Nahum 1
AS in Isaiah 13 to 23, the “burdens” of Babylon, Moab, etc., are given, so here we have the “burden” (prophecy of judgment) of Nineveh, the capital city of the great kingdom of Assyria. Nahum is believed to have prophesied late in Isaiah’s long life., about the time when Sennacherib first invaded Judea (2 Kings. 18:13-16), which may be set down as roughly 120 years after Jonah went to Nineveh. Elkosh, Nahum’s city, is supposed to have been in Galilee, the region where Jonah had lived; if this conclusion is well founded, the Pharisees were doubly wrong when they declared that no prophets had come out of Galilee (John 7:52).
The destruction of Nineveh, which Nahum foretold, occurred about a century later at the hands of the Medes, aided by the Babylonians who shortly after took the supremacy in the first empire, that of Nebuchadnezzar. But Nahum’s prophecy, like the prophecies of other Old Testament writers, is not to be limited to the prospect then near at hand; it looks forward to scenes of judgment in which another Assyrian will have a part, when Israel shall be in the land of their fathers in far greater number than today.
When Jonah went to Nineveh, there was widespread repentance, but the hearers of his message, and all their children too, we may well suppose were now dead, and the lesson of that day was almost forgotten. Verses 2 to 6 therefore set forth God as judge, jealous and avenging and full of fury. He is slow to anger, great in power and doth not at all clear the guilty. Why then do not sinners flee for refuge to Him?
Who can stand before His indignation? who can abide in the fierceness of His anger (verse 6)? Let us remember that what we have here is not eternal judgment, but the punishment of living enemies on earth. Eternal judgment is but little referred to in the Old Testament, and this is true also of eternal blessing, of eternity itself. Nevertheless, the judgment of the living as here portrayed gives a clear picture of the awful character of the judgment of the great white throne which will follow (Revelation 20:10-15).
How precious to the believer is the note of praise and of the confidence of faith in verse 7! “A stronghold in the day of trouble” our God has been for His tried saints in all generations, and comforting thought, “He knoweth them that trust in Him!” Not one is forgotten by Him, not one overlooked for a moment.
“The place thereof,” in verse 8 is Nineveh; it was to perish, though those who trusted in Jehovah there would be spared in the day of its destruction. Verse 11 speaks of the Assyrian of the future day, as well as Sennacherib, the wicked counselor of Hezekiah’s time. Verse 12 has been translated,
“Though they be complete in number, and many as they be, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away (referring to the Assyrian), and though I have afflicted thee (Judah), I will afflict thee no more.” (N.T.)
Verse 13 is addressed to Judah, and 11 to the Assyrian, while verse 15 tells of the joy that will be felt when that enemy is cut off shortly after the Lord has come to the world to establish His throne as Son of David (Isaiah 10:5-27, etc.)
ML 05/09/1937