The book of Nahum is one that is often neglected by students of the bible.

Some erroneous believe that because the book so small and obscure it has nothing for us.

We can be blessed by the example and admonitions found in Nahum.

Romans 15:4    For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
                        that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope

The writer is inspired and this book has been held in high esteem among the Jews.

The name Nahum means "consolation".  No doubt we will be blessed from learning more from this prophet of God.

And  prophecy of Nahum is no exception when it comes to a blessing it studying from its teaching..

Have you ever seen God in the fashion and description of Nahum?

I wish every preacher would understand the personality of God revealed by Nahum.  The messages from the pulpits would be
urgent and very sobering.

Now the attribute which the prophet Nahum was given to reveal was God's anger.

This is one characteristic of God that many would like to forget.

Nahum is charged to reveal the anger of God and in this prophecy the God of Heaven is revealed in fury and angry wrath.

Nahum shows us the God that all man must stand before in silence and fear.

Paul expressed this thought to the Corinthians.

II Cor. 5:10-11 For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that
                         each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath
                         done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we
                         persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God; and I hope that we are
                         made manifest also in your consciences.

You cannot understand this prophecy without seeing something of the solemnity of this powerful picture of God.

As we begin this book it is important to know why and at whom God is so angry. this prophecy is directed against the city of
Nineveh to whom God sent the prophet Jonah. When Jonah preached in Nineveh, the city repented in sackcloth and ashes.
God's anger was withheld from the city and he spared it, because from the king on down to the lowest citizen, they turned to
God and repented of their sins.

The book of Nahum comes some one hundred years after the prophecy of Jonah. During this time, Nineveh had repented of its
repentance, and had begun to do the same things again that called forth the threat of judgment through the prophet Jonah. The
prophet Nahum was sent to minister to the southern kingdom of Judah at the time of the invasion of the Assyrian king
Sennacherib. King Sennacherib who came from the capital city of Syria, Nineveh, invaded Israel at the time of the prophet
Isaiah, and it was from this great city in the north that the armies of the Syrians frequently came against the land of Judah and of
Israel. But God moved to protect his people and met and destroyed these enemies of the king overnight.

Nahum's name meant  "consolation,"  He was a native of the village of Elkosh and was called an Elkoshite.

Chapter 2 deals with the fall of Nineveh in a specific fashion.

Nahum 2:1   He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep the fortress, watch
                    the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. For Jehovah
                  restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers
                  have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine-branches. The shield of his
                  mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots flash with
                 steel in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are brandished.
                 The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the
                 appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings.  He
                 remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the
                wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared. The gates of the rivers are
               opened, and the palace is dissolved.  And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she
                is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating
               upon their breasts. But Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool of water:
               yet they flee away. Stand, stand, they cry; but none looketh back. Take ye
               the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, the
               glory of all goodly furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste; and the
              heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the
             faces of them all are waxed pale. Where is the den of the lions, and the
             feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the
            lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?  The lion did tear in pieces enough
            for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey,
           and his dens with ravin. Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts,
           and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young
          lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers
          shall no more be heard.
 

God is addressing Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria.

Nahum2:1  He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep the fortress, watch
                   the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.

How dramatically this is put, as though the watchman is looking out and he sees the armies of the Babylonians coming up to destroy the city of Nineveh.

History records how the combined armies of Cyaxares and Nabopolasser, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, came up against Nineveh.

God gives Nahum a picturesque description of the fall of Ninevah the capital of Assyria.
 
The defenses of the city would provide no protection from the wrath of God.

The would reap what they had sown. What a terrible price sin extracts.

Gal. 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
 

James 1:15  Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown,
                      bringeth forth death.

The gates of the river shall be opened and the inhabitants would be helpless.  Death would everywhere.
 
Rom. 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
                   Jesus our Lord.
 

The city that once was saved by repenting under the preaching of Jonah was now doomed.

Nineveh had escaped many dangerous foes and times but God's judgment is in escapable.

The Ninevites had withstood the siege of Babylon, Medes, Persians,  Egyptians, Armenians and other nations
for two years.  Perhaps the Assyrians felt they were gaining the upper hand.

The shatterers were the Babylonian led forces assailing the city of Nineveh.

The Babylonian army is called the "Shatterer." "The Shatterer has come."  Ninevah will be destroyed by the Babylonians.
Notice the account of this great battle in the city.
 

Nahum 2:3-5  For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for
                     the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine-branches. The shield
                     of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots flash with
                    steel in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots
                    rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like
                   torches; they run like the lightnings. He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march;
                   they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared.

Christians sometimes think they are sinning without accountablity but they are not fooling God.

I Cor. 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

The Assyrians held out for a while but God would have his revenge.

 A heavy flood of the river Tigris carried away a large section of the walls of Nineveh.

Through the open and exposed gap the enemies of Nineveh made their attack.  The armies forced their way in and
captured the city.

The Assyrians capitol city would be plundered.  The wicked and harsh conquerors were now the conquered.

Nahum 2:9-13  Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store,
                    the glory of all goodly furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth,
                   and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed
                   pale. Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion
                  and the lioness walked, the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?   The lion did tear in
                  pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey,
                 and his dens with ravin.  Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will burn her
                 chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey
                  from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
 

The swift destruction of the Assyrians is recorded. "The chariots rage in the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning."

