Nahum
To understand the book of Nahum and its relevance for us today one must first of all think of the book of Jonah. Although the book of Jonah is mostly taken up with how Jonah responded to God's call to him to go and preach God's message to Nineveh, the end of the book of Jonah shows us how God was merciful and gracious to the Ninevites who, upon learning of God's judgment against their city, genuinely repented. God did not send the disaster that he said he intended to send at that time.
However with the passing of that generation and a number of other generations of Assyrians (of which Nineveh was the capital), wickedness once again characterised the people of Assyria and despite having been the recipients of God's mercy they now faced God's judgment. Thus the book of Nahum is a message about the certainty of God's judgment against those who persist in sin and in a spirit of rebellion against God and also a message of comfort to God's people reminding them that despite how things seem at present, ultimately God's justice against and punishment of His and his people's enemies will take place.
Nahum shows us clearly that the God of the Bible is a God of wrath.
The Fact of God's Wrath
1 v 1-2
The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
It is worth noting that in this one verse the name of God - The LORD (Yaweh) - is mentioned three times. It is almost as if the prophet is saying "Yes, the God who is the Covenant keeping God, merciful and gracious and slow to anger and compassionate, is ALSO a God of wrath.
This is certainly not a popular truth today. Many Christians whilst they recognise that the God of the Old Testament was a wrathful, vengeful God would view the God of the New Testament, the God revealed in Christ as being a God of love and not of wrath. It is however worth noting that, first of all, the God of the Bible is the unchanging God (Immutable) and secondly that Jesus Christ spoke more about hell than he did about heaven and often taught about the wrath of God. The wrath of God of which Nahum speaks so clearly is a Biblical fact.
The Awfulness of God's Wrath
In Verses 3-6 Nahum gives us something of an insight into the Awfulness of God's Wrath. The language is very poetic and full of imagery but the basic message is that the power that lies behind the imagery he uses is the awful power that will be exercised in wrath against his enemies. A similar picture is found in Revelation 6v16ff. Here we find the Kings of the earth and the great ones and the rich and powerful and influential on the earth, all of whom are not saved and under God's wrath, calling out to "the mountains and the rocks 'fall on us and hide is from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day fo their wrath has come and who can stand."
How true the words of the writer of Hebrew (10v31) "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
The Objects of God's Wrath
In verses 2,3 & 8 we discover the Objects of God's Wrath. They are described as "his adversaries", "his enemies" and "the guilty".
Each of these descriptions gives us an insight into the attitude of such people towards God. These are not people who are neutral towards God because no one can be neutral with regard to their attitude towards and relationship with God. One is either a friend of God or an enemy of God; for God or opposed to God; To use New testament terminology a person is either saved or unsaved; a child of God or a child of the devil. An object of God's forgiving grace or an object of his condemning wrath.
Things today are in essence no different from Nahum's day. Many of the attitudes towards God and the sinful disobedient lifestyles that flowed from such attitudes which were prevalent in the Assyrians back then are just as prevalent within our society today. God's existence is denied, his authority rejected, his standards ignored, his laws disobeyed. People who are unsaved today are not in some neutral zone from which they choose to follow God or reject him. They are standing firmly in the zone of God's enemies, his Adversaries, those who are guilty. As such they are "children of wrath".
The Justness of God's Wrath
The use of the term "The guilty" in v3 shows us the Justness of God's Wrath. As we know someone who is "guilty" is one who has been responsible for wrongdoing. He or she has broken established laws and as such deserves the punishment due to them.
God is not fickle in the exercise of his justice. He does not and will not pour out wrath against any who don't deserve it. We know from scripture of course that the only ones who will be spared such justice are those who are united to Jesus Christ by faith. Jesus bore the penalty for their sin. God's justice fell upon Jesus so that it would not fall on those for whom Jesus died.
The rest of the book of Nahum speaks word s of comfort, safety and assurance to God's people. They will one day fully triumph over their enemies They find comfort and safety in their knowledge of the character of God. They also find assurance in their relationship with God (1v7) They know that one day they will have Victory through their deliverance by God (1v11-13).
There is one phrase in the book of Nahum that is terrifying. It is found in Ch 2 v 13 and again in Ch 3v5 - "Behold I am against you, declares the Lord". God is speaking here against the Ninevites, but these words are true of every individual who has not repented of their sin and turned to Jesus Christ for salvation. How terrible to go through life with these words hanging over ones head.
The church can take comfort in knowing that just as He was against his people's enemies in Nahum's day so too he is against the enemies of the church today and one day all such enemies will be overthrown. Here is one of the sources of our comfort as God's people today. We may be small and weak while our enemies are huge and powerful but "if God be for us who can be against us"
Reading Plan (Jonah and Nahum in 1 week)
Day 1 Jonah 1: Jonah Flees From the Lord
Day 2 Jonah 2: Jonah’s Prayer
Day 3 Jonah 3: Jonah Goes to Nineveh
Day 4 Jonah 4: Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion
Day 5 Nahum 1: The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh
Day 6 Nahum 2: Nineveh to Fall
Day 7 Nahum 3: Woe to Nineveh