meadowsD. Scott Meadows

Why are we here? It’s all about God (not you, me, us, them). Everything that is and that happens is for Him above all others. Creation is for Him. History is for Him. Heaven is for Him. Hell is for Him. Whatever happens to you and me is incidental. “Soli Deo Gloria” is the greatest truth of all (Rom 11.36).

The Church and true preaching are dedicated to this supreme priority. In Jesus’ name on the authority of Holy Scripture, right now in the presence of Almighty God, I defy all the popular man-centered sentimentality of the world and apostate Christendom. We will have no regrets on Judgment Day when we can testify honestly, “Lord, I sought Your kingdom and glory in everything and above all,” for so He commands us (Matt 6.33; 1 Cor 10.31). Religious liberalism has emphasized man’s well-being in this life; religious conservatism, in the next. Scripture shows that they both miss the mark. Our great calling is to glorify God. Saving sinners from miseries now and hell torments later is secondary. So is our present and future happiness.

A recent book perceptively identifies God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment as the overarching theme of the whole Bible (James M. Hamilton Jr.). Rom 11.22 calls attention to God’s goodness and severity known by His dealings in mercy and judgment with particular individuals. God is severe and God is merciful—both reveal His glory! That is why He made us in the first place. God gives us words like Nahum’s to convince us of this truth: God reveals His glory in judgment and mercy.

Glory literally means brightness; figuratively, splendor, majesty. Re: God—the revelation of His moral attributes, infinite perfections, stunning works. God is infinitely, eternally glorious—glorious in Himself and before He acts. It is not possible that He could become more glorious. But His actions are a shining forth of His glory to men and angels. We perceive God by His revelation, and we are His subjects, in His hands to do with as He wills, and by this means we behold His glory. The two greatest events in redemptive history—not yet complete—showing God’s glory in mercy and judgment, are the first and second comings of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the cross and on Judgment Day, God puts His mercy and wrath on supreme display, to the praise of His own glory for all eternity.

But we are slow to believe. So God constantly affirms these things in Holy Scripture. Nahum is a great example—a complex prophetic announcement of Nineveh’s doom which includes Israel’s deliverance from them—literally fulfilled in history, and figuratively fulfilled again and again, esp. in the cross and the last day when Jesus returns and forever saves His church from the malice of this ungodly world. Then shall that great, eternal Alleluia roar like oceans and crash like thunders in the new creation, for the Lord our God has judged the great whore (Rev 19.1-4)!

Intro: An Oracle through Nahum (v. 1).

“Oracle” (message from God through a prophet). Here, “Nahum (“consoler”) the Elkoshite,” historical. Mainly doom. Cruel irony? No—destruction of God’s enemies is deliverance for His chosen people. No truce between good/evil, right/wrong, church/world, God/Satan. “Burden” oracle, interesting connotation of an oppressive weight. God laid a heavy message of judgment upon his servant. True preaching fulfills the grievous duty of warning sinners.

“Vision”  emphasizes divine origin. Nahum did not conceive this, but received it. “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1.20-21 NIV).

“Of (pertaining to) Nineveh,” capital of Assyrian empire. Written esp. to God’s people (v. 15). The certainty of God’s triumph over our enemies comforts us in the here and now (Christian hope). Already some object. “Ninevites were people too!” Yes, but idolatrous, immoral, and violent.

To Nineveh came the distant chieftains who kissed the royal feet, rebel leaders paraded in fetters, distant and deceitful kings tied with dog chains and made to live in kennels. To Nineveh were sent gifts of faroff tribute, heads of vanquished enemies, crown princes as hostages, beautiful princesses as concubines. In Nineveh rulers who experienced rare mercy carried brick and mortar for building operations. There recalcitrant captives were flayed, obstinate opponents crushed to death by their own sons. The Nineveh against which the prophet thunders divine denunciation had become the concentrated center of evil, the capital of crushing tyranny, the epitome of cruelest torture. . . . Sennacherib made Nineveh his capital, the world metropolis, the source of unmeasured woe for Judah, as for other, far greater nations (Maier, cited by James Boice, in loc.).

Like a prophecy of the doom of Hitler and the Third Reich. Still disagree?

I. His Glory in Destroying Nineveh (vv. 2-8). Nineveh not explicitly mentioned; the Lord as Judge predominates. Their end is near.

A. Glorious in Revenge (v. 2). Many find this startling.

God/the LORD used interchangeably (Almighty, eternal, covenant-Keeper, worshipped by Israel, incarnate in Jesus Christ). Disturbing vocabulary describing His character and deeds: 1) Jealous [adjective], “the Lord’s deep, indeed, fiercely protective commitment to his people and his exclusive claim to obedience and reciprocal commitment” (EBC). 2) Revengeth [verb], takes revenge, payback according to strict justice. Important: Deut 32.35, 41-43. God avenges by defending His people and punishing their enemies. 3)Furious, “possessing fury” (YLT). “Hot displeasure, indignation” (TWOT). John Gill: “Anger in God is no other than a disgust with sin, and with sinners, on account of it” (Body of Doctrinal Divinity, p. 223). 4) Wrath [noun, implied], “keeps wrath” (ESV), “sustains His rage” (LHEIB), the fire never dies. All directed toward His “adversaries, enemies.” God is against some people, with a settled wrath, determined to bring them down to utter, eternal ruin. Challenges “the mush god,” created by men in our own image. Theologian Richard Neibuhr, of liberalism: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross” (The Kingdom of God in America, 1953).

