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Don Filcek; Nahum 1 The DESTROYER of the destroyers
You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan.
Good morning and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Felsick, I'm the lead pastor here, as Ben said, and I'm really glad to be here with all of us together this morning. We're a church that's been seeking over the years to grow in faith, grow in community, and grow in service.
Together, our core values are above the donut holes back there, replication, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. And often, when I'm introducing a message, I like to really emphasize the fact that we believe in the capital T truth of God's word, that there is a solid foundation upon which we can build our lives, a solid foundation upon which God has demonstrated who he is, so that value of truth leads us to study books of the Bible.
We believe that the word of God is a true and accurate reflection of God's will and God's way and God's character. It shows us who he is, so much more than an instruction manual for our lives, turning over to figure out how to handle my kids or how to handle my parents or how to do this.
Come to God's word to know who he is, and then secondarily, that's gonna impact the way you live your lives. Do you get what I'm saying in that? So that's what we believe is going on, and so in showing us who he is, it impacts and affects our lives.
We're starting a very brief series on the short prophetic book Nahum. It's only gonna be three weeks, but they are going to be three fairly intense weeks. It won't take long for us to see that these three chapters emphasize a facet of the character of God quite often overlooked in our culture.
To be quite honest, even as a pastor, quite often overlooked by me, a section that I don't lean into very much, and so that's why it's good for us to take out chunks of the word of God and study them and dive into them and go section by section and chapter by chapter and book by book.
As churches have increased over the years, and I've observed this, and the tendency is to pull in my heart sometimes too, but an increase in topical preaching, the prophets of God will rarely be referenced.
These Old Testament prophets will very rarely be referenced in any topical message at all. This series over these next three weeks is gonna be really far from the concept of five steps to being a better neighbor or seven ways to improve your serve.
It might be helpful to let you know that I didn't choose this book to address any particular issues that I see within the church. It might be good to get that out of the way. You're like, what's Don's beef if he's like preaching on Nahum?
I chose this, I'll just be, full disclosure, I'll tell you the two simple reasons that I chose to dive into Nahum for us during this season, and they are less than profound reasons. The first is it's scripture, it's scripture.
So it's good, it's good for us to dive into things like this. The second is I needed three weeks in order to pad the schedule so that I could get to Luke chapter two during Christmas. So it's, again, not super profound reason, I needed three weeks, and Nahum fits really well into three weeks, and I was like, this is God's word, let's go.
And then I realized what I was getting into, and I was like, Don, what did you do? But we'll see.
I'm convinced though, and I say that all tongue in cheek,.
Because I'm convinced that we need the message of Nahum if for no other reason than it is so utterly overlooked in our hearts and in our culture. God is a God, are you ready for it?
Here's some words. God is a God of vengeance.
God is a God of wrath toward sin and sinner. He is amazingly gracious toward those who run to him for shelter and mercy. He is a strong tower of defense for those who take refuge in him. But church, he is a terror to those who remain in opposition to him.
This is one of those passages that is going to challenge us to trust scripture instead of trusting our culture's watered down views of God. To many in our culture, he's just only meek and quiet and mild.
Many in our culture would say this phrase, my God would never judge anyone, right? Many will tell us that God is only ever gracious and loving like a grandfather who spoils the grandkids. And the many, the many will ignore the direct teachings of entire books of the Bible like Nahum.
May we church, may we recast, remain thoroughly biblical by being students.
Of all of God's word,.
All that he desires to communicate to us about himself. And that means that we need to buckle up because we serve a God who is patient, we serve a God who is gracious, we serve a God who is merciful, and we serve a God who is a consuming fire, jealous for his own glory, zealous in his wrath toward the wicked.
So let's open our Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to Nahum chapter one. We're gonna read this entire chapter. It comes off as one chunk and so it's one main thought and so we're gonna dive into this together.
Nahum chapter one, recast, this is God's holy word, what he desires to communicate to us and it might ruffle us a little bit. And this chapter is tame compared to chapter two and three. An oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkash.
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 into pieces by him.
The Lord is good.
A stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him but with an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against the Lord?
He will make a complete end. Trouble will not rise up a second time for they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink. They are consumed like stubble fully dried. From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor.
Thus says the Lord, though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.
The Lord has given commandment about you. No more shall your name be perpetuated from the house of your gods. I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave for you, I will make your grave for you are vile.
Behold upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace. Keep your face, oh Judah. Fulfill your vows for never again shall the worthless pass through you. He is utterly cut off.
Let's pray.
Father, I confess even here, standing before everyone, I confess to you tendency to see the facets I love about you. The things that I identify, that give me comfort, that give me peace, your mercy, your grace.
I can major on all of these things. But a fully orbed understanding of you, scripture gives us this justice, this holiness, this righteous wrath towards sin. Sin that corrupts, sin that devastates, sin that breaks.
Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see you more fully as a result of encountering Nahum. That you would open our eyes to see what we deserve, to see what really was legitimately coming for us in your righteous wrath and anger, our unholiness, our vileness before you, and your supreme glory.
And then the gospel. And then the gospel. And then the good news. That you broke into that dark, dark place, that hopeless place for us, living for ourselves, living against others, and living against you.
And you broke in and you rescued us. Father, I pray that that would be the nature of our lives, lived before you, that would be the nature of our worship given up to you. Father, even now as we have an opportunity to sing songs to you, that the turn of events, the dramatic turn from standing under your wrath and your righteous judgment to being lifted up and protected and shielded by you, that you are indeed a refuge to those who run to you.
But you are a terror to those who in their pride go it alone. Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see what you desire to communicate to us this morning, and that even in this gathering as we have an opportunity to sing these songs together, as our voices mingle together in praise to you, that we would praise you rightly, understanding your great glory, your wrath towards sin, and how much, how much, how much grace and mercy you have given to us.
And I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
I encourage you to get comfortable, keep your Bibles open to Nahum chapter one, re-find your place in your device, your scripture journal or whatever, so that you've got that open. Those of you that are taking notes, ready for that.
And if at any time you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes or use the restrooms, you're not gonna distract me if you need to get up at any time. So you guys, nearly every single action film has something in common with the book of Nahum.
Almost every single action film that you've ever watched has a common ground. The bad guy gets theirs in the end. Spoiler alert, but the tower of Barad-Dur with the eye of Sauron crumbles at the end.
Emperor Palpatine is thrown down the shaft into the reactor core, right? And countless bad guys fall to their death backwards out of windows or off of cliffs in slow motion so we can see their face in terror as they slowly fall, arms flailing.
Do you guys know what I'm talking about?
You've seen it?
Yeah, you've seen it. I've been at movie theaters. It's always weird. Have any of you ever been at a movie theater.
When people clap?
Have you ever? And I'm like, there's nobody here to, who are you applauding? I've actually been at a movie theater. I don't even remember what the movie was. I was so startled and taken aback by it, but people applauded when the bad guy got his.
Bad guy's dispatching, everybody's like, yeah, let's go! We celebrate justice. I think we know this.
We get it in our hearts.
We celebrate justice. We know there are bad guys, and even deeper, we long for them to be brought to justice. Nahum serves to remind us that there will be, in the end, real and true justice. Now, I studied a lot of the historical setting, and I could ramble on and on about things that don't interest most of you, particularly about the history of the book of Nahum, but I think there's some things that are relevant for us to get caught up to speed here at the start of a series.
Again, it's gonna be short, but the relevant stuff is that Nahum lived in the middle of the seventh century BC. I'll save you from doing the math. That's nearly 2 ,700 years ago that this was written.
Assyria is the current manifestation of the global bully in Nahum's day. So Nineveh's their capital. Assyria is the dominant superpower of the world, and despite the fact that Jonah, yes, if you think about Nineveh, probably most of you have heard the name Jonah associated with that from the Bible.
Jonah had successfully preached his message to Nineveh about 130 years prior to this writing of Nahum. Under Jonah, they appeared to have repented, but just a few generations later, the Assyrians had become a brutal global superpower.
That's the context into which this is written. Nahum becomes a model for what always happens in every generation. There is always someone trying to take over the world, and the challenge in every generation is to keep the people of God focused on the hope of God.
Right, that's always a challenge for us. We are always tempted to find other solutions, always tempted to put our hope in military power or political power or a leader or something like that, and it's this message, this passage is about keeping our eyes on God and his justice, not our vengeance, not our ability to bring justice, but God's ultimate plan for justice.
When I say that Assyria was a bully, they were a superpower bully. Nobody could oppose them. They conquered through brutality. Even according to modern ancient warfare tactics, they were brutal, gruesome military force.
In 722 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel, at this point in history, Israel is divided into two separate kingdoms, two separate kings. There's a northern kingdom called Israel. There's a southern kingdom called Judah.
Israel, that northern kingdom, fell to Assyria already.
As of the writing of Nahum.
After a particularly gruesome siege of Samaria, and you see some of the things that are written in some of the prophets about that siege, and it's recorded for us in the Bible, and there are just gruesome things that happened there.
So in the southern kingdom, good King Josiah takes the throne at the age of eight years of age, and he takes that throne in the year 639 BC. The southern kingdom of Judah had already been under Assyrian domination for over a century.
No, Assyria didn't come in and conquer them. They came in like the bully demanding your lunch money, and they said, I won't beat you up if you give me your lunch money every day. So every year, the Assyrians are coming in with wagons to cart off silver and gold from the southern kingdom of Judah as tribute to the great king of Assyria.
They say, we won't kill all of you if you give us your money. So that's the state of affairs in Israel as of the writing of Nahum. They're subjugated, but even worse is that the Assyrian king to these vassal territories would actually say, you will worship our gods.
Or we will kill you.
