Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for His promises, for His provisions, for His presence, for His protection, and for His power. What a wonderful and awesome God, the Lord Almighty, we serve.
Often the television programs we are caught up with depict the ethos of the people. Programs like "Desperate House Wives", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", "Wheel of Fortune", or "Survivor". According to the show, "Survivor" we succeed by being ruthless, conniving, and deceitful, following a pragmatic, win at all costs, ends-justify-the means mentality. It’s no wonder that the show has been compared to the book Lord of the Flies. In today’s world it seems like good guys finish last…or at least that’s what people want us to think.
Winning, from God’s point-of-view, is different. In the end you may not wind up with a million dollars, but you have God’s approval. True happiness in life comes from living right, with a clear conscience. When we trust in the Lord, we experience victory and we survive not only this world, but we have a guarantee for the world to come.
The prophet Nahum delivered a sober message of judgment to Ninevah, but in the middle of his harsh prophecy he offered hope, vs 7: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.” God knows us and wants to protect us. Nahum’s name means “comfort” or “consolation”. But for those who reject God, the prophet cries, 3:7, 'Where can I find anyone to comfort you?” Nahum presents God as our refuge, a shelter in the time of storm.
Protection doesn’t mean a carefree life. As many of you know I spent a few days of this year in the hospital, in considerable discomfort, yet with the confidence that Jesus was my refuge. He was watching over me. I’m an experienced former hospital chaplain, but it has been few years since I’ve been an in patient. Therefore, the experience was useful for me and it has helped me better appreciate what others are facing. My experience was a gift disguised.
When trials come we trust in Jesus,and seek His refuge. Faith requires trust without full knowledge; it means living with uncertainty. God chooses our circumstances and trials; we choose our attitudes and reactions to them. I’m reminded of an affirmation found written on a cellar wall in Germany where Jews hid from the Nazis: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I am feeling it not. I believe in God even when He is silent.”
Nahum wrote 150 years after the time of Jonah. Under Jonah’s reluctant preaching the Ninevites repented and God withheld His wrath. At the time of Nahum, however, it appears their repentance has “worn off” and they have sunken deeply into all kinds of sin. Ninevah was again a place of unparalleled wickedness. It was also the wealthiest city in the world, furnished with priceless objects taken as plunder from conquered nations.
God made it plain that He was angry at Ninevah. We don’t like to think of God as being angry, yet the Bible is clear that He hates sin. You have likely heard about billboards along the highway with messages from God. One says, “Don’t make Me come down there.” There’s an old children’s hymn that begins, “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” This is perfectly true about our Lord, but it is not all the truth. Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem and prophesied that this city which rejected Him would be destroyed. The Hebrew word used by Nahum for anger literally means “heavy or hot breathing”. Yet, even when God is angry at sin, He is patient with us. Verse 2 says “The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. This can mean God stores up wrath, but it also can mean that He holds back His vengeance. He waits for us to repent; He doesn’t "slam dunk" us the moment we step out of line. He is “slow to anger.” He has control over His wrath. He gives us many chances to repent. However, God clearly warns us in Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit will not contend/strive with man forever.” There is a limit to God’s patience.
Many people today are spiritually blind. They don’t believe God will punish sin, and they won’t believe that He will pardon sin through the blood of His Son. In John 3 we’re told, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God’s one and only Son….Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (vs. 17-18, 36).
When we place our trust in Christ God, in His grace, gives us what we don’t deserve—eternal life. God, in His mercy, does not give us what we do deserve! By rejecting Christ, people are turning their backs on eternal life—they will receive what they deserve--justice.
When considering the wrath of God, there are two words we tend to confuse. One is retaliation; the other retribution. To retaliate is to seek revenge and get even. God does not retaliate. Martin Luther (in his typical manner) said, “If I were God and the world had treated me as it did Christ, I would kick the wretched thing to pieces.” In His justice, God brings retribution. Paul makes this clear in Romans when he says “The payment for sin is death” (6:23). For those who serve sin, there is a pension awaiting them as well. Punishment for sin is effective, not in its severity, but in its inevitability. Nations like Ninevah can overlook God, but God overrules them. He has the power to deliver or destroy. He offers us the option to decide which one it will be.
The warden of a state prison once said, “My hardest job is to convince a young delinquent that he has done anything wrong.” We live, as did Ninevah, in a culture that thinks ethics are arbitrary, that we can make our own rules, and there is no right or wrong. This is a terrifying world view. The Russian author, Dostoyevski, said, “If there is no God, anything is permissible.” When we turn away from God and reject authority and accountability, we in effect become our own gods. What is God’s response to this lawlessness? 3:5, “’I am against you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” He goes on to say (vs. 6-7) that those who walk their own path will be stripped of their glory and made defenseless.
We can offer hope to our lost world, a world going its own way, a way that leads to destruction. We have the roadmap, the right directions. 1:15 announces, “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!” We can be that one offering the good news. We should have a sense of urgency towards those who don’t know the Lord. We need to offer prayer for our community, care about those who need the Lord, and share what God had done for us. God will give us opportunities if we ask.
In the end, Ninevah was overthrown so completely that archeologists only uncovered the remains of this once mighty power in 1845. In 2:6 we read, “The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.” Here’s what happened: The Babylonian army laid siege to Ninevah for 3 months. Then, after a period of heavy rainfall, the river overflowed and broke down part of the city wall. The ruler of Ninevah and all his concubines perished in his burning palace. The invaders sacked and utterly destroyed the city. So complete was the destruction that armies have actually marched over the city of Ninevah without knowing the ruins of this once proud city lay beneath their feet.
No nation is immune from judgment. Among those who reject God, who refuse to turn from their wickedness, there will be no survivors. Proverbs 29:1 warns, “Some people are still stubborn after they have been corrected many times; they will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.” Twice God says to Ninevah, “I am against you” (2:13, 3:5). Paul says in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” But if God is against us…? God is just and will punish evil. This is a lesson urgently needed today.
Rudyard Kipling understood Nahum when he wrote: “Lo, all the pomp of yesterday, is one with Ninevah and Tyre. Judge of the nations, spare us yet—Lest we forget, lest we forget!”
May the Lord provoke us to love Him and love one another. May He teach us to pray and intercede for one another. One of our prayer warriors and saints reminds me that the fervent prayer of the righteous moves the Hand of the Lord.
Keep in prayer: Peter Gernes, Jack Hoppes, John Pipher, George Cameron, Andy Morse, Linda Allen, Linda Ayer, Juanita Griffin, Julie H, The St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble, our short term Mission Trip to India in June, our church's new Building project. Pray for all the Missionaries serving around the corner and around the globe, and for the persecuted church. Let us come in prayer against, terrorism, oppression and injustice .
In Christ,
Brown
My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed.
Francis Asbury
A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.
Henry Ward Beecher
he sound of 'gentle stillness' after all the thunder and wind have passed will the ultimate Word from God.
Jim Elliot
Wherever you are - be all there.
Jim Elliot
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