Nahum: Historical context

Okay, so as you know, we're in the book of Nahum Nahum is really about the justice of God today.

We're going to be going over historical context So last week we just went into a quick introduction as to who wrote it

Why he was writing it who he was writing it to that type of stuff today. We're going to go through the historical context of Israel Judah and Assyria So that we know what what is going on at that point in time

So last week we went through who wrote the book Nahum. Who did he write it to he wrote it to his countrymen the

Israelites about Nineveh and Assyria It was written approximately 654

BC It's a prophetic book, but it's laced with poetry So we're going to hopefully dive into that at a certain point the theme or purpose of the book is the justice of God We're going to see

God's justice on full display here and finally the historical context text

Which is what we're going to get into today so I told you last week the historical background for Nahum is 2nd

Kings 17 through through 23 and 2nd Chronicles 33 and 34 and Isaiah 36 through 39.

We're going to read two long passages out of that today Nahum is prophesying while Assyria is still at the height of her power

Assyria is well known among the agents as being a cruel barbaric savage nation that would demolish their enemies

During with during the whole period in which Nahum prophesied the kings of Judah Manasseh and Josiah Were vassals of Assyria and a vassal state is basically a state that pays tribute

Mob money to the larger country in order so as not to be destroyed to keep them at bay

So real quick, I want to give you just a quick overview Okay, the green part over there is the northern tribes of Israel Below that the orange part is

Judah and Benjamin. Those are the southern tribes Up here. These are the prophets that spoke to the northern tribes of Israel You have

Jonah which we went through several probably over a year ago Amos and Hosea They were prophesying to the northern tribes of Israel all of these prophets were prophesying to the southern tribes of Israel We're here

Nahum now Nahum comes after Micah which we just went through brother

Lawrence went through that and Jonah was before that so here you see the the Progression.

We're at this point in history where Assyria has taken over the northern tribes

Okay. Now this cause this was a split in Israel before Assyria took them over you had

Rehoboam and Jeroboam sons of Solomon who disputed with one another the northern tribes set up if you see here in Bethel they set up a

Separate sanctuary there. They were they were doing worship and animal sacrifices when it was supposed to be done in Jerusalem So they basically separated and this caused a rift between northern

Israel and southern Israel In fact when you're reading through the the Gospels and you hear about the

Samaritans Samaria right there. I see Samaria Okay Those are known as the

Samaritans and that's why the the Jews in the gospel had such animus towards the

Samaritans Because they were they were they were worshiping God falsely in a temple that was not set up the way it was supposed to be

So the Samaritans are not some foreign People they're actually Jews that were intermingled with the

Assyrians when they come in they married in okay So that'll give you some context on the Samaritans. So here we are

Nahum This this dark green area, this is a

Syria Okay in a hundred and fifty years They took over the land all the light green

What's really important to know is and we're going to see this in a second Nineveh is up there That's the capital of Assyria Okay Judah is down here, and then you have this little country known as Syria now a lot of people get mixed up between Assyria and Syria Syria is the smaller nation

Okay, that's not a Syria a Syria is the big nation Okay, the cruel barbaric nation took over Syria and took over Israel Now one of the big things to realize is

Actually as the capital of Nineveh the Assyrians were located there and started expanding outward

They had their eyes on Egypt very important the only way from Nineveh to Egypt is through what?

territory of Judah So Judah had to make sure that they were Protected okay, and the

Assyrians knew Judah was a focal point if we caught Judah the rest of Egypt is going to follow

So for a little while they went around they went around Judah But then eventually like we want you to and that's what we're going to get into today

Judah is the so is the surviving tribes of Israel composed of Judah and Benjamin Okay, so Nahum is prophesying to Judah about the

Assyrians That's why this is about the justice of God the Assyrians were a bloodthirsty cruel people, okay?

All right, let's move Jonah was called we're gonna start at Jonah because that's where this started remember

Nahum is Jonah 2 .0 All right, Nahum's the second half of the story. That's we're gonna get to so we're gonna start with Jonah And just go through the context biblically and then historically

So Jonah was called to preach to the Ninevites Okay, as you know Jonah was a prophet of God he preached repentance to the

Ninevites around 740 BC Nineveh that great city says it over and over and over again kind of poking

Judah in the eye Jonah in the eye great city. These are a bloodthirsty people

So God calls Jonah to preach repentance. What does Jonah do he takes a hard left and goes the other way?

