The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Isaiah 25:1Read at the opening to lead into worship: 'Lord, you're my God. I will exalt you. I will give thanks to your name for you have worked wonders, plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness.'
1 Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.
Quoted describing God as jealous, avenging, wrathful, slow to anger, and great in power, who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
2 Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.
3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
God's self-revelation to Moses, quoted as the source Nahum draws from: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, yet will not leave the guilty unpunished.
6 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
7 keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
Referenced in connection with Nahum 1:7: 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
32 It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
God tells Judah he will break the yoke and shackles Assyria placed on them.
12 Yahweh says: “Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
13 Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.”
God's command against Nineveh: their name will not be perpetuated, their gods eliminated, their grave prepared.
14 Yahweh has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
Good news announced on the mountains, Judah told to celebrate feasts and pay vows, the wicked will pass through no more.
15 Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.
Battle scene describing the fall of Nineveh, chariots, warriors, gates of rivers opened, palace swaying.
3 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 pine spears are brandished.
4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.
5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her servants moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts.
8 But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one looks back.
9 Take the plunder of silver. Take the plunder of gold, for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture.
10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.
The den of lions metaphor applied to Nineveh; God declares 'I am against you, declares the Lord of armies.'
11 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 cubs, and no one made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey.
13 “Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
Woe pronounced on the bloody city of Nineveh, full of lies and pillage, mass of corpses.
1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn’t depart.
2 The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
3 the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies,
Nineveh depicted as a prostitute and mistress of sorceries; God declares he will expose her shame.
4 because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
5 “Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.
7 It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?”
Comparison to No Amon (Thebes), which fell in 663 BC despite strong allies, used as a warning to Nineveh.
8 Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers.
10 Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
Nineveh told to prepare for siege; sarcastic call to strengthen fortifications; fire and sword will consume them like locusts consume crops.
11 You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
15 There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.
Traders and officials compared to migratory locusts that fly away; shepherds and king of Assyria sleeping while people scatter.
16 You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
17 Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
18 Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
Final verse: 'There is no relief for your collapse. Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you.'
19 There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?
Referenced to support the idea that God reveals his plans through prophets ahead of time: 'Surely, God does nothing without first revealing it through his prophets.'
7 Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.
Referenced alongside James as echoing Nahum's theme: 'God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.'
5 Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Paraphrased in connection with God's justice: 'If we confess our sins, if we agree with God about our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Quoted as benediction: 'As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, be clothing yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience.'
12 Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ramon preached through the entire book of Nahum, a minor prophet most people in the room admitted they knew little about. The message lands squarely on God's judgment against Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and what that judgment reveals about who God is. It is a hard book to sit with, and Pastor Ramon did not try to soften that.
What was said
Nahum opens by quoting God's own self-description from Exodus 34, and Pastor Ramon held those two sides together from the start. The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, merciful and gracious. And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Nahum chooses both halves of that verse, and the whole book lives in the tension between them.
The Assyrians were not a neutral party. They were the dominant military power of the ancient Near East, and they had built that dominance on brutality. Pastor Ramon read from the actual writings of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who boasted about using the bodies of his enemies to dam a river. God's announced judgment on Nineveh was not arbitrary. It was a precise return of what they had spent generations handing out to everyone around them.
Jonah had preached to Nineveh roughly a hundred and fifty years earlier, and the city had repented. But the repentance did not hold. The Assyrian way of life won back over, and by Nahum's time the window was closing. God is patient, Pastor Ramon said, but his patience does not last forever. The pronouncement in Nahum is that the time is up.
Running through the judgment against Nineveh is a word of relief for Judah, the one remaining piece of God's people still standing after Assyria had already swept away the Northern Kingdom. God tells Judah he used Assyria to afflict them for a season, but that season is over. He is going to break the yoke and tear off the shackles. The same almighty God who is terrifying toward his enemies is a stronghold in the day of trouble for those who take refuge in him.
The fall of Thebes in 663 BC anchors the prophecy in history. Nineveh had conquered Thebes and thought nothing of it. Nahum uses that very conquest as a warning, pointing Nineveh toward its own coming destruction. And the archaeological and historical record of 612 BC, when Babylon and the Medes rerouted the Tigris River and brought down the city, matches the prophecy detail by detail.
Pastor Ramon closed by working through a personal application assignment he had written for a seminary class covering all the prophets. His conclusion was that everyone stands condemned under the same standard applied to Assyria, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The only difference between being God's enemy and being God's own is whether Christ has answered for the sin or the person will answer for it themselves. That is not karma, Pastor Ramon said, that is the gospel. And the appropriate response to understanding that is humility, not pride in one's own standing.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ramon pointed out that the Assyrians repented under Jonah's preaching but eventually slid back into their old ways. What makes it hard to hold onto a change of heart over time, and what do you think helps people stay turned toward God?
Nahum opens by calling God jealous, avenging, and wrathful, and then just a few verses later says 'the Lord is good.' How do you hold those two descriptions together in your own understanding of who God is?
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to first b, the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving. I think we're gonna sing a couple songs about being thankful. I think God tells us to to be thankful for for good reason. But, yeah, please stand.
We're gonna and join us in song. Here's a good word from Isaiah 25 to lead us into worship. Worship. It says, Lord, you're my God. I will exalt you.