You will give us your silver, you will give us your gold, and you will worship our gods, and King Manasseh said, sure, let's do that. Live to see another day, we'll worship your gods. So literally, in the temple of the Almighty God is set up idols to Assyrian gods and goddesses during this time.
That's the picture that you need to have in your mind when this is occurring during this book. Josiah, around this time, found the book of the law. It was hidden in the walls of the temple. They didn't even have a copy of the word of God.
He finds it, and there's a louder, increased cry for religious reform to shun the Assyrian gods and goddesses and come back to the worship of the true God. That's what's happening on the ground in Judah during this time.
And also during this time, the prophets from the Bible, Jeremiah and Zephaniah, were speaking just a little after Nahum about national renewal of allegiance to the Lord during this time. You can read their messages as well, and they come in tandem with Nahum.
But Nahum's message had set the stage, this book sets the stage for hope for freedom from their external oppressors, the Assyrians. So let me summarize the situation in case you kind of zone out when there's like history and some dates in there and all of a sudden you're like, is this on the test and all that.
So Assyria are very powerful bullies who have conquered the northern half of Israel, have subjugated the southern half. Nobody on the planet could imagine a world free of the tyrannical power of Assyria during this time.
Their capital of Nineveh was huge. And into that context, Nahum prophesied the coming destruction of Assyria and their capital city, Nineveh. The destroyer is going to be destroyed. That's the message of Nahum.
The destroyer is going to be destroyed. The violent, brutal, powerful, terrifying superpower is going to be no more. And through Nahum, God offers some divine smack talk to Assyria and her leaders. That's what we're looking at here.
This is an oracle. We see that right off the bat. Like the first word in the Hebrew is an oracle concerning Nineveh. That is a unique word. It's a unique word. The word oracle can also be translated burden.
Like think like a load that you would put on a donkey, a load that you might carry on your shoulders, a burden. And he says, this is a burden that was given to Nahum concerning Nineveh. I love this image because anyone who has to get up in front of people and declare the wrath of God publicly will relate to what it means that this is a burden for the prophet.
You go to your workplace and if you are tasked with the responsibility of conveying the wrath of God to the world, how many of you would just say, all of a sudden I'm getting it. All of a sudden I'm understanding what the word burden might imply there.
But interestingly and very valuable for us is the meaning of the title of this book. It's a guy's name, real dude, lived in history, but his name translated means comfort or compassion. Probably one of the most harsh books written in the Bible is entitled Compassion or Comfort, depending on, and they both kind of have the same nuance, compassion or comfort, different translators translate it differently.
But this book written by a man named Compassion highlights an uncomfortable truth. Compassion towards God's people will spell devastation for the enemies of his people. Every good person will at some time need to agree with the harsh words found in this book.
To love people is to hate the evil that oppresses them, amen? To love people in a broken world is to hate the sin and wickedness that oppresses. Nahum at the high point of Assyrian power and dominance is given a vision of their utter destruction, and our outline is two parts.
So if you're taking notes, yeah, I do have a little outline here. It's just to enter the destroyer, all caps, destroyer in all caps, two through eight, and then the end of the destroyers, all lowercase, nine through 15.
Enter the destroyer, meet him, see him, he is here. And the end of the destroyers, verses nine through 15. Enter the destroyer when the almighty destroyer enters the arena, hills melt, rocks break before him, tornadoes rip and tear at the earth.
When he comes to the defense of his precious people, all hell breaks loose, his footfalls stir up hurricanes, the seas dry up under the heat of his presence. Enter the destroyer in his wrathful vengeance on those who have abused his people.
Enter the destroyer who will bring to nothing the plots and schemes of mankind against him. Enter the destroyer who is powerful enough to both shelter his people with a shield in one hand while wielding the sword of justice in the other, amen?
Powerful enough to protect those who run to him while powerful enough to destroy those and bring to justice those who oppose him. This is our God as revealed in Holy Scripture. Who is this divine warrior coming in wrath to dispose of Assyria and their capital of Nineveh?
Who is this one?
Look with me at the start of verse two.
To make sure we're not talking about some other God. His name is Yahweh, the great I Am, who revealed himself in the burning bush to Moses, who defines himself as jealous and avenging. He is jealous for the worship due his name.
He is exclusive.
Another way of saying jealous is exclusively worthy. This is sheer arrogance for anyone but God to claim for themselves. It is completely sinful and wrong for me to demand that you worship or honor me, but not so with the Almighty Creator.
He would be less than God if he were not to be all about himself. His holiness requires that he remain thoroughly and completely committed to his own glory.
This is our God.
You've heard it quoted that God is love, true, but I'm guessing you've never heard the corollary in Nahum one verse two. Quoted, have you seen this on any posters?
God is avenging.
Or how about this on a coffee mug? God is wrathful, but the text says he is those things. Love toward his people, whew, amen, but avenging and wrathful toward those who oppose him. The words in verse two stumble over themselves.
