Nahum 1:2: A Jealous God

Reformed Rookie

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:13

Now we're in Nahum chapter 1 and we're moving very quickly.

00:19

We're on verse 2 at this point Okay So what I'm going to do is

00:24

I'm going to read chapter 1 of Nahum once again It's just to go through it real quickly actually maybe just about halfway through So Nahum an oracle concerning Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh The Lord is a jealous and avenging

00:38

God the Lord is avenging and wrathful The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies

00:45

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty

00:50

His way is in the world when in storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet He rebukes the sea and makes it dry

00:57

He dries up all the rivers Bashan and Carmel wither the bloom of Lebanon withers

01:02

The mountains quake before him the hills melt the earth heaves before him the world and all who are in it

01:09

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

01:20

That is a heavy statement about God, right? So let's begin by going through this first verse here.

01:28

So The Lord is a jealous and avenging God the Lord's avenging and wrathful

01:33

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies So this

01:39

Nahum begins right out the gate addressing the nature and the character of God So Nahum begins with a beautiful description of God's character his character guarantees

01:51

That he will be a vindicator of the oppressed and judge of the oppressor

01:56

This is what we would expect a holy and loving God to do So he talks about the vengeance of God the power of God the goodness of God and then the severity of God The book also begins with an acrostic wordplay using the letters of the first half of the

02:15

Hebrew alphabet in sequence To begin each half verse. I wasn't able in Hebrew to actually track that and find it

02:22

So I didn't want to do too much commenting on it I'll just have to take the commentators word at this point

02:27

But I mean we can get that into that later as I dig up some more material But Nahum starts by declaring

02:33

Yahweh's name five times with descriptions of three of God's attributes The Lord is jealous.

02:40

The Lord is slow to anger. The Lord is great in power and the Lord is good

02:46

Okay. So now which one of those would you say is not one of his attributes if any?

03:01

Yeah, the Lord is jealous the Lord is slow to anger the Lord is great in power the Lord is good Well goodness would be an attribute of God.

03:07

I mean benevolence. What about power? omnipotent Jealous is

03:13

God. Is that one of his attributes? I'd say yes, what is not an attribute is his

03:19

God is not anger. He's not anger, right? He's angry towards sin, but he's not anger in and of himself

03:28

So first the term Lord is his covenant name and it's used five times in two verses now, why is that important coffee?

03:43

anyone Why is his covenant name important sure it's it's all about the covenant of God he has

03:53

Mike He's addressing his people and the people that Lawrence brought up last week who are in covenant with God's people

04:01

Right. So God is a covenant of God, which means that he cannot deny himself if he isn't in a covenant with a people

04:10

He must carry out the terms of that covenant So that's going to be very important He's going to carry out the terms of that covenant against Assyria And he's going to carry out the terms of that covenant for Israel because he's promised to keep a remnant

04:25

Okay The term avenge and vengeance is used three times in verse two alone

04:33

How often do you hear that in church services? God is an avenging God a

04:38

God of vengeance right God reveals himself in his character before he demonstrates his power

04:48

Again, that's important. Right because God is telling you who he is

04:53

Before he he does what he does He's letting you know who he is and this gets back to his covenant structure

05:01

Okay, if you've listened to pastor Chris's series on Leviticus, you'll you'll see that acrostic

05:07

Theos Theos Does anybody want to take a guess of what Theos means as far as the acrostic structure for covenants?

05:17

Go ahead Yeah, sure What they stand for?

05:25

Yes, right Ethics, right

05:33

Succession excellent. They taught by the man himself right transcendence hierarchy ethics oath oaths and succession and Transcendence means that God is above us

05:43

So here God is letting letting Nahum and the Assyrians know through Nahum That he is above all of them.

05:51

This is who he is He's a jealous God an avenging God. He's going to pour out his wrath on his on his enemies

05:59

So he's letting them know up front who he is So that when this happens, they can't say well you never told us this is who you are

06:08

He clearly tells us who he is So to introduce God Nahum says that God is a jealous

06:15

God does anybody have any Thoughts about that is jealousy a good thing

06:22

Bad thing. Yes. Yes.

06:38

Absolutely. Go ahead camera It's an outworking of his love. Definitely. Yes men.

06:54

Yeah, right.

