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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder,
never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping
horses and jolting chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering
spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling
over the corpses—all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the
mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by
her witchcraft.”
“I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will
lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the
kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle. All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh
is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”
“Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with
water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. Cush and
Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies. Yet
she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at
every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were
put in chains.”
“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the
enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when
they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your
troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your
enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen
your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the
fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a
swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have
increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the
stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your
guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in
the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one
knows where.”
“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie
down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather
them. Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about
you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”
Nahum 3
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
The Ninevites had tasted the sweetness of redemption.
They knew what it was like to be on the brink of annihilation and pulled out of
it into a place of safety. They had experienced the merciful nature of a second
chance.
You remember this, right?
You have to go back to our recent study of Jonah. It was
then that God had ordered Jonah to bring a message to the Ninevites, a message
of the judgment that was soon to come upon them. To refresh your memory, here was
the simple message:
“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Jonah 3:4b
The scriptures in Jonah 3 tell us the reaction of the
Ninevites was one of immediate belief in the warning Jonah had given. They
believed God would and could do exactly what they had heard and so they
collectively began an effort to stave off the coming consequences for their
sinfulness, an effort which looked like this:
A fast was proclaimed,
and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
When Jonah’s
warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his
royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is
the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of
the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste
anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered
with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil
ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn
from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:5-9
Indeed, even the king of Nineveh believed God would do
what Jonah was prophesying. But He also believed other things he had heard
about Israel’s God for note he thought there was a chance God might change His
mind, relent from what He intended to do, and spare them from His fierce anger
through compassion.
And so the Ninevite people did what the king commanded
and, in return, God did reward them for their repentance, opting to not bring
them the punishment He had intended to bring (Jonah 3:10).
Now, you would think that any intelligent person would
have made sure they never placed themselves in that position again, in a
position where they had angered God so much that He would raise utter
destruction and devastation against them. But as we see in today’s final
chapter and the closing words in the Book of Nahum, the Ninevites did just that
and this time, there would be no opportunity for a reprieve. Look again at
these words here:
“Woe to the city
of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of
whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging
cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead,
bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—all because of the
wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved
nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.”
“I am against
you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I
will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt
you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. All
who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for
her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”
“Are you better
than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her
defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put
and Libya were among her allies. Yet she was taken captive and
went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots
were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”
“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the
enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when
they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your
troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your
enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen
your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the
fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a
swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have
increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the
stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your
guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in
the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one
knows where.”
“King of Assyria,
your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered
on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound
is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for
who has not felt your endless cruelty?” Nahum
3
How far had Nineveh fallen back into evil, wicked ways
since God’s pardon?
They had hit rock bottom.
The scriptures detail their transgressions as they
assailed and assaulted other nations. Those transgressions included murderous bloodshed,
deceitfulness, thievery, prostitution, slavery, sorcery, and witchcraft. It was
a laundry list of travesties committed against God and others, and as we see by
His own words, God was not going to stand for it any longer:
“I am against
you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I
will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt
you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. All
who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for
her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”
“Are you better
than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her
defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put
and Libya were among her allies. Yet she was taken captive and
went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots
were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”
“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the
enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when
they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your
troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your
enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen
your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the
fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a
swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have
increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the
stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your
guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in
the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one
knows where.”
“King of Assyria,
your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered
on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound
is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for
who has not felt your endless cruelty?”
All God really had to say was that He was against Nineveh
and the nation, Assyria, of which it was the capital city. But we get a sense
here that Nineveh was going to hear the full extent of what He was planning on
doing. Unlike the warning from Jonah, God was going to say more than a simple
one sentence statement. Here’s what He promised:
1. Exposure.
“I will lift your
skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms
your shame.”
The people of Nineveh would be treated like the spiritual
prostitutes and adulterers that they were and the penalty often imposed on
prostitutes and adulteresses was to have them lift their skirts up over their
faces in a form of public shaming. In the case of Assyria and Nineveh, their
naked vulnerability would be exposed to the surrounding nations and kingdoms,
many of which they had attacked in the past.
2. Humiliation.
“I will pelt you
with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.”
Imagine being exposed in public and people throwing trash
of all kinds at you. A quick glimpse inside my trash can here at the house
showed me things I don’t think I would want to be covered in.
As part of God’s penalty, the Ninevites were going to be embarrassed
to the nth degree and made a spectacle of in the worst possible fashion.
3. Isolation
“All who see you
will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where
can I find anyone to comfort you?”
Once in God’s judgment, Assyria and Nineveh will be on
their own. After all, would you even want yourself to look like you had any affiliation
with them? You might get included in God’s Judgment-palooza.
And so the Ninevites would not be able to find anyone who
would be feeling sorry for them, no one to mourn their losses at the hands of
God, and no one to bring her comfort during the terrible judgment they would
endure.
4. Defenseless.
“Are you better
than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her
defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put
and Libya were among her allies. Yet she was taken captive and
went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots
were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”
“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the
enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when
they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your
troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your
enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen
your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the
fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a
swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have
increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the
stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your
guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in
the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one
knows where.”
Assyria and its capital city of Nineveh had seemed to be
bulletproof. They were the aggressors and no one dared come against them. The
fiercest fighting forces belonged to them and their fortresses were all impregnable,
that is against conventional foes but God was no conventional foe. Not by a
long shot.
God reminded the Ninevites about other groups who thought
they were safe and secure, bringing up Thebes which was located on the Nile.
They had the waters as a line of defense and allies in other nations like Cush,
Egypt, Put, and Libya. And yet, Thebes fell and fell hard. Her people were
taken captive and into exile. Many of her people perished to include the children
and those who survived were made slaves, even the greatest of the citizens.
Assyria and Nineveh would experience the same as they
found themselves besieged with nowhere to run. Even their best efforts to
prepare for the coming assault would prove fruitless and enemy forces would
overrun them, consuming them with fire and slaying by the sword. This would be
followed by captivity and exile as God dispersed the Assyrians and Ninevites
like a swarm of locusts might fly away to places unknown after they have done
their damage on crops.
The bottom line was that Assyria and Nineveh would have
no protection or security from God who they had chosen to oppose.
5. Helplessness and hopelessness.
“King of Assyria,
your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered
on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound
is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for
who has not felt your endless cruelty?”
Defenselessness will give way to helplessness which in
turn will result in hopelessness. We see this in many places in the scriptures
when God brings His judgment on a people and Syria and Nineveh are no
different.
God gives us a snapshot of this as He addresses Assyria’s
once mighty king who after being defeated was left with no one to lead or
shepherd his people who were scattered all over the place, even on the
mountains, with no one to hear them. The depth of the assault on the once proud
and mighty kingdom had left it with a fatal would, one that would no one could
heal. And no one would have any sympathy for Assyria or Nineveh. Rather, surrounding
nations would applaud the Assyrian downfall with a sense that they (the
Assyrians and Ninevites) were getting pay back for the way they had shown such
wicked cruelty to others.
Oh how the mighty Assyria and its main city of Nineveh
were about to fall and you could sum their pending plight up in one simple
statement:
They were going to be immersed in woe, for that’s what
happens when anyone decides to blatantly sin against God and others, bringing
on His judgment.
Friends, God’s word in the closing chapter of Nahum is
sending a powerful message and warning to us all. We all would be well served do
ourselves a favor, learn from the mistakes of the Assyrians and Ninevites, and
stay far away from anything that would place us in the crosshairs of God’s
wrath and the judgment that follows.
Trust me when I say we’ll all be glad we did.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel
might be blessed by it.
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