You can see in the English, they've been fairly faithful to try to translate so many various words, jealous, avenging, avenging, wrathful, vengeance, adversary, wrath. The words are tripping over themselves to emphasize the point that God is the avenger.
God is the one who is righteous in his wrath. You and I have not experienced righteous wrath. How many of you know why? Because you're a sinner. Because you're not God. He is the only one who can express righteous vengeance, the only one who can express righteous wrath.
Oh, we get upset about things with always a kernel of ourselves wrapped up in that.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Any of you ever just kind of like,.
Was that righteous anger?
Probably not.
If you have to ask the question, it wasn't. In the event that we're tempted to think, oh, here we go off into the Old Testament God of wrath talk, I want you to know that it carries forward. I want you, I'm just gonna give this reference for your sake to see the word wrath in the New Testament.
Not anything specific that I want to highlight about it, just Romans 1 .8 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Paul declaring the gospel in the most, not concise, but in the most detailed way throughout the book of Romans, and the wrath of God is right there in the beginning. The wrath of God towards sin right away in Romans 1 as he's establishing our need for a savior.
Start with God's wrath. We start with his holiness. We start with his right to judge us. That's where we begin. The wrath of God is written all over. It's thematic all the way from beginning, from Genesis to Revelation.
It's throughout the book. In this teaching, in the theme of wrath, we can make sense of God's instructions for us in the New Testament, for his people to avoid taking vengeance on our enemies. We leave them in the hands of the Almighty.
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. It is not ours to take. He lets us know in no uncertain terms through Scripture that he handles the vengeance and wrath department, and he will handle it just fine with justice and equity in what is true, what is good.
But verse three maybe calms things down for us a little bit. All this wrath, all this anger, all of this vengeance, but just a minute, church. God is slow to anger. Anybody glad for that one? God is slow to anger while also being great in his power.
I'm guessing that all of you are a lot like me. We like God's slowness to anger for ourselves, but we don't love it when it's applied to our enemies. Why isn't he fixing this? Why isn't he judging this?
Why isn't he solving this? Why isn't he solving you, right? We like his slowness to anger for ourselves, but not so much for others. But if we take this character trait of God to heart, we will be more open to leaving the work of just judgment in his hands.
That might be a really good application point for some of us, especially during a very heated and increasingly heated political season to just go like, yeah, we're involved. Yes, we're engaged. We've got opinions and thoughts, and we wanna love one another well, but we also want our candidate to win, or we want this cause, or whatever.
But recognizing in the end that it's part of our heart's call to leave vengeance and justice in his hands. Recognizing that he has been patient with peoples in the past, and he is being patient with our culture right now.
Do you recognize it? He is being patient with our culture. Where does that go? We'll see where it went with Nineveh. But God was patient in the Old Testament, allowing centuries of wickedness before judging a people like the Assyrians.
And so, with this patience, we all need to be reminded that he is great in his power, because we can start to go like, where's your justice, God? Where is your holiness? Where is it that you're making things right?
He doesn't lack, church. You need to recognize this. He does not lack the ability to exact vengeance on the wicked. He's not incapable, he's not unable. And he will not overlook any sins. Not even the smallest one.
There is not a sin that will be overlooked by the Almighty, at all. The concept of him here in verse three, by no means clearing the guilty, is a way of stating that absolution before the Almighty God only ever comes after judgment.
Every single sin against the Holy God.
Will be paid for.
There will be no debts left unsettled on that final day of justice. Only once the penalty is paid, will the blight of guilt be removed. And the question over each and every one of us is, who will pay your debt that you owe to the Holy One?
Will it be you?
Or has another stepped in for you, and taken the punishment for you? Those are the only two options. As the destroyer enters the scene, the text says in picturesque, poetic language, his feet stir up the storm clouds, tornadoes and hurricanes.
He controls the weather, he controls the provisions. He can dry up seas and rivers. The most fertile places wither before him as he enters the scene for judgment. Bashan and Carmel and Lebanon share two things in common.
Interestingly, they're all northern areas of Israel currently under the possession of the wicked Assyrians. The Assyrians own all of this, like the fertile farmland, they own all the crops, they own the breadbasket of Israel.
And he says, God can just dry that up. God can make it wither. Because these are all the fertile farmlands, these are all under the possession of the Assyrians, and they are all the fertile farmlands in an area surrounded by the desert.
But verses five through six speak of geological upheaval. Many have noted that it seems volcanic in its language. And though there's a valley that goes through there and there is earthquake activity, there aren't any volcanoes in Israel.
But I would imagine that during this era of human history, just in general, that the people of the world as of Nahum's writing had experienced nothing as powerful as a volcano. Those who had experienced a volcanic eruption would have been like, that would have been epic, right?
Like that would have been like people were traveling and telling stories about volcanic eruptions. When the divine warrior dresses for battle, he comes in power difficult for humanity to describe. And so we have to start using extreme language to define and describe his power.
