One Hour. One Book: Nahum

let's open to the book of Nahum not home the word means comfort there's really only two parts to the book chapter one which is meet God as judge understand the person of God and repent before the judge the second box if you know the judge you can understand his righteousness his judgment his justice and that will be in chapters two through three all right in chapter one I want you to see that by this time since nam is already in the second box god has already destroyed the Northern Kingdom so he's now in the in the period where God is saying look it's after the fall of the Northern Kingdom seven twenty two twenty one during the hundred and thirty six years between the fall of the Northern Kingdom and the fall of the southern kingdom between the Assyrian destruction and the Babylonian destruction and God is trying to get them to pay attention to what he has done to the northern cousins and brothers so that they would change the way they're behaving this is a short book and it's not a difficult book in fact it's a book with a lot of interesting images so it won't take us long to tackle it let me just say that the words are addressed to what Israel or Judah has to be Judah why addressing it the Israel will do you no good they're all in Assyria in captivity they can't read it so this is going to be a Judah oriented book and they have lived through the shock and brutality of an Isis like destruction Assyria came in and killed the Northern Kingdom in horrible ways but there's a piece of this you might not know and that is many of the cities of Judah in the southern kingdom were also taken by Assyria even though Jerusalem didn't fall so the southern kingdom didn't fall it would be like they wiped out Atlanta Chicago Detroit LA but they didn't get Washington so they wiped out a lot of the Judean cities big cities la quiche one of their lakish one of the biggest cities in Judah was destroyed by them and yet Jerusalem survived and because Jerusalem survived the kingdom technically wasn't taken by the Assyrians they were made into a vassal Kingdom that means the Kings during this period in Judah were paying tribute to the Assyrians until the Assyrians woke up one day and their neighbors the Babylonians got stronger than them and then they were swallowed up ok let's go into chapter 1 and I want to look at first in verse 1 the title of the book the Oracle of Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum the Elco site the the idea here is that the capital city of the Assyrian Empire is named here so it's literally the burden that was lifted high of the fall of the people into Nineveh and this is the book that nanda homer named the Elco site gave if I had to put a title on the next set of verses between verse 2 and verse 8 it is Who I am that simple Who I am says God I want to see if I can set the stage for this in a way chapter 1 and knowing who God is becomes the filter to understanding judgment when something bad happens sometimes we anticipate that it was like Satan did this or the world did this when in fact this is God doing something that was very difficult for the children of God to take the imagine God having sent word to you for a generation I will take your kingdom apart I'll take your nation apart if you don't stop and follow me living during a time when it's falling apart is not fun but chapter 1 tells you who God is and that becomes the filter through which chapters 2 and 3 the judgment can be seen if you don't filter the judgment through the judge you don't understand what God is doing so let me suggest to you that name prophesied a hundred and two a hundred and fifty years after the time of Jonah who had been in Assyria and been in Nineveh and and now all the repentance wore off in Assyria and they got the idea that they were now untouchable and things were good because they had won against God's people remember ancient people people in antiquity thought that when I take you over I took over your God well the problem is the god of the Hebrews allowed them to take over his people but they didn't take over God so he fires back with and now a word from the creator of all don't think that just because I let you beat the northern kingdom that I am in fact somehow subservient to the gods of Assyria that's not true let me tell you who I am so he opens up with Who I am and you see what is God like the first thing I want you to point out and point out to you is that God is rooted in truth and this is in verse 2 he's rooted in truth I am a jealous and avenging God is the Lord the Lord is avenging and wrathful a jealous and avenging God is the Lord the Lord is avenging and wrathful what does that tell you if you're a people who has taken over God's people do not think that you have the upper hand you don't I am rooted in truth I know who's strong God is jealous the word Phenom used only of God is a function of his honesty when when you say God is jealous you're not saying God is jealous like Ashley gets jealous it's a different thing okay yours when it's applied to God all emotional terms mean only what they mean when applied to him so in what way is God being jealous right but Dennis being jealous wrong yet when you're the highest see if you say I am the greatest or Muhammad Ali says I am the greatest you're not if God says that he is so there's a difference when he says to love something more than to love me is wrong that is the sense of jealousy with God if you say that it's not true Andrea says to love anything more than you love me is wrong that would be untrue for God to say if you love anything more than you love me it's wrong that would be true and it's because of he is that makes his jealousy different than anyone elses God is a set all his own yes but it's really tough to divide righteous emotions from unrighteous emotions the problem with us is our ego gets in the mix of everything we do so we start off really wanting to do it for God and maybe just like 3% for us and then by as we become successful it becomes like 90 percent for us and 10 percent for God there's still God still in there somewhere it's just hard to separate out your emotions