Book of Nahum - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-15 (05/08/2022)

Okay, good morning And I was gonna make my visit a birthday visit

But I decided to push it forward a couple of weeks. Her birthday was on the 4th of July And I thought it would be a good time to do all of these things together to visit her

To visit my family to celebrate the 4th of July to celebrate her birthday

And all of that and it would been a wonderful time. But as I thought about it, I Decided I was just going to go ahead and go right at the beginning of summer the last week in May or the first week of June so I did and I drove out there and and I visited her she was in the

Mid stages of Alzheimer's so sometimes she knew who I was and sometimes she didn't but this time she did

She knew who I was and she talked and she was pleasant We had a good day and we had a good week and I visited all my folks and I turned around and went home

Heading home about the middle of June Got home

In about a week Got a phone call from my sister

That said mother had passed away Well, it didn't surprise me that she passed away

Because she was 93 years old and when that happens when you get that age the

Lord You're not you don't have a long amount of time left

But as I thought about it, I said, you know, the Lord was so good to me. He let me see her

During the last month of her life He let me see her When she was lucid enough that she recognized me and knew who

I was and who she was talking to and we had a very very nice visit my sister told me that Her son which was staying with mom and taking care of her at the time said that he came in from work

And mother was had just finished doing a jigsaw puzzle. She loved to do those things.

She used to do Jigsaw puzzles of a thousand pieces and she'd lay it out on a coffee table and she'd just do it put it together

It might take her a week or a month to do it, but she'd always get it done Well as time passed she was not able to do so much and so she wound up doing smaller and smaller puzzles

So at that at this stage of her life, she was doing the little kid Jigsaw puzzles, maybe 50 pieces.

I don't have any there are any but In any case he said she came in she put her jigsaw puzzle together

She wished him good night, they said hello and good night And she went to bed and he went to bed and when he woke up the next morning

She was gone what a peaceful way to go

And I just praise God every day for not every day, but every time

I think about it I do For allowing me to see her one last time

Other than see her at a funeral and I waited until I intended to I would have seen her at her funeral But allow me to see her when she was alive to allow her to be lucid enough that we could communicate when

I saw her It was just was like a blessing that the Lord gave me and I thought you know

The one thing we need to do is make sure that we tell our mothers and our fathers and Our significant others

All of whom we love just exactly how much we love them as often as we can

Because there is no assurance of tomorrow. I'm glad brother

David is not in here right now Because I don't want to make it any harder on him

But I do see some that are also in here that this is hard on her, his mother, your grandparents

Grandmother Just recently passed away She was a great woman and I know you guys told her as often as you could

Just how much you loved her and that's a good thing

My mom told me after my dad died she missed him, but she had no regrets

She had nothing unsaid that she need to say That's what we should be we should not leave anything unsaid that we need to say

So I want us to begin with a prayer and then we'll do our normal lesson

Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day And thank you for giving us the opportunity to come into this place of worship where we may study your word

Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our understanding of the Holy Word Bless us for your son that you gave us

To come into the world and bear the penalty for our short fallings None of us are perfect But we are perfect in him

Bless us and keep us to go through the services today in Jesus name. We pray Amen So I guess

I will get to my intended Lesson The Book of Nahum and we're going to begin at chapter 1

Now before the holidays before the Easter and Mother's Day and all the holidays We spent several weeks studying

Jonah the book of Jonah now the book of Jonah is a book that detailed an account of a prophet

With a message of doom for Nineveh. It was a message that the entire city heard and Responded to it was a response that did not surprise

God He knew that the entire city would repent

And he forgave them every man woman and child and of course

Jonah suspected that that's what Jesus would do or what God would do and That made him angry

Which just goes to show he wasn't God now you need to consider how the citizens of the city of Nineveh must have felt as time went forward

God had forgiven them God had shown them mercy and grace when they deserved punishment

He had blessed them instead of cursing them and One might imagine that they thought that his blessings would last forever

Now this is a thought That could be similar to the way the people of the

US might feel today We're indeed a nation blessed of God and We may also feel that those blessings will last forever

That's my hope as well that the blessings will last forever Or as long as this country lives last

But that's not likely Remember our study of Jonah when we were in Jonah 3 as we explored the question

Does God ever change his mind? Let's lay that question out there.

