Wednesday - Nahum 3 - The Mistress of Witchcrafts

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ORCERY & magic make anything possible in fairy tales. And, I suppose it is great fun to imagine Cinderella being transformed temporarily into a princess, or Mickey Mouse making a royal mess with his master's magic wand. Here is the truth though. In real life magic is real, but it is never good. There are only 2 sources of spiritual power: God and Satan. Whether it is called sorcery, witchcraft, magic, psychic powers or some other name, any paranormal power that doesn't line up with the Bible is Satanic. Oh, I know that sounds old fashioned, but I don't really care how it sounds. It's true. And, Nineveh was evidently swept away with witchcraft (vs. 4). She was bed buddies with Lucifer. Knowingly or ignorantly, they worshipped Satan. It doesn't matter to the Devil if you call him "Mother Earth" or "Allah" or "The Great Spirit" - as long as you don't worship Jehovah in the name of Jesus Christ, he'll be more than willing to show you his evil power. You can talk all day long about karma and faith and values, this won't bother the Devil at all. But if you start propagating the gospel of Jesus Christ, you'll find a real enemy lickety-split. The everlasting gospel of Christ is the great cure for spiritual oppression.

In Nahum 3 we find a portrait of what happens to a nation and society that follows after the prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11 & Ephesians 2:2). In Nahum 3:1, Nineveh is called "the bloody city... full of lies." In Nahum 3:3, we see a city strewn with the corpses of Satan's followers. The wages of sin has always been death, and always will be too. Nineveh was not the first great city to be overthrown by sin (vs. 8). And, many cities have been swept away by it since. Rebellion weakens the human spirit until the slightest difficulty is enough to bring us down (vs. 12-13). Mammon blinds the human heart and damns the human soul (vs. 16). Our lusts and vices dominate us and kill us in every case. Nineveh was no exception (vs. 19). 

Tuesday - Nahum 2 - Nineveh & New York

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F it weren't for Nahum 2:8 & 13, we might have a tough time figuring out what chapter 2 is all about. But, based upon those verses we can tell that Nahum is speaking about the demise of Nineveh. He uses what seems to me to be an intensely poetic style in this chapter to describe the fall of Nineveh, but the result is plain enough. The same thing that Assyria had done to Israel (Nahum 2:2) was going to be done to Nineveh. And, just like Assyria won as a result of a providential purpose, so also the fall of Nineveh would be the result of God's intervention. The invading Babylonians (Nahum 2:4) and the flood of the Tigris river (Nahum 2:6) were certainly not incidental. Nineveh had made God their enemy. They had owned the truth previously (during the days of Jonah), but by the time Nahum came around, they had forsaken it altogether. Just like Isaiah wrote to his audience, "Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter" (Isaiah 59:14). Nineveh was doomed because Nineveh was wicked.

The only hope for Nineveh lay in their humble acceptance of the absolute authority and exclusivity of the one true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At one point, He had been the God of Nineveh too (see Jonah 3:10). But their rejection of Him and of His truth was complete. Remember, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD..." (Psalm 33:12, 18 & 19), and, "Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34).  That should make us consider the condition of our own nation.

Monday - Nahum 1 - Forgotten Grace

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OME say it was a bit more than a century after Jonah ministered in Nineveh that God issued a declaration of judgment against that great city.  He did it through the mouth of the prophet Nahum. God had threatened violence against them before, but their repentance and humility had been enough to elicit His grace upon them. That is the story in the book of Jonah. The generation of Assyrians who had heard Jonah preach before had all passed away though, and the Assyrians, as a people, had altogether forgotten God and His grace. As such, Nahum was sent to prophesy against them. God's nature was as good as ever, but He most definitely reacted angrily against the Ninevites.

We know that the Assyrians were used by God to punish Israel, but they sinned even in their participation in God's plan (not that they understood God's plan, that is, how He had chosen to use them against Israel). In the first place, the brutality of the Assyrians was extreme. Now, it might be argued that since hell is rather brutal, one might reasonably ask if brutality is intrinsically evil? Here is difference though. The Assyrians were brutal without a just cause. In fact, they rather relished their opportunities to be violent. Even when God's holy justice drives Him to punish His creations with severity, He never enjoys inflicting pain. The Assyrians were warped to the point of enjoying the pain of people who to them were innocent. This was grossly ungodly.