Nahum
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Nahum Chapter 1

• Nahum 1:1  The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. 

Ninevah went back to their old ways a few years after Jonah preached to them a message of repentance. They were spared judgment back then because they humbled themselves before God and repented. Now we see though that after a few years those that came after that generation went back into sin. Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. They were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Babylonian Empire.

We must teach our children if we don't want the enemy of our souls deceiving them and believing the lies of the world around them. God eventually has to destroy ungodly evil nations to keep the evil from continuing and getting worse. He is full of mercy for he delayed judgment upon Ninevah when they repented at the preaching of Jonah even though they were very wicked and did things to their enemies that were very cruel. I believe that is why Jonah didn't want to go and preach to them in his day.

The name Nahum means compassionate. He was a prophet that we don't know too much about. He didn't go to Nineveh directly like Jonah did wrote but wrote this down and sent it to them. They did not repent as Ninevah did in the days of Jonah over 100 years before this time.

God's Wrath Against Nineveh

• Nahum 1:2  God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 
• 3  The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 
• 4  He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 
• 5  The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 
• 6  Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. 
• 7  The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

God is slow to anger. We see this all through the bible accounts not only of Israel but of other nations as well. I believe that if Nineveh had not have returned to wickedness, Babylon would not have been allowed to overthrow them at all. The whole Assyrian Empire once scoffed by some that didn't believe it existed, were proven wrong by many archeological findings in later years. It was proven to exist. Nineveh was one of the greatest cities every to exist in ancient times. King Sargon's records were found in remnants of the palace he occupied.

God allowed them to continue for a season until finally He allowed another wicked nation to destroy them. Babylon was later destroyed as we see from history by the Medes and Persians.

• Nahum 1:8  But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. 
• 9  What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. 

Lest we think God is evil, we must consider what evil nations have done. Child sacrifice, rape, murder, idolatry, forced slavery, torture by cutting off body parts, and more. The kings put to death people without fair trials or mercy. When the evil gets so bad and to the point of no return, God has to withhold His arm of protection and allow another nation to defeat them. If a nation wants to avoid judgment, they need to stay true to God and their government must be fair and do right by their citizens. Law and order must be in place but justice must be for all, not in partiality.

Robbing the hard workers with high taxes will eventually be judged also I believe. Taking their land, make laws that oppress rather than help is also things God sees done even in latter times like we live in. Once those in power lose their compassion, God will eventually allow the law of reaping and sowing take effect upon the leadership as well.

• Nahum 1:10  For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. 
• 11  There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor. 

In Isaiah 37:36-38 that wicked counsellor was Sennacherib. He invaded the tribe of Judah in the days of Hezekiah. The angel of the Lord killed 185 thousand of the army of Sennacherib the king of Assyria. The Assyrians were wicked people that showed much cruelty to their enemies, like cutting off hands, pulling out tongues and many other cruel things. Sennacherib's own two sons killed him with a sword while he was worshiping in the temple of his god. Another son took over the leadership. Ugly stuff, but God brings judgment when people continue for years without repenting. No one then and now will get by with evil without being judged by God but He is merciful and gives them a chance to repent. They repented in the days of Jonah but went back to their old ways later on.

• Nahum 1:12  Thus saith the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. 
• 13  For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. 
• 14  And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. 

No more will Judah be oppressed by the Assyrians. They came to their final end with the invasion by Babylon in the days of Daniel the prophet. However in the latter days just before the coming of Jesus to reign upon the earth, one called the Assyrian will rise again temporarily to try to destroy all of Israel but he will be destroyed at the coming of Jesus our Christ. 

• Nahum 1:15  Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off. 

Verse 15 is fullfilled in full at the coming of Jesus with all His saints to reign on the earth. DC

• Isaiah 52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 

Nahum Chapter 2