It's like uh -uh. I'm not going there He didn't want to go to the Ninevites because they were brutal bloodthirsty people and Jonah knew

That God could actually use the Assyrians to Cause Israel a problem.

He knows that there's a prophecy in Deuteronomy 31 32 They Israel have made me a jealous maybe jealous with what is no

God they have provoked me to anger with their idols So I will make them jealous with those who are no people a

Syria I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation Now Jonah knows

Syria knows their reputation and he's like, please Lord anyone but a

Syria. I Don't want them to make us look foolish But that's exactly what

God is gonna do. This is why Jonah runs the other way He doesn't want a Syria to repent and be used by God to bring

Israel into into favor again. Okay, so a series that foolish nation

All right, Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, but how did Nineveh get its start who started it anybody know who how

Assyria came to be Because this is important, too Yes It was

Nimrod. Excellent. Good job Calista. All right, and it comes through the sons of Ham So real quick.

I just want to read this Genesis 10 the sons of Ham Cush Egypt put Canaan the sons of Cush Seba Halava Havilah Sabbath Rama Sab Teka the sons of Rama Sheba Deedon Cush fathered

Nimrod There's our guy. He was the first on the earth to be a mighty man He was a mighty hunter before the Lord Therefore it is said like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the

Lord the beginning of his kingdom was Babel first He started a city in Babel where we get the

Tower of Babel from Erek Akkad Kalna in the land of Shina from that land.

He went into Assyria and built Nineveh Rehoboth a year Kala resin between Nineveh and Kala.

That is the great city Egypt fathered Luden Annaman Lahabene now to him patrusim

Kalushim from whom the Philistines came and Kef 14, okay So there's a very very important theological point.

I know I did I messed up all those names You don't have to remind no, I get it. I get you all look at me like all right

There's a very important theological point to be made of this passage. You realize all of Israel's enemies came from the line of Ham All from the line of Ham This is why do you realize this is why

God banned pork in the Old Covenant now.

I know that that's not true Just just to let you know that it's not true, but guess what you're never gonna forget that all the evil line came through him

All right, I know that it's not true. It's a bad joke. I'm known for that Right, but the evil line came through ham so when you go through the story you're gonna recognize ham is behind all this all right

Here we go All right, so as God's Prophet Jonah is aware of Nineveh, and what's happening, but he wants nothing to do with the mission

He will not be made jealous by these savages. These are barbarians So we know the story

Jonah tries to escape he goes the other way God laughs hurls a storm at him gets the sailors on the boat to repent they throw

Jonah overboard God gets a fish to swallow Jonah Jonah repents, and then what then he finally goes to Nineveh five steps into the nation what happens he preaches these five steps in 40 more years and 40 more days and God's gonna crush

Nineveh boom Everybody hits their knees Everybody's repenting Jonah's like you got to be kidding me

Right could you imagine we go into Port Jeff and say 40 more days? God's gonna crush Port Jeff and everybody hits the deck.

Oh, we repent Lord. We want to know you Jonah's like you really and obviously this is highlighting the sovereignty of God right he calls us to to preach that message

Repent the kingdom of God is at hand, and it's up to God to bring them to their knees our

Job is to bring speak the message of truth right be faithful to that God's job is to convert the heart

Now Jonah sees this he's ticked off. Oh gosh really now in fairness to Jonah He knows that this message is gonna bring about the

Ninevites repentance which in contrast to his own country Israel Israel was in idolatry right they were not acting faithful to the

Lord. They were sacrificing to other gods. They were Oppressing the poor they were not acting according to God's Word This would be very bad for Israel because God will eventually use the

Assyrians to sweep Into idolatrous Israel and punish them for their sinfulness

So obviously Jonah's upset with that Jonah's message reached the king of Nineveh.