Our words lack the ability to really convey the immense and awesome and glorious and terrifying power of the Almighty. You guys know what I'm talking about? You got a word for that? Really strong? Very strong?
Strongest?
By comparison to what? By comparison to whom? Strongest is a weak word. Strongest is a weak word because it's a comparison word. There's nothing to which you can compare the power of the Almighty. We saw this destructive power spoken of in the New Testament last week, as Jesse shared, 2 Peter 3.
But the corollary to that destructive judgment and destructive power is God's power in 2 Peter 3. He talks about his power to create a new heavens and a new earth for his people where righteousness dwells.
Amen? Not just the power to destroy, but the power to recreate, the power to bring life. He who destroys the destroyers is he who will give peace to the peacemakers. Amen? Verse six asks us as the divine warrior enters for battle, who could stand before the indignation of God?
Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? Do you want to enter the ring with him? You want to enter the octagon with the Almighty and see how that goes? Do you want to contend with this one described here in this text?
I am fearfully baffled at how often people have responded to this call. Who will stand before the indignation of God.
With I'll give it a go?
Do you know people do this all the time? I'll give it a shot. I'll stand against him.
Let's see how it goes.
I think maybe I'm the one. Think about this. The philosopher Nietzsche lived a few decades and gave it a whirl. Margaret Sanger lived a few decades, gave it a go, seeking to intellectually defeat God.
Hitler lived a few decades and gave it his best shot. I cannot imagine the derision of God as he watches mere mortals, a blip on the radar, given birth, cry, wham, dead, buried. Can you imagine what that perspective must look like.
From the very throne of the universe?
Golly, that is trying to get up here.
That is what wants to claw my eyes out.
That's what wishes. Its arms were long enough.
To get to my throat. Are you kidding me?
And the Psalms give us actually the declaration of how God views this. What does he think? Well, Psalm 2 tells us. First, Psalm 2 1 says this. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The word vain is emptiness.
Vanity is just emptiness. Why are they raging? And then verse four of the same Psalm says this. He who sits in heaven laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.
He kind of chuckles. He's like, are you kidding me?
Not again.
You gotta be kidding me.
Who can stand before the Lord's indignation? And further down in verse nine of Nahum 1, what do you plot against the Lord?
But content wise,.
What plots do you think are gonna stand? Are you kidding me? Anything that you could plot against this one? The wicked always think that they're gonna get away with it. They take up the challenge, thinking that they are the one.
They are the nation. They are the people. They are the leader.
They are the king.
They are the philosopher. They're the ones that's gonna finally put the nail in the coffin of God. You know, the Time Magazine quote from Nietzsche, right? God is dead. No, Nietzsche's dead.
Where is he? Where is Hitler?
Where is Margaret Sanger? Where are they? I can tell you they're not here in opposition to the Almighty. The sheer hubris of any created mortal man or woman who began yesterday and lies in the grave tomorrow taking up this challenge is breathtaking in its audacity.
The sheer vanity of anyone raising their hand to enter the ring with this divine warrior is astonishing. And yet Assyria in their generation made their bid to be the gods of this world. And the king of Assyria thought himself immortal.
But listen again, church. No one can endure the heat of his anger. His wrath is poured out like molten lava, the text tells us, and he breaks rocks before him with every footfall. The boulders crack under his feet.
And look at verse seven. Seriously, look at it. I know that when I say that, you might just think, oh yeah, he's gonna tell me anyways, but look at it. The Lord is good. He is love. He is avenging. He is wrathful.
And he is good.
He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows, that is another word for he loves. He cares for those who take refuge in him. Either we have come to him to accept his mercy, church, we have come to him to receive his forgiveness, his refuge from the righteous and fierce storm of his wrath and vengeance, or we remain outside of his camp among his enemies.
If there has never been a point in your life when you have run to him for mercy, then hear me, this is not my warning, this is just the warning of scripture, you are in danger. You're in danger today.
Either he is your stronghold or he will be your destroyer. I can't state it any more directly. Either he is your savior or he will be your destroyer. Run to him while you have breath. Run to him for refuge.
It is not by mere chance that you've come here to this very direct teaching this morning. I believe that if you're here and you don't know this truth, it is not by just some coincidence that you showed up on a week where the wrath of God is being taught.
It may very well just be that he brought you here to hear this message that you need in your heart to recognize that I am an enemy of God. I'm in the ring against this one. I need to run to him for refuge.
Come flee from the wrath and come to the protection provided through his son Jesus Christ today. You can come and talk with me about what that means afterwards, I'll spell it out a little bit more when we come to communion at the end, but if you wanna know and you're like, man, that fear is here, come and talk with me.
The second half of verse seven is written in a Hebrew construction that doesn't make for good English grammar, and so, you gotta understand that the translators are trying to do their best in English, and sometimes the Hebrew, did I say Greek?