I will give thanks to your name for for you have worked wonders, plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness. Faithfulness. Would you join us in singing Evidence?
You've intervened us make way for spring. In every season, depending where I'm standing, I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises and fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. Help me remember when I'm weak. Fear may come when fear will leave.
You lead my heart to victory. You are my strength and you always will be. I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises and fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. See the cross, the empty grave, the evidence is endless.
All my sin is rolled away because of you, Lord Jesus. See the cross, the empty grave, the evidence is endless. All my sin is rolled away because of you, Lord Jesus. I see your promises and fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. So why should I fear all the evidence is here?
Why should I fear all the evidence is here
a few announcements and a little ceremony coming up here. So here, we'll see what they are. Awana is off tomorrow night. Don't pay any attention to this. It's not happening.
Okay? So Awana is off because school is off. If school is off, you can pretty much plan on Awana being off, so that's not happening. Men's lunch study The lunch study is also not happening this week. It's announcement up there, but Thursdays, we take one Thursday off of the year.
It's for Thanksgiving. Okay? So that's not happening either. You can come if you want to. There won't be any food for you, but there never is.
And there won't be any other people here either. But if you want to come, you're welcome to study the Bible and fellowship hall on Thursday at noon. Children's choir. Last week, they started this. This is gonna be great.
So 10:05 to 10:30 or as soon as we finish here downstairs in the Purple Room, Lauren Feldman and Lisa Landis are leading a children's choir that will be doing a performance December 21 in this service. So that's coming. If you missed last week, jump in right now. This is one of those things. It's from age seven up through 18.
Is that right? Okay. So if you want to get the kid in the kids involved in that, please do. Operation Christmas Child, Nevea, I think is still planning on taking a group down to Denver to a processing center for Operation Christmas Child. We did turn in our boxes this past week, but there's if you wanna get in on that opportunity, let us know and we'll get you in contact with her.
And I think that that's it for the announcements. Is there anything else? We started a little bit late. I'm rushing through these and I know it. There's a lot going on.
Do you all agree with that? Yeah. As Christmas approaches, there's a lot going on. I'm gonna invite up right now though, Justine Evans, Eric Johnston, I think they're coming to the next service. Daniel Medbeck, Kelsey Medbeck, and Taylor and Lori Williams.
Are you all here? Yeah. Here they are. Taylor and Lori may or may not be here this time around. So I'm gonna grab Emily's mic, if I could.
Just in case. Oh, Blake. Never mind, Emily. Thank you. So I always give a chance.
Do you wanna say anything? Sure. Okay. Good. They are coming in as new members.
So this is the kind of covenant ceremony. I like to give an opportunity if you and I'm not rushing you.
Yeah. I'm Hello? There you go. I'm Daniel. This is my wife Kelsey, my baby Margo.
We've been coming here for three years now and we're very appreciative of this church community and the back row people that we had a little community with back there.
That's
awesome. And, yeah, we're here to be members and we're very appreciative of y'all. And we think that us being here for as long as we're able to be here in Jackson Hole, you guys are gonna help us grow in our relationship with Christ and also help teach our child about Jesus as much as y'all can, as much as we can. I really appreciate all that.
That's Thank you. That's cool. So, yeah. Go right ahead. So both of y'all, the grown up folks here, have trusted in Jesus.
Yes. Yes. And you believe that God is leading you to join first b. Yes. Yes.
So you recognize the authority of scripture in your lives. We've talked about that before. You're endeavoring to live by its teachings. Yes. Okay.
Alright. So as members together then in the body of Christ, the greater body, the capital c church, we will endeavor to open our hearts to ministry towards you, but also open up our lives to you so that you might minister also to us. Do you all agree with that? Do you all agree with that? Yes.
Alright. This is wonderful. I'm not a ceremonial guy. Say that I've done 358 weddings, a 140 something funerals. This one gets me every time.
So as we endeavor to grow in faithfulness to one another and grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Do y'all accept the men and do you accept coming in? Amen. Well, can I pray for y'all and for Margo? In Jesus name, lord, I thank you for for these coming into this fellowship.
I pray, Lord, that you'd use them to minister the hearts and the minds of the people that gather like the back row folks. Lord, that that that that circle of influence would just begin to grow, that we would be truly, Lord, one family. Going forward, reflecting the love and the honor and the grace and the mercy and all of the good things, that you offer. In Jesus name, I pray that you'd bless these. Amen.
Amen. Y'all get together with them in between and say howdy. Alright. Would you stand and you could say howdy right now if you want to, but we're gonna bring you back together fairly quickly in a song.
Mercy is mourn what love could remember no wrongs we have done. Omniscient, all knowing he counts not their sum thrown into the sea without bottom or shore. His stronger than darkness new every morning our sins they are many his mercy is more let's sing that again Worthy of every song we could ever sing. Worthy of every praise that we can ever bring, worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for you. Jesus, the name above every other name.
Jesus, the only one who could ever save. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. We live for you. We live for you. Holy, there is none been like you.
There is none beside you. Open up my eyes and wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me with your love to those around me. Holy, there is no one like you. There is none beside you.
Open up my eyes and wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me. I will build my life upon your love. Wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me with your love to those around me.
