The Book of Nahum - The Minor Prophets

In one paragraph

Pastor Ramon worked through the entire book of Nahum, one of the lesser-read minor prophets, showing how God's coming judgment on the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was announced ahead of time and then fulfilled in 612 BC. The message sat in the tension between a God who is almighty and wrathful and a God who is good and knows his own. It was, as Pastor Ramon put it, the hammer falling. Nahum opens...

Read together

1. Nahum 1:2 opening declaration that God is jealous, avenging, and wrathful toward his adversaries
2. Nahum 1:3 quoted to show God is slow to anger and great in power but will not leave the guilty unpunished
3. Exodus 34 God's self-revelation to Moses describing himself as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, yet not leaving the guilty unpunished
4. Nahum 1:7 the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and knows those who take refuge in him
5. Joel 2:32 everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
6. James (unspecified chapter) God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble
7. 1 Peter (unspecified chapter) God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble
8. Amos (unspecified chapter) God does nothing without first revealing it through his prophets
9. Romans 3:23 we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ramon opened with the idea that the more we study the Old Testament, the more we appreciate Jesus's work on the cross. What was it about working through Nahum that brought that home for you, or pushed back against it?
2. Nahum quotes from Exodus 34, holding together that God is merciful and gracious and slow to anger alongside the fact that he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. How do you hold both of those things at the same time in your own understanding of God?
3. Pastor Ramon said the minor prophets keep returning to the same basic message: humble yourselves, recognize where the blessing is coming from. Where in your own life is it hardest to live that out?
4. Ashurbanipal's own words were read aloud, boasting about using the bodies of the dead as a dam. Pastor Ramon pointed out that what God brings on Nineveh is essentially a return of what Nineveh put out. What does that say to you about the way God's justice works, and how does it sit with you?
5. Pastor Ramon closed by saying it is either going to be pride or humility, and that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. He also said he must never forget that people who seem to be present-day enemies of God are no less deserving of that grace than he is. What does it look like practically to hold that conviction?