Nahum writes not to Israel nor to Judah, but rather he writes to the capital of Assyria, Nineveh, of pending judgment and doom. Nahum presents God as holy and judgment as certain upon unrepentant hearts.
“Hey, wait a minute,” you say, “I thought Jonah went to Nineveh and the whole city repented?” Well, they did, but that was close to 150 years earlier, and the Ninevites had been back up to their old ways for better than 50 years, and in fact they had become even worse. Nahum’s name means “comfort,” and I bet Jonah prior to his change of heart would have read the cover off of this book, finding “comfort” in their destruction!
What a frightening sentence coming from the Lord in 2:13 where we read the Lord say, “Behold, I am against you”! These words are as true as the words of John 3:16 and ought to cause us to go to a world that has had numerous opportunities to turn to God’s love and away from his wrath. Hebrews 10:31 tells us that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Isaiah 55:6 says that we ought to “seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”
Nahum speaks of four reasons why He is going to judge the city:
•Cruelty 3:1 “Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs.” They would commit mass murder upon every city they would conquer and pile up the decapitated heads in a pyramid outside the city. They would make deals with the folks inside the city, then murder them and take their city.
•Carnality 3:4 “Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her harlotries and families through her sorceries.” The word “sorceries” is where we get the word “pharmacy.” Theirs was a drug culture that led them into satanic and demonic activity.
•Arrogance 3:8 “Are you better than No Amon that was situated by the River, that had the waters around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the sea?” This very city in Egypt was attacked the same way by the Assyrians only a few years earlier, and yet they didn’t take any lessons from this themselves.
•Immorality3:13“Surely, your people in your midst are women!” Historical records confirm not only widespread immorality but also widespread homosexuality.
Such an indictment from God upon the Ninevites should serve as a warning to every nation that has turned away from God.
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