07:02

Absolutely Yes, so there was another hand no, they're really good So these are all good answers and actually we're gonna get into that a little bit deeper because I think

07:11

Knowing what the term jealousy means when God says he's a jealous. God is very important Okay, this is one of the reasons why

07:18

Oprah walked away from Christianity. God is a jealous God. I can't believe that Oh my goodness because jealousy

07:25

Almost always carries with it bad overtones It means reset resentful and being envious about that which belongs to someone else

07:33

All right, so jealousy could has has that Connotation of envy

07:38

I want what that person has so I'm jealous of them because of what they have now, that's not

07:44

God. Yes Definitely definitely we're gonna we're gonna see a couple of verses that show us that so can anybody tell me where the first place?

08:14

We hear the term jealous is in the Bible I Won't take a guess. I don't think it's easily

08:22

It's easily identifiable if you had a concordance or a Bible software like I did I'll give you the answer

08:27

Genesis 37 9 Then he dreamed another dream This is Joseph and told her to his brothers and said behold

08:33

I have dreamed another dream behold the Sun the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me and his brothers were jealous of him

08:40

But his father kept saying kept the saying in mind So this is the first time we hear the term jealous in the

08:48

Bible, but this Jealousy is pertaining to man, right? His brothers were jealous of him.

08:54

They were envious of what he had This is not the way God is jealous in the

09:00

Bible What's where's the first time we hear about God and his jealousy? Exodus Exodus is right.

09:14

Okay Exodus 20 and 5 we need to go back to the Ten Commandments To see what this phrase means in regards to God in Exodus 25 20 and 5 we read you shall not bow

09:26

Down to them the idols or worship them for I the Lord your God am I jealous

09:32

God? Right. So this this pertains to everything that you guys had said before he's zealous for his law.

09:39

He's zealous for his people Okay, and we're gonna get into this a little bit more because I think it's important to understand exactly what jealousy is

09:47

So this one particular commentator says the jealousy means that the Lord will put up with no rivalry

09:53

Just as a husband will not allow any other man to share his wife in those intimate ways which belong to the marriage bond alone

09:59

So God will not permit his people to give affection whatsoever to any other

10:05

God be it a person a relationship Power money, etc If any if anything at all is allowed to come between God and one of his children

10:14

Then the Lord will not overlook it He will show his jealous anger against whoever or whatever seeks to win the affection of any of his beloved ones

10:24

Right that makes sense to you You see why he would tell this to Nahum and share this with the rest of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin Why do you think that is?

10:42

Why do you think he would have the Prophet Nahum bring this message to the

10:47

Israelites? Because they were yes Right, and God is not gonna allow the

11:02

Assyrians Okay to to Stop them from being

11:07

God's people. They're not going to be cut off. God is gonna remain. They're gonna remain the

11:13

His bride they're gonna remain his people. It's gonna be painful There's consequences to sin and their idolatry

11:20

But ultimately he's going to be zealous for his people and the Assyrians are going to get God's wrath poured out on them

11:27

Okay It's an adjective that means jealous the word comes from the verb kana

11:32

Meaning to be jealous or zealous like Jerry said in every instance of this word is used to describe the character of the

11:39

Lord He is a jealous God who will not tolerate the worship of other gods

11:44

The word is always used to describe God's attitude Toward the worship of false gods which arouses his jealousy and anger and judgment against the idol worshipers

11:55

Okay, so this is God who's jealous for his people who does not want them to devote their attention or affection to anything but himself

12:06

Now some people say well that makes God an egomaniac No, God doesn't need their affection or their attention that would make him an egomaniac

12:14

He knows that God is the highest being okay the best good being he's omnibenevolent

12:22

Anything else that they decide to worship is going to be false because he's the only true God So worshiping

12:29

God is for our benefit not his God doesn't derive any benefit from us worshiping him

12:35

All right, we don't add to the goodness of God when we worship him We direct our attention to where it rightly belongs on God So what does the scripture say about God and jealousy?

12:53

Deuteronomy 4 24th for the Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God Deuteronomy 6 15 for the

13:01

Lord your God in your midst is a Jealous God lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroy you from the face of the earth

13:10

See what jealousy can lead to Joshua 24 19, but Joshua said to the people you are not able to serve the

13:17

Lord for he is a holy God He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins

13:24

Okay, these are warnings to the Israelites turn from your worshiping your idols and turn to worship

13:30

God His jealousy is gonna cause you a problem at that point if you don't turn and Then again in Nahum the

13:38

Lord is a jealous and avenging God the Lord is avenging and wrathful Okay, here's the one that perfectly defines who

13:44

God is Exodus 34 you shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their asherim

13:51

For you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous

13:58

God So again, I think this is something that people generally great against yesterday, yes

14:17

You're reading ahead of my notes, but I like the way you're thinking.

