Nahum 1

CHAPTER 1THEME: Justice and goodness of GodThe little Book of Nahum is a remarkable prophecy. The prophet has just one theme, the judgment of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, but we will find that he also has a meaningful message for us today.

Nahum 1:1

“The burden of Nineveh"burden means “judgment,” as it is also used in the prophecy of Isaiah. Earlier, Jonah had brought a message to Nineveh which revealed the love of God, and now the message of the Book of Nahum reveals the justice of Godthe two go together. Although God will judge a nation, He is still love, and He still lovesyou cannot escape that. The thing which makes the judgment of God so frightful is the fact that God does not do it as a petulant person. He doesn’t do it in a vindictive manner whatsoever. He does not do it in a spirit of revenge or of trying to get even.

He does not judge because He has become angry for a moment in a sudden emotional outburst. God judges because He is just. He still loves, but He is just. Since He is just in His dealings, He must deal with sin even in the lives of those whom He loves. Nineveh was a city that God lovedHe told Jonah that. Jonah wanted the city destroyed, but God said, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” (Jon_4:11). God wanted to spare the city and the people who were in it, many of whom were little children. And God had spared Nineveh, but now judgment is going to fall upon this great citythis is Nahum’s message. Jonah, almost a century and a half before, had brought a message from God, and Nineveh had repented. However, the repentance was transitory.

God has patiently given this new generation opportunity to repent (see v. Nah_1:3), but the day of grace now ends and the moment of doom comes. In Nah_3:19 we read, “There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit [news] of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” In other words, Nineveh has come to a place where there is no healing for her people. I believe that for a nation and for an individual it is possible to continue in sin until you cross over a mark. I do not know where that mark isI don’t pretend to be able to say when this takes placebut there is such a place. When you pass over that mark, it is not that the grace of God cannot reach you but that you cannot reach God for the simple reason that you have come to the place where you are hardened and in a state of unbelief which cannot be changed. This can be true of a nation, and it can be true of an individual. As you consider the things which are happening today, you are apt to be discouraged. I am sure that many of God’s people are disturbed today. I believe that this is the reason we have had such an interest in prophecy. The wilder the prophetic teachers are, the more popular they seem to be. They are coming up with all kinds of interpretations. The explanation is that God’s people, ignorant of the Word of God, are desperately reaching out because of the things which are happening today.

The Lord Himself said, “Men’s hearts [will be] failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luk_21:26). We are at that state for sure; we’ve come into that particular orbit today. These things are disturbing to us, but, my friend, let us understand that God is still running the affairs of this world. He is still in charge. It hasn’t slipped out from His hands. God is not sitting on the edge of His throne, biting His fingernails.

He is not nervous today about what is happening. God is carrying out His plan and purpose, and He is overruling the sin of man. This should be very comforting to the child of God in this day. Assyria had served God’s purpose and is now to be destroyed. The destruction of Nineveh, according to the details given in this written prophecy, is almost breathtaking. This is a message, therefore, of comfort to a people who live in fear of a powerful and godless nation: God will destroy any godless nation. All you need do is to pick up your history book and start reading at the beginning of written history. You will find that every great world power went down, and they went down at a time when they were given over to wine, women, and song. When a nation reaches that place, you can be sure that it is on the skids and will soon pass out into the limbo of the lost. That is where all the former great nations of the world are today. Where is the United States today? We are on the way down, my friend. It is a nice ride while we are having it. Dr. J. Gresham Machen said years ago, “America today is going downhill with a godly ancestry.” America, which has had a godly ancestry, is going downhill on a toboggan. And Dr. Machen added, “God pity America when we reach the bottom of the hill.” How close are we to the bottom of the hill? I’m no prophet nor the son of a prophet. I’m just a poor preacher, and all I can say is that it seems to me like we’re getting very close to the bottom of the hill. The reason that the Book of Nahum is such a remarkable prophecy is that it speaks right into our own situation today. “The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.” This is all that is known of the writer of this book, and I have discussed this at some length in the Introduction. Nahum was apparently born in the northern kingdom of Israel, and that was his native country; but he moved to the southern part of Judah sometime when he was very young. He had a great concern for the northern kingdom, and he apparently was alive when it was carried away into captivity by Assyria. His message is of the judgment that is coming upon Nineveh.