I don't know what I said, but no. The Hebrew language, and it literally reads this, and you can understand why it doesn't make for good English. He keeps knowing, this is about God, God keeps knowing those who keep running to him for refuge.
It's ongoing action. He keeps knowing, keeps loving, keeps caring for those who keep running to him for refuge. Knowing is a word for loving, care, used all throughout the Bible quite consistently. Our part is to keep trusting in his love, though, do you see that?
Our part is to keep running to him for refuge when we falter, to keep running to him for refuge when we blow it, to keep running to him for grace when we sin. The one who has been saved from his wrath is the one who keeps taking their refuge in him.
Does that define your life? Do you keep running? Not, do you live a perfect life? Not, do you give enough? Not, do you attend church enough? Not, are you kind enough? The delineating factor between his wrath and his refuge is do you keep running to him?
Do you keep going to him? Do you keep striving after him? Do you keep running to him in those moments of brokenness when you recognize you're failed? That's the point where it becomes clear whether or not you're a believer or not.
Are you running to him? But his adversaries will be brought to a complete end. They will be swept away in a torrent, and the Almighty will chase those who retreat before him, and he will pursue them, it says in the text.
It's a terrifying thought. He will pursue them into the outer darkness. They will be at the margins of the universe for eternity in outer darkness. In verse eight, it's interesting to note that this reference to an overflowing flood and the complete destruction of Nineveh are an exactly fulfilled prophecy.
In 612 BC, the Babylonians and the Medes joined forces, Medes and the Babylonians joined forces and laid siege to Nineveh and fulfilled this prophecy to a T in verse eight. The Assyrians thought that their city was pretty siege-proof, actually.
Huge city, gigantic, like acres and acres and acres of space, hundreds of acres of space, actually, and just a massive city by this ancient standard, but they had a river running through it, and how many of you just, a siege, the way you destroy an ancient city is you just surround it until they starve.
That's what they did to Samaria, and it just got really gruesome. So the way you do that, but how many of you know that if you got a city running through with gates or bars to keep people from getting in and out, but the river, the water can flow through, how many of you know that all of a sudden you got a commodity you need during a siege?
What is it? Fresh water, right? You gotta have fresh water. Without water, you're in trouble, and so they had a river that flowed right through the middle of Nineveh, and they thought themselves pretty settled.
So rather than, because, I mean, the Babylonians and the Medes were like, we don't have time for this siege business. So rather than stopping the flow of water and waiting for the Assyrians to run out and die, they creatively came up with a new strategy.
They stopped up the river downstream and flooded the city out and destroyed Nineveh from within. Wiping out the capital of the Assyrian Empire with an overflowing flood, God made a complete end to Nineveh.
Notice it says it quite directly. This is a prediction. This is written about 50 years before the events of the destruction of Nineveh, and it says with an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
With an overflowing flood, he destroyed Nineveh. As a matter of fact, a mere 300 years after, I say mere, you know, ancient history standards, 300 years is mere. In our American context, that's a long time.
But a mere 300 years after Nahum wrote these words, we have the record of a Greek commander. I geek out a little bit on history once in a while. A guy named Xenophon was leading, so the Greeks kind of attacked all the way out into the east and almost got to the Persian Empire, and Xenophon, a Greek commander, led a retreat of his troops through the very land that once was occupied by the city of Nineveh.
This is 300 years after its destruction, and he stated in journals that there was barely any evidence of the great city that had, barely any evidence that it ever existed on that site. There was evidence, just barely any.
How complete the destruction of Nineveh. It's never been rebuilt again. As a matter of fact, it sits opposite the river. This location sits opposite the river from a place that you've heard of in the news, if you're my age at least, Mosul.
Have you ever heard of the city of Mosul in Iraq? Nineveh's just across the river. Like, I mean, like you could see it over there, like where it once was. Complete destruction.
Place is just empty.
God is terrifying, church. I mean it. God is terrifying. He is almighty. He is a consuming fire. And yet there are, you need to understand this. As I say it, you need to recognize and soften it a bit with the fact that there are two types of people.
Those for whom that can be a comfort, and those for whom this is their greatest horror. To me, I wanna just tell you how I process this. When I read and I get to know God through the pages of scripture, I first and foremost, when I conceive of his power, his holiness, my unholiness, my unrighteousness, my unworthiness, when I lean into all of this, God is terrifying to me as your pastor.
God is terrifying.
Almighty.
And he is indeed in my mind a consuming fire. And yet as my loving savior, I am glad that he has brought me in to be my strong tower. Oh, he's no less terrifying now that I've been protected by him. He is still just as terrifying.
I just trust God's word that he's now for me, not against me, amen? When Nahum says to Nineveh, in essence, here comes my dad, you better run.
He knows why they ought to run,.
Because he knows this one. Oh, you better get on your horses and ride. Get far away, because he's coming. He is speaking rightly of God in this text. And he knows that when the destroyer enters the arena, who can stand before his indignation?
My dad can beat up your dad,.