that's why I personally I actually don't believe that God authorizes anger for me most Christians believe there's a righteous anger and an unrighteous anger I don't think there's a righteous anger I'll tell you why I can't find any place in my life where I've ever been angry that I can separate it from my ego so I think that when I'm angry I give place to the devil by my anger because there's just enough of ego in my anger maybe someone is able to be so filled with righteous indignation that no piece of it has to do with them but I find that to be difficult yeah because some piece of that still ends up being about me and I'm not saying that's a truth I'm saying as I've reflected on it in my life I've come to the conviction that for me every bit of anger I ever have has too much Randy in it I don't seem to be able to distill my anger and get Randy out of it if I could I would do I would say there's probably somebody who's pulled off righteous indignation it's just not me and God wants to be first in your life he wants to be first in the universe because he is first in the universe I don't know if you've ever had this happen maybe this will maybe this will hit you you don't need let's say you go out and you win something you win a gold medal I'll make it easy you win the gold medal you are absolutely the best and somebody starts trash-talking you like you didn't like you somehow stole it like it really wasn't something you earned it's not that you're an egotist it's that it really gets under your skin that somebody would take what you really did earn and take it away from you you know what I'm saying that's the sense of jealousy God is the highest you don't get to take that away from him because you're just lying if you don't see that I don't know if that does it sometimes it's not that you're trying to boast it's that somebody's trying to actually make you less than you actually are and that's when you turn on go that's not fair that's not true I really did earn that and you're not trying to walk around going I earned that you're just trying to say you don't get to take it away from me and God is saying I am the highest you don't get to take that away from me and I think the reason he's saying it is if you put it in the perspective he's he's saying his jealousy is a function of truth you are most like your heavenly father when you walk in truth when you don't believe lies and you don't accept lies and you walk in truth when you uphold the truth when you cast light on the truth you are most like your enemy when you rationalize untruth and somehow make it okay okay a lot of discussions going on in Christian circles right now where I'm hearing people rationalize on true statements rather than stand up and say wait a minute this is what's true we find the constant reason to side with the underdog who happens to be saying things that aren't true now let's go on it says it says he reserves wrath for his enemies what what does that mean he's an advocate for real justice that's what it means not only does he walk in truth in verse two but the second half of verse 2 God is an advocate for real just a justice God is avenging the word na komm means takes vengeance he judicially fulfils retribution and he reserves wrath this is the word fro the word from heat he brings the heat to bring about justice when someone mixes impurity into the purity of justice he applies heat and boils it out that's that's the idea here it's really important that that we understand that God is really not interested in injustice there's an old story about historian Shelby Foote tells the story that a young soldier was brought before general robert e lee and the soldier had deserted his post he was young he was tired he was frightened he was trembling most uncontrollably and generally tried to reassure the young men saying don't worry son you'll find justice here to which the soldier replied that's what I'm afraid of and here's the thing God holds a standard of justice look guys the reason the world hates your Bible and they do they may not know that they do but ultimately they will show that they do is because apart from relationship with Jesus Christ all this is is condemning it brings condemnation the law brings condemnation Jesus brings the truth that you can't possibly pull it off without him and then the law becomes a delight it's no longer a condemnation because you realize this is what God wants and I want to do what God wants and I know I'm not gonna but I want to do what God wants and I'm so glad that I don't have to earn it I can do it out of love instead of out of earning a lot of the world doesn't understand it's like that child that's running up who wants to be adopted by people you don't follow God in order to get him to accept you he has already adopted you now you follow God out of the love that he already came took you from the orphanage and is your is your daddy okay so here you have it in verse verse two that he reserves wrath for his enemies and that sounds so bad but here's the implication when I walk through trials I should put off my desire to retaliate because my father will take care of everything in his time no injustice will ever be forgotten by God God will deal with it that that's important you're gonna sit down with somebody across from somebody who has tear-filled eyes because somebody did wrong to them and they can't resolve it and I want you to know that there will come a day when God will resolve everything that's unfair the third thing I see is in verse 3 the Lord is slow to anger great and power the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished in whirlwind and storm is his way and clouds are the dust beneath his feet what does that mean well first God is slow to anger this is the identical phrase that we found in Exodus 34 I am long-suffering Oh Riko theme I am long-nosed I'm slow to flare up then then the next part by the way that cries that causes me to cry out to God for patience when I lose it with others because God is long-suffering if I blow it when somebody does something wrong with me what's wrong with me is more than just what's wrong with me I'm