Nahum 1:2

Jealous, according to Webster’s dictionary, means “exacting exclusive devotion.” God is a jealous God, and He demands that His people worship Him alone. When any people, no matter who they are, turn to idolatry or turn to sin (all that which is contrary to God), and when they give themselves to it, God is jealous. I hear folk say, “Well, there is just a little bit of difference between the jealousy of God and the jealousy of man.” There is not as much difference as you think there is, my friend. In Exo_20:3-6 we read: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” God loves you. It does not make any difference who you are, you cannot keep Him from loving you. You can, however, get into a place where you will not experience the love of God. When you put up an umbrella of sin, the sunshine of God’s love will not fall on you, but it is still there for you. You can put up the umbrella of indifference. You can put up the umbrella by turning your back on Him and not doing His will. There are several different umbrellas you can put up that will keep the love of God from shining upon you, but you cannot keep Him from loving you. Since God loves you, He is actually jealous of you. That means that He wants you. Actually, God doesn’t want what you possess. We preachers are always asking you for what you have. I wish that I didn’t ever have to mention givingfrankly, I don’t like to. If God’s people would just give enough to cover our radio broadcasting expenses, you would never hear me mention it. But God doesn’t want what you’ve gotHe wants you. And He’s jealous when you give yourself, your time, and your substance to other things. When you give yourself to sin, God is jealous. I once heard a woman say, “I have a very wonderful husband. He’s not jealous of me.” Well, I don’t think that what she said was a compliment at all. We’re living in a day when people are supposed to be broad-minded, especially about this matter of sex. They argue that it’s all right for a woman to give herself to the first man who comes along. May I say to you, my friend, if you are that type of woman, you will never get a good husband because the good husband is one who is going to love you and want you above everything else. And he won’t want to share you with anybody. If you say that you don’t have a jealous husband, I feel sorry for you, because you do not have a good relationship. God very frankly says, “I’m a jealous God. I want you. I don’t want to share you with the sin of the world and with the Devil’s crowd and with idolatry. I don’t want to share youI want you to belong to Me.” There is nothing wrong with God’s saying that He is jealous, and Nahum says, “God is jealous.” I’m glad that He is. Any good wife will say, “I don’t want to share my husband with anybody else. He is mine. He belongs to me.” This is something which is pretty important today but which the world has forgotten. It is no wonder that in Southern California we have more divorces than marriages. Of course that is what has happened, because people are playing a little game. You used to find the harlots in the brothels; but today it is called “consecutive harlotry,” which means that you take one partner at a time, live with him for a little while, and then move on to another. It adds up to the same thing, however. My friend, if you are going to be loved, and if you love, there will be a measure of jealousy in the relationshipthere has to be if it is a real love. “The LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious.” The correct translation is not “revengeth,” as it is in our Authorized Versionrather, it should be “avengeth.” There is a great difference between the two words. “…Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the LORD” (Rom_12:19). God says to you and me, “Don’t you indulge in vengeance because, to begin with, you will never exercise it in the right way. Turn it over to Me. I handle it without any heat of anger. I handle it in justice. I will do the right thing. And I know all the issuesI know everything about it.” The Lord avengeth; and, whether we like it or not, anything God does is right. We need to get that fixed in our minds and, on the other end of the stick, we need to recognize that you and I are just little creatures who really don’t know very mucheven the smartest ones don’t. Frankly, I hate to say this, but I have quit listening to newscasts and talk programs on which they interview some egghead who is supposed to know something. I’ve discovered that most of these folk, as far as knowing what really is going on in this world, are ignoramuses who are just talking. We ought to recognize that we don’t know much and that whatever God does is right. If you don’t think so, you are wrong.

God is not wrongyou are wrong. I wonder if you are willing to take that position. If you’re not, my friend, you’re in trouble as far as God is concerned because there are many things He is not going to tell you or me about. He is simply going to go ahead and do them. He is running this universe His way. Oh, I know that we get a few power-hungry human beings, but they don’t hang around long.