And here he comes, says Nahum. Enter the destroyer. Verses nine through 15 are gonna emphasize the end of the lowercase destroyers, the Ninevites, the Assyrians. How foolish it is to plot against the Almighty.
See what happens to his enemy's church? He will make a complete end, and he will not need a second battle to finish off Nineveh. He can destroy this huge civilization at once. One flood wiped out. His enemies are like entangled thorns, like drunkards in their hazy stupor.
They are consumed like dried kindling. All of these have the common ground of being easy to conquer and easy to overcome. Nobody worries about whether the dry kindling will burn or not. It does. Drunkards in a hazy stupor are not very fit for battle.
Easy to defeat.
In verses 11 through 14, God turns a little more personal, addressing the rulers of Assyria. And in verse 11, he identifies that one came up out of Nineveh, plotting evil and counseling the people in wickedness.
And many think, many wanna give a name. They wanna sign because it's singular, and it's very clear that it's talking about one of the kings. Many think that this is likely King Sennacherib, specifically, but I think it's beautiful that the text doesn't mention him by name, leaving it helpful for our own application.
Because every generation has its wicked leaders. Nineveh had hers. Judah had her wicked leaders. America has her wicked leaders. But no wicked leader goes unnoticed by the Almighty. The Lord is slow to anger, but he is also great in his power.
You can trust him. Verses 12 through 13 are God's speech to Judah, his people. Well, verse 14 is specific to the king of Assyria. That's important because you can get lost in the pronouns there, and it starts to, like, who's the you in this verse?
And who's he addressing? And it can start to get a little muddy in our minds, but it's important. And even if you're taking notes, if you've got one of those scripture journals to just highlight, verses 12 through 13 are to his people.
Verse 14 is back to addressing the king of Assyria. Because verses 12 through 13, God Nahum's his people. What did we say Nahum means? Comfort. He is here comforting his people. Remember that the people of Judah, listening to this prophecy, had only ever lived their lives under Assyrian domination.
It had been multiple generations had experienced Assyrian domination over Judah. The idea of a world without Nineveh and her terrifying king was out of the scope of people's minds during this time. Nineveh is at full strength.
The Assyrian empire is at full strength. When Nahum gets the prophecy of their destruction, they can muster an army that's hard to count, and they are the most brutal war machine on the planet. They even attacked Egypt and conquered the unconquerable city of Thebes.
Everybody in the known world was like, nobody could ever conquer Thebes. It's an impregnable city. And they went and said, okay, you don't think anybody can conquer that? The Assyrians went and took it to the Egyptians.
But the text says, they're gonna be mown down and pass away. The word is mown down. And God comforts with these words. Though I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more with their oppression.
And I find it interesting historically that these promises of comfort come at a time when young good King Josiah is coming onto the scene to bring the people of Judah back to the worship of their God.
The kings of Judah before Josiah were wicked, especially Manasseh, following the pagan practices of the Assyrians to appease them. But even as religious reform is happening in Judah, and the people are waking up to the worship of God, he promises them deliverance to the prophet Nahum.
And he promises to break the yoke of oppression and to burst the Assyrian bonds apart. Again, it's hard for us to understand how impossible this would seem to the Israelites. The people of Judah. Faith looks at what God can do, amen?
What can your God do? The answer to that is a big chunk of your faith. What can God do? So I think the best among us here in this room have full confidence that there is nothing that God cannot do. Raise your hand if you just have a pretty good confidence that there's nothing that God cannot do.
Like he can just get it done. Whatever he chooses to do, he can do it. Good, that's good to know. But if you're like me, then you falter at the point of reality that I don't know what he will do in my circumstances.
He can do a whole host of things, amen? All is at his disposal. My question mark is always over what will he do? What will he do? But here's the rub. When he tells us definitively what he will do, then the only thing left is to trust him.
That he will do it.
Imagine living in Judah during this time. You're oppressed. The only thing you've ever known is oppression and poverty at the hands of an outside force. And the only thing you've ever lived under is this kind of oppressive dominance.
And then God says, I'm gonna rescue you from that. You don't think it's even possible. You're struggling to even imagine a world without Assyrian dominance. And he says, I'm gonna take care of that. Now he's told you what he's gonna do.
Now what's your role?
Believe it. Believe it.
And I would make a parallel to that to where we live today. He tells me Jesus will return. So I believe it. He says he will raise all who trust in Jesus to newness of life and resurrection. So I believe him and I believe in eternity and I believe in resurrection, why?
Because he said it.
He says he has washed my sins away and given me new life in Christ.
I don't always feel that, but I believe it.
And so I live as one set free because he declared it.
You get it?
He told his people that freedom was on the way and they didn't need to lift a finger to receive this gift. God was gonna remove their bonds and set them free and he can use the Babylonians and the Medes to accomplish it if he chooses, and he did.
And in direct speech to the king of Assyria, he gets some last digs in at the king. This is like pre-battle smack talk from the divine warrior. And he says to the self-proclaimed God of this world, your last name will be brought to an end.
