The last two chapters of Nahum seem to contain nothing but despair, destruction, and desolation. The destruction of this city and its inhabitants is spoken of in chapter 2 as if it is happening right in front of the eyes of the author. They are warned, “The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength” (2:1). And then in verses 4-9 the scene is described – “Chariots race madly through the streets … the palace melts away … the mistress … is carried off … Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. ‘Halt! Halt!’ they cry, but none turns back. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold!”

It is a disastrous scene that climaxes in the cry in verse 10, “Desolate! Desolation and ruin!” and the pronouncement in verse 13, “Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions.”

Chapter 3 then provides no relief; the cry is “Woe to the bloody city” (3:1). Nineveh’s destruction is again described and again we hear, “Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. I will through filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle” (3:5-6). And the chapter ends, “There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil” (3:19).

So what is it that we may gain from looking at this scene of God pouring out his judgment and wrath on a nation of people in these chapters? How does this relate to what God has done in Christ? And what does it tell us as the people of God in order to communicate God’s disposition toward us?

These are the questions that I want to try to answer this morning, for I believe these two chapters give us a significant piece in answering these questions. Therefore, let us begin by trying to answer the question of what we may gain in looking at God’s judgment poured out on the people of Nineveh.

I believe that as chapter 1 did last week, God’s actions in chapters 2 and 3 teach us more about our God. I want to point out one aspect of God of which these chapters remind us.

God is sovereign over the nations, his enemies, the world, and all of history

This is a long way of saying that God is completely sovereign. Unless this is understood, nothing more can be said to be sure. For unless God is completely sovereign, how can we be sure that he will be able to work all things together for good, keep our souls safe in his right hand, ensure that we should remain to accomplish what he wills for us, or complete the desires that he prophesies about concerning a new heavens and new earth? Unless he is sovereign, these things are just our hope and desire as well as God’s, but we are both helpless and hoping.

However, Nahum reminds us that our God is much greater than that bleak picture, for it reminds us that he is indeed sovereign over all things. The ability to prophesy Nineveh’s destruction as if it is presently occurring when it would occur years later is due to God’s sovereign power over the world and history. He raises up nations and casts them down. He brings Jonah to Nineveh at one point so that they will repent and be spared and uses Nahum to declare at another point that Nineveh will not repent and will be destroyed.

There is no nation or people or power that can stand against God. We are reminded of this even as he declares to Nineveh, “Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile with water around her, her rampart a sea and water her high wall? Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains” (3:8-10). It is a reminder that no nation can resist the will of the Lord.

Nahum chapters 2 and 3 remind us that God is working history; it is not spiraling out of control.

This is crucial for our practical lives. For otherwise what kind of God do you reach out for when you cannot understand or change what’s happening and you are assured it is out of your control? You can reach for a God about whom it is said, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34-35).

We need a great, all-powerful God against whom no enemy of his can stand, and that is exactly what Nahum assures us that God is as he destroys those who were his enemy and an enemy of his people. Thus we may pray when with the early disciples when we are persecuted and men try to stop our obedience to the Scriptures, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed?’” (Acts 4:24-26). And finishing the Psalm they were quoting, we may add of our Lord, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them [the nations and rulers who counsel against him] in derision” (Psalm 2:4). Nahum provides for our deep need of knowing how great and powerful, indeed sovereign, our Lord is.

With the coming of Christ, God’s kingdom did come – but not fully – so that God’s ultimate judgment on his enemies is delayed

But we may ask, “How does God’s destruction of this city relate to what God has done in Christ?” The answer here is that Christ’s coming did usher in the kingdom of God, but the full reality of the kingdom is delayed, showing the patience and mercy of God.

The idea presented to us in Nahum that God will judge his enemies (and consequently the enemies of his people) is indeed true as it will be done on the last day. When his kingdom fully comes, Christ will not be coming as one to lay down his life but as one who will judge the nations. This coming of Christ’s kingdom and the consequent judging of his enemies was a day the Israelites spoke of and longed for often.

Therefore, when Christ came, the thought was that he would usher in the kingdom and immediate judgment of his enemies. Therefore John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” in preparing the way of the Lord (Matthew 3:2). And when the Pharisees wanted to be baptized, John told them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able to from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:7-10 – emphasis added).

Therefore, when Jesus came and did not bring immediate judgment, John sends some of his disciples to see if he had made a mistake and had falsely declared he was the one (Matthew 11:1-6). Christ’s answer was an affirmation that he was the Messiah but John had wrongly anticipated the immediate fulfillment of the kingdom. Therefore, Jesus exhorted him with the reminder, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matthew 11:6).

So with the coming of Christ, we do have the coming of the kingdom, but not yet fully. So, right now we are getting a foretaste of what is to come, but God’s ultimate judgment will be delayed until his Son returns and the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Christ.

Thus, Nahum in its reminder of the ultimate and complete and merciless coming judgment of God always leads us to remember that we are in a time of much grace as we are in these last days between the ascension of Christ and his return. And it reminds us that this is the patience and mercy of God being seen and a time when we get to urge others to repent and be ready to face the coming judgment of God, so that he might be their Savior, Father, and friend and not the one who is coming to condemn and judge you.

Yet the final chapters of Nahum have another pleasant reminder for us.

Nahum reminds us that God will not ultimately forget his people

Though the scene is one of judgment and destruction against those who are God’s enemies, God reminds us in Nahum 2:2, “For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them.”

God’s judgment of Nineveh (as we saw last week) was a way in which God was showing his kindness, love, and care to his people. And it is a reminder to us in the bigger picture as well that God will not ultimately forget his people.

This should be of comfort to us if we realize that this life will not necessarily be an easy one. This is not our home, so that the author of Hebrews writes, “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:13-14). Also, Paul writes to Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to lie a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13). Paul could write this knowing that God had said to another concerning him, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16).

And there are many more verses that assure us that as Christians we should and will suffer here, including: Acts 5:41; 14:21-22; Romans 8:16-17; 2 Corinthians 4; 6:1-10; Philippians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1:6: 3:4-7, 1 Peter 2:12-20; 4:12-9; Romans 5:1-5; and Revelation 2:10 for a few. The health and wealth gospel for believers while we are on this earth is simply false. And any understanding of the gospel and Christian life that does not include suffering is not a biblical understanding of the gospel and Christian life. For Christ has told us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23), and the cross does not exclude suffering.

So right now if suffering is a part of your life and you are being persecuted, then let me give you some hope. “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). You’re not necessarily doing anything wrong, this is simply part of the Christian life that we endure for the sake of Christ (i.e. 1 Peter 1:3-7).

However, let me give you what may be even greater encouragement: God will not ultimately forget his people. God did not save us to leave us here amidst a city that is not lasting and a world in which we are strangers and aliens, but he saved us so that we might enjoy him in his kingdom forever.

Therefore, Paul writes in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” and in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” For just as Nineveh’s destruction and desolation was also the restoration of the majesty of Israel, so as the kingdom comes fully will it be the ultimate judgment of God’s enemies as well as an invitation to us to come home and rest, worship, and enjoy our Lord – forever.

To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen.

DESTRUCTION, DESOLATION, AND THE RESTORATION OF MAJESTY