Hitler didn’t last long and neither did Mussolini nor Stalin. The others who are on the front page of our newspapers today will be in obituary notices in a few daysit won’t be long. May I say to you, God is still on the throne, and He is still running things. God is “furious.” God does not take any delight in the sin of man. God hates sin, and He is furious at it. “The LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” God is glorified when He judges a nation, as we see especially in Ezekiel 38-39. When Assyria went down, God was glorified in that. They were a brutal, hated, sinful nation, and God brought them down to wrack and ruin and into the debris and dust of the earth. He is glorified when He does things like that. Maybe you don’t like it, but the Word of God says that that is the way He moves. I would suggest that you get yourself reconciled to the way God does things, because that is the way they are going to be done. In verse Nah_1:3 Nahum puts down a great principle by which God not only judged Assyria (and Nineveh, the capital, in particular), but also the way that God judges the world and will judge the world in the future.

Nahum 1:3

“The LORD is slow to anger.” Nahum makes this very clear. You see, God had sent Jonah to Nineveh to tell them that they were to be destroyed because of their awful sin. They were known as probably the most brutal people in the ancient world, and God said that judgment would come to them. But the entire city of Nineveh repented and turned to God at that time. Obviously, the message of Jonah penetrated the entire empire, and there was a great change. We would say that a great revival rose up.

However, it didn’t last very long. It has been characteristic of the great waves of revival which have come that they have never lasted permanently. The Wesleyan revival had tremendous impact upon England and this country, as well as side effects upon other nations, but it was of brief duration. There has been some carry-over from it, of course, even down to the present hour. This is true also of the great revivals under Moody in this country, when entire cities moved toward God. Nahum says that God is slow to anger, but this great city of Nineveh has now turned back to its old ways.

One hundred years after Jonah, Nahum comes to say, “The clock has struck twelve, and time has run out. There is no longer any delay. Judgment is coming.” “The LORD …will not at all acquit the wicked.” The justice of God is seen in His judgment because He is slow to anger. It took Him one hundred years to get around to executing judgment against this city, and He is just and righteous in doing it. He is not going to let the wicked off. Never will He let the wicked off unless they turn to Him. Unless they accept Christ as their Savior because He paid the penalty for their sins, they will have to be judged for their sins. God is not going to let them offHe is just and righteous, You see, the forgiveness of God is different from our forgiveness. When somebody does us wrong, we say, “I forgive you"and that’s it. A penalty has not been paid. Our forgiveness is generally for something that is just a trifle, although it could be a matter of some importance. But when God forgives, the penalty has already been paid. God is the Judge of this earth.

He is not only its Creator, He is not only running it, but He is also the moral ruler of this universe. And God is not a crooked judge. You cannot slip something under the table to get Him to let you off easy. You cannot tell Him that you belong to a certain family, that your father is very influential and will be able to get you off. Nor can you say you are wealthy and will see that the Judge loses His job, nor that you will pay Him just a little extra to be lenient with you. You cannot deal with God like that. God must judge the wicked, and we are all told that the heart of man is desperately wickednot just a little wicked, but desperately wicked (see Jer_17:9). You and I do not really know the depths of the iniquity that is in our hearts; we do not know what we are capable of. Now God cannot acquit the wicked; therefore, if we are going to be acquitted, someone must pay the penalty. That is the reason He has provided a Redeemer for us. When an individual or a nation turns its back on God’s redemption provided now in Christ, then judgment must followthere is no other alternative. “The LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” God today moves even in nature. The storms which come are under His control, and they serve His purpose. So-called Mother Nature doesn’t really have anything to do with it. Mother Nature does what He tells Mother Nature to do. Our God is the Creator, and He is the Redeemer, and He is also the Judge. He’s running things, friend. Just leave it in His hands, and rest in Him today because He is good, He is gracious, and He is the Savior.

Nahum 1:4

“He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers.” God had already shown His power to do thisHe dried up the Red Sea and the Jordan River. Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon are the three fertile areas in that land. Carmel is actually the Valley of Esdraelon, and Megiddo was the main city there. This is one of the most fertile spots on the topside of the earth. When you go farther north, along the cost of Lebanon all the way from Beirut down to the ruins of old Tyre, you see beautiful country. In the spring of the year, you can see the fruit trees blooming and in the distance the Anti-Lebanons covered with snow. The fruit treesapricots, peaches, cherries, bananas, and citrus fruiteverything is grown there, and the land is very fertile. Nahum says that a drought is to come. I am sure there are many of you who remember the dust storms in this country in the 1930s. I have always felt that those storms were a judgment from God. If there had been any kind of a revival at that time, I am confident we would never have had to fight World War II or to have been involved in all that we have since then. But unfortunately, that judgment from God carried no message for this country at that time.