He got up off his throne. He removes his robe He covered himself with sackcloth satin ashes and he issued a proclamation and published it throughout

Nineveh By the decree of the king and his nobles let neither man nor beast herd nor flock taste anything

Let them not feed or drink water He calls for a public fast even to the animals the animals can't eat or drink

He's now submitted to the Lord and we know that this was actual repentance because in Matthew and Luke It says the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they

Repented at the preaching of Jonah All right, this is when we went through the book of Jonah This is what would be known as the sign of Jonah Jesus is gonna die

He's gonna be buried for three days and rise from the dead the same way Jonah was Swallowed by the fish stuck in there three days and then comes out

What Jonah didn't know was that the Ninevites repenting gives Israel time to repent of their sin before God brings judgment

So this is really an act of grace for Israel Okay, so these

Syrians are coming in they want to take over The northern tribes of Israel God gets them to repent

So now they're not as bloodthirsty say, okay, we're gonna follow Lord that gives Israel some time and as you know

Miraculously and providentially the Assyrians had a 40 -year military pause For 40 years, they stopped attacking people 40 hmm.

Where do we hear that number? Right over and over and over 40 is a period of testing

So for 40 years God gives grace to Israel in hopes that they would repent

Okay in hopes that they would see their their condition before God see that even the

Ninevites repented Yet they wouldn't Okay, so They ceased from warring against their neighbors a serious cease from warring against their neighbors and gave

Israel opportunity to repent 40 years Israel would eventually fail the test and Assyria would come in invade and wreck havoc on them

They would deport them which means taking them out of their land and spreading them throughout all of Assyria They would inbreed with them which would dilute their their genealogical line their physical lineage lineage

And you you realize for Israelites physical lineage is a big thing, right?

That's why we get all the baguettes in in the scriptures. Okay, they traced their physical line They wanted to keep the the nation of Israel pure their goal the

Assyrians goal for Israel was for them to lose their identity and it worked the northern ten tribes would become later known as the lost tribes of Israel Right.

You ever hear that term the lost tribes of Israel? This it was this is where it comes from because Assyria came in diluted them to the point

Dilute not diluted as in mind Dilute as in you know mixing two things together and getting it to disperse so they came in they intermarried with the

Israelites and diluted their bloodline and Deported them throughout the whole land

Got it. Okay so Only Judah and Benjamin would be left.

That was that lower orange piece of Israel Only Judah and Benjamin would be left of all

God's people to carry on the physical lineage Syria would eventually invade Judah and it was before this invasion into Judah by Assyria that Micah the prophet

Micah comes on the scene So now Jonah's out of the picture now we have the prophet Micah, which brother

Lawrence went through Micah prophesied to Israel and Judah during the reigns of Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah about 750 to 700

BC about the same time as Isaiah So Isaiah is also preaching to this to the southern tribes as as well as Micah The northern kingdom which was that green piece of Israel actually fell to Assyria during Micah's ministry.

Yes Yes, well he was prophesying mostly to the south because they were the ones who was still not following They were seeing what was happened to happening to northern

Israel yet. They were not repenting They still were oppressing the poor. In fact,

I think the Hosea calls the women the cows of Bashan Right.

Okay saying they would they would get in fat dumb and happy and everybody would you know? It's health wealth and prosperity basically and forget about everyone else

They were not concerned with truly following the Lord the way he's prescribed prescribed.

Thank you I'm sorry so the northern kingdom actually fell to Assyria during Micah's ministry in 722 and Judah almost fell in 701 and that's in 2nd

Kings 18 through 20 Micah contained three sections with which alternate between words of warning and messages of hope

Micah told of a day when there would be peace among all nations Who would then be able to beat their swords into plowshares which we hear about in the

New Testament and of a royal deliverer who would? Save God's people from all her enemies. This deliverer would be born in Bethlehem any idea who that might be

Say it just making sure Joseph Smith, all right. Yeah now

Jesus Jesus. All right. There we go. So the northern northern

Israel Falls and Judah is next in line This is where the book of Nahum and Nahum the prophet come in He comes in at six around 640

AD after Micah about a hundred years after Micah and about a hundred and fifty years after Jonah Okay So Nahum's focus was on the

Assyrians again. He's the first of the last six minor prophets So up to this point we've we've gone through Israel's history right now.