14:27

That's good. We're gonna get to that Right. He's zealous for himself as well. Okay notice that each time

14:34

We quote these verses it uses capital L capital O capital R capital

14:40

D that's Yahweh That's the covenant name for God God will honor the covenant

14:47

Okay, he will always maintain the the stipulations of the covenant. The problem is we don't

14:54

That's an issue. We need someone who's going to keep the covenant on our behalf Perfectly in order for us to avoid the wrath of God.

15:03

Thank God for Jesus. That's what he does Okay, but all this points to the covenant name of God.

15:09

He will not deny himself He will maintain that covenant and the stipulations of that covenant with the people who he entered into it with Okay, that's not a good thing for some people because as humans we break.

15:22

We're sinful. We're gonna break that covenant. Okay Okay. So what is jealous wrath?

15:28

Psalm 79 how long O Lord will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

15:35

Hmm Ezekiel 36 therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys

15:43

Thus says the Lord God behold. I have spoken in my jealous wrath Because you have suffered the reproach of the nations, right?

15:52

So his jealousy is expressed in wrath at times. Okay Zephaniah neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of wrath of the wrath of the

16:03

Lord In the fire of his jealousy all the earth shall be consumed for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth and Finally in Zephaniah therefore wait for me declares the

16:16

Lord For the day when I rise up to seize the prey for my decision is to gather nations to assemble kingdoms

16:22

To pour out on them my indignation and my all my burning anger for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed

16:30

Right, this is a zealous God who's zealous for his name. He's not gonna let his name be profaned

16:37

Ultimately his enemies are going to receive the wrath They deserve and his people are going to be protected by him in his jealousy because they're his bride

16:46

All right Any questions at this point? Yes, Jerry. It can be sure.

17:00

Yeah cleansing for his people who obey him but not Yeah, not so much cleansing for those who are opposed to him right they'll be they'll be wiped clean off the earth

17:11

If that's what you mean by cleansing, right? Well kind of yeah Okay, so let me just give you a little historical recap just to let you see where we're at right now.

17:22

So Jonah which is The first half of Nahum Nahum is Jonah 2 .0

17:28

right Jonah announced the destruction of Nineveh But the city repented the

17:33

Lord for a while turned from his threats to destroy Nineveh and but however

17:38

Nineveh returned to her old ways and destroyed Samaria taking to northern as Israel into exile in 722

17:45

BC The Lord was jealous for his people and would destroy this mighty Assyrian capital through the

17:50

Babylonians the city of Nineveh fell in 612 BC Okay. So again

17:55

Jonah preached to the Ninevites. They repented There was a 40 -year gap and then they they walked away from their repentance.

18:02

They went back to their old ways They came in and sacked the northern tribes destroyed them the prophet

18:08

Nahum now Comforts the people of Israel by announcing the vengeance of the Lord upon Nineveh He begins his message by declaring that the

18:17

Lord is a kano God a jealous God This adjective is used to describe only

18:22

God it is formed from a root Meaning intensity and the verb kana to be jealous or zealous a synonym of kano

18:32

Is kana and means oh, I'm sorry zeal of the Lord Exodus 25 God declared that he alone was to be

18:39

Israel's God later Joshua made it clear to the people that they could not worship the Lord and strange gods of Canaan or Egypt For the

18:46

Lord was a jealous God or zealous for his name his very name kana means jealous a synonym for kana

18:52

So again historically here's where God is Telling Nahum to bring this message to the

18:59

Israelites. Okay. What is Nahum's name mean? Comfort.

19:06

Thank you. All right. So this is a message of comfort That's why some people think with all this jealousy and avenging and wrath who named this guy.

19:15

This isn't comforting All right. This is comforting for Israel. Not so much for the Assyrians the Ninevites Okay, so the zealousness of God is that of a creator and Redeemer who intensely set his intensely set on caring for protecting and if necessary Avenging himself upon the enemies of his people.

19:39

He has a unique Godly jealousy it's to protect his people if the

19:45

Lord burns with jealousy for his people He is set on protecting them and his holy character of love

19:52

But if his people are unfaithful to him God's jealousy and zeal for his character will cause him to judge them

19:58

His angle will burn against those who defy him or his people Make sense any questions see where this is going.