Holy, you. Down empty handed, come to Jesus and find your strength. He is hope for the hopeless. Bearing burdens, all that you're needing is. If you're wandering in the darkness, come to Jesus and find your way.
If you want freedom, need forgiveness, just come to Jesus and find his grace for the hopeless rest for the weary help for the Comforter, counselor, prince of peace, author and maker of everything, defender, deliverer, king of kings. The midst the is child of heaven and son of man, provider, protector, the great I am. Alpha, omega, beginning, and then he is. He is. Hope
Amen. You can have a seat for a second. We're heading into the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a song. I think it's apropos for this week.
It's called gratitude. And in first Chronicles, it says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast steadfast love endures forever. Ray, can
I ask you to pray? Lord God almighty.
The weak, the the gratitude, lord. There there are few themes that come out more in scripture than than this. Our words do fall short, Lord, but we wanna thank you. There's a place in the New Testament where it says, this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. This is God's will for you Christ Jesus is as plain spoken as scripture gets on something.
This is your will, Lord, that we'd be thankful. In the midst of all circumstances, you're doing stuff, Lord, that we do not understand that's above us. So we're thankful that you're in charge and we're not. We're thankful that you are working your will out in your way. We want to be a part of it, Lord.
We want to be a part. We want to agree with you about everything. And we want to fall into a line, Lord, where our hearts are in line with yours so that others may come to know and be a part of your family, be a part of who you are. In Jesus name, Lord, in according to his will, we are grateful right now. We ask your blessing on this offering that you would do with it as you will, whatever that is, to bless other people in this community and to the very uttermost parts, Lord.
Do what you will and advance your good gospel in our lives and through our lives. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
All my words fall short I've got nothing new How could I express all my gratitude? I could sing these songs as I often do, but every song must end and you never do. I've got one response. I've got just one move with my arms stretched wide.
And it is time for children's church downstairs and there they go. Before I get rolling up here this morning, I wanna share a text I got yesterday. It said, hola senor Ramon, which book will we be studying tomorrow? I am here at work, but alone and I would like to listen to the book while I'm working. I said, good luck.
Nahum. Anybody here know what anybody at all know what Nahum is about? Anybody? Is there anybody in the room that knows anything about this book of Nahum? Okay.
What's that? Christ concealed. Christ concealed. That's a good one. That is Christ concealed means the whole old testament is is pointing towards Christ, but it is in a way concealed.
Good. Thank you for that. So I said, good luck with this. This is Nahum. In in Mexico, I knew multiple people named Nahum.
Nahum is a normal name. If I were naming my kid, I don't think I'd pick Nahum. Habakkuk though, after the service last week, I thought, man, Habakkuk's heart is so pure and so good, and that prayer is so sweet, and where he gets to by the end of that book, it's so beautiful. Thought Habakkuk, yeah, that's a good name for a boy. Nahum, good luck with that.
So the response when I said, Nahum, good luck. He said, tonight I pray that God will give you the wisdom to get the best out of this book written for those times and may we all hear God's voice as we look back and learn what happened with these people. The more we study the Old Testament, the more we appreciate Jesus' work on the cross, and I can say amen to that. So here we go. This is a great thanksgiving message.
God's judgment against Assyria, the hammer falls. This is what it's about, and there is a lot. So we're gonna cover the whole book of Nahum today. I'm in the middle of series on the minor prophets. We are right now covering the post Babylonian or the pre Babylonian exile prophets.
So Nahum is one of those guys. But this is God's judgment against Assyria, and if you're wondering when it happened, I'll tell you, we've got a pretty good idea. The pronouncement of Nineveh. Wait a second. One of the first books that we studied in this minor prophet series was when Van Jones came, our new associate pastor that'll be here in January, first week of January.
He came out and he preached on Jonah. And Jonah was about the sorriest excuse for missionary one could hope to represent, but the people responded. Now, Jonah's message to Nineveh was something that they received a hundred and fifty years before this, hundred and fifty years at least before this. And the people repented for a time, But the Assyrian way of life was so strong that it won back over. Now, folks that accepted, I'm sure it was good for them.
They became a part of the people of God, but the society as a whole kept on rolling. So this is the pronouncement of God against Nineveh. Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian or Neo Assyrian Empire. The book of the vision of Nahum the El Keshite, El Keshite is where, like, where he's from, Nahum the El Keshite. He's from Elko, Nevada.
No. He's from Elko, we don't know exactly where. It might have been near Nineveh. If you wonder where Nineveh was, Nineveh is across the Tigris River from Mosul. It's in Iraq.
Right across the river from Mosul. So there are plenty of archaeological there's plenty of archaeological evidence of this. Yes, sir? Hunter? Elk hunter.
Oh, okay. Not really. No. Yeah. That would be great this time of year in this place, but no, that's not it.
It's where it's from. Was it in Galilee? Was it in Judah? We don't know. But the date, we're pretty certain of.
Six sixty three BC is the one end of the bracket, and 06/12 is the other. So we'll get to that in a minute. 06/12 is when, spoiler alert, the Assyrian Empire or at least the capital of the Assyrian Empire was conquered. So Nineveh is conquered. This prophecy comes true in six twelve BC.