How do you account for the cross in God’s plan without His wrath? Christ suffered divine revenge on elect sinners (Trinitarian wrath & love)!

Recall God’s immutability (Mal 3.6) and the NT affirmation of God/Christ’s revenge at last (Heb 10.31-32; 2 Thess 1.7-9).

Divine jealousy, wrath, and revenge are glorious as a display of His ineffable holiness and His faithful love toward His elect.

B. Glorious in Power (vv. 3-5)

How, then, did Nineveh continue oppressing God’s beloved people? This tempted them to doubt His holy faithfulness and/or His power. But God reassures with explanatory assertions.

1) “The LORD is slow to anger.” Rooted in Sinai’s theophany to Moses (Exod 34.6-7, “longsuffering”). He patiently endures provocations to His justice, even toward the reprobate. The guillotine blade hangs before it falls. Cf. 2 Pet 2.3-10. On John 3.36b, Thomas Boston wrote, “Amidst all thy mirth and jollity, the sword of justice is hanging over thy head by a hair, and every moment, for all that thou knowest, it may fall, and cleave thee asunder” (sermon on Eccl 8.11).

2) “The LORD is great in power [strength].” Omnipotent (Psa 62.11). God always exercises power, sometimes surprisingly. He empowered Assyria, used them for His own purposes. Remember Jesus saying to Pilate (John 19.11).

3) “The LORD will not at all acquit [hold innocent] the wicked.” “Will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod 34.7). This has been variously explained, but in the context it means God will certainly hold Nineveh accountable for her sins and punish her—i.e., He will not forgive or forget her sins. Yet this raises a dilemma—how can God be all this: “merciful and gracious, . . . keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and . . . by no means clear[ing] the guilty, [but] visiting the iniquity [i.e., punishing it] of the fathers upon the children,” etc.?

Many wrongly believe and vainly hope God will acquit the guilty in the sense that He will let sins go completely unpunished, but this cannot be while God remains holy!

How then does He remain just and the justifier of sinners—particularly those who believe in Jesus (Rom 3.26)? By punishing their sins in Jesus! Divine wrath and justice is completely satisfied in Him for God’s elect.

Vv. 3c-5 poetically describe His power in connection with nature, stimulating our imagination. See the whirlwind (possibly tornado)? Hear the storm? Look up at those vast, billowy clouds. All are small manifestations of His power. By a whim God can dry up the oceans, turn the most magnificent places into
ruins (Bashan, Carmel, Lebanon). When God comes down in judgment, the mountains shake suffer a total meltdown; His approach in anger causes a conflagration of the whole world, with its wicked inhabitants. (cf. 2 Pet 3.10).

This is the Almighty Judge with whom sinners have to do!

C. Glorious in Anger (v. 6). The questions are rhetorical—no one! “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?” (Ezek 22.14; cf. 21.7). Arrogant sinners defy
God now, but when He rises up to judge them, they will all be turned into quivering masses of pathetic Jello! As R. M. McCheyne wrote in 1837, “When I hear the wicked call / On the rocks and hills to fall, /
When I see them start and shrink / On the fiery deluge brink, / Then, Lord, shall I fully know, / Not till then, how much I owe” (When This Passing World Is Done, TH#600). Then all will see that God’s anger
is worthy of the Deity, inconceivably terrible, and perfectly just.

D. Glorious in Justice (vv. 7-8). He forgets not His friends or His foes.

1) Toward His friends:
• Remember His goodness. On the strength of His own testimony, resist the temptation to doubt Him in tough times.

• Remember His reliability as Savior—a shelter in the time of storm. We’ll all be present on Judgment Day, when God’s wrath is finally and fully unleashed. The only safe place is sheltering in Christ. In a great forest fire, rush to the already burned place! God’s wrath has already burnt out on His Son.

• Remember His faithfulness. “Knoweth” He recognizes, loves, takes care of them. “Trust in Him” is the distinguishing mark of the righteous (Acts 16.31).

2) Toward His foes:

• V. 8a paraphrase: “He is like a huge wave which crashes down on his enemies and kills all of them.”

• V. 8b, darkness death. Alt., the Lord “will pursue his enemies into darkness” (RSV). God is just as mighty to destroy as He is to deliver, and this is all to His glory.

This is the majestic God who inspires trembling and joy in His people. This is the terrifying and wonderful God revealed in Christ our Savior and Lord.

Never, ever forget it! Repudiate sentimentality’s caricature of Jesus, and trust in Him as He really is.

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