We're gonna focus a little bit more on a serious history and here I gleaned a lot from a theologian and a historian by the name of Bruce Gore if you've if you've never listened to his stuff

Tune in on YouTube or his podcast. He's got tremendous historical information

So I gleaned a lot of what I'm going to tell you now directly from him So we'll get a better understanding of the book of Nahum if we understand the context of a serious history and Israel's history because they're related politically and Spiritually, okay.

So let's go. I Know I'm moving a little fast, but we got a lot of information to cover So in about 744 the time of Micah Assyria came back again.

This is after the 40 -year pause now Assyria Syria kind of went by the wayside.

They forgot about their repentance They forgot about the Lord said we're gonna go back to our old ways So they came back with a vengeance on the

Tiglath policer and came sweeping through the land with a devastating force Remember, there were brutal people

Remember that they repented at the time of Jonah when Jonah preached them gave Israel 40 -year

Reprieve, which was grace and compassion by God, but now that faded the way and Assyria picked up where they left off in 732 they conquer

Syria. That was that little piece of that little nation above Israel okay, and below Assyria, okay

They come in and basically destroy Syria. It's completely taken over by the Assyrians.

It's under Assyrian rule Now keep in mind that Syria and Assyria are two different nations series just that small country above in 722

Assyria continues south and Conquers Israel for good. Okay. Now this we talked about just a few seconds ago.

This is the Timeline of Assyria. Okay. I gave you Israel's point of view.

This is a serious point of view That's why we're going through the the dates Syria continues south

Conquers Israel they're wiped out by the hand of God and this is as per Isaiah chapter 10

Isaiah used the Assyrian nation to come in and Discipline his people the

Israelites are deported scattered to the four winds and become known as the Lost Tribes of Israel Ten years later

Assyria marches further south on the way to Egypt and on the way to Egypt is through Judah and In 712

Egypt comes under Assyrian domain now remember Judah's a vassal state

They're paying the the the king of Assyria money So he leaves them alone for now, but he passes they pass through they conquer

Egypt Judah will come next right? They got their their their sights set on Judah Now part of the reason for this, okay

I'm sorry ten years later Egypt comes through 712 Egypt comes under Assyria serious domain

What's really interesting is that Jerusalem and Judah dodge a bullet and escapes a serious

March Anyone know why? Aside from them paying tribute part of the reason for this is because because of Hezekiah King Hezekiah who's the

Israelite king of Judah He made a deal with pig like Kaleza. He's peace paying him off.

It's mob money Assyria was okay with that they were being paid and when Hezekiah assumed his father's throne he continued the tribute

He continued paying the money So Hezekiah keeps paying significant tribute each year to Assyria, that's how

Jerusalem avoids Destruction and stays out of a serious rampage However Hezekiah sees the writing on the wall no pun intended right this this this

Relationship between him and Assyria is not gonna last for a forever These Syrians are eventually gonna come in and try to destroy them when

Assyria came back in 712 They went right around Jerusalem and coped engulfed Egypt and pushed back

Pharaoh who was the Ethiopian king back into Egypt Hezekiah is now thinking to himself.

I really don't think this relationship is going to continue this way, right? It's not gonna go on like this forever.

I need a plan So he began to recognize that he was at great risk with the Assyrians and it actually he actually came up with a plan to Survive he created what's called

Hezekiah's tunnel. He may have heard of that which is actually still there today. It was built in 710 right and 2nd

Kings 2020 says the rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the

Conduit and brought water into the city. Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

So King Hezekiah knows there's gonna come a point in time when the Assyrians Decide we're gonna take

Judah He's planning in advance to have water to be able to come into the country so they can survive

So he's making future plans just to protect Judah from Assyria Okay Hezekiah was smartly anticipating that Jerusalem was going to be put under siege and he wants to make sure they have a water supply

So that was part of the reason the tunnel was constructed. He continues paying tribute until 705

Now in 705 the king that was reigning in Assyria is

Sargon the second He died and was replaced by his then successor and son

Sennacherib. You probably heard of him Now the common thing that would happen in the ancient world at that time when you had a regime change a new king

Comes comes into play The count the countries that were paying tribute what you would use that as a moment to create some instability

All right. There's a new king or maybe we're not gonna pay tribute We're not sure many times that the vassal countries would revolt and stop paying the tribute and that's what

Hezekiah decided to do So in 705 in the Old Testament second Kings 18 7

It tells us that Hezekiah revolted against the king of Assyria and stopped paying tribute

Let's see second Kings 18 He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel so that there was none like him

Among all the kings of Judah after him nor among those who were before him for he held fast to the Lord He did not depart from following him

But kept his commandments that the Lord commanded Moses as the Lord was with him whenever he went out.