One man interpreted this to be a prediction of automobiles.  This is an example of taking a verse from its context. This has nothing to do with automobiles.

Some describe this to cars because  "They gleam like torches, they dart like lightning."   This is describing the battle that raged in the streets of Nineveh as the Babylonians  chariots came up against it.

People seem to be prone to make an everyday or modern day prophesy out of scriptures that have long ago been fulfilled.

The theory, dogma, false teaching of pre-milleniallism is another classic example of twisting and wresting the scriptures out of context.

God describes the fall of the city and its destruction further.

Nahum 2:6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus recorded an account of how the city of Nineveh fell.

There was an old prophecy that Nineveh should not be taken till the river become an enemy with the city.
And in the third year of the siege, the river being swollen with continual rains overflowed every part of the city
and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs. Then the king of Nineveh thinking that the oracle was fulfilled and
the river became an enemy of the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace and collected together all his wealth
and his concubines and his eunuch, burnt himself and the palace with them all. And the enemy entered at the breach
that the waters had made and took the city.

The Babylonians came through the river gates. The Babylonian armies came in through the place where the river had broken out and flooded the city.  The Babylonians found them all in the palace and there put them to death. And was prophesied by Nahum  years before.

Now that is how thoroughly God's anger works when it begins to move in judgment. Nothing escapes.

"Although the mills of God grind slow, they grind exceedingly small."

There is a story of the agnostic who made fun of a Christian farmer because he refused to work on his fields on Sunday. The agnostic always went out every Sunday to work in his fields, and at the end of the year he came to his Christian neighbor and taunted him. He said, "Look, you are a Christian and you don't work on Sunday, and you have had a fairly good crop, but look at the way God blessed me. I have worked every Sunday and look at the abundance of grain that I have. Why, this has been one of the richest October harvests that I have ever had." And the Christian farmer turned to him and said, "Yes, but God does not always settle his accounts in October." When God begins to move, nothing escapes his grasp, nothing. We are in his universe. We are creatures here. There is no way to run away. There is no place to hide. We must deal with a God who says over and over again that if his grace is thwarted, he will rise in judgment at the last.

The fall of Babylon would take place when the Medo-Persians diverted the great river Euphrates and take the kingdom in one night.  Daniel 5:1-31

Now the third section, in which God addresses the city of Nineveh. We have seen how he portrays the overthrow of the city, and now he says  that the Assyrians will be broken.:

Nahum 2:11-12  Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions,
                            where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's whelp, and none
                            them afraid?  The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and
                           strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.

The lions symbolized  the Assyrians, the mascot of the Assyrians  just as the lion, England and the eagle, America.

Nahum 2:13    Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will burn her chariots
                        in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy
                        prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

This is a taunt at the overthrow of the city.   God meant that Nineveh would fall and she surely did.

The collapse and destruction of the city and the Assyrian empire was complete.

Many athiest and enemies of the Bible said years ago that there was no ancient city of Nineveh.  The opponents of the Bible tried to shake people from their faith.

Had you had visited the site of the city of Nineveh 60 years ago you would have stood in the middle of a wilderness.

The historians scoffed at the idea of a city called Nineveh ever existing.

Finally archaeologists have begun to unearth this city and we know now where Nineveh is located, but for centuries it was lost, buried under the shifting sands of the desert.

We must realize that all that God has said and decreed will come to pass.

Matthew 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away

God will take care of the wicked in his own time.  They will receive their just punishment.

Romans 1:28  And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto
                       a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
 

The book of Nahum teaches us that God is a God of anger and wrath and against sin and unrightousness.

The indifferent and complacent church needs to see the displeasure and vengeance of God against wickedness.

The Ninevites thought they were secure but they were weak and going to be destroyed.

I wish America would think about the justice of God and his great power to pluck up nations that are wicked and wayward.

No nation can exalt itself against God and continue to mock his deity and holiness.
 

     THE CITY IS GONE BUT THE SOUL WILL STILL BE JUDGED

The people lost their city and there lives because of sin.

The tragic thing for the Ninevites and all man is the judgment that is facing us after death.

Hebrews 9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comet judgment

To lose life and loved ones is terrible.  To lose the soul is beyond measure and so tragic.

We have a soul that will outlive the world and kingdoms of men.

       A man said, "You have got to go to your death." I walked out to where I
       live, five miles out of this city, and I looked across at that mountain that I love,
       and I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that
       are always God’s own poetry to my soul.

      "Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting his lamps, and I
       said: "I may not see you many more times, but, Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone;
       and, River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and, Stars, I shall be alive
       when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down-pulling of the material universe!""
       This is the confidence of one who knew the Savior. Is it yours?

What will you have facing you in judgment?  Punishment or salvation?
 

Conclusion
Have you obeyed the commands of the Lord?  Are you a Christian?
                                          Believe Jesus is God's son.  John. 8:24
                                          Repent and turn from sin.  Luke 13:3-5
                                          Confess Christ name before men. Matt. 10:32
                                          Be baptized in the element of water for remission of sins.  Acts 2:38
                                          Live faithful unto death.  Revelation 2:10
 
 
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