So that's as late as it can be, and 663 is as early, and we'll get to that before the end of the book. So the whole theme of the whole thing is God's judgment against Assyria. It is a people who has set themselves up against God. Very proud. Very very proud of their military.
Very very proud of the way that they subjugate other peoples. And there is a power struggle in the ancient Near East. So from 663 towards sixty six six twelve, Assyria is declining, but there's a the Babylonians and Medes got together to whip the Assyrians eventually in 06/12. That's what happens. Spoiler alert.
Here we go. So this is the way the book starts off. Happy Thanksgiving for all you of those who are coming out of town, not here very often. A jealous and avenging God is the Lord. That's the way he starts.
Okay? The Lord is avenging and wrathful. Okay. That's not what I'm used to hearing in the New Testament. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries.
Okay. So there's a difference. Now, in a way, we all are sinners and we start out opposed to God. But he shows us his way and we have a chance to not be adversarial towards God. God resists the proud, he gives grace to the humble, that comes up in every one of these minor prophets.
Basically, the whole message of the minor prophets is humble yourselves. Humble yourselves. Recognize where the blessing is coming from. So the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. Surely, he scorns the scornful, but he gives grace to the humble.
That is probably the place that we get the references in James and in Peter that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Now, Nahum goes into a quote from Exodus 34 and I think numbers numbers. I don't know exactly the chapter in numbers. But it is God's self revelation to Moses. In Exodus 34, when Moses is begging God to see who he is, God speaks to him and what he says is something like this.
It's not exactly this. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Now that is what Nahum chooses to quote from this verse right here. The Lord passed before Moses and he proclaimed the Lord.
The Lord is a God merciful and gracious. That's that's I'm so glad that that's the way God describes himself. Right? He is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love like Ryan just read. And faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousands generation and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
Yet, he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. There is payday someday. It's coming. And either sins will be justly condemned and the sinner will answer for those in that condemnation or sins will be mercifully forgiven and Christ has answered for those sins on the cross. Those are the two options.
So he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Steadfast love, that's what he's merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in what? Steadfast love and what Nahum chooses to quote is that the Lord is slow to anger, he's great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Assyria, in the gale and the storm is His way. Not just the wind, but the storm.
That's the way God moves, and the clouds are just dust beneath his feet. He is mighty. He rebukes the sea, and it dries up. He dries up all the rivers. He is almighty, all powerful.
Bashan, remember Amos used the cows of Bashan? Bashan is a very, very fruitful area. And Carmel, very fruitful area. And the blossoms of Lebanon, a very fruitful area. He's saying, he dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel will wither. The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of God, and the hills come apart. Indeed, the earth is upheaved by his very presence. The world and all of the inhabitants in it.
Who can stand before God's indignation? If God is angry, who can stand before that He is Almighty? It describes Him as Almighty from the open and volley. Who can endure the burning of His anger? If God is angry at you, what hope do you have?
His wrath gushes forth like fire, and the rocks are broken up by him. The almighty. That's the way he's presented. And if you really conceptualize this, and you look around and you think, oh, I'm better than that guy. They've got God's wrath coming before I do.
Maybe you just consider your relationship with almighty God because he's almighty. Nothing escapes his view, his purview. He's the almighty. Now, it goes to this in verse seven. The Lord is good.
He is good. Now, you hear that he's almighty and it might think, you might think, well, that's not good. He's almighty and he can do all of these things and his wrath is so great and so strong. I'm scared of a god like that. Well, the fear of the Lord is beginning with wisdom.
The Lord is good. That's the affirmation here. The Lord is good, and he is a stronghold in the day of trouble. Agree with him. And he knows those who take refuge in him.
I've said that the minor prophets are mostly very dark clouds, but they have silver linings. Hey, this is a silver lining right here. There's a lot of almighty reference here, and then the Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him.
He knows that, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord I'm getting ahead of myself. Joel two thirty two. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone. He knows those who take refuge in him.
I'm saying, turn towards God. Don't run from him. But with an overwhelming flood, he will make a complete end of Assyria, its sight, and he will pursue his enemies into darkness. That sounds like it might be a reference from Job. So God's awesome power is presented in the first eight verses.
God is jealous and judging. He's slow to anger, but he is just. He is righteous. He is sovereign. He has power over all of creation and nothing can withstand his wrath.
That's the way he's presented. He also is a savior. He's a stronghold in trouble. He knows his own, and he's gonna destroy Nineveh. They are not his own.
Now, earlier through Jonah, he said, repent and he relented from this anger, his fierce wrath, all that stuff it says. And they when they repented and they agreed about it, those people were saved. So he is a savior. This judgment of Nineveh according to Nahum went in the last chapter. It's like, it's going to happen.
This the time is up. God is slow to anger but he does still get angry. Okay? So whatever you devise against the Lord, he's going to make a complete end of that plan. Don't devise anything against him.
Distress will not rise up twice. You're no match, Assyria, for almighty God. Like tangled thorns and like those who are drunken with their drink, they are consumed like stubble, completely dried up from you has gone out one who plotted evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor from you. Assyria, one has gone out who plotted evil against the Lord. I'm gonna do this because I'm the best.