walking around blowing up on us that's why Jesus said as much as you would be forgiving forgive others it's interesting because Nineveh got spared and they got forgiven but they also got careless and presumptive remember Jonah came and said Nineveh is going to be destroyed then it wasn't destroyed then they got presumptive and this is the same city that's now once seen God's repentance and mercy turning away from wrath and now they're walking around like ah we are so cool the other thing I noticed about verse 3 is that he's inexhaustible in power so God is rooted in patience is the third one the fourth one is in a exhaustible in power god is great in power I think it's kind of interesting because he's huge he's the first and the last he's the beginning in the end he's the keeper of creation the architect of the universe the manager of all time he always is unmoved unchanged undefeated never undone this is the God that you serve when I'm weak he's strong and I can go back and understand that when I am broken he mends me when I stumble he picks me up when when I'm hurt he heals me when I'm hungry he Feith my God has the power it's never a question of whether God can it's a question of whether or not God chooses to and so the verse 3 goes on and says he's also firm in righteousness he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished God is firm in righteousness he will not leave the guilty to be acquitted is actually how you should translate that he won't let people off without appropriate judgment that's a good thing not a bad thing we live in a time where where everybody wants to get let off from judgment but they want everybody else to get judged so when they drive over the speed limit they don't want a ticket but they want the person who went zooming past them to get one we live in a society that has a warped sense of justice there's justice for me and justice for you and those are not the same God is is not movable on that I I needn't write every wrong this is the thing you need to understand especially when something happens against me I can let wrongs pass into the hands of my father because my rights are not as important as his right to do what he will so in my way of thinking God is firm in righteousness should settle me down when I think people get away with wrong things God will deal with it every dog has his day look at verse 3 it goes on and says in the world wind and storm is his way clouds are dust beneath his feet that is this one's a little bit hard I this phraseology see if you catch it God is utterly untamed by external influences God is utterly untamed by external influences in other words God's power is not limited by the circumstances or by any influence God is uninfluenced by the externals utterly untamed by external influence so the wind doesn't cause him to blow in any direction he causes everything it's different than me within my world I can be I can be pushed around by circumstances can't you well I really wanted to do a good job but I was so tired that day so something happened that I just couldn't get myself God is not that God so here's the thing in verses 4 and 5 listen to these verses this is God the controller of the planet I love this he rebukes the sea and makes it dry he dries up all the rivers Bashan and carmel whither they blotted the blossoms of lebanon whither mountains quake because of him and hills dissolve indeed the earth is upheaved by his presence the world and all the inhabitants in it see it says he pushes the sea from place to place it's literally the word rebukes the sea to correct it and dry out the land God has a certain place he wants the sea and when it goes in the wrong place he just goes not to get back over there ah ah dry land come on he's also the control of the planet in the fact that he's the provider for the world he dries up rivers great mountains and streams but he's also the sculptor of the earth volcano and volcanoes spew out because of him that's the word hills dissolve when you see hills dissolved think volcanoes Hills that dissolve the quaking here seems to be related to the spewing and the suggested volcanic activity see here's the bottom line there's an implication of this God knows his purposes God delivers according to his sovereign plan nothing stands in his way our concern has to be to respond to him as he unfolds his plan with grace and and a desire to use everything to honor him God knows what he's doing and this do you hear how good his theology is this guy knows God six says that God is the judge of mankind's actions there is a judge and it's 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 he says people cannot stand before his denunciations Ahimaaz the word to denounce her to set out and nothing competes with the power or the heat of his judgment he's the judge of mankind's actions he's the judge over idolatry he's the power over the rocks and the cliffs they're even shattered in front of him we have to deliberately remember when we're dealing with this that God is God in our daily decision-making we have to remember the enemy doesn't make us hate God he makes us forget him so all you have to do is stop focusing on who God is and you will start down a path of your own choosing stop and think about it for a minute if I'll start off my day before before I opened my eyes today I was talking to the Lord about what my day would be like and I was saying Lord you know you know all about today you know what's going on in my heart you know areas where I just really feel like I'm not nailing it I need you to help me the point isn't that I got better and got out of bed and somehow got a better shower because of it the point is that when I start off my day focused on him then the rest of the day falls into place around what he wants me to accomplish otherwise guys you're going to be overtaken with the size of the task and think I got to get so much done I'll never get all this done and some people I know are running running running all day long and never feel like they get anything done the truth is the most important things I'm gonna do today I can't even see I mean honestly I may say something that helps Dennis and he goes out and helps somebody else that helps somebody else I don't know what that is so I have to start with my focus not on whether or not I can get Zoey to be like the perfect Christian s I have to start off my day with not that I have to start off my day with how do I walk with God how do I just be what he wants me to be verses 7 through 14 are a interesting I'm sorry verses 7 and 8 are an interesting beginning the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows those who take refuge in him I think what's interesting is that his effective personal intimacy is that he knows us well enough to know whether we're trusting us or trusting him that's what he's saying it's not just take refuge in him but I mean how much of that how does that speak to you I took refuge in God what does that mean either you're trusting you or you're trusting him either he's covering you or you're you got it covered and the Lord knows it says which of those two is true he's effective because he's also thorough I want you to watch what it says it says with an everlasting flood he will make a complete end of its sight and we'll pursue his enemies into darkness into the darkness whatever you devise against the Lord he will make a complete end of it distress will not rise up twice here's what he's saying he says god when he deals with a problem fixes it and it never comes back he never makes a repair that is not complete unless that's his intent God is not unable to fix anything he wants one time he made desire for it to come back up if it comes up back up it's not because of his inadequacy God has no inadequacy it's because that's his plan so ultimately there's not because God is so strong and reliable he steps back and he says I want you to understand I haven't changed I Know Who I am that's what verses 1 through 8 are about I know who I am now there is a part of the book though that causes us to pause it's not who he is that's the problem it's who we are that's the problem so it says in verse 9 whatever you devise against the Lord he will make a complete end of it distress will not rise up twice like tangled thorns and like those who are drunken with their drink they are consumed to stubble completely withered I need you to see the big long term in human history there will not be a thing left unraveled that God doesn't bring to an end all the details of human history will be dealt with by God every one verse 10 says that their thang tangled up like thorns and like those who are drunken with their drink they are consumed in other words there's all of this mess that is snarled up that is disorganized and uncontrolled from you has gone forth one who plotted evil against the Lord a wicked counselor thus says the Lord though they are at full strength and likewise many even so they will be cut off and pass away though I have afflicted you I will afflict you no longer so now I will break his yoke bar from upon you and I will tear off your shackles he says listen you think that because you beat my people that now you're in control and I'm some hell snarled up in the details and can't fix this God has a way of taking what is so befuddling and so complicated and saying that's it imagine what goes into making a windstorm imagine what goes into a windstorm on the lake of the Sea of Galilee fish are jumping boats are bobbing all over the place the winds are sweeping by and God has a way of taking the complicated situation and saying alright knock it off that's what he's saying he's saying listen this hasn't gotten out of my control I have this your choices are causing a coming destruction and I want you to know I'm gonna break you don't walk around strutting your stuff because you beat my people because I'm gonna break you now I want you to see how God issues the order for the breaking of Assyria breaking of Nineveh verse 14 the Lord has issued a command concerning you I would underline the Lord has issued a command concerning you your name will no longer be perpetuated what does that mean yeah judgment you are out of time okay I will cut off idle an image from the house of your gods I will prepare your grave for you are contemptible what he's basically saying is look Nineveh I gave you a chance to repent you repented under Jonah Jonah had a little attitude with his tree there but you repented and I turned away your destruction let you continue to flourish I let you to come in and even sack my people and take away take away my Northern Kingdom I need you to know though I haven't been beaten by your gods I'm about to take you down and now I've issued the order and here's the order you're done now look at God's people can celebrate who are God's people left Judah right so it says behold on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news who announces peace celebrate your feast so Judah pay your vows for never again will the wicked one pass through you he is cut off completely this is an announcement that when God judges Assyria they won't have to pay taxes to Assyria anymore no one's gonna come collecting unjustly from a land that is not a serious and the bottom lies you can celebrate because they'll never be back now Assyria did get broken down it did get overthrown and the overthrow of Nineveh their capital city is referred to in chapters 2 & 3 so you get the feeling when you step away from chapter 1 that you know something about the judge you know who God is you know it occurs to me that the other person who knew a great deal about God was also sent to nineveh jonah actually had a really great theology Lord I knew you were righteous and I knew you were strong and I knew you were slow to anger and I knew if they repented you would pull back judgment Nahum and jonah both know god well let me say this before you go speaking into the lives of people outside of the family of God you need to know God well because you're gonna be tested very very sincerely by godless people and you need to understand who God is how powerful he is and that frankly even if they turn their back on you and spit in your face that God will deal with them now I want you to take a look very quickly at