Warning!! {Nahum}

If you've ever read the book of Nahum, I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say, “I honestly don’t think this book would make the top of anyone’s favorite books of the Bible.” Many may have never read it before, but there’s at least one very important message within these three short chapters that everyone needs to know!

Nahum was written to reveal the angry side of God as He rails against Assyria (2:13; 3:5) and speaks of Assyria’s destruction. You see, many years before, The Lord had sent a reluctant prophet named Jonah to preach to Nineveh, and during that time the people repented, and the city was spared.

But now, Nahum comes to demonstrate that with God, there are few things worse than repenting of repentance. Since the days of Jonah, Nineveh and the whole nation of Assyria have turned away from God and back to the ways of their forefathers. And to make matters worse Assyria then chooses to attack Israel, and God is determined to punish them.

Do you know someone who at one time repented of their sins and chose to follow after Jesus, only to have turned back to their old ways after a time? Does that same person(s) tend to now attack, ridicule or demise the things of God and His people? The message of Nahum is truly a warning for them and a sweet reminder to His people.

Unfortunately, I know more than one who had at one time professed to be a believer, but have now turned their back on Christ and His ways; preferring their old ways once more, and their defection always seems to raise the question in me of whether they are simply a wayward Christian at the moment, or had they never truly believed. Either way, they will find out one day that the Lord never lets sin go unpunished.

Nahum begins by reminding us that, “The Lord is slow to anger", but He is also just,

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
    and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet…
⁶ Who can stand before his indignation?
    Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
    and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
⁷ The Lord is good,
    a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
⁸     But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries… Nahum 1:3, 6-8

WHY? Nahum tells us in verse two. “God is jealous.” (Nahum 1:2) He is El Quana.

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did he choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he would not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than you should perish, and he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you.
When we lean upon him, he is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, he is displeased, and will chasten us that he may bring us to himself.
He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. – Charles H. Spurgeon  

But this jealousy The Lord has for us should also be a comfort to us, for He loves us so much that we can be certain that He will not allow us to suffer harm, but will protect us from all our enemies.
Assyria had turned away from God and now were threatening to harm His people, and The Lord, El Quana was not about to allow it!

The message of Nahum should bring His children comfort, but a stern warning to the one who has spurned His love for something they believe to be better, for there will be a day coming when the Lord declares, "Enough!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you yearn to experience more of the love of Jesus in your life this fall? Come join our New Testament study with an eclectic group of women from around the world!

Together we'll read through the entire New Testament and grow to love our Lord & Savior even more! Trust in Him, and begin an adventure that will transform your life and maybe others as well!
Begins August 31st! on Women in the Word.