I'm the greatest. Nothing can stop me. That's bad advice. You took bad advice if you believe that nonsense from your wicked counselor. So this is what the Lord says.
Though they are at full strength and so they are many, so also they will be cut off and they will pass away. So this view or this point of view right here when it's speaking to the you here is to Judah. Though I have afflicted you, Judah. Now, at this point, Assyria has already conquered the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and Judah is all that's left. Right?
So, though those Assyrians are at full strength, then they are many and they but they're gonna be cut off, and they're gonna pass away. And though I have used them to afflict you, Judah, my people, that's Judah. I will afflict you no longer under their hand, Judah. So now, I'm going to break his yoke from upon you. What the Assyrians had put upon the people is sort of like a mafia racket.
They were exacting tribute from all of these lands, and so Assyria has been saying, if you don't pay us, we're coming down on you. It'd be a shame if, you know, I don't know, an army might show up and just conquer you and tear down your walls. So if you just pay us exacting a little tribute here and there, that's the yoke that they had placed on them. So God says, I'm gonna break the yoke that is Assyria put on you Judah, and I will tear myself your shackles to pieces. You remember the song Chain Breaker?
It's a new newer Christian song. It's like, if you got chains, he's breaking those chains. That's what he's saying. You're my people. I know who my people are, and I'm going take care of you.
And yes, I did use them to chasing you for a time, but that time with these people is over. So Nineveh Nineveh's plans are gonna fail. Judah's freed from Nineveh's yoke and shackles. And then in verse 14, the point of view switches. The Lord has issued a command concerning you, and the you there is referring to Nineveh.
The Lord has issued a command concerning you, Nineveh, your name will no longer be perpetuated. Yes, you thought it was going to last forever, but not so. I will eliminate the carved image and the cast metal image of your gods from the house of your gods, Nineveh, I'm not having it anymore. I will prepare your grave. Almighty God says, okay.
For you are contemptible, You contemptible pig. Yeah. You may think that you're a lion, but you're not. Behold, on the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace. Celebrate your feast, Judah, and pay your vows.
Now, the pay your vows part of that, can you imagine Judah under the hand of Assyria, and they're going, how long is this going to last? We hear in the prayers of David, and we hear in Psalms, and we hear that how long is it that our enemies are gonna triumph over us. We hear it in the New Testament from the Pharisees. We hear it from the people in the New Testament too. How long is Rome gonna triumph over us?
How long am I gonna wrestle with my thoughts? Lord, I'd do anything if you'd just save us now. Pay your vows. The time is coming. I'm ridding these oppressors from you.
So do what it was that you said you were going to do. For never again will this wicked one pass through you. Assyria's time is over. So the second Saul, Nineveh's name is cut off, their grave is prepared, there's good news, the Babylonians are going to take them into exile. So did the people really, really turn to God or were they just God's people?
They were just God's people. He knows who are they are. He knows he knows his people. You don't have to worry about these Assyrians anymore. He's eliminated completely.
So the one who scatters has come up against you, starting chapter two. The one who scatters has come up against you Judah, keep watch over the fortress, watch the road, bind up your ways, summon all your strength for the Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob. Like the splendor of Israel, Even though destroyers have laid laid waste to them and ruined their vines. Be strong Judah. You're going to bounce back from this.
The shields of his warriors are dyed red. The warriors are dressed in scarlet. The chariots are filled with flashing steel. When he's prepared to march and the juniper spears are brandished, the chariots drive wildly in the streets. They rush around the public squares.
Their appearance is like torches. They drive back and they forth like lighting lightning flashes. This is a battle scene and he's saying, this is what's gonna happen. This is what happened in 06/12. He remembers his officers, they stumble in their advance.
They hurry to her wall. Nineveh had a wall, and the mantlet is set up. The mantlet is a shield just used for stopping projectiles. They are going to protect themselves from your defenses. The gates of the rivers are opened up, and the palace sways back and forth.
If you all look at the destruction of Nineveh at some point, I don't know, Wikipedia or whatever, Britannica, wherever you want to look it up, it's pretty amazing that this was written ahead of time, and then you see how things happen. It is This is a play by play of what comes to pass in 06/12. Even down to the gates of the rivers, they actually rerouted the river to cause the buildings to fall. That's a a that's a lengthy process to reroute the great Tigris River. The gates of the river is open, the palace sways back and forth, it is set.
She is she, Nineveh, is stripped. She is led away, and her slave women are sobbing like the sound of dove. I couldn't help it. It's the this is what it sounds like. Sorry.
When doves cry? No. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.
They are beating their breasts. That's a sign of complete anguish, like that joke produced, but anyway. And Nineveh was like a pool of water, perfect and placid throughout her days, yet those days are fleeting. Stop and stop. But no one turns back, the onslaught is coming.
Plunder the silver, plunder the gold, for there's no end to the treasure, because they had been in power for so long, and they had taken so much from so many, and they had gathered it to themselves, and they gathered it into their capital, there's no end to the treasure, wealth from every kind of desirable object. They had taken resources and amassed them, and this is the cry. Now, to me, when I'm listening to this, I'm thinking, this doesn't sound like the way God works. This doesn't sound like the way my God works. But what he says in the New Testament about doing unto others what you would have them do unto you, He does say that.