20:06

Okay by serving false gods Israel made the Lord jealous for his own reputation like Jerry said before for his own name his holiness parallels his jealous character

20:18

Okay again, we can't separate God into parts his jealousy is a holy jealousy.

20:26

It's a loving jealousy Right. It's all of God at the same time It was with a message of avenging wrath that Nahum announced the coming vengeance of the

20:35

Lord God was not only jealous for his destroyed people, but ultimately for his own his own namesake as well

20:43

Again, he's not gonna deny himself He's covenanted to those people and will abide by the terms of the

20:49

Covenant All right. So if somebody turns away from God, that's gonna result in a

20:56

Consequence. Okay. So as Christians we live under the grace of God and God does not change

21:05

Malachi 3 6 he is still a Jealous God He wants our total allegiance and even more so now

21:14

Since we're comforted with the sacrifice of his own son on our behalf we have the testimony of Jesus Paul is our example for he was jealous for his

21:24

Christian brothers and sisters at Corinth with a godly jealousy a Jealousy that was ultimately for their benefit not his

21:31

Here's what he says in 2nd Corinthians 11. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness

21:37

Do bear with me for I feel a divine Jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived

21:48

Eve by his cunning your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ So it's not like this is the

21:55

God of the Old Testament that changed and now Jesus appeased him. He's not jealous anymore He is a jealous

22:01

God All right in the Bible the term jealousy has both positive and negative connotations

22:07

Negatively it may denote sinful human envy but when speaking of God the term jealousy is used to express

22:14

God's demand for faithfulness and his zealous protection of those he loves

22:20

Okay, I'm drumming this home about God's jealousy because I think it's very important It's gonna set the tone for the rest of the book of Nahum Okay So God's jealousy is thus based on two fundamental claims first God made us so we rightly belong to and should love our

22:35

Creator and Second God purchased us with his acts of deliverance. So we rightly belong to the one who saved us

22:41

Okay, so he created us and he saved us It is right for us to give all our attention all of our devotion all of our worship to God alone have undivided hearts

22:53

When an enemy steals or oppresses Yahweh's people God exercises perfect jealousy

22:59

That phrase that Yahweh maintains his wrath because that's what it means when we get to that word wrath

23:05

It's an ongoing wrath It comes from a word related to gardening to maintain wrath means to persist against weeds that choke a vine and against foxes that eat

23:15

The grapes so God is continually weeding his garden He's continually guarding the garden against foxes

23:22

God persists in this way for the sake of the Judean remnant God is not zealous of us.

23:29

He is zealous for us Right. He's not jealous of us.

23:35

We don't have anything that God needs Right. He's zealous for us.

23:40

That's an intense love for his people a Protecting love the love of a husband who's not gonna left it

23:47

Let his wife run away or let someone come in and damage his relationship with his wife very important We understand that and here's the definition by Kevin de

23:56

Young who I love This is bottom line the jealousy of God is his holy commitment to his to his honor glory and Love that manifests itself in the salvation of his people and the just condemnation of all who stand in opposition

24:09

To him any book by Kevin de Young buy it and read it.

24:15

He's excellent Okay. So now we're gonna move on from jealousy to avenging and I know what you're thinking.

24:23

I Know somebody's alike avenging. I know that. Oh, that's what yeah the Avengers That what

24:30

God means by avenging Let's see All right Nahum in chapter 1 verse 2 proceeds to give one of the clearest statements of God's vengeance in the

24:41

Bible now purposely Cut out this quote because it is profound when we listen to it.

24:48

Okay Many people cringe at this aspect of God's character Undoubtedly this contributes to the scarcity of references to the book of Nahum in worship services

24:58

However, we cannot afford to ignore or avoid any aspect of God's character

25:04

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness

25:11

We read the Bible to know God. He has told us about himself A W Tozer says what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you

25:23

Alright, so when we read the scriptures and we try to water down God's wrath or water down his jealousy or water down His avenging right?

25:33

What are we doing? We're just Watering down God what right? We're we're watering down the truth of who he is.

25:40

We're changing him Right. What is the most important question mankind has ever been asked?

25:50

What would be the most important question you can ask anyone when you're on the street with them evangelizing? Say again

26:00

Right with regards to Jesus. Who do you say Jesus is right? Jesus looks at Peter says who do you say?

26:06

I am this is the crux. This is the crux of the situation. Do you say that I'm the Messiah? Right, what do you say?

