When we contemplate the prophetic scriptures, we have to consider the people, and their state, of whom the prophet speaks, and also how far the principles of divine truth there set forth can be used for the profit of souls in the present day.
Nahum’s ministry, though peculiarly solemn, was simple. He pointed to the divine judgments impending on the great and arrogant city of Nineveh. It had long been exalting itself, and it must be laid low.
Nineveh was a most ancient city, the capital of Assyria. From Gen. 10:1111Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, (Genesis 10:11) (margin) we gather that Assyria was founded by Nimrod, and the city was built by Asshur. Historians tell us that it was about sixty miles in circumference, surrounded by a wall one hundred feet high, wide enough for three chariots to drive abreast, and having fifteen hundred towers, two hundred feet high. It contained “much cattle” so that it evidently enclosed a great space of fertile and cultivated land, besides dwelling-houses. In Jonah we read that it contained, in his day, “six-score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand;” and, if this refers to children, the; probability is that the population of Nineveh might not have been less than half a million.
It is true that Assyria had been allowed by Jehovah to come against His people in His governmental dealings with them. But the Assyrians were lifted up; they ascribed their success in oppressing God’s people to their own power and prudence, and their desire was to destroy them. We read, “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off nations not a few.....Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, O my people that dwelleth in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.” Again, we read, “For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down which smote with the rod.” The Assyrian oppressed them without cause. (Isa. 10:5-25; 30:31; 3:45O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. 6I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. 8For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? 9Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? 10As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; 11Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: 14And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. 15Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. 16Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 17And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; 18And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth. 19And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. 20And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. 22For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. 23For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land. 24Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. 25For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. (Isaiah 10:5‑25)
31For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. (Isaiah 30:31)
4And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. (Isaiah 3:4).) Thus the rod which Jehovah used strove against Him who used it, and came under divine judgment.
After announcing the truth that God is jealous, and revengeth, the prophet Nahum declares that Jehovah is “slow to anger.” This had been remarkably exemplified in God’s previous dealings with men, and now also with Nineveh, as we know it was afterward with the Jews, and still is with professing Christendom and the world. But, though “slow to anger,” judgment must come, for “he will not at all acquit the wicked.” It is because God is long-suffering, and that, after eighteen hundred years of warning, the Lord has not yet come to carry it out, that the scoffer says, “Where is the promise of his coming?” and the infidel folds his arms with self-complacency, and despises the truth, because there is no outward appearance of coming judgment. Thus the scripture is being fulfilled,” Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set upon them to do evil.” (Eccles. 8:1111Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11).) It was so with Nineveh.
Upwards of a century before Nahum’s prophecy, Jonah was sent to this great city. The word of Jehovah came to him, saying, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their cry is come up before me.” We know that he did not go at first, for he needed to pass through death and resurrection in his own soul before he was competent for the mission. “And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.... and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” The effect was that the Ninevites heard, believed, repented, fasted, and put on sackcloth, so that God spared the city, and did not bring the judgment He had said He would upon it.
It was long after this that the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel (the ten tribes) away into Assyria. For the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of spoilers, until he had cast them out of His sight. So were Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. They are generally called the “ lost tribes” because no one knows where they are. (2 Kings 17:6-236In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: 12For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. 13Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 14Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. 15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. 18Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. 19Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 21For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. 22For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. (2 Kings 17:6‑23).)
Only a few years after this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them, and afterward came against Jerusalem with a great host, and, with great haughtiness, sought to overcome the city. But God answered the cries of His faithful servants, and sent an angel to destroy a hundred and fourscore and five thousand of the king of Assyria’s army in one night, and the king himself was murdered by his own sons.
It was about this time that Nahum predicted the fall of self-exalted Nineveh, which would be so effectually done, that it would “not rise up a second time,” and the city be so entombed in its own ruins, that the scripture should be literally fulfilled, “I will make thy grave, for thou art vile,” and of it should be said, “Behold I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who shall bemoan her?” “Woe to the bloody city, it is all full of lies and robbery: the prey departeth not.” The prophet tells us concerning the siege and ruin of the city (chap. 3:14), that “the gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved; and the fire—devour thee;” and historians tell us that the river Tigris overflowed its banks, and poured into the doomed city, and that the haughty king, after sustaining a siege of two years, set his own palace on fire, and in this way perished. Thus Nineveh was utterly destroyed, never more to raise its head, while “Assyria” and “the king of the north” will occupy an important part by-and-by, and Assyria will have special blessing in millennial days. (Dan. 11; Isa. 19:2525Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. (Isaiah 19:25).)
