Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Jonah, for the First Time | Part 3: Exemplary Pagans | Part 4: A Psalm | Part 5: More Exemplary Pagans | Part 6: Jonah v. God
We turn to a second prophet, Nahum, for more insight into how we should think about our enemies. Nahum lived about a hundred years after Jonah, at a time when Nineveh was still dominant but about to fall. He’s much less well known than Jonah, for an obvious reason: Jonah is narrative, so his story gets told to all the kids in Sunday school.
Nahum’s prophecy is a counterpoint to Jonah’s story. Jonah is all about mercy; Nahum is much darker. The reason is not difficult to discern: Nineveh’s repentance apparently didn’t last very long, and the leaders returned to their cruel, abominable ways. Nahum tells us about what happens when mercy is ignored.
I’m going to use an outline provided by Willmington’s Bible Handbook: in laying out the judgment of Nineveh, chapter 1 tells us Who?; chapter 2 tells us How?; and chapter 3 tells us Why?
The whole purpose of Scripture is to reveal to us who God is, because knowing him is the purpose for which he created us. Not surprisingly, the infinite God is a complex being, an infinitely round character. There’s a lot to him. In this chapter he reveals his care for his people, which involves both lovingly recognizing and protecting them and also angrily—wrathfully—removing threats to their well-being.
The Lord is “slow to anger” (Na 1.3), but he also loves his people and is highly motivated (“jealous”) to defend them (Na 1.2). By Nahum’s time Nineveh has taken Israel into exile and has attacked Judah, breaking off their siege of Jerusalem only after the Angel of the Lord slaughtered their army (2K 19.35). The time for mercy is past; judgment is justly due.
And God is fully capable of rendering judgment against any foe. He dries up rivers (Na 1.4), which are typically obstacles to advancing armies; the NET Bible notes, “The Assyrians waged war every spring after the Tigris and Euphrates rivers dried up, allowing them to cross. As the Mighty Warrior par excellence, the LORD is able to part the rivers to attack Assyria.”
He is not only able; he is motivated. Nahum 1.6 includes four different words for anger, as though he is angry in every way possible (from the four corners of the earth?). When someone who is “slow to anger” is this angry, then his commitment to his people is absolute; he will certainly defend them. This is evidence not of smashing things in a temper tantrum, but of goodness (Na 1.7). We love it when a strong hero steps in to defend the weak, even when a Boy Scout helps a little old lady across the street. This is that exponentiated.
It’s true that Judah had faced an Assyrian invasion before Nahum, but now God speaks words of comfort to them:
“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” (Nah 1.12-13).
And to their attacker he says,
“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” (Na 1.14).
This is good news to God’s people, and Nahum echoes Isaiah’s earlier prophecy:
“Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!” (Na 1.15; cf Is 52.7).
We know from history that the Northern Kingdom of Israel could not have defeated the Assyrians, because, well, they didn’t. And we know that the Southern Kingdom of Judah couldn’t either, because God had to break the siege on Jerusalem by massacring the Assyrian army.
Even assuming that we don’t deserve what our enemies are doing to us—that they are acting unjustly—how likely is it that we’ll enforce justice better than the Almighty can and will?
Next time, we’ll move into chapter 2.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash