IMMERSED IN WOE

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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
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