He prospered He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him So he's he's deciding at this point.

We're not going to be a vassal state anymore We're not going to pay him no more tribute and this was a dangerous thing to do

But he did did it probably in part because of what Isaiah Told him he was telling him that Assyria was not going to destroy

Jerusalem Nevertheless, it was still risky. So this is what Isaiah tells him

When the servants of King Hezekiah, is this right? Yeah When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah Isaiah said to them

Say to your master thus says the Lord do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard With which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me behold

I will put a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will make him fall by the sword of his own land and It is that incident when

Sinatra ribs armies come to Judah To the surrounding wall of the Jerusalem to the surrounding wall of the city and they're like we're gonna pummel you right and then

The Judeans say hey, listen, don't don't speak to us in Hebrew. Everybody else can understand you right?

And that's when Isaiah tells him don't worry Don't worry about these people God's gonna put a spirit into them and send them the other way so about a year after this

King Hezekiah becomes ill ill to the point of death so as Hezekiah sick

Isaiah the Prophet comes to him and And It bluntly tells him get your house in order.

You're gonna die Hezekiah gets the word that he's not going to survive or recover from this

Right, and this is what second King says in those days Hezekiah became sick It was at the point of death and Isaiah the

Prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said thus says the Lord Set your house in order for you shall die

You shall not recover then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord saying now

Oh Lord Please remember how I've walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight

And Hezekiah wept bitterly so Hezekiah is upset.

He obviously he knows he's going to die In fact, he began to remind God that hey, look,

I was a pretty good king, you know I wiped out some of the idolatry. I destroyed the high places. I've been pretty faithful He tried to do everything that he was supposed to do to turn the people back to God back to worship

He's basically pleading for his life But I think there's more to the story

Anybody want to venture a guess as to why Hezekiah might also be crying aside from wanting his life spared?

Is he not saved that could possibly be true? What else what

God? Right.

So what does Hezekiah not have? Whose line is

Hezekiah in maybe that'll help He's in King David's line, what does

Hezekiah not have right now? He doesn't have a son Right if there's no son and Hezekiah dies without a sign son

Then there will be no one to sit on the king on the throne Which which would void

God's promise that there would always be someone from the line of David seated on the throne

Hezekiah is weeping bitterly because he knows if he does not bring forth a son God's promises to Israel are over and he's done the whole nation of Israel would be gone

He is the family line of David and the promise to David had been that David would have a son on the throne of Judah in Jerusalem in other words

There would be a ruling family Which would remain intact until the promised Messiah came one who would eventually take the throne of David and rule forever

So without a son there would eventually be no Messiah That was the problem

Hezekiah knew he was part of this promise He knew that he was in the lineage and if he died without a son it meant that God himself was abandoning these people

In other words, they were so wicked so evil that not even God was going to fill his cup fulfill his covenant promise right, so God think about it showed incredible compassion to the

Ninevites who were bloodthirsty people and And Hezekiah is worried that he's not going to show the same compassion to Israel okay, so That would mean that Judah which is the the the nation that he's king over would become what

Israel had become Scattered not my people not beloved

Therefore he's weeping bitterly not simply for his own his own life, which would be understandable He's weeping for the fate of his people

Israel His he's crying bitterly to God, please Lord. Don't you see

I've tried to fix things here now Hezekiah was brokenhearted for the sake of his people. He wept bitterly over that Isaiah Who's there didn't get out of the middle court of the palace before the word of the

Lord came to Hezekiah a second time and he? says this Before Isaiah had got out of out of the middle court the word of the

Lord came to him turn back and say to Hezekiah The leader of my people thus says the Lord the

God of David your father. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears Behold, I will heal you on the third day

You shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add 15 years to your life. I would deliver you and you and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend the city for my own sake and for The sake of my servant

David so God now says okay I'm going to relent and you will you'll be extended 15 years

