destroy our enemies in a similar way. We don’t want to see anyone endure the judgment we’ve read about in this book. So, we pray that our enemies would be destroyed and made new in Christ so that Christ would bear the judgment for them and they can find refuge in Him. We pray that God would do this work in them AND we go out into the world continually sharing the gospel and continually pointing people to Christ because we know that God CANNOT clear the guilty, but he CAN bear their guilt and shame, destroy their old sinful selves, and make them new creations in Christ.