26:13

I'm just a good teacher or everything comes down to Jesus. It's he's the focal point So that's the most important question.

26:19

We have to ask about God now most people try to water Jesus down Jesus meek and mild Jesus is coming back like a lion

26:26

He's not Jesus meek and mild. He hates sin and he will punish it Okay We will not know

26:34

God if we refuse to listen to his self -description Those those who will not allow the

26:41

Bible to describe God do not worship the God of the Bible They worship a

26:46

God of their own making Isaiah says that such a person fashions a God or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing when we read the

26:55

Bible and we try to Distort or water down the things that the Bible tells us we we are moving further away from God When we understand what those terms mean jealousy a wrath avenging

27:09

Okay in in their proper context we move closer to God now watch what he says here

27:15

This is real important whether the idol is fashioned with tools or theology It is a false

27:21

God Think about how many people use theology to create a different God Obviously it's not pure theology

27:29

It's not true theology, but they try to build a system. Okay of theology that waters

27:35

God down that tames him And what does C .S. Lewis say about about Aslan? right

27:42

Haslund Aslan's the lion. He's he's not to be tamed right. He's a fierce God I think this is an excellent observation because people can use their theology to to change or change or distort

27:54

What the Bible what the scripture says about who God really is When you read the scriptures and you come across something that grates against you.

28:03

It's probably because You think you're more merciful than God All right, you have to accept

28:11

God for who he is and understand him in context, okay, so let's continue Any questions at this point?

28:18

We're good. Okay Okay, so is there a difference between avenge and revenge? What is it?

28:26

Yes, everything. Mm -hmm. What is it? I didn't either. Don't worry Let's go through.

28:32

Okay. Avenge is a verb To avenge is to punish a wrongdoing with the intent of seeing justice

28:41

Does that give you a hint of what a hint of what revenge might be? What do you think revenge is?

28:48

Getting even right Right. It's not it's not so much A matter of justice.

28:55

It's about personal satisfaction. I got him back Right revenge can be used as a noun or a verb

29:00

It is more personal less connected less concerned with justice and more about retaliation by inflicting harm

29:08

Yes Mm -hmm

29:29

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's going like I think brother John said it's going beyond what the law says

29:35

That's why the law says an eye for an eye and people like oh gosh an eye for an eye That's designed to keep you from going further in the punishment.

29:42

If somebody steals a loaf of bread, you don't kill them It's not capital punishment. You get capital punishment.

29:47

If you kill another human being that's an eye for an eye Killing somebody for stealing a loaf of bread is going beyond what the law says

29:54

Okay, that's why the law has those guidelines. Okay dictionary .com says avenge and Revenge both implied to inflict pain or harm in return for pain or harm inflicted on Oneself or those persons who or causes to which one feels loyalty the words were formerly interchangeable

30:13

But have been differentiated until they now convey widely diverse ideas Avenge is now restricted to inflicting punishment as an act of retributive justice or as a vindication of Propriety to avenge a murder by bringing the criminal to trial

30:29

Revenge implies inflicting pain or harm to retaliate for real or fancied wrongs

30:36

So sometimes revenge can be taken on Against people who haven't even really committed a crime.

30:42

I thought they did it. So I'm just gonna go after them It's not about justice at that point the concept of divine vengeance must be understood in the light of Old Testament teaching about the holiness and Justice of God and its effect on man as a sinner in terms of the presuppositions of some modern

31:01

Christian theologies Such a god of vengeance will be labeled un -christian and unethical

31:07

Understood in the full orb of biblical revelation balanced as it is by the mercy of God Divine vengeance is seen to be a necessary aspect of the history of redemption

31:18

Okay God's vengeance is a necessary aspect of him bringing about justice on the on his enemies

31:25

Okay, we're gonna read a little a little bit more about what this means Avenge in this verse carries with it the idea of ongoing continuous activity

31:34

God's vengeance in the Old Testament can be described as the punitive retribution of God who as the sovereign

31:42

King Faithful to his covenant right stands up for the vindication of his glorious name in judging and fighting mode

31:49

While watching over the maintenance of his justice and acting to save his people it is never used for blood revenge

31:56

But to defeat his enemies Okay, so God is taking he's avenging his people and getting taking

32:06

His enemies giving them justice God avenges Ezekiel 25 14 and I lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people

32:14

Israel and they shall do in Edom according According to my anger and according to my wrath and they shall know my vengeance declares the