Nahum 1:5

He is the Creator, and He’s also the Preserver of this universeHe’s the One who holds it together. “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt” refers, of course, to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. You can hold Him responsible for anything that takes place, for the floods and the earthquakes that come. But don’t hold Him responsible for the people who are killed at that time, because man has been given an intelligence which tells him that he ought not to build too close to a river due to the danger of a flood. Maybe those of us who live here in Southern California ought to listen to Him. We are told that an earthquake is coming, and that is probably true. The San Andreas fault runs very close to where I live, but if an earthquake comes and a loved one of mine is slain by it, I am not going to cry out to God that He is the one who killed him.

NoGod is not responsible. We would be responsible. We know better. We probably ought to move to another location; but very frankly, my entire family likes Southern California, so we’re going to stay right here and take the chance. God does control nature, but you cannot say that He is to blame when these great tragedies take place. Man is responsible for them.

He ought not to get too close to a river, and he ought to stay away from where he knows there are going to be earthquakes.

Nahum 1:6

Man has learned that you cannot stand up against nature. Victor Hugo wrote three great novels. He wrote Les Miserables to show that society is the enemy of man; he wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame to show that religion is the enemy of man; and he wrote The Toilers of the Sea to show that nature is the enemy of man. Well, it is owing to how man approaches each of these. Religion has been an enemy of man. Society is the enemy of manthis civilization today is no friend of grace, I can assure you of that. It is true that nature can be an enemy of man, but it can also be his friend. The issue is that if you are going to try to fight against nature, you’re fighting a losing battle. This is what Victor Hugo tried to show in his novel. “Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?” This question was directed to the people of Nineveh who had rejected the mercy of this all-powerful God. Do you have the answer to that question? I’d like to ask that of you if you are unsaved. Maybe you are depending upon your own righteousness and goodness. Do you really believe that you can stand in the presence of a holy God who absolutely hates sin and intends to judge it? Are you able to stand in His holy presence? The very brilliant Oxford don, C. S. Lewis, wrote a story in which he tells about a bus trip that was run from hell to heaven. It was the sort of tour in which those who were in hell could take a bus trip to heaven. The bus was filled and, when it arrived in heaven, the driver parked the bus in a parking lot (I’m sure there is plenty of parking space up there). The driver told everyone on the bus, “At four o’clock this afternoon, the bus is going to leave and head for home.” Home just happened to be hell.

And at four o’clock that afternoon, the bus was filledeveryone was back. The bus driver told them, “If you want to stay, you can stay.” Why didn’t they stay? It was because they had found out they had no place in heaven. One of the great saints of the past put it this way: “I would rather go to hell without sin than go to heaven with sin.” “Who can stand before his indignation?” If you don’t have a Savior, how are you going to stand as a sinner in the presence of a holy God? Do you think that you’ve got a chance? You don’t have a ghost of a chance, my friend. You cannot stand there without a Savior. To be able to stand in His presence is what it means to be accepted into the beloved and to be in Christ. This is a tremendous principle that Nahum is putting down here. God must judge sin. There is something radically wrong with God if He doesn’t judge sin. Nahum’s description of the power and the anger of God was to reassure the people of Judah of the protection of their all-powerful God when Assyria would invade their land.

