Nahum
Nahum means “comfort.” His words would have been a comfort to people and nations who had experienced the oppression, cruelty and wickedness of the Assyrian Empire centered at Nineveh. Each of Nahum’s three chapters predicts Nineveh’s downfall.
“I thought Nineveh had repented!” you say.
And you remembered correctly. Nineveh had repented 80 to 100 years earlier, when the reluctant prophet, Jonah, preached to them. The city-wide top-to-bottom repentance and revival that followed held off the destruction Jonah had prophesied. But Jonah was 750-725 B.C., and Nahum prophesied in the decades before Nineveh fell in 612 B.C.
After a brief time of repentance, wicked rulers arose in Nineveh (Assyria) who led them into worse wickedness than they had ever known. They were a nation full of lies and violence, lust and idolatry (3:1-4). And history bears out the cruelty and oppression they dealt out the conquered nations around them. Judgment is coming, from which they cannot escape. They will be plundered, pillaged and left in ruins!
As bad as this news is for Nineveh, it is good news for those nations she had oppressed, including and especially Judah, for God cares about those who trust him (1:7) and intends this to be good news (1:15). Through Nahum, God promises to restore the splendor of Jacob (2:2). This is such good news that people will applaud the fall Nineveh, like they rejoiced at the fall of Hitler and the Third Reich.
So, Nineveh’s prophecy of judgment is Judah’s prophecy of hope!
Your fellow pilgrim through the prophets,
Pastor Gary
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