The Twelve Minor Prophets: Nahum
Dr. James Smith
Nahum
16 October 2005
Listen to this sermon.
The Book of Nahum is one of those Old Testament prophetic books that has been consistently overlooked by both Jews and Christians for centuries. In fact, I would not be surprised if many Christians didn't even know it existed.
There are a number of reasons why this short book of 47 verses has been relatively ignored for centuries, but the short end of it is that it is a hard book to take.
Once commentator has observed its frenzied audiovisual descriptive style that gives us a terrifying glimpse of a dying city that is subjected to looting, plundering and massacre.
It is neither a fun nor particularly uplifting book and is filled with ethical dilemmas that many Jews and Christians of the modern world find both appalling as well as repugnant.
This is probably why, mainline Protestant churches do not include the Book of Nahum in their Common Lectionary of Scriptural passages that are to be read and preached on in their churches.
I confess, that I cant remember when I last read this book and I dont think that I have ever made any kind of systematic study into it, until this past week.
But I will say, that I was absolutely amazed by its so called, frenzied audiovisuals and while Im not exactly sure what to do with it, as an evangelical, I believe that it is Gods word not only for His people long ago, but for us as well today.
We do not know much about Nahum, our prophet-poet other than that his name means, comfort or consolation. And we are not entirely sure of the exact location of his hometown of Elkosh, other than it appears to have been located in southwest Judah.
If Nahum's name means comfort, than any consolation offered by his short book of just 3 chapters is reserved exclusively for Gods people who had suffered under Assyrian domination.
The Assyrians as you may know, were a brutal and militaristic people who conquered much of the ancient near eastern world and absorbed countless nations and peoples into their growing empire in 7th & 8th centuries B.C.
They were notoriously cruel and dealt harshly with those who dared to resist them.
Decapitating leaders and piling their severed heads at prominent town gates, flaying men alive, impaling foreign soldiers (a precursor of crucifixion), smashing infants upon the rocks and leading whole populations into exile were common tactics of terror employed by them.
The Northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed and exiled by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. while the Southern kingdom of Judah had been greatly reduced in size and struggled for its very survival.
And it was in this tradition of Assyrian carnage that Nahum spoke a message of comfort to Gods people, that is, the Assyrian Empire would come to an end and its capital city of Nineveh would be reduced to ruins.
The book of Nahum begins with a beautiful acrostic poem that depicts God as an awesome warrior who would deliver Judah from the hands of its enemies.
Each sentence in the first 8 verses of Nahum begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet or our English equivalent of the letters A-K. We find such acrostics frequently in the Psalms and other Biblical wisdom literature.
Here we find God, the divine warrior battling against the enemies of His people as well as the utter futility in trying to frustrate His designs and purposes in human history.
And we should remember that ancient near eastern monarchies claimed a close association between the king and their deities who endorsed their rule.
In chapter 1, the gods of Assyria, who supposedly protected the Assyrian king and his people are called carved images and cast idols. They are impotent and unable to stand against the God of Israel.
Few of us can truly comprehend the horror of ancient and even medieval sieges; the clashing of swords, the screams of the dying, the terror and the hatred. Modern movies such as Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings trilogy offer sobering glimpses into the horror of it all.
Chapter 2 offers the imagery of a successful siege against a town or city by a foreign army. Here Nahum uses vivid pictures and images to depict the Assyrian capital of Nineveh under siege and its hopes that it will not be destroyed and its people exiled as it had done to so many other nations and peoples.
But such resistance is futile, since the God of Israel is fighting against it. Nahum reminds his readers, that this is the end of Nineveh.
Lions appeared often in Assyrian royal art as a symbol of its might and strength, but Nahum turns the image on its head and we are offered a picture of God hunting down and killing an entire pride of lions.
Furthermore, the lion was frequently associated with the goddess Ishtar who was linked to war as well as human sexuality.
Here at the end of chapter 2 and into chapter 3, Nahum very well may be alluding to this goddess and associating her with the evils and degradation of prostitution.
Nineveh is a prostitute whom God will publicly humiliate and shame and there would be no one to mourn her when she was destroyed in 612 B.C.
The Book of Nahum is a unique poetic and prophetic work whose imagery is powerful and its beauty, undeniable.
If this had been some ancient text that archeologists had dug up, scholars could study it, appreciate its artistic merits as well helping us as modern people better understand the attitudes and understandings of those times.
And then we could safely place the text in glass and display it at a museum, but the fact of the matter is that it is part of Gods word and is not a museum show-piece.
The Book of Nahum reminds us of those instructive sayings like the bigger they are, the harder they fall, the Spanish proverb, Everyone makes firewood of a fallen tree and those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
Human history is littered with the ruins of human empires built on bloodshed, greed, inequity and sin.
Surprised by an invitation by the great Sir Winston Churchill, the young Billy Graham obeyed the summons to #10 Downing Street in 1954.
Churchill who had led Britain through the horrors of WWII, asked the young American evangelist point blank, Do you have any hope for the world? Graham replied simply, Mr. Prime Minister, I am filled with hope.
Churchill said, I am an old man without hope for the world, while Graham said, Life is very exciting even if there is war, because I know what is going to happen in the future.
And from there, Billy Graham shared the good news of Jesus Christ with one of the greatest men of the 20th century. He spoke of the birth of Christ, His life and ministry and the meaning of His death, resurrection and ascension.
After 40 minutes, Sir Winston Churchill stood up and declared, I do not see much hope for the future unless it is the kind of hope that you are talking about, young man. We must have a return to God.
The Book of Nahum graphically reminds us God is alive and well and very active in human history. He has a plan and a purpose for humanity and that through the eyes and experience of faith, all fatalism, cynicism and hopelessness have no place in Gods economy.
Indeed, war is hell, but God is all our hope and all our salvation.
Let's Pray
