In this sermon, the speaker discusses the deep and complete nature of God's love. He shares how his own loving nature can quickly change when those he loves are threatened. The sermon also addresses the challenging question of why God allows suffering and evil in the world. The speaker emphasizes the foundational truth that God is good, even in the face of these challenges. The sermon references the book of Nahum and the 73rd psalm to further explore these themes.

Tonight, let's turn to the book of Nahum. Again, just three chapters long and they're even short chapters. And so, we should have a relatively short Bible study tonight in Nahum. He introduces the subject of the prophecy in the first verse, and that is the burden of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. For many years, the records of Assyria were so obliterated that the Bible critics used to say that those references to Assyria were only made up. And that Assyria did not exist except in the imagination of the writers. But as the Bible critics so often have proved to be wrong, in this case, it was also so. Those brilliant men who laughed and scoffed at the Bible and led many people into unbelief because of the dispersions that they cast upon the veracity of God's Word, were proved themselves to be wrong in more recent archaeological discoveries in which they have discovered, actually, the great city of Nineveh. It is all that the Bible said it was, a huge city, perhaps one of the greatest of the ancient world. Sargon, one of the kings mentioned in the Bible for so long, a matter of scoffing by the Bible critics. The whole annals were found as they uncovered his palace and the records of Sargon. And again, the Bible comes out true, smelling like a rose, and the phony scholars come out as they are, just a bunch of phony eggheads. As Shakespeare said, man, poor man, so ignorant in that which he knows best. So it is the burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkishite. Now, we are not helped with Nahum as far as identity any place else in the Bible. This is the only place he appears. However, as we read the book of Nahum, it is obvious that he was writing about the same time as did Micah and Isaiah, during the reign of Hezekiah. Because in chapter two, he makes reference to the blasphemies of the Rabaxa, who came as the spokesman for the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser, or Shenicoreb. And he makes mention of these blasphemies of Rabaxa, which took place during the time that Hezekiah was king. So we can place the prophecies of Nahum around 713 BC, during the time that Hezekiah was reigning in Jerusalem. Elkishite is thought by most Bible scholars to be a reference to the little city of Elkosh, which was around the Sea of Galilee. And most of the scholars conclude that Nahum came from the region of Galilee. Now there is a city where Jesus spent most of his ministry on the Sea of Galilee, and it's called Capernaum. And, or we say Capernaum, but Capernaum means the city of Nahum. And so it is thought by many that that is perhaps where Nahum came from, and the city Capernaum actually took its name from the fact that this is where the prophet had originated. Capernaum. Enough for the background. The message is that of God's judgment that is going to come against Nineveh and against the Assyrian Empire. A hundred years plus earlier, Jonah had been called to Nineveh. But the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, and Nineveh was spared for another hundred and fifty years or so. But now God is proclaiming the judgment that is going to come against Nineveh and against Assyria, and it is to fall not to rise again. He begins his message against Assyria by declaring, God is jealous. In Zechariah, again we read that God is jealous. The first commandment was, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Now, we, in trying to understand God, can only understand him in human terms. And even at that, we fail to understand completely. Jesus said to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jews, if I speak to you of earthly things and you cannot understand them, how could I ever speak to you of heavenly things? Now, there are things in heaven of which we don't even have words. We don't even have mental concepts. God being infinite could not be defined, described, or even brought into our minds except just in part and by human terminology. How can we describe the vastness of God, the character of God, the greatness of God? All we have are human words. But surely all of them come short of really describing God. So we must use human terms to describe God. And thus, jealousy is a human term. But it is a term that is used to describe how that God does not want your affection to be going to any other idol, any other God, any other ideal. Now, every man has a God, even the man who claims to be an atheist. For a person's God is the master passion that governs his life. And whatever is the master passion governing your life is your God. But God doesn't want any other master passion governing your life. He wants to be the master passion of your life. And if you allow anything else to be as a substitute for Him, He's displeased. His displeasure is described in our human term of jealousy. However, with God there's a whole different motive than when we think of jealousy from the human term. For thinking of jealousy from the human term, I become jealous because my territory is being threatened. And jealousy in a human term usually has a selfishness behind it. And it is listed as one of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5. But because this is the term we have to use to describe God's displeasure, if you have any other master passion or love that is dominating your life, we have to use the term. But God, in the use of the term concerning God, is His displeasure is because of His tremendous love for you. And He knows that you can't come into what is the best for you as long as you are following after some other ideal or God. And so in the use of the term, we must not think of it in the purely human use of the term, which is a jealousy because my territory is being threatened. But God is jealous for you because God loves you so much, He wants nothing but the best for your life, and He knows that if you have any other love or passion above Him, you're going to come in second. You're not going to achieve or attain that which is best for you. And God's desires towards us, as He declares, are always good. Purpose and the intent of God for your life is good. God is jealous and the Lord revenges. Now, God does take vengeance. He declares, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, there is a day of judgment coming. You cannot sin with impunity against God and think that you'll never have to answer for it. God does not always bring justice swiftly, for the Lord is very patient, very long-suffering, very kind. But, many people have misunderstood or mistaken the long-suffering of God as weakness and they feel that God will not judge. Not so. God will judge and He will bring vengeance and retribution upon those sinners who do not repent and do not turn to Him. Now, He is describing God's attitude towards this wicked, horribly wicked city of Nineveh that is filled with occult practices, fierce, cruel, inhumane people. The Lord is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries and He reserves wrath for His enemies. As we read in Hebrews, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. Now, there are those who object to thinking of God at all in the terms of judgment or vengeance or wrath or anger and they like to think of God only in terms of love. It is true that God is love, that there is no other love in the universe that can compare with God's love. We cannot even understand God's love. It is so far deeper and richer and more complete than anything we experience on the human level. In a sense, I have a loving nature, but because of my loving nature, I can get very stirred up if those that I love very deeply are threatened, if my children, if my wife are threatened. Though I am, by nature, a loving person, yet I can change in a hurry when there is a threatening situation that would be threatening those that I love so much. This morning, my son-in-law and I, as we were coming out to church and we were talking about this little girl who was kidnapped yesterday, a little nine-year-old girl. And, of course, so fresh in our mind is this little six-year-old girl up in Pasadena who was so brutally murdered. And always, it seems, you sort of transfer that over to your own child. What if that was my little girl? God said vengeance is His, but I'll tell you, if I would ever catch someone molesting my girls or my granddaughters or whatever, I'm afraid I would not wait for God to take vengeance. As my son-in-law said, they ought to be shot on the spot when they're caught. And I said, I'd be happy to be the trigger man. It's not because I'm not a loving person. It's because I do love that I am upset that anyone would harm or threaten those that I do love. I love you very much. And some wolf come in and try and rip off the flock, I'll tell you, they'd have a David as a shepherd to contend with. Love is not weak. God is not weak. Yes, God is love, but He is also a just and holy God who will bring judgment against sin. And though the judgment may, it seemed, tarry, you can be sure that God will avenge the evil. The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind. Now he goes into some very descriptive, picturesque kind of poetic speech. He has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. The clouds are the dust of His feet. What a picturesque phrase, you know, as you came to church tonight and saw those clouds and all and the dust of God's feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dryeth up all the rivers. Basham languisheth and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. He can create a drought if He so desires. The mountains quake at Him and the hills melt and the earth is burned at His presence. Yea, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can abide the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by Him. Describing the activities of God in a very picturesque way. But in the middle of this declaration of God's judgment, He then declares, and it stands out in such contrast. He's just talking about God throwing down the rocks and God being a fire and burning and hills melting and who can stand before His indignation. And suddenly He just declares, the Lord is good. That is a basic foundation of theology that we must all of us incorporate into our own understanding. God is good. If you don't know anything else, know that God is good. It's important that you know that. And that is something that I accept by faith. Believing the Word of God, I accept by faith that God is good because not always would my circumstances indicate that God was good. And Satan is constantly assailing the truth of the goodness of God. And so often, as I'm looking at adverse situations, I'm prone to say, if God is so good, then why is this happening? And don't you hear that so very often from people? If God is good, why are there so many people starving in Cambodia? If God is good, why does He allow this to happen in the world? Why does He allow a little nine-year-old girl to be kidnapped? If God is good, and there are always those challenges to the goodness of God that are thrown at us, Satan is always challenging that truth. And thus, I need to have that truth deeply, firmly ingrained within me. God is good. That I know. There is a very interesting psalm, it's about the 73rd psalm, where the psalmist begins by the declaration, Truly, the Lord is good unto Israel and unto all those that fear Him. And he begins that psalm with that basic premise. But then he said, as for me, man, when I tried to understand the world around me, I was almost wiped out. My foot almost slipped. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked, and I saw how well they got along, and I looked at my own problems and everything else, and here I'm trying to serve God, I'm trying to have a clean heart, I've tried to do the right thing, and everybody's just pushing me down, and I'm in trouble. And here are these guys cheating, lying, stealing, blaspheming, and they seem to have no problems at all. Everything seems to fall in line for them. And when I sought to know this, he said, it was too painful for me. I almost was wiped out. And Satan can really play games with your mind, especially in regards to the goodness of God. He challenges that continually. The psalmist said, I was almost wiped out when I tried to understand it. He said, until I went into the sanctuary of God. And then he said, I saw their end. I was jealous of the wicked. I was jealous of the ungodly man. It seems he has everything. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and then what happened? His vision was corrected. In the sanctuary of God, that nearsightedness was corrected, and he began to get the long view of things. You see, the goodness of God is that which is always challenged by our nearsightedness. When we are only looking at the immediate things that surround us, it is then that I'm prone to challenge the goodness of God. Things are going bad for me today. If God is so good, how come things are going so bad today? And you see, it's today, and it's my hurt right now, and it's the pain I feel right now. And I don't look down the road. I'm only looking at that which is right in front of my face. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I began to get things in perspective, and I began to get the eternal view, and the sight of eternity comes into view, and somehow in that eternal view, things begin to balance out. That's our problem, is that we don't have the long-term view, and we get confused, and Satan can really upset us. But how many of those things, as you look back in your own life, that you thought were disasters, now as you look at them, you can see the hand of God and realize how important they were for your development, or how important they were even for your future. God put me in some places in the ministry that you just can't believe. I mean, it was just plain tough. Preaching your heart out to 25 people, and making half of them mad, and they don't show up the next Sunday. People decide to get rid of the pastor by starving him out, withholding their tithes. And in those situations, down on my knees before God, their question and the challenging of the goodness of God, God, if you're so good, why do I have all these problems? Why did you put me here, God, in this place with these people? And yet, now as I look back on it, oh, the invaluable lessons that God was teaching me. How important those lessons that I learned. I could not have the ministry that God has given to me today, had I not gone through those experiences. There were things that God had to work out of my own life before he could really use me effectively. Effectively. And though I cried, and though I just went through torture mentally, yet as I look back now, I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. For the lessons and the value that they brought to me, as God was working, though I could not see it, and I could not understand it. Now I look back and I say, oh, the Lord was so good to me, but I sure didn't think so at the time. I thought he had forgotten me, forsaken me, and yet God is good. I need to remember that. Don't forget that. And all things work together for good to those who love God. Not only is God good, the prophet said he is a stronghold in the day of trouble. God doesn't promise that you're never going to have trouble. In the book of Job it said, as sparks fly upward, so man was born for trouble. Now I don't know of anybody who hasn't had trouble sometime in their life. Trouble is just a part of life itself. In Psalms we read, 34, many are the afflictions of the righteous. Now somehow we think because we're righteous we should never have any afflictions. Everything should go well. After all, I love God and I'm trying to do the right thing. Everybody should love me and treat me nice. Nothing evil should ever happen to me because I love God and I'm wanting to serve God and I'm wanting to please God. Therefore, everything should always be wonderful and beautiful around me. Well, it wasn't so with Jesus, was it? And Jesus said, hey, if I being your Lord and they haven't received me, they've persecuted me, the servant's not greater than he's. They're not going to receive you. They're not going to open up and accept you with open arms. The world is going to hate you because you love me. You're going to have trouble. But whenever trouble comes, the Lord is a stronghold. I've got a place I can run. I've got a place where I can find strength. I've got a place where I can be protected. The Lord is a stronghold to those that are in trouble. The thing is, if you're not a child of God, when trouble comes, you have no place to go. But the child of God always has a refuge. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. And then he declares he knows them that trust in him. God knows those that are trusted. God knows you. Isn't that great? God knows me. Not only does he know me, and of course this is just boggling to my own mind, and it is just again that gap between the finite and the infinite and the ability for inability of us to really bridge it. But God not only knows me, he's thinking about me constantly. And that just blows my mind. That God would be constantly thinking about me. David said, and if I should number thy thoughts concerning me, they are more than the sands of the sea. How I love to go down to the beach and just take and pick up sand and let it run through my hands and watch the little grains make a little pile on the beach there. And as I do, I think every one of those grains of sand is a thought that God is thinking of me. Fabulous. And then I look up the beach and I see all those grains of sand. And I, oh God, who can fathom your love and your wisdom and your glory that you should think of me. How many grains of sand are there in the earth? Someone has estimated there's 10 to the 25th power. That's an awful lot of thinking. It'd take an infinite God to have that many thoughts. God is thinking about you. God knows you. God knows the situations that you're in. God knows the trials that you have. God knows the problems that you face. And really, that's all that I need to be reminded of when I'm in trouble and I start to despair. All someone has to say is, hey, don't worry, Chuck. God knows all about it. Oh, thank you. I needed that. God knows the way of the righteous. His ears are open to their cry. Now he goes right back to talk about the judgment of God that's coming upon the Ninevites. He gives this little word of encouragement to the people of God. You know, you're going to see some real problems. The Assyrian forces are going to come and they're going to encircle the city and you're going to see God do a work of vengeance upon them. But don't worry. God is good. He knows those who trust in him. But with an overrunning flood, he'll make another end of the place thereof. And darkness will pursue his enemies. What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end. Affliction shall not rise up the second time for a while. They won't come back again. They're going to get wiped out for a while. They be folded together as thorns. And while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble, fully dry. Very interesting prophecy. For when we finally did uncover the history of Assyria, we found that Assyria, that great city, or Nineveh, the great city, the capital of Assyria, was destroyed by a confederacy of the Medes and the Babylonians. And they got together and they came against the great city of Nineveh. And as they came against the city of Nineveh, the army of Nineveh came out against them and on three occasions just really wiped them out, defeated them thoroughly. They retreated and regrouped and came back again. And after the third time that the army of Nineveh had defeated this invading confederacy of the Medes and the Babylonians, the soldiers celebrating their great victory over this invading army went out and went on a big drunken orgy, just celebrating their victory. And while they were drunk, the forces of the Medes and the Babylonians regrouped, attacked again and caught them in that drunken state and wiped them out. For why they be folded together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. And that portion of Nahum's prophecy was literally fulfilled as the forces of Nineveh were destroyed outside of the city of Nineveh. They still had to take the city of Nineveh, but this is a prophecy of the battle outside. In verse 11, he is making this reference to the Rabakshak who came with his blasphemous letter from Shenicorib blaspheming the God in whom the Israelites were trusting. There is one that has come out of thee that imagines evil against the Lord. He is a wicked counselor. And thus saith the Lord, though they be quiet and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. The angel of the Lord passed through and 185,000 of them were cut down. For now will I break his yoke from off thee and will burst thy bonds in sunder. So the siege that the Assyrians had against Jerusalem was broken when God passed through and destroyed their forces. And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee that no more of thy name be sown out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image and I will make thy grave for thou art vile. Now he leaves the immediate scene and his prophecy goes into the future on even future from our present day into the glorious day of the kingdom of God. Behold upon the mountains, the feet of him that brings good tidings that publishes peace. Now the immediate prophecy was when Nineveh falls, oh, how great will be the tidings of the messengers that come running with the news that Nineveh has been destroyed. The world will rejoice, but yet it is in its secondary sense, a prophecy of the future. And you remember Isaiah made a similar prophecy in the 57th chapter. I believe it is, uh, no, 52nd chapter, verse seven, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings that publishes peace, that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Now Paul quoted from Isaiah in Romans, the 10th chapter, as he's talking about, uh, whosoever should, uh, let's see, he's talking about, um, how that, uh, how shall they, uh, believe except they hear. How shall they hear except someone preach? How shall they preach except they be sent as the scripture says, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those that bring good tidings of peace. So Paul quotes that in Romans, the, uh, 12th chapter. Now Isaiah and Nahum lived about the same time. And these verses are quite similar, uh, as the, as Isaiah is talking of the future age and Nahum of the destruction of Nineveh and the, uh, glorious news that will come. Oh, Judah, keep thy solemn feast. Israel of course has already perished. They've already been destroyed by Assyria. Perform thy vows for the wicked shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cut off. The Assyrians aren't going to come back again. They've been utterly cut off. Of course, later on, the Babylonians came under Nebuchadnezzar and did destroy Jerusalem. But as far as the Assyrians, they're utterly cut off. Have any of you met an Assyrian lately? They've been cut off. And now he is describing the siege of Assyria by the Babylonian and Mede confederacy, referring to these men as those that dash in pieces. He that dashes in pieces is come up before thy face. Keep your fortress, watch the way, make your loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. For the Lord has turned away the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel for the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches. The shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. This is describing now the Babylonian Mede army. And there are some people who say that the Bible predicts the automobile age and they use these scriptures as such. But that's sort of a far flung. You know, I don't I don't go along with that, but it's interesting. He says the chariots shall be with flaming torches, the headlights of the cars in the day of his preparation and the fir tree shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets. That is the modern freeways. And they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways. They shall seem like torches. They shall run like the lightning. Now you have to admit that it's pretty good description of the automobile, but surely that was not the intention of the prophet. But he was talking about the chariots of the Babylonians and of the Medes that would be going through the streets of Nineveh and bringing destruction to Nineveh. He shall recount his worthies. They shall stumble in their walk. They shall make haste to the wall thereof and the defense shall be prepared. The gates of the river shall be open and the palace shall be dissolved. Now, another fascinating prophecy, for as you read the historical account. Though they were besieging the walls of Nineveh, yet they were unable to penetrate. But there came a tremendous storm. Several inches of rain fell in a short period of time and the Tigris River that flowed through the city of Nineveh came into flood stage. And the flooding of the Tigris River undermined the foundations of the walls. And a great portion of the walls of Nineveh were destroyed by the flooded Tigris River. And before they could rebuild the walls, of course, as soon as the flood receded, the armies came through the breach made in the walls by the floods. And again, the gates of the river shall be open and the palace shall be dissolved. The foundations were dissolved. Of course, the king went into his treasuries with all of the wealth and all of his kingdom and he torched himself and his treasury. But of course, they just took the melded gold and silver then from it. Haseb means and that which is determined or that which is destined shall be led away captive. She shall be brought up as her maid shall lead her as with the voice of doves as they are smiting on their breast. But Nineveh is of all like a pool of water. Yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, they shall cry, but none will look back. A panic will take hold. The people will begin to run and the others will call, come on, stand, stand, but panic will have overtaken them and they will flee. And of course, you read the historical record and you find that's what happened. Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store. Tremendous wealth was gained by the Babylonians and the Medes in the conquest of Nineveh, for there is no end of the store and the glory out of all of the pleasant furniture. She is empty and void and waste and the heart melts and the knees smite together and there is much pain in all the loins and the faces of them all gather blackness. Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions? Where the lion, even the old lion, walked in the lion's whelp and none made them afraid? Where is that city of Nineveh that was like a lion conquering all? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled for his lionesses, and he filled his holes with prey and his dens with raven. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, I will burn her chariots in the smoke and the sword shall devour thy young and I will cut off thy prey from the earth and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. Rabbishek and those other messengers cut off forever. Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery and the prey departs not. The noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels and the prancing of the horses and of the jumping chariots. I suppose that would have been helicopters. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses and there is no end of their corpses. They stumble upon their corpses because of the multitude of thy whoredoms and God now giving the reason why Nineveh was to be destroyed of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcraft, the sorceries, the witchcrafts, the occult practices that went on in Nineveh that sell nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. I will discover thy skirts upon thy face and I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and I will set thee as a gazing stock. And it shall come to pass that all that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her whence shall I seek comforters for thee? Remember, Nineveh was a great city when at the time of Jonah, the city at that time was three days journey. In other words, starting at one end of the city and walking through it would take you three days. There were at the time of Jonah, 60,000 babies too young to know their right hand from their left hand. So the population of Nineveh was probably somewhere around the million mark in extremely large city. And yet the judgment of God is to come there to be laid waste. And now the Lord says, Are you better than the pop? You think you're going to escape the judgment of God? Are you better than the populace? No. Now this no would be no amen in Egypt, which was destroyed. It was called Thebes by the Greeks, which was situated among the rivers up in the Nile River, about 400 miles from Cairo water surrounding it. The rampart was the sea or wall was from the sea, even though Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, the city of Thebes. And even though Libya joined in her defense, yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men. And all of her great men were bound in chains. Thou also shall be drunken. Thou shall be hid. Thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy. And all thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs. If they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women. The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies. We made reference how that the city walls were destroyed by the flood. And then the fire shall devour thy bars. When they took the city of Nineveh, then they torched it and left it with just ashes. And so again, this prophecy, the fire shall devour thy bars. Now prepare for the invasion, draw water for the siege, fortify your strongholds, go into the clay and tread in the mortar, make strong the brick kiln. There shall be, there shall the fire devour thee. The sword shall cut thee off. It shall eat thee up like a canker worm or like a locust. Make thyself many as the locust make themselves many. And thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The canker worm spoileth and then flies away. Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy captains are as the grasshoppers which camp in the hedges in a cold day. But when the sun arises, they flee away. So the captains and the leaders are going to flee and their place is not known where they are. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust. Thy people are scattered upon the mountains and no man will gather them. There is no healing of thy bruise. Thy wound is grievous. All that hear the brute of thee shall clap their hands over thee or upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually. So God's final declaration, and this is quite awesome, there is no healing of thy bruise. Your wound is grievous. There's no answer. There's no solution. You've gone too far. How terrible when God declares of a man's condition, it's incurable. How terrible when God said as he did to Jeremiah, Ephraim is joined to her idols, let her alone. When God said, don't pray anymore for their good, for if you do, I will not hear you. When God declares the condition irreparable. Assyria was one of the cruelest empires in history. The Assyrians were sadists. They maimed and tortured their captives. They would oftentimes pull out the tongues, cut off the ears or the noses or the hands or gouge out the eyes of their prisoners of war. Extremely cruel. It was a deliberate cruelness to strike terror in the hearts of their enemies. And it worked. The world was terrified of Assyria for Assyria ruled the world, so to speak, for over a century with her cruelty, with her viciousness. So that when the news that Nineveh has been destroyed, left desolate, is nothing but an ash heap, the Assyrians have been slaughtered. When the news comes through the world, people will clap their hands for joy. There will be no grieving for the fall of Nineveh because of their exceeding wickedness. And so God's witness against the Assyrian Empire, against its capital Nineveh, and through Nahum, remarkable prophecies that have been completely and literally fulfilled. How could Nahum write of its destruction by the troops becoming drunk and being taken by surprise? How could he write of the wall being destroyed by the river? How could he write of the city being left in ashes? Except that God was directing his pen. As the scripture said, holy men of old wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. And again, these remarkable prophecies of Nahum are a testimony of the authorship of the Bible being none other than God. Man could not have written this account in advance and had it come to pass so completely. Again, just another strong proof that all scripture has been written by inspiration of God. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for thy word and thy faithfulness and thy righteousness even in judgment. And Father, even as your judgment came against the Ninevites, who had established themselves as your enemies, so we realize that your judgment will one day come against all who have dared to stand against thee. Thank you, Father, for loving us, for drawing us to yourself. Thank you, Father, for your goodness to those who put their trust in you. Thank you, Lord, for the help that you give to us in our days of trouble and that we can just rely upon you, Lord, and know your help through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Now, Father, hide thy word in our hearts. Impress upon us thy goodness that we might go, Lord, in thy name to declare thy goodness to a needy world, that we might be the emissaries going out into the world with the good tidings of the gospel of peace, bringing good news to men of the provision that God has made to forgive man their sins. Lord, may we be faithful heralds of thy truth in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord watch over you as you go. May his hand be upon your life for good. May the Lord bless you and strengthen you and fill you with his Holy Spirit, that you might walk in his love, that you might be an instrument through which he works his work of love in a world that is filled with hate and suspicion. May your life be as a light shining in a dark place, bringing hope to those who sit in darkness in Jesus' name.