Nahum 1:7

“The LORD is good.” Let’s keep that in mind. Remember that the psalmist said, “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so …” (Psa_107:1-2). If the redeemed don’t say so, nobody’s going to say so. So I am going to say so: God is good. God is good, friendthat’s wonderful to know. I do not know who you are, where you are, or how you are, but I do know that God loves you and He wants to save you. If you are not saved, it is simply because you will not come to Him, for He can save you and He will save you. God is goodthat is an axiom of Scripture and an axiom of life. “The LORD is good.” “A strong hold in the day of trouble.” Are you having any trouble? Do you want to get to a good shelter? The Lord is that shelter which you need. “And he knoweth them that trust in him.” I’m very happy that I’m not going to get lost in the shuffle, that I won’t get lost in the multitudes. As I travel from city to city, I sometimes think that everyone has moved to the West Coast. I get on one of our freeways here, and I think, My, how many people there are! But then I go back to Dallas, Texas, and I think that everyone has followed me from California to Texas! The crowds are everywhere. I go to Florida or to New York City, and it seems the people have followed me there.

I have never seen such crowds in my life! I went to Europe several years ago and found that the people were there also! The multitudes which are in the Orient almost shock us. And in Egypt, in the Arab countries, and in Turkey there are multitudes of people. It causes me to think, My, I hope the Lord remembers that my name is Vernon McGee and that I have trusted Him. I am very happy that the Scripture says, “He knoweth them that trust in him.” My friend, He doesn’t need a computer to record your name.

Actually, He has you written on His heart; He’s written your name on the palms of His hands. He knows youHe knows those who have trusted Him.

Nahum 1:8

The Lord will overwhelm and destroy the Assyrians. “An overrunning flood” pictures a river that is overflowing its banks and causing devastation as it moves. It is believed that this refers to the invading army of the Babylonians which overcame Nineveh. The Greek historian Ctesias of the fifth century B.C. records that the Babylonian army was able to invade Nineveh when the Tigris River suddenly overflowed and washed away the floodgates of the city and the foundations of the palace. “Darkness shall pursue his enemies” raises a question in my mind regarding the place of permanent punishment. There is more said in Scripture about darkness being the lot of the lost than there is about fire. Darkness is mentioned here"and darkness shall pursue his enemies.” Even the Lord Jesus used the term: “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mat_8:12; see also Mat_22:13). Literal fire could only affect the physical, never the spiritual. But, oh, the fires of a conscience that has been suddenly alerted to the awful thing one did in rejecting Christ and in not doing the things he should have done. Think of the darkness of a lost eternity!

Think of not being able to see where you are going at all. Darkness, to me, is a better and more fearful description of hell than fire is. That may be a new thought for you, and I would urge you to pursue it in the Word of God.

Nahum 1:9

GOD’S DECISION TO DESTROY NINEVEH AND TO GIVE THE GOSPEL"What do ye imagine against the LORD?” Nahum puts this question directly to the Assyrian invaders. In effect he is asking, as Dr. Charles Feinberg has stated it, “Can you cope with such a God as Israel has?” “He will make an utter end"that is, the Assyrian power will be completely destroyed. It will give you a better understanding of this to read the fulfillment in the historical account in Isaiah 37. “Affliction shall not rise up the second time.” In other words, Nineveh will not be given a second chance. They have had their last chance. They’ve crossed over that invisible lineI do not know where it is, but it is there somewhere, and you can step over it in your rejection of God. This does not mean that the grace of God could not reach you but that you can no longer reach it after you have come to that particular point.

Nahum 1:10

“For while they be folden together as thorns” probably describes the Assyrian army, which presented such a united front that they seemed like entangled thornsimpossible to break through. “While they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.” God would completely destroy them. The fulfillment of this is recorded in Isa_37:36-37. I would say this especially to young people today: Make your decision for Christ while you are young and have a sharp mind. You can keep playing around with intellectualism (which I tried in college and almost got detoured), or you can play around as many are doing with drugs and alcohol, but Nahum says that the day will come when you will stumble around like a drunkard. If you stumble around like a drunkard, you cannot make a decision. A man who had been drinking called me the other night from back east. I refused to talk with him. I told him, “The liquor is speaking and not you. When you are willing to sober up, call me, and I’ll be glad to talk with you, but I will not talk to liquor.” May I say to you, Nineveh had reached the place where they could make no decision. Along with the other minor prophets, Nahum makes a contribution to God’s philosophy of government and His manner of dealing with individuals and with nations. The point Nahum is going to make is that whether you believe it or not, whether you can understand it or not, God is just and God is good when He judges a nation or an individual. God is still the God of love. He loves the lost. He is, as the apostle John tells us, “…the propitiation [the mercy seat] for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1Jn_2:2). Men are lost because they are sinners, and they are saved because they accept the overture of salvation that God extends to them. God will get that invitation to any individual on the topside of this earth who will accept it. I have come to believe that we may see a turning to God. I do not mean in great numbers, but I believe there will be a turning to God in response to the invitation given to every people on the topside of this earth. It looks to me right now that radio broadcasting will be the means of bringing that invitation to the unreached. Nahum is going to be very extreme in what he says. God is going to judge Nineveh, and He is just and righteous in doing it. But God is love also. His judgment is actually an act of His lovethat is very difficult for us to comprehend, but it is absolutely true.