32:20

Lord God God commands Israel to avenge in numbers the Lord spoke to Moses saying avenge the people of Israel on the

32:28

Midianites Afterwards you shall be gathered to your people The last one

32:33

God judge commands not to avenge Leviticus 19 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people

32:40

But you shall love your neighbor as yourself as I am the Lord Now, what do you think is going to happen when you when you show somebody these verses about God being an avenging

32:50

God? Where did all these verses come from? the Old Testament, oh

32:55

But that's just the Old Testament That's just the Old Testament God, okay Let's see

33:02

Romans 12 Beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written

33:08

Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord Hebrews 10 for we know him who said vengeance is mine

33:18

I will repay and again, the Lord will judge his people is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the

33:24

Living God Now It's in the New Testament, too right

33:32

So this should cause us to pause humble ourselves Recognize that if if you are saved if you are a

33:39

Christian and your faith and trust is in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation He's absorbed God's wrath on your behalf.

33:45

That's what we deserve Right. This is gonna change the way we act towards other people.

33:51

This is gonna change the way we act towards our enemies What does Jesus say love your enemy bless those that persecute you?

34:00

Why? Because we were shown mercy and grace Right. We need to show that mercy and grace to our enemies and recognize that we've been spared the wrath of a jealous and vengeful

34:13

God Should cause us to humble ourselves bring us to tears in certain cases

34:20

Yahweh is jealous and avenging avenging describes what he does in reaction to the sins of Nineveh Yahweh is not vengeful by nature yet His vengeance is mentioned three times in this opening verse.

34:33

His vengeance is a response to of his jealousy to particular circumstances

34:38

He does he does take vengeance, but he is not vengeful in character Okay, his wrath is circumstantial is is a circumstantial

34:48

Response to those who destroy what God loves Three expressions provide the context of Yahweh's vengeance in this verse jealousy as an attribute of Yahweh Filled with wrath against his enemies wrath is the righteous response to sin

35:03

Yes, I would say

35:31

God is God is love. God is jealous. That's one of his attributes I would say

35:36

God is omnipotent God is Righteous he's holy

35:44

Wrath is a response of who he is on those people who sin

35:50

Okay, so God is not wrath That's not an attribute of his wrath is the outworking of his justice upon unholy people

35:59

He cannot stand in the presence of wrath. He's going to remain faithful to the

36:04

Covenant make sense Does that yeah put it this way if there was a fire?

36:21

Okay in in in the room and it was contained The closer you are to the fire

36:27

The hotter you're gonna be The further you are from the fire the cooler.

36:33

You're gonna be the fire doesn't change It's us coming closer to the fire or moving away from the fire so if we're sinners

36:45

We're gonna be brought in contact with that fire. It's gonna hurt Unless we have a

36:51

Savior who stood in that in our place in our place Such that will be separated from that fire from from the response

36:59

God's response towards sin So it's not that God moves we don't move

37:05

God God remains constant static the same Okay, and he's passionate for his people and he's vengeful vengeful towards his enemies

37:16

Because that's the proper response of justice if God didn't do that. He wouldn't be just he wouldn't be holy he wouldn't be loving

37:23

Right does that help I know it's kind of Yeah, Jerry sure

37:35

Right absolutely yes, right absolutely yeah, it's only until sin comes into the world that God Demonstrates wrath towards it

38:01

Exactly he right he he's he's going to Have a proper response to that sin because because he is love right

38:10

Romans tells us to hate What is evil cling to what is good that means God hates? What is evil also? Make sense all right?

38:17

We're just gonna have to move a little quicker now The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries man needs to understand that he cannot fight against God and hope to prevail

38:25

Everyone who sets themselves against God will end up receiving his vengeance For God to not have overthrown the

38:33

Assyrians would have meant that he was not true to himself The character of God means that evil cannot triumph in this world

38:41

This is comforting to Nahum, and this is should be comforting to us. We see what's going on in the world today

38:47

And it's it's horrific Okay, but that does not mean that God's not sovereign or in control

38:53

The people who rebel against God who are murdering innocent people are going to receive the just penalty

39:00

Okay For if God does not destroy the evil human beings have brought into God's good creation the world can never return to the wholeness

39:08

He intended for it in the beginning To divest God of his function as destroyer of wrong is to acquiesce to the present corrupt state of the world

39:17

To accept the sinful status quo and simply to put up with whatever is done by selfish and prideful and corrupted men and women

39:26

Okay, do you see what he's saying that right? It's That God must do this in order to restore the garden back to what it was perfection sinlessness

39:36

God's love also ignites his wrath against any who would draw away from Draw us away from him if God did not care when our hearts are far from him or when we adulterously gave

39:47

Give our hearts to the world He would not be loving us if God did not care that the world the flesh and the devil attempt to seduce us away from He would not love us if God could watch us suffer grievous injustice without punishing evil

40:02

He would not love us the notion of a love without jealousy and vengeance cannot survive a thorough biblical examination

40:09

It is a concept lacking power. It is apathy Masquerading as virtue.