So Isaiah went back said that to Hezekiah During those 15 years

God gives to Hezekiah a son who he names Manasseh now

I was gonna read this, but we're not gonna be able to with the amount of time So this is 2nd

Kings 21 verses 1 through 17 if you want you want to write that down So he gives

Hezekiah son whom he names Manasseh and Manasseh Becomes one of the most wicked

Kings that Jerusalem ever saw and this basically goes through he did much evil in the sight of the

Lord provoking to him to anger and the carved image image of a Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the

Lord said to David and to Solomon in this house and in Jerusalem Which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. I will put my name forever

He goes on and on and on there's a whole nother page of it. There we go. We're not gonna read the whole thing, but Head Manasseh is a wicked king.

He is not good by any stretch of the imagination so About a year or so later 704 703 a royal entourage arrives in Jerusalem and from another city

That wasn't of no reputation this time. It's from Babylon Okay so Merodach Baladen visits

Hezekiah and he knows now Babylon is a competing Nation against Assyria.

He knows Judah is like a linchpin to the whole thing, right? So now Babylon is vying for for Judah's Judah's allegiance

Okay, a man named Merodach Baladen who is known in secular history sees the throne

He usurped the throne usurped the throne of Babylon. He's mentioned as in Isaiah 39 He's looking for support as he wants a foothold against Assyria Judah would be a nice piece of real estate to have

So he hears about Hezekiah having been ill and sends him lavish expensive gifts a bribe right a royal visit from the dignitaries of Babylon He's maneuvering for an ally because he knows he's going to be dealing with Assyria soon and he wants

Jerusalem as a strategic point Hezekiah you'll know you'll be reminded of this story.

You'll know it He receives the the the entourage from Babylon and gives them an inside tour of the palace right at that time

Merodach Baladen the son of the king of Babylon sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah for he heard

That Hezekiah had been sick and Hezekiah Welcomed them and he showed them all the treasure of his house

The silver the gold the spices the oil his armory and all that was found in the storehouses There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them

Right, that's not good. Isaiah is a little upset and he says you showed him everything.

We don't need your money We don't need all the riches that you have. You don't need to show that to them

So Isaiah says behold the days are coming when all this in your house and that's what your father says stored up to this day

Shall be carried into Babylon Nothing of it shall be left Says the

Lord So he showed him all his riches, which was not a good thing because he's trying to impress the

Babylonians You don't need to impress the Babylonians. God is on your side. Okay, God's gonna vindicate himself without the help of Hezekiah So Hezekiah eventually dies in 686 and Manasseh takes over at 13 years old again

He's one of the worst kings in Israel now This is not biblical but this is church tradition

Tradition has it that Isaiah was martyred by King Manasseh Okay Hezekiah son

Manasseh again evil king. He actually according to tradition Isaiah was tied in a sack placed within the hollow of a tree trunk and was sawed in two

The story traces back to a first century non -canonical book called the Ascension of Isaiah which claims to tell the story of Isaiah's death

Even Tertullian which is an early church father and Justin Martyr both mentioned the legend of Isaiah's death in their writings

Origin of Alexandria also upheld the tradition that Isaiah was cut in two by Manasseh Remember Hebrews chapter 11

States some died by stoning some was sawed in half others were killed with the sword

According to some extra biblical sources one of those unnamed persons that was sawed in half was

Isaiah the prophet By men by Manasseh the king. Okay now that's extra biblical

Tradition it may or may not be true, but it makes sense based on everything that we heard. Okay moving right along in 669 an

Assyrian king named Ashurbanipal takes the throne Okay, he reigns for a long while.

He's a competent but very brutal king He captures the essence of what Assyrian kings were he was given to violence and bloodshed

He came back into the region at 663 and defeated Israel The Old Testament informs us that around this time

Manasseh was taken captive Okay and hauled off to to Nineveh Second Chronicles the

Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention Therefore the Lord brought upon him the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria who captured

Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of Bronze and brought him to Babylon so in chapter 30 second

Chronicles chapter 33 Manasseh Will get to this point Repents and when he was in distress.