Such is a brief glance at Nahum’s prophecy, which we know had a literal fulfillment; so that even now Nineveh’s ruins are a desolation. Antiquarians are exploring it, and exhuming from this huge “grave” vast varieties of testimony to the accomplishment of the word of the prophets; its site is a place for flocks to “ lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations; both the cormorant, and the bittern,” &c. (Zeph. 2:13-1513And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. 14And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. 15This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand. (Zephaniah 2:13‑15).)
Bat does not this illustrate another coming judgment of a far more serious character? Has not the clear and loud prophetic warning concerning this long ago gone forth? Let us turn to the apostolic writings. In 2 Thess. 1 we read, “The Lord himself shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.” What can be plainer, and yet how very solemn! Again, we are told, that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” (1 Thess. 5:2, 32For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:2‑3).) Peter also speaks of the day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night, and John assures us that when the Lord does thus come out of heaven to judge the living, “every eye shall see him.... and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” (2 Pet. 3:1010But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10); Rev. 1:77Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7).) Because God is “slow to anger,” He has been giving this warning for upwards of eighteen hundred years; yet, as certainly as Nineveh did fall, and wicked Jerusalem, after much long-suffering, was destroyed by murderers, and burned with fire, so surely must the threatened judgments, which are still hanging over this doomed world, have their awful accomplishment, for God “will not at all acquit the wicked.” Truly men will know then that “His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and that the clouds are the dust of his feet..... The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? or, who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.” (Nah. 1:3-63The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 5The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 6Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. (Nahum 1:3‑6).) What saith the reader to these awful predictions of prophets and apostles? Has it ever occurred to you, that every step the unconverted take is one step nearer to this appalling reality? Are you, dear reader, at peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ? and therefore able to contemplate this dreadful scene of men being punished with everlasting destruction, in the surest confidence that, ere this, Jesus will have come, and received you and other loved ones unto Himself, and taken you to the Father’s house. If, dear reader, you are not converted, may you now turn to God, and receive remission of sins, through the cleansing value of the precious blood of Jesus.
But amidst these sounds of divine judgment from Him who “will take vengeance on his adversaries, and reserveth wrath for his enemies,” a still, small voice is heard to comfort any who have ears to hear. To such the voice is profoundly precious and consoling. “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him.” (Ver. 7.)
1. “The Lord is good.” Though the righteous God loveth righteousness, and will not at all acquit the wicked, yet Jehovah is good; God is love. The cross of Christ blessedly manifested this. The love of God to sinners was there told out; for “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Yes, it was for sinners Jesus died—He came into the world to save sinners. This is divine goodness to us when we were in our sins, enemies, and far from God. “For God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.” Wondrous love! And this is not all, for the free, unmerited love of God has brought us who believe into the same life, position, nearness, acceptance, and relationship as Christ Himself, at His own right hand, and given us the hope of being yet conformed to His image, and of reigning with Him in glory. “The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.” Dear reader, dost thou believe God? Do these testimonies of holy scripture concerning the goodness of God so touch thine heart, as to cause thee to cry out with others, “We love him, because he first loved us”? Does the highest thought of goodness thou hast ever conceived in the least degree compare with this goodness of God? Has it broken thine heart? for truly the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. Surely those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious long for ten thousand tongues to praise Him? and if they had a hundred lives, would like to give them all to Him and His precious service.
2. But He is also “a stronghold in the day of trouble.” Yes, if the faithful then living had seen Nineveh falling into a heap of ruins, or the king’s palace consumed by the flaming fire; if, at another time, believers had seen the justly-doomed city of Jerusalem under its predicted judgment they would in either case find the presence of Jehovah their hiding-place and stronghold. And by-and-by, when men are crying out to the rocks to fall on them, and the hills to cover them, and hide them from the presence of Him who is coming to execute the vengeance due to this Christ-rejecting world, the church of God will be safe in glory, and truly rejoicing in the goodness of God, and the stronghold they know Him to be. Even now, to faith, “the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” And so, on every occasion of sorrow, where is the child of God who does not know that the Lord is good and a stronghold in the day of trouble! What a stronghold we find when we are abiding in the consciousness that we are in Christ, and loved by the Father as He loves Jesus!
3. He knows who believe— “He knoweth them that trust in him.” Yes, He knows, and that is all we wish. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” My faith may be the feeblest, but He knows that I look to Jesus, the object of faith, that I “come unto God by him.” How consoling is this sweet truth! There is not a thought in our hearts, not a word on our tongue, but He knows it altogether. As Peter, when it was a question of love, could say, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee;” so the believer can say, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to Him alone, as my Savior, my way to Thee, my life, righteousness, and all.” Oh yes, “He knoweth them that trust in him” These very words might have been an unspeakable comfort to the Annas and Simeons of a former time, and another remnant may by-and-by lift up their heads in times of infidelity and apostasy, and say, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him.” Η. H. S.