Nahum 1:11

Nahum says now that there had come up against Judah this enemythe enemy is Assyria with its capital city of Nineveh. I think that there is agreement among all conservative Bible expositors that the invader that is spoken of here as “a wicked counsellor” was Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. This invasion by Sennacherib is recorded three times in Scripture: in 2 Kings 18-19; 2 Chronicles 32; and also in Isaiah 36-37. When God says something three times, we ought to stop, look, and listen. When He says it once, that should be enough. When He says it twicesometimes He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you"it is extra important. But when He repeats something three times, you can just put it down that it is all-important. Nahum is referring now to this wicked counselor who had come against Jerusalem. We read in the historical accounts that Sennacherib sent Rabshakeh against Jerusalem with the great army of Assyria. Rabshakeh threatened Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and Hezekiah was almost frightened to death by it all. I think that poor man probably couldn’t sleep at night during that period of time. However, Hezekiah went into the temple and called upon God, and then the prophet Isaiah brought the message that Rabshakeh would not even shoot an arrow into the city of Jerusalem. Instead, he had to withdraw because of Assyria’s campaign against Egypt in which Sennacherib needed his reinforcements.

Then God Himself destroyed the army of the Assyrians! Assyria was greatly feared in Judah since during that period they had taken the northern kingdom of Israel into captivity and had dealt with them in a very brutal manner.

Nahum 1:12

This is a rather remarkable verse, and we do not want to miss the point that is here. This expression, “Though they be quiet, and likewise many,” does not quite make sense to me. What is it that God is saying here? I know most of the men who worked as editors on The New Scofield Reference Bible, and all of them are just as human as you and I are. They are subject to mistakes and not one of them, as far as I know, feels that their notes were inspired. However, every now and then, they have really put in a helpful note. Their note on this verse is an example of how archaeology has confirmed many things in Scripture that we would not have known or understood otherwise, thus revealing the accuracy of the Word of God. The New Scofield Reference Bible (pp. 950-951) uses the following note on verse Nah_1:12: In the context the expression “quiet, and likewise many,” although a literal translation of the Hebrew, does not seem to make much sense. Actually the Hebrew here represents a transliteration of a long-forgotten Assyrian legal formula. Excavation in the ruins of ancient Ninevah, buried since 612 B.C., has brought to light thousands of ancient Assyrian tablets, dozens of which contain this Assyrian legal formula. It proves, on investigation, to indicate joint and several responsibility for carrying out an obligation. Nahum quotes the LORD as using this Assyrian formula in speaking to the Assyrians, saying in effect, “Even though your entire nation joins as one person to resist me, nevertheless I shall overcome you.” As the words would have been equally incomprehensible to the later Hebrew copyists, their retention is striking evidence of the care of the scribes in copying exactly what they found in the manuscripts, and testifies to God’s providential preservation of the Bible text. Therefore, you can see that God used an Assyrian legal formula in expressing what He wanted to say. He was talking about Assyria, and He wanted them to understand what He was saying. When we look at this verse in light of what archaeology has discovered today, God was saying something that made sense to the Assyrians although it does not make sense to us today. When the Hebrew scholars came along, they didn’t know what this meant either, but they translated it literally into English because they believed in the plenary, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. Thank God for that! This leads me to say that this is one of the reasons I cannot approve of a lot of these so-called modern translations. They are not translations at all because many of them were done by men who do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Other men, although they believe it is the Word of God, have wanted to put it into a form that modern man could understand. I rather disagree with that method. I am very happy that The Living Bible calls itself “a paraphrased text.” I would say concerning The Living Bible that it is a bad translation, but in many places it is a marvelous paraphrased text. If you will treat it as a paraphrase, that’s fine, but do not believe that you are getting the literal text of Scripture. This passage here in Nahum reveals that, although you might not understand something in Scripture, God says, “You take it as I have given it to you, and you will find out someday what it meansthat is, if you will work and study hard enough.” The trouble is that we are trying to make the Word of God like pabulum, and we are trying to spoon-feed a bunch of babies who are too lazy to really study the Word of God. Although I certainly am one who is accused of making the Word of God simple, I do believe that there ought to be a real reverence for the text of Scripture. I’m no Bible worshiper, I’m no bibliophile, by any means, but I do believe that there should be a reverence for the text of Scripture. I have spent time on this verse because it contains this expression that I did not understand until this archaeological discovery was made. Archaeology has done a great deal of work yonder at the ancient city of Nineveh. The tell of Nineveh, across the Tigris River from the modern city of Mosul, was first excavated in the last century.