This is Manasseh He entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the

God of his father's He prayed to him and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God So yes, it was probably because Manasseh wasn't saved, but he didn't know that he wasn't saved

But this is one of the most incredible stories in the Old Testament of repentance

Manasseh an evil brutal King Tradition says he sawed

Isaiah the prophet in half and then when he's taken away into Babylon He comes to his senses.

He repents You would think somebody like that. God would say oh, no, no way.

Look what you did Look what you did to my people. Look how you you prostituted us with with the

Babylonians With the Assyrians, there's no way I'm gonna save you

But this is an Old Testament prodigal son, yes Tradition has it

Manasseh sawed Isaiah in half Tradition it's not biblical

X in non -canonical books and in church tradition Justin Martyr origin and one of the others say that he did

Those two long passages that I had before Hold on I'll tell you 2nd

Kings 21 verses 1 through 17 You'll you'll get two pages of some pretty horrific stuff that Manasseh has done.

We're almost gonna finish on time here so in some way the irony is

The very worst King that you saw that Israel ever had or Jerusalem ever had was also a beautiful picture of repentance

And the extreme graciousness and mercy of God So where we see where we're gonna see the justice of God in Nahum Coming down on the

Assyrians Okay, and and he's gonna the Ninevites and give them pure justice. He is also a

God of great compassion but unfortunately Since Manasseh sinned the way he did he couldn't undo the damage that he already done

Which means that our actions matter you can choose the sin, but you can't choose the consequence

So there were still consequences for Manasseh sin okay, don't think that you can live a wicked horrible life and just repent on your deathbed and Everything is wiped clean

You would be saved but the the effects of your sin will linger on and that's exactly what we're gonna see

What with Manasseh in? 642 Manasseh dies and he succeeded by his son

Ammon and In 640 his son Josiah who my son is named after one of the kid the best kings in Jewish history

He takes the throne and he took the throne when he was eight years old now Here right here is where Nahum's prophecy comes in between Ammon and Josiah here's where Nahum is now going to bring this message to the

Israelites and tell them that Assyria is gonna get it and although God was the one that used

Assyria to punish Israel The Assyrians hearts went beyond what God had intended and they went too far in boasting in their own mind.

Isaiah says Woe to Assyria the rod of my anger the staff in their hands is my fury

Against a godless nation I send them and against the people of my wrath I command them to take the spoil and seize plunder and to tread them down like the mire of the streets

But he does he does not so intend as his heart does not so think

But it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations not a few So God uses

Syria to come in to discipline Israel, but their hearts go too far They want to totally wipe out and destroy

Israel Which God is not going to allow and did and it's in this setting that Nahum comes as a prophet with his oracle to Israel Basically watch out

Assyria. Here's what's coming an oracle concerning Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum The Lord is a jealous and avenging

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

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

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

He dries up all the rivers Bashan and Carmel wither the bloom of Lebanon withers the mountains quake before him the hills melt the earth heaves before him the world and all who dwell in it

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 in pieces by him

This is going to be a great encouragement to the Israelites in Judah to know that Assyria is not going to Is not going to get away with this their

God their father is going to come in and take the Israelites out It's because of this

The Assyrians Bloodthirstiness that Nahum gives a blistering strong and condemning view of the

Assyrians and predicts their collapse Any questions?

Yes No, it's

Hezekiah Manasseh and then you have Amnon Ammon amon and then

Josiah That's Ammon and Josiah so That is basically the history behind Assyria okay and Israel how they the two

Kind of overlap got to remember really what this is about is the Assyrians coming in they wipe out the northern tribes of Israel Now there they got their sights set on Judah the two southern tribes

Judah and Benjamin And this is how God is going to preserve his people in the midst of a bloodthirsty

Nation that wants to take them out Okay, remember Manasseh the most evil king in all of Israel Repents and God shows compassion to him when

I was going through that it just blew me away because it's like this is a guy Who deserves? Hell, and then

I realized we all deserve hell right, but if you repent if you

Change the way you think about your sin and recognize you've sinned against the Holy God and you deserve His wrath and you deserve his his justice

You know what that means he turned to Jesus his son Savior the Messiah that would come through Manasseh's line

All right, okay, no questions. We're good all right next week. We're actually gonna get into the text

We're not gonna get too far into the text, but we're gonna get into the text because it's a lot There's a lot there all right.