No more offspring for you. This is the end of the line and the end of your line, king of Assyria. Your gods will be destroyed with you. And lastly, God declares, nobody will be left to bury you. I will be the one to inter and dispose of your body for you are vile, a word that means worthless.
Hoo, strong words from the Almighty. And over all this judgment comes the image of a herald. Here in our last verse, do you see him? Can you picture him? Coming over the mountains, running. Behold, put your eyes on him.
See this, church.
It's written in a, the word behold is, check this out, you gotta see this. Do you see this guy running? Coming over the mountains, running as fast as a messenger can. It's been a long haul, so he's not sprinting because he's on a marathon here.
He's running from the battlefield.
He's been running from Nineveh.
How long has it taken him to get here? We don't know, but man, he is hauling.
He's trying to get here.
He is sucking wind. His feet are running over rocks, carrying him over the mountains with a message of good news. Behold, check this out, writes Nahum. The messenger comes carrying a message of good news and peace.
You can get back to your celebrations. You can get back to your religious practices. You can get back to your endorsed religious festivals, Judah. It's time for the fulfilling of all those vows you made.
Vows that went something like this. God, if in any way you could deliver us from the Assyrians, I'll give you my three best sheep as a sacrifice.
Time to pay up, Judah.
Time to pay those kinds of vows because God has done it. He has finished it. And never again will the Assyrians pass through your land seeking tribute and taking your sons and daughters off as their servants.
Nineveh is kaput. They are done. They are utterly cut off, the text ends. You don't need to worry about them anymore.
God's got you.
The one who brings the message of the destruction of the enemies of God and his people carries good news. That's good news. The enemy has been destroyed. Interestingly, a version of this passage shows up in the New Testament in Romans 10, 15.
And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. It's also found in Isaiah. It's found here. And with this emphasis on the feet of the messenger who brings good news.
I couldn't help but think about Ephesians 6, 15, where speaking of the armor of God, Paul tells us to put on as shoes for your feet, put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Be ready to declare the gospel.
Be ready to have feet that run to the opportunity to share the gospel. We are those who bring good news, church. The enemy has been defeated.
Celebrate and rejoice.
Church, run to people with that message. The enemy has been defeated. Our God, the divine warrior, has triumphed. He conquered sin. He has poured out his judgment on death itself. He has blown sin and death to smithereens.
The destroyer has been destroyed. Satan and his demons, sin, death, lies, sorrow, pain, and suffering will one day indeed be no more.
How could this happen? How could this be?
We can't conceive of it. How in the world is this possible? We are just as saturated with those realities as the people of Judah were saturated with the dominance of Assyria. But we can hope in the promise of God, just like Nahum called his generation to believe.
The divine warrior has entered the arena and he has conquered our greatest enemies. Recast church, our God is a consuming fire. So consider which side you're on this morning. Are you against him or have you run to him for refuge?
Either you have asked him to rescue you or you remain standing before his indignation. And we come to communion each week to remember how our Savior, Jesus Christ, came to defeat the enemies of sin and death for us.
If you would define your life as one who keeps running to him for refuge and you're at peace with others here, then I encourage you to come to the tables to take the cracker to remember his body broken for us.
He took on himself the punishment our sins deserved. And then come to those tables and take the cup of juice to remember his blood shed for us. His life was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins.
And let's end with verse 15, as translated by Eugene Peterson from the message. I love this translation of verse 15.
Listen.
Look, striding across the mountains, a messenger, bringing the latest good news.
Peace, a holiday, Judah.
Celebrate, worship, and recommit to God. No more worries about this enemy. This one is history.
Close the books.
Look, church, it is finished. He conquered through his great love for us. Keep running to him for refuge.
Father, I thank you for a fresh revelation of your awesome glory, your might, your power. You are indeed a consuming fire. You are indeed our avenger. You indeed are righteous wrath toward those who are in opposition to you.
But you are our refuge. You are a strong tower. You are a place of hope and healing for those who would run to you and not away from you. Those who run away, the text tells us, pursued into darkness. Those who run to you for rescue and for hope and for help.
With humility, grace, mercy, forgiveness,.
Hope, and an eternal kingdom that will last. We thank you for our divine warrior who entered this world with us and went to do battle with the forces of darkness, defeating the temptations, defeating all of the pull towards godlessness that comes in humanity, and defeated sin at the cross and death at the empty tomb for us.
I pray that we would not lose sight of the first half of the equation, your righteous indignation against sin, but that we would rejoice and celebrate the second half of the equation. You are a refuge to those who run to you for peace.
Father, I pray that you would make us, people who declare your peace to the world around us, that we would run to those in need of this message, that their greatest fears and their greatest enemies have been defeated by you at the cross, and that there's a hope, but it's only found in coming to you.
We thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
That we celebrate through communion today in Jesus' name.
Amen.