July 30/ 23 YAHWEH: Judge of Evil -- A Refuge for His People Nahum 1

Today we are starting a short series on the Prophet Nahum. We will start by reflecting on Nahum 1 Yahweh – Judge of Evil and Refuge for His People. Israel is being oppressed by the Assyrians, represented by their capital city of Nineveh. This occurs after the prophet Jonah warned the Ninevites of God’s anger. They repented, and God showed them mercy. However, Nineveh didn’t turn completely and God is preparing to punish Nineveh and rescue the Israelites. 

Transcript

Yahweh – Judge of Evil – Refuge for His People

Nahum 1

For 3 weeks we are going to be reflecting on the vison of the little-known prophet Nahum. Nahum is one of the so-called Minor Prophets, not minor in his message, merely shorter in his message. Nahum is not a popular prophet because his theme is that of God’s wrath and judgement against Assyria, represented by its capital city of Nineveh. Nahum, in many ways, is simply the continuation of Jonah’s story. Jonah was sent to Nineveh about 100 years earlier to warn them of God’s judgement, but the king and people of that time repented and God withheld his judgement then, but Nineveh returned to its cruel and barbaric ways, filled with pride in its power and victories over all the nations around them, and now God sends Nahum a vision of judgement against Nineveh.  

Nahum is a prophet to the people of Judah after the Assyrians had already destroyed Israel in the north, scattering the people of Israel through the Assyrian empire to make sure that they could not organize and rise up in rebellion against Assyria. These are what we now call the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Nahum is likely during the time of the wicked king Manasseh or the good king Josiah, along with the prophets Zephaniah and early Jeremiah, sometime between 663 and 612 B.C as Nahum’s vision references the fall of Thebes in Egypt in 663 B.C and Nineveh’s fall in 612, as prophesized by Nahum. Nahum’s name means “comfort,” and he brings a fierce message that is one of comfort to Judah, while bringing a word of judgment against Israel’s oppressors. 

God sends Nahum this vision to remind Judah that the Lord sees Nineveh’s wickedness and is going to hold them accountable for the evil they’re doing; God’s judgement from the time of Jonah still stands against Nineveh and its rulers. John Calvin writes, “God is not to be rashly judged of on account of his delay, when he does not immediately execute His judgments; for he waits for the seasonable opportunity. But, in the meantime there is no reason for us to think that he forgets his office when he suspends punishment, or for a season spares the ungodly.” Peter later reminds his readers, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Yet there does come a time where God will no longer allow evil and wickedness to continue and will hold people to account. This is where God is now at with Nineveh. 

Judah has been paying tribute for Assyria for a while now, ever since the time of King Hezekiah as found in 2 Kings 18:14, “So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.” This tribute only got heavier over the years. Nahum’s vision shows a God who is slow to anger, a God who cares for his people and his honour, and a God who punishes the guilty, the wicked and evil. Today we’re comfortable with a God who loves and cares for his people, we’re not as comfortable with the God of wrath that we see in Nahum.

Miroslav Volf, a Christian theologian from Croatia, used to reject the concept of God's wrath. He thought that the idea of an angry God was barbaric, finding it hard to fit his idea of a God of love. But then his country went through a brutal war where terrible things were done to people.  Volf writes, “My last resistance to the idea of God's wrath was a casualty of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed, my people shelled day in and day out, some of them brutalized beyond imagination, and I could not imagine God not being angry. Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century, where 800,000 people were hacked to death in one hundred days! How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandfatherly fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators' basic goodness? Wasn't God fiercely angry with them? Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God's wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn't wrathful at the sight of the world's evil. God isn't wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love.”

Nahum’s vision reveals that God cares about his people and is their protecter. God will not allow evil empires to stay in power forever, he will hold them accountable. As Judah heard this vision, they would have remembered their time in Egypt and how God led them to freedom and defeated Egypt’s gods. This is a vision of hope for the Jews in Judah, even if it takes a while yet. God reveals himself as a jealous God, echoing back to Mount Sinai nada the giving of the 10 Commandments, where God tells the people, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

God demands an exclusive relationship with his people, he’s not willing to share us with any other god. Because God is so committed to his people, he will avenge his people for the evil done against them. Psalm 32:7 captures this hope, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” God has allowed the Assyrians to punish Judah for failing to trust him and honour him by following the way he gave them at Sinai, as we hear in verse 12, “Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away.” God allows suffering to come into our lives, but it will be only for a time, even if it feels like a long time to us, and God means for it to draw us back to him. 

God has used Assyria to punish his people, however Assyria has punished Judah above and beyond, plotting evil and devising wicked plans and Nahum reminds us that there will be justice from God. This is an uncomfortable God for many people today, a God who gets angry over injustice and holds people and nations to account. The Lord pronounces a three-part judgement and consequences on the Assyrian king leading to a complete and devastating defeat. The king will have no descendants to follow him on the throne, the pagan temples will be destroyed to show the power of Yahweh; and he will be buried in shame. This vision is about good news and hope for Judah.

Now comes powerful words of hope, “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.” If the first part of this verse seems familiar it’s because both Isaiah and Paul in his letter to the church in Rome use this same image to point to the coming Messiah, to Jesus. When God gives Nahum this image, God’s using the military image of a watchman standing on the heights of a mountainside overlooking the battle, ready to send news back to the city and its people. God is revealing that the battle is over and the Lord has defeated his enemies and peace is now here. The people are free once again to celebrate the festivals God gave Israel back at Mount Sinai; festivals that called the people to gather at the Tabernacle or temple, festivals that revolve around atonement and forgiveness, God’s providence in the harvest, God’s joy in freeing his people from oppression and leading them to freedom. The festivals remind the people of the importance of praise and worship as a regular part of our lives.

Isaiah uses this same image in 52:7, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah is pointing to Israel’s return from exile in Babylon that still lies in Judah’s future after Assyria. These verses are also understood to point to Jesus and how he delivers us from the oppression of our sin and leads us into the freedom from sin, a freedom accomplished through his sacrifice for our sin on the cross. Jesus’ deliverance gives us the freedom to be his people and call others to experience the freedom and deliverance from sin that Jesus offers. 

We often underestimate the power our sin has over us, the strength of the chains that bind us to our sin ways. Our sin can take away our hope, it shapes our image of who we are, telling us lies, telling us Jesus could never forgive us, that his sacrifice isn’t really for us, that we’re not worthy. Slavery to our sin is more powerful than any physical slavery a person can do to us. This is why so many slaves and poor people became followers of Jesus early on, because the salvation Jesus brings is freedom of the heart and mind, reminding us of who we really are as children of God, created in God’s own image! In their slavery to people, the slaves found a refuge in Jesus, a master who loves them so much he’s willing to give up his life so they can experience freedom and hope.

This is what Paul is getting at in Romans 10:15, “And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Paul picks is this same image in Ephesians 6:15, “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”