Right? Agreement with God is what if if we confess our sins, if we agree with God about our sins, he's faithful and he's just to be forgiven our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. But if we insist that we do not have sin, and if we insist that this is just the way that it is and I can do whatever I want to and looking out for number one, I subjugate everybody else around me, then what will be revisited upon you is exactly that. And it's not karma, but that's where we came up with the idea for karma. That energy you're putting out there, I know that that's the very common thing in this valley.
I just like to put good energy out there. There's no end to the treasure, wealth of every kind of desire. Yes, she is emptied, she's desolate, she's laid waste, hearts are melting and knees are wobbling, also trembling as the entire body, and all of their faces have become pale. They're having a hard time believing that we, the great and mighty Nineveh, are being overthrown. Where?
Where? Where is the den of lions? Where is it the feeding place of these young lions? Where the lion, the lioness, and the lion's cub went went nothing to disturb them. The lion tore enough for his cubs, killed enough prey for his lionesses, and filled his lairs with prey, and his dens with torn flesh.
This sounds very much like ancient Near Eastern literature, especially Assyrian literature. So if you read ancient Near Eastern literature, which there are probably two of you in the room that do, you'll recognize this. It's God speaking in terms that they can understand. You took this powerful thing, and you set it up, and you acted like you can control it. But you cannot control it because you are mere humans, and this is the Almighty.
Behold, I am against you. How terrifying that that comes from the Lord, the Lord of armies in this case. And he says the Lord of armies because he's gonna use other armies to do this. Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of armies. I will burn up her chariots and smoke, and I will and the sword will devour your young lions.
I will eliminate your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard. Woah. This is the formal announcement of woe. It's a funeral dirge. Woe means it's bad.
Woe to the bloody city. That's Nineveh. That's that's what he's called. Woe to this bloody city. They have taken out their wrath and ugliness on people around them for a long time now, and woe to this bloody city that is completely full of lies and pillage.
Her prey does not leave. The time for you whipping everybody else is over. You've surrounded yourself with lies, and you've enriched yourself by those lies, and your prey does not leave now. The sound of the whip, the sound of the roar, the wheel galloping horses and bounding chariots, horsemen charging, swords flashing, another battle scene. Spears gleaming, many are killed.
There is a mass of corpses, and there's no end to the dead bodies. They stumble over the dead bodies. It's hard to make an advance because of all the dead bodies they're having to stumble over. What a wonderful thing for Thanksgiving weekend, isn't it? This sounds a lot like Assyrian literature too.
I'm going read a little bit of that in a minute. Now, this is probably the hardest slide of the the next couple, are very very difficult for us in this day to look at. And I want you to think about it, in the time frame and with the people that he's speaking to, they have set themselves up as enemies against God. It makes me think a little bit about the Titanic, not that the Titanic should have sunk, but never during a christening say, God Almighty can't sink this ship. Right?
Maiden voyage, for crying out loud. Yeah. We get so proud of ourselves in the Tower Of Babel. I will make for myself a tower that will reach above heaven. We are better than God.
Now, that's macro and micro. Like, in our minds, if we hear the word of the Lord and he says, hey, trust me. The gospel is the way out of this. Everyone of y'all, everyone of us, we're all sinners, but the way out of this is to trust in Christ. And you might think, oh, what is that first century, death of a first century Jew have anything to do with me?
That doesn't make any sense. I can't go with that. All roads lead to heaven. I'm way better than that guy, way better than that gal. I'll just take my chances.
Well, God is saying the gospel's away, and he's almighty. And so if God's saying the gospel's away and he's almighty, then listen to him. The next slide here says, all because of many sexual acts of the prostitute. The prostitute here is Nineveh, the mistress of sorceries. The mistress of sorceries, smoke and mirrors, trying to manipulate the spiritual realm to get what they want, which is the wealth of all the other nations and all the peoples around them, who sells nations by her sexual acts and families by her sorceries, doesn't even care about their own people, just the lie.
That's Nineveh. Behold, I'm against you. Second time he said it exactly like that, declares the Lord of armies. I'm gonna lift your skirts up over your face and show the naked nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. He's that's not the way that God normally operates.
In fact, he honors those who cover the shame of another throughout scripture. But what the Assyrians have done was they have pretended and pretended and lied and lied, and they their shame was going to be uncovered by God. I'll throw filth on you and declare you worthless like you do to the people around you. And I'm going to set you up as a spectacle so that others will see you. And it will come about that all who see you will shrink from you and set, Nineveh.
Man, it was great once, but it's devastated now. This is low as it can be. And who will have sympathy for her? Has any of your treaties that you promised done you any good whatsoever? Because they went back on their treaties often.
In fact, that's one of the reasons I feel like God says, you're like a prostitute. You offer something that is not real, and it's something that is for sale. And so after you've gotten what you wanted from them, you keep them interested, but it's a real problem because there's no real relationship there whatsoever. Nineveh is devastated. Who's gonna have sympathy for her?
Where shall I seek comforters for you? Are you better off than Noammon? Noammon. Noammon is the city of the God Ammon, which is in Egypt. It's also known as Thebes.
