Nahum 1:1-15

     Nahum had received a vision of God’s judgment concerning the Assyrians who had been afflicting Judah (Nah 1:1). In the vision, God is revealed as jealous, avenging, wrathful, slow to anger, and all powerful, and will not leave the guilty Assyrians unpunished for their violent behavior to His people (Nah 1:2-3a). This would have been good news to the Judahites who had suffered for many years under Assyria’s cruelty. In picturesque language, Nahum describes God’s greatness, saying, “clouds are the dust beneath His feet” (Nah 1:3b), and He causes seas and rivers to dry up and beautiful lands to wither (Nah 1:4), and mountains and hills to shake at his presence (Nah 1:5). Nahum then asks, “Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by Him” (Nah 1:6). The implication is that God is big enough to accomplish what He declares. In contrast to the Assyrians, whom He will destroy, Nahum reveals, “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him” (Nah 1:7). The humbled Judahites would have been encouraged by this. But, to the arrogant Assyrians, God was going to pursue and destroy them. Though human enemies usually stopped the battle at sunset because they could not see to engage the enemy, God is not hindered by such obstacles, and promises to “pursue His enemies into darkness” (Nah 1:8b). Whatever Nineveh may devise against the Lord, He will bring an end to it (Nah 1:9), and will consume them completely in destruction (Nah 1:10). Nahum seems to allude to an historical event in which Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sent one of his wicked counselors, Rabshakeh, against Jerusalem to destroy it (Nah 1:11; cf. 2 Ki 18:13-37). However, because king Hezekiah humbled himself and sought the Lord, God rescued the city and destroyed the Assyrian army (2 Ki 19:1-37). Just as God had defeated the Assyrians once before, he would defeat them again, even though “they are at full strength” (Nah 1:12a). And, though God had afflicted Judah because of their sin, He promises, “Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer” (Nah 1:12b). Assyrian oppression would come to an end, and God says to Judah, “I will break his yoke bar from upon you, and I will tear off your shackles” (Nah 1:13). But concerning Assyria, the Lord states, “Your name will no longer be perpetuated. I will cut off idol and image from the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible” (Nah 1:14). God controls and judges the Gentile nations of the world and sometimes brings about their downfall directly (i.e. Sodom and Gomorrah), and other times through the agency of other nations. This would be the case with the Assyrians, as God would destroy them completely through a military alliance of the Babylonians and Medes. “So complete was its destruction that when Xenophon passed by the site about 200 years later, he thought the mounds were the ruins of some other city. And Alexander the Great, fighting in a battle nearby, did not realize that he was near the ruins of Nineveh.”[1] Assyria’s destruction would be “good news” because it meant peace for Judah, who could then celebrate their feasts without fear of attack, for their enemy had been “completely cut off” (Nah 1:15).

 

[1] Elliott E. Johnson, “Nahum,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1499.