40:17

That's a heavy statement. This guy Gregory Cook has become my new favorite commenter with regards to name

40:23

I looked up to see if he has any other books. He doesn't but this is a gem Right. So if God didn't punish

40:31

Evil, okay. He says it's apathy masquerading his virtue Right.

40:37

Oh we as Concerned about sin as God is concerned about sin That's what we need to worry about not worry.

40:45

That's what we need to be concerned with. We have to be as Vigilant against sin as God is right.

40:52

We're too complacent in our sin. We have to recognize God is a jealous God He's an avenging

40:58

God All right So we're getting close to the end We're getting wrathful.

41:05

I got a move Now meaning wrath heat figuratively. It can signify anger hot displeasure indignation

41:11

Poison or rage the noun describes the great fury that the kings of the north north executed in their art of destruction

41:19

So now we're up to that last word rat raffle. I know we're moving very quickly This vengeful and jealous

41:25

God is also a wrathful literally a bow of wrath That is a master

41:30

Lord or husband of wrath That's a interesting way to describe it

41:36

Hebrew has several ways of expressing God's anger or ire Nahum used the term

41:41

Hema which can be referred which can refer to heat or poison God's wrath is his inner fire against sin and is always raised by human disobedience

41:51

It is not the result of frustration or impatience and results in visible consequences

41:57

So that goes back to my illustration with the fire the closer you get to the fire. Okay, the hotter

42:03

It's gonna be you could get burned. We don't play with fire Such actuality of wrath demonstrates demonstrated

42:11

God's power both to his people in their need and to the enemies in their pride and Self -sufficiency that would be the

42:17

Ninevites it called for faith from God's people wrath did not automatically bring destruction and judgment

42:22

Human repentance and divine mercy often acted to turn God away from his wrath.

42:28

Thank goodness We have a Savior. Thank goodness if we repent and trust in him

42:33

God's wrath against us will be averted propitiated Satisfied appeased

42:38

God's wrath is appeased in Christ when we're in Christ Okay, God's wrath has been poured out on him it cannot be poured out on us a second time

42:48

Okay All right, so what's

42:53

Nate Nahum alluding to In these two verses they unveil a purpose of the prophecy through an illusion in Isaiah 124 which ends with ah,

43:03

I will get relief from my enemies and avenge my avenge myself on my foes Although the

43:08

ESV uses 14 words in this quote the original Hebrew text contains only five and each of these five

43:14

Hebrew words appear in Nahum First the word ah occurs in name three one three one where most

43:21

English versions translated as whoa Anyone know what the Hebrew word for whoa is?

43:29

boy Boy, they boy. That's the word for whoa, right? And we hear we hear that and we think oh that doesn't really sound like whoa, but it's whoa

43:37

Okay The remaining four Hebrew words all occur in Nahum's first verse

43:43

Most notably the word that ESV translates as relief is the root word for Nahum's name, right?

43:49

It means comfort relief Less than a century before God had used Assyria to chasten

43:54

Judah as a means of that purification Yet Assyria went beyond God's mandate Okay, he

44:00

God used Assyria to come in to punish the northern tribes, but their hearts went beyond that Assyrian officials mocked

44:09

God and forced Judah to submit to Assyrian gods It's here that Nahum declares the end of the

44:15

Assyrian affliction and God's intention to avenge this injustice This illusion the allusion to Isaiah 124 reveals that the purpose of the book of Nahum matches the ultimate purpose of all things

44:28

God's glory Nahum's name fits his life because his words bring

44:34

God's comfort any questions We're gonna kind of wrap it up here bottom line

44:45

We don't take vengeance. You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against the sons of your people

44:51

But you shall love your neighbor as yourself for I am the Lord Vengeance is mine says the

44:57

Lord. He's the one who avenges his people not us Any last questions, all right, let's close in prayer.