So historians, 663, that bracketed time frame, the fall of Thebes was in 663. Thebes is right there. It is situated on one side of the Nile River, which is a lot like the way Nineveh is situated along one side of a river. He's drawn a parallel hill here. No Ammon, also Thebes, 663, with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea.
What was protecting her was the Nile, crying out loud. Looks like a pretty good protection. Whose wall consisted of the sea. Ethiopia was her might, they had allegiances with Ethiopia, and Egypt too without limits, one of the richest places that ever has existed. Put and Lubim, that's Libya and maybe Morocco, Northern Africa, were all among her helpers.
She had friends that were helpful. Yet, she, this is Thebes being personified, she became an exile. Thebes, the great city of Thebes. She went into captivity and all her small children were smashed to pieces at the head of every street, and they cast lots for her honorable men. They took away the luminaries, they used to do that to get the best and brightest, and they take them away from where they were and train them in the ways of the conquering nation.
We see that in the Babylonian exile with Daniel and the four of the other three Hebrew children. Right? They cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound with shackles. So this is the fall of Thebes, happened in 663, and they fell to Assyria. Okay.
So that makes a difference. Thebes looked pretty good too, Nineveh. Don't you think? Yet, you all were able to whip them. He's using that as an example.
Actually, this is the guy. This is a monument to the guy, king Ashurbanipal. Ashurbanipal. He's the one that was in charge, and he bragged and bragged and bragged and bragged and bragged about how he whipped and plundered mercilessly. Excuse me.
I'm going read something he wrote. This dude, and I think this helps because Nahum is a very, very hard book. Very hard for me to hear that and feel like, oh, God is just like saying what he's gonna do to these people. God is returning to them what they have been the energy they've been putting out there. Ashurbanipal says, with the bodies of the warriors and the people of Elam, I dammed up the river.
I killed so many people that I was able to use their bodies as a dam. For three days, I made that stream carry down to its limit their bodies instead of water. With the bodies of their warriors, I filled the whole plain like grass. Abandoned their tents, they trampled their bodies of the fallen fallen soldiers. All of the stuff that we've seen so far is God revisiting upon them exactly what they put out there for their other folks.
Now, that is just condemnation that has a poetic sort of turn on it. At any point, you can turn to God and say, I trust you. I'm walking away from this. But they didn't, and they insisted on going forward, you too, just like thieves, will become drunk and hide. You too will search for refuge from your enemy, and you won't be able to find one.
All of your fortifications that you are so proud of, they're like fig trees with ripe fruit. All you have to do when a fig tree is really ripe is just grab it and go, and they just fall off the tree. He's saying, what you think is the strongest ramparts you've got going on is just like a fig tree that's ready. And they're going to shake off and fall directly into the eater's mat. Behold, this I'm not going to read this part, but this is an exact coming back at them.
That's the reason I've highlighted the your. It says, behold, your people are women in your midst. The way the Assyrians said, all of their mightiest soldiers are like little women. Behold, your people are women in your midst. The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies.
Fire consumes your gate bars now. You, go ahead, draw for yourself water for a siege. Strengthen your fortifications, there's a little sarcasm. Go into the clay and tread the mortar, one of the kings had said. We were whipping them, they were trying to build a patch to holes in the walls with bricks.
They're making making mortar bricks right there. He said, y'all go ahead. You take hold of the brick mold. Their fire will consume you, the sword will cut you down. It will consume you as the creeping locust consumes a crop.
Multiply yourself like creeping locusts. Multiply yourself like migratory locusts. You, you have made your traders more numerous than the stars of heaven. Oh my goodness, he's getting into commerce here. You have done so well for so long.
The entrepreneurs are numerous. They're more numerous than the stars of heaven. The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away. They've taken all that they can, and then they're going to move on down the line. They're not soldiers.
There's nobody to defend you. Your courtiers, the ones who frolic about and have such a great time, are like migratory locusts. They're only here for a while. Your officials fly like a swarm of locusts, settling in stone shelters on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, and the place where they are is not known.
You shepherd, you're sleeping. Your shepherds are sleeping, o king of Assyria. Your officers are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains as they're one to gather them. Now, how do you think they received this message?
Just like y'all are, like sitting there going. I can't believe this is what he chose for Thanksgiving Sunday. That's I was standing up here before the service started like when it when it when the clock hit zero and I went, I cannot believe I have to deliver this message to this crowd of people. They were listening to it, and you know they were thinking, we'll be fine. We're gonna be fine.
We're Assyria. This is the last verse. There's no relief for your collapse. Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you.
Finally, finally, they fell. Finally. They've been whipping everybody for so long. I'm so glad. For upon whom has your evil not come?
Continually. All that you've been concerned with is your own kingdom and your own little self. And what you put out there for everybody else is just ugliness. He knows his own. So in this last section, the army is defeated.
They were mighty in appearance, but there was anarchy and panic when the real battle came to them at their home site. The city was plundered, there was frantic desertion. Where's your glory now, Nineveh? He's saying God is behind it all, and he told them this ahead of time so that when it came to pass, they would know that. So that in itself is merciful.
Surely, one of the prophet says, Amos says, surely, God does nothing without first revealing it through his prophets. Right? He's given you a chance ahead of time. At any point, they could have turned back, but they're not turning back. So, the city is cursed.
Nineveh was depicted as a bloody city or a prostitute or sorceress, but he heaps disgrace on them, and it's a revisiting of everything that they've been doing to their own. So the fall of the Thebes points to the fall of Nineveh, there's no refuge, so prepare for the final siege. People scattered, and the whole rest of the world rejoices because they got what's coming to them. It's the way of the world. So here are some concluding thoughts.
We must submit to God's plans and not the other way around. I think that sometimes we just feel like, you know, he'll bless me. I'm not as bad as them. I'm certainly not the Assyrians. But if God says, this is the way I want you to walk, Let's be walking that way.
By his power, by his spirit, he offers that available. His gospel is like, God is patient. He is slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love, not just power like Nahum says. God is patient, but his patience doesn't last forever.
So, if he's moving in your heart right now to say, you know what, God, I agree with you, I should not be like that. I need for you to change me, I need for you to enter into my life. I'll accept the way you have made. You'll stand because we stand by God's grace, but we fall by our own pride. It's either going to be pride or humility.
And God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So God has already defeated our greatest enemy. He's slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love. He keeps steadfast love to the thousandth generation, forgiving inequity, transgression, and sin.
There's no other way that I can think of that you can say that. And but he'll, by no means, leave the guilty unpunished. It's either gonna be that Christ has taken that punishment or we will have to take it. So this is my personal application assignment from a class I took on this class. Actually, not.
It was all of the prophets at one time. Can you imagine? Having to read all of the prophets in one semester and be tested on them. Not just the dates and all that sort of stuff, but then do a personal application assignment. This is the kick in the groin at the end of that class.
Sorry, doctor Beyer. Personal application assignment. This is me processing through the book of Nahum. What is it that we can come up with? Well, God's grace is what allows for any of us to stand because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
God is awesome. He's almighty. He's powerful over all creation, and he will not allow the guilty to go unpunished. Yet, he's good and he recognizes his own. We're all guilty.
We stand condemned, but he's made a way. Man is no match for God. No plans that you make against him will succeed. His plans for his own will will succeed. God's gracious plan is the gospel.
It's what allows anyone to be God's own. His grace is what allows the humble people to hear and respond to the gospel. It makes the difference between eternal life and eternal death. So my attitude must be tempered by this fact. There's nothing that I've done to deserve the free gift that God has offered me, but I will live eternally by his grace.
There are many alive now who in their pride are devising plans against the Lord, and they are making themselves present day enemies of God, and they've done nothing to deserve his favor, but they are no less deserving of his grace than I am. I must never forget this. If I ever convince myself that what I've done is enough to get me in, I'm setting myself up against God. I can and I will be a humble instrument of God's grace by introducing others to Christ, to the gospel. Lord God Almighty, help us.
I'm gonna invite the band back up. We'll sing one more song. Lord God almighty, help us. Help us to see help us to see ourselves as we are. If we're taking advantage of other people, would you show us that lord and allow us the grace of repenting from it?
I pray that you would be slow to anger and patient with us as we really walk circumspect lives and pay attention, Lord. I'm also up here today extremely thankful for your good word for the Bible. Even the books that we don't pay a whole lot of attention to. There's a lot of a lot of juice in there, lord. That that we're missing out on when we don't read them.
So, lord, may we never set ourselves on our lives. Which we need. The altar's open for prayer.
Blind. I believe that the dead came to life. I believe that wonders and signs you're still the same. I believe every word that you said. I believe there are scars in your hands, that the goodness is good with without end and you'll never change.
I will tell of your wonders, sing of your grace. The God of creation knows me by name. Name the Lord is faithful yesterday now and always your mercy is mighty age after age, all generations will bow down in praise. The Lord is faithful. Yesterday, now, and always, always.
I believe you will come in the clouds. I believe you are here even now. In your presence, I know there is power, power faithful. Yesterday, now, and always, always, you were, you are, you always will be God. You were you are you always will be God yes you always will be God I will tell of you wonders, sing of your grace.
The God of creation knows me by name. The Lord is faithful. Yesterday, yesterday
Before the benediction, I'm gonna invite Tanya. She said she had something to say.
I do. I have lots to say. But I won't I won't say it all. There are angel tags back there already. Today, the trees go up, so there'll be more angel tags.
They need to be here, presents new awesome beautiful things for these families. By December 20 this morning, I found out about a family that has some very special circumstances. And those need to be if anybody is interested, I have a list. That would need to be in a few days because they just lost everything. A mother, a young mother, and a seven month old.
So it's not a Christmas thing. It's a now thing. So if you're interested in helping in that way so if you have questions and if you would like to help in a particular way, please tell me because the Lord brings it in and every single year, miracle after miracle. It's amazing that the Lord puts the person, the desire, the idea out there too. It matches every single time.
It's beautiful. It's amazing. It is the power of love and grace and people following what the Lord is leading them to do. And I'm just asking you to pray and think about what you would like to put forth if anything, and I've got it. I've got the answer.
Whatever way I've learned, that whatever way you feel led, probably have the situation.
Okay.
So Thank you. Wrap. Wrap.
You. Wrapped.
Okay. So as benediction today, thank you for that, Tanya. Therefore, I can summon up everything. As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, be clothing yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience and don't be a Syrian. Amen.