Do you think God ever changes his mind? Another way to ask that question is do you think

God ever learns anything about anything that would make him change his mind about anything? Well as we explored that when we were doing

Jonah We found this from J. Vernon McGee and I thought this was the best explanation.

It was not his explanation. It was a guy Dr. G. Campbell Morgan Explanation, but I wanted to read it one more time

Someone, this is McGee writing someone asked that of Dr.

G. Campbell Morgan, does God ever change his mind or does God change his mind often?

Someone asked that of Dr. G. Campbell Morgan years ago in England Dr. Morgan, is

God as changeable as a wither vein? And his reply was you use the wrong illustration.

A wither vein is not changeable It never changes It operates

According to a law that says it doesn't matter make any difference Which way the wind will blow the wither vein always points in the direction

The wind is going It's the wind that does the changing

Well It wasn't God that changed It was the people of Nineveh The people of Nineveh changed and God forgave them

Now at this point it might be instructive to consider the question Was McGee correct when he stated that Nineveh was not destroyed?

What do you think? Was it destroyed? Not at the time.

He's not at the time Jonah said it It was destroyed

It was just not destroyed 40 days later like Jonah said It took more than 100 years

And then it was not only destroyed It was destroyed so completely that it was hidden for almost 2500 years

So the years pass And the people of Nineveh change again

And now more than 100 years later God sends a new prophet

Nahum With a message similar to that delivered by Jonah So we're going to look right now at Nahum 1 -1

The burden of Nineveh It's a burden because the prophecy is a message of doom

The burden of Jonah I did it again The burden of Nineveh The book of the vision of Nahum The Echo Site Now when

I looked up As I was studying this I looked at Dr. John MacArthur's commentary about Nahum And the first thing he did is he spent a lot of time

Resolving or trying to resolve a difference a dispute between two sets of religious biblical scholars

I'm just going to read what he says All that is provided in the scripture about Nahum is here in this verse

He was an Echo Site This may refer either to his birthplace or his place of ministry

Attempts to identify the location of Elkosh Have thus been

Thus far been unsuccessful Elkoshite is thought by many biblical scholars to be a reference to the little city of Elkosh located in Galilee Now there's another city in Galilee In which

Jesus spent most of his ministry A city near the

Sea of Galilee You know what that city is? Capernaum You know what

Capernaum literally means? The city of Nahum And it is thought by a second group of scholars to be

Nahum's birthplace So we have two groups of biblical scholars arguing about the birthplace of Nahum Isn't that like Satan?

To interject controversy over a point that is not very important But this is important.

Nahum forms a sequel to the book of Jonah The two books need to always be studied together.

Jonah first and then Nahum Jonah for one reason And then

Nahum for another over a century earlier

Jonah had recounted the remission of God's promised judgment toward Nineveh Now more than a century later

Nahum depicts the execution of God's judgment

Nineveh was proud of her city a city thought to be invulnerable

It had walls reaching 100 feet high It also had a moat 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep but Nahum prophesied that the sovereign

God would bring vengeance upon those Ninevites who violated his law And indeed he did

The same God who bestowed his loving kindness upon the repentant

Ninevites judges the unrepentant ones as well Now I've got this just a little bit of out of order and that's

I thought I had it fixed, but I didn't The point of the book of Jonah Was not the great fish

The book of Jonah was not about the great fish The point of the book of Jonah is

God's children will always repent But they will do so on God's timetable the point of Nahum's prophecy

Is not Nahum's birthplace It is this God's children will never repent

No matter how much time they're given Now Nahum's prophecy brought doom and it brought comfort as well

It brought doom to the Assyrians and comfort to Judah and to all that feared

Assyria or Nineveh Nahum said that Nineveh would end with an overflowing flood and it happened

Just that way when the Tigris river overflowed to destroy enough of the walls to let the

Babylonians through Nahum also predicted that the city would be hidden and after its destruction in 612

BC the site was not rediscovered until 1842

AD more than 2 ,000 years later almost 2 ,500 years later And interestingly enough the same biblical scholars that that disputed the existence of Nineveh As they read it in the

Bible as well, it's just a story like What's the city that was

Atlantis Like like like Atlantis. It's just a mythical city They couldn't believe the

Bible and they're biblical scholars but they could believe when some Geologists said or archaeologists said that they found the remains of the city of Nineveh.