Nahum 1:13

This seemed impossible in the day when Nahum wrote it because the nation of Assyria was to continue for a long time yet. But God said at that time, “I am going to break the yoke of this nation.” He also said:

Nahum 1:14

What God says to Nineveh is harsh. He says, “I’m going to bury you.” Nikita Khrushchev wasn’t the first one who used that expression; he said that to the people of the United States, and it seemed very terrifying to us, naturally. Actually, Khrushchev was using a biblical expression, but he didn’t know it. God said to Nineveh, “I’m going to bury you, and when I bury you, you’ll go out of business as a nation.” When was the last time you saw an Assyrian running around? There are not many, and they have no nation today. God said to them, “I’ll bury you,” and that is what He did. He also said, “I’m going to get rid of your gods, that is, your idolatry.” It was the Medes and the Babylonians who eventually came and destroyed the city of Nineveh in 612 B.C. The Assyrian idolatry was destroyed by the Medes who were a monotheistic people and did not worship idols. They were really iconoclasts, and they broke up the idolatry of Assyria.

Nahum 1:15

God is saying through Nahum, “Don’t leave Me. Don’t withdraw from the Mosaic system. Don’t give it up, because I intend to destroy your enemy and to send to you the Messiah, who will bring tidings of great joy.” Nahum says this in reference to Assyria, and you will find that Isaiah actually uses the same expression in Isa_52:7, where it is amplified: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isaiah spoke this in reference to the destruction of Babylon as he wrote to the southern kingdom of Judah. Nahum, writing to the northern kingdom, says the same thing but concerning Assyria. Then notice that Paul quotes this in his Epistle to the Romans: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom_10:13-15). I think Nahum was the first to say this and then Isaiah. Finally, Paul quotes Isaiah and makes a different application of it in the section of his epistle that refers to Israel, that is, in the dispensational section of Romans. Paul is arguing there that God is not through with the nation Israel and that in the future there will again come to them the good tidings of great joy. But it is also a worldwide message that is applicable to today. Paul writes, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom_10:13). But how will people hear without somebody bringing the message to them? The messengers must be sent, and I believe that God will do the sending. Isaiah wrote, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings …” (Isa_52:7). That’s not because they have beautiful feet, but because they have come to bring the message of the gospel. They may have traveled by boat, or they may have come by plane, or they may have come by radio, but they have come bringing the message. In our radio ministry we believe that the gospel should begin here at our own Jerusalem, and therefore we are attempting to continue to reach this country with the Word of God as well as we can.

But we want also to go right to the ends of the earth via radio. Very frankly, I want my feet to be beautiful, and I want my feet to be “…shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph_6:15). I want to walk all over this earth by radio, and I want to reach out to folk with the Good News today. This is a marvelous way in which the Spirit of God uses Scripture. You get a good course in hermeneutics (the methods of interpretation of Scripture) when you read the little Book of Nahum. Nahum tells you how to interpret the Word of God. He has already shown us that we are to take it literally whether we understand it or not. There is an explanation, and the trouble is not with the Word of God; the trouble is with us when we do not understand it. Then we have also seen that God made direct interpretation of this Scripture to one nation at one time, to another nation at another time, and it now has a worldwide application today.