pages pages chapters 2 & 3 I'm not going to take it apart in its poetry about nineveh's destructions so I'm thinking that probably no one here is on the edge of their seat eight over nineveh's destruction chapter 1 is a beautiful theology of who God is and so the book becomes incredibly important for that alone but in Chapter 2 let me just quickly look out for how God sort of sketches out the judgment the one who scatters has come up against you man the fortress watched the road strengthen your back summon all your strength for the Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel even though devastators have devastated them and destroyed their vine branches God says I want you to by the way I put a box around verses 1 & 2 God has a promise for Israel and Judah in the middle of a book about Nineveh and then he says the shields of his mighty men are colored red the Warriors are dressed in scarlet the chariots are enveloped in flashing steel when he is prepared to march and the cyprus peers or brandish the chariots race madly in the streets they rushed wildly in the squares their their appearances like torches they dashed to and from like lightning flashes he remembers his nobles they stumble in their march they hurry to their to their to her wall and the mantle it is set up that is that there's a a moat filling going on in verse 5 that causes the the war to approach the wall and it says in verse 6 the gates of the rivers are opened and the palace is dissolved it is fixed she is stripped she is carried away and her hand maids are mowed moaning like the sound of doves beating on their breasts though Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days now they are fleeing stop stop but no one turns back plunder her silver plunder her gold for there's no limit to the treasure wealth from every kind of desirable object she is emptied yes she is desolate and she is wasted those are by the way play a play on words in Hebrew hearts are melting and knees are knocking and anguish is in the whole body and there cases of grown pale where where is the den of lions in the feeding of the young lions where the lion the lioness the Lions cub proud with nothing to disturb them the lion tore enough for his cubs killed enough for his lionesses you have to understand that the symbol of Assyria was a lion so he's playing with this whole lion lioness lion cubs image because on the walls of their palaces there's one gate left to Nineveh and it's got lions all over it and so he's playing with the image they filled the with filled his layers with pray his dens with torn flesh behold I am against you declares the Lord of Hosts I will burn her chariots in smoke a sword will devour your young lions I will cut off your prey from the land and the longer will the voice of your messengers be heard the rest of it sounds just like this whoa - the bloody city complete completely full of lies and pillage her prey never departs the noise of the whip the noise of the rattling of the wheel galloping horses and bounding chariots horsemen charging swords flashing spears gleaming many slain massive corpses and account las' countless bodies see Nineveh was a bloody massacre of other cities and he's saying it's all gonna be turned back on her and she will be thrashed and stripped and destroyed and all the guilt with which she has come after the other nations will be now rained down on her you'll see it over and over by the way let me take you down toward the end in verse 17 almost at the end of the book your guardsmen are like swarming locust your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers settling in the stone walls on a cold day the Sun rises and they flee the place where there they are not known and your Shepherds are sleeping o king of Assyria your Nobles are lying down your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to regather them there's no relief for your breakdown your wound is incurable I'll just underline your wound is incurable that really says it all all who hear about you will clap their hands over you for on whom was not your evil past continually what they're saying is everywhere it goes forth that Nineveh was destroyed people will be happy about it they will say you terrorized the nation's and now we can say thank goodness they're gone okay you get the book chapter one really is the heaviness of the book because if I understand the judge I can filter the righteousness of that judge why is it such a bitter book why did chapters 2 and 3 sound so hard I mean this is this is some of the toughest stuff you know you're gonna get thrashed and beaten and destroyed and crushed yeah and the nations are gonna clap when you're dead that doesn't sound very Gracie does it after they defeated God's people they walked around believing they had defeated God and that's the big mistake you know what you can take down God's church that doesn't mean you took down Jesus never stand up to the king of the universe you will get beat and that was the big mistake for Assyria it's not a tough book this one actually reads easily most people never quote from the second two chapters of the book it's always the first chapter but here's the really good thing you got all the way through the law but never really got I mean Exodus 34 might be zexis 32 and 34 might be the only places you ever got really a theology this is God describing God this is God's Word on who God is and I think it's interesting that he says I don't let people get off but I'm also incredibly merciful remember that God's mercy is not intention with his justice in your salvation God didn't let you off he did not let you off of your sin he made his son pay for it someone else paid for it it's not free salvation is not free it's free to you it was costly to him okay and if we remember that we can sort of rectify the justice and holiness versus the mercy in the love I don't have to bring to you

Channel: One Hour. One Book.

Views: 26,220

Rating: 4.9408865 out of 5

Keywords: GCBI, Dr. Randy Smith, Bible teaching, Bible class, Hebrew, Greek

Id: H1JRNZi-VhI

Length: 34min 58sec (2098 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2015