They could believe that but not the Bible It says something about the nature of the biblical scholars

Maybe they're not biblical scholars at all. Maybe they're just scholars who are studying the

Bible in any case The burden of Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum the

Ecclesite God is jealous and God revengeth God revenges and is furious

The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies

Well, let's look at it piece by piece. God is jealous His jealousy emphasizes

God's burning zeal for Israel It is the cause of his passionate reaction against anyone guilty of spiritual adultery

He's possibly talking about the captivity of the 10 northern tribes in 722

BC or the invasion of Sennacherib About 20 years later in 701

BC The Lord will take it take vengeance on his adversaries

Man needs to understand that he cannot fight God and hope to prevail

Everyone Who sets himself against God will end up being the object of God's vengeance

No one will ever succeed in opposing God verse 3

The Lord is slow to anger And great in power and will not always acquit the wicked

The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm And the clouds are the dust of his feet

God is far more patient than man However, there is a time and a place where he does display his anger

But it doesn't come quickly or capriciously Charles Spurgeon said this God's sword of justice is still in its scabbard

It's not rusted in It can be easily withdrawn But it is held there by the hand that presses it back into its sheath

Crying sleep oh sword sleep for I will have mercy upon sinners and I will forgive their transgressions

And a little later this is Charles Spurgeon God is not like an unjust judge who simply lets the guilty go out of a sense of compassion

We can't just figure that God will say let's let bygones be bygones

When we get to heaven Sin must be accounted for Because he will not acquit the wicked

Every sin will be paid for Every sin will be paid for either in hell or on the cross

If your sin was not paid for on the cross, then it will be paid for In hell if it wasn't paid for you on the cross by Jesus It will be paid for you by you in hell forever

Never once Has he pardoned an unpunished sin not in all the years

Of the most time not in all the days of his right hand has he once blotted out sin without punishment

Did he brought out your sin without punishment Well, no, but you didn't have to bear it

Jesus bore it for you Now look at the phrase the lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm

God's power Is so great that it controls the mightiest forces known to men

A huge whirlwind or storm is nothing to God He has his way in them

There is nothing about the storm that is a threat to God Or there's nothing about a storm that is in the real sense a threat to any of God's children

Oh You may die in the storm But that won't take you away from God It will just take you to him quicker

He rebuketh the sea And he make it dry He drifts up all the rivers

Bashan languishes And Carmel And the flower of Lebanon languishes

The mountains quake at him And the hills melt And the earth is burned at his presence

Yea, the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his indignation?

Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him

Now when God has resisted long enough and rejected strongly enough eventually his judgment comes

He is slow to anger, but when he but when it does come his anger does come his fury is poured out like fire

Understanding this should make men quick to repent and wary of presuming on God's patience

Uh, we tend to think well I'll ask for forgiveness tomorrow for the sin that I'm going to indulge in today

Have any of you ever done that Have you ever said you don't don't answer that out of stature for you

There have been times when I was tempted to sin And there's times when

I was tempted to sin that I didn't and the reason I didn't is because I was walking hand in hand with God at that time

But there's been times when I've been tempted to sin And I decided well,

I'll sin today and I'll ask forgiveness tomorrow I hope none of you do that I'm trying my best to stop doing that But I'm like In that way,

I'm like Paul. Oh wretched man that I am That which

I want to do I don't do and that which I know I don't want to do that I do And the only thing that can keep me from doing it is

God And he will only keep me from doing it if I'm walking hand in hand with him when

I'm straying from him I'm on my own but fortunately like Jonah made lots of bad decisions

The Lord never let him get away And I'm hoping that that's the case for me.

No, I know that's the case for me but We should be quick to repent and wary of presuming on God's patience.

We should not but we should not take Into our heads the idea that yes,

I can sin today and ask forgiveness tomorrow and God will forgive me If that were to happen you sin today you ask forgiveness tomorrow.

God will forgive you But what if you sin today and die tomorrow before you ask?

well I don't know that that's possible but Uh, especially if you're his

I don't know that it's possible But you should be wary of presuming on God's patience

The Lord is good A stronghold in the days of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him

That's comforting The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble those who love him and trust him

See the goodness of God and find protection in his stronghold Spurgeon says this

Remember that is it is only a day not a week Not a month

And God will not permit the devil to add an extra hour to that day It is a day of trouble and there is no end to all of our griefs

I'm, sorry, and there is an end to all of our griefs God is good a stronghold in the day of trouble

Those who love him and trust him See the goodness of God and find protection in him

He knows those who trust him God knows those who trust him

Not only does he know them the sense of identification But also in the sense of an intimate relationship

Trust implies relationship and God knows those who trust in him And again, this is

Spurgeon What's more dear friends? This word know means loving communion

God knows us. He knows our prayers our tears. He knows our wishes

He knows that we are not what we want to be But he also knows that we what we do desire to be

He knows our aspirations Our sighs our groans our secret longings our chastenings of spirit when we fail

He has entered Into all of it and he says yes your child.

I know all about you I have been with you when you thought you were alone I have read what you could not read

The secrets of your heart that you could not decipher. I have known them all and I still know them

That was Spurgeon It's no wonder that he's known as the prince of preachers

But with an overflowing flood, he will make an utter end to the place thereof and darkness shall pursue his enemies

That overflowing flood was fulfilled both literally and figuratively according to secular accounts

During the final siege of Nineveh by rebel army of Persians, Medes, Arabians, and Babylonians Unusually heavy rains caused the rivers to flood

And to undermine the city's walls Which then collapsed And the invading armies entered the city

Through the breach in the wall Verse nine

What do you what do you imagine against the lord? He will make an utter end

Affliction shall not rise up a second time The utter end of the place was also literally fulfilled

Not only were these people lost from history. Even the city was lost Until it was rediscovered by archaeologists at the beginning of the 1840s

He will make an utter end of it Nineveh was ripe for devastating judgment

This was not a harsh chastening. It was utter destruction. It was more than a harsh chastening

It was utter destruction And it was to come upon the city The promise affliction will not rise up a second time

Might sound encouraging until you realize the reason it won't come up a second time is

Nineveh won't exist a second time For while they be folded together as thorns and while they are drunk

As drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry

The dry leftover stalks of grass are ready to be devoured by the smallest of flames This is how ripe

Nineveh is For judgment and how complete the fire of judgment will be when it comes that should give us some concern as well

We are but by leftover stalks ready to be devoured by the smallest flame Verse 11

There shall one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the Lord a wicked counselor

Maybe I need to explain that There is one that will come out of thee That's Nineveh.

There's something that will come out the Assyrians that imagineth evil against The Lord a wicked counselor

What we have here, I believe is a near and a far prophecy the near prophecy beginning

Begins relating to the completion of God's wrath which began when an emissary of Sennacherib threatened to deliver

Delivered a threat to Jerusalem after which the Lord intervened and destroyed his army

You probably remember that from 2nd Kings if you didn't if you don't I'm going to read it.

It's kind of humorous And it came to pass that night after the emissary of Sennacherib had told the

Jews that The Assyrians were going to destroy them

And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smoked The camp of the

Assyrians a hundred four score and five thousand that's 185 ,000 men

And when they arose the next morning Behold, they were all dead corpses

I thought that was funny I but the they they who arose were not the

Assyrians they who arose were the were the uh Jews looking over When they arose and got down to check to see why they hadn't been destroyed

They found that the whole Assyrian army were dead corpses but it did sound like dead corpses arose

I pushed the wrong button. Sorry gotta be careful as I do that.

Okay Okay, so that was completed As prophesied by Nahum With the complete destruction of Nineveh, that was the near prophecy

The near prophecy is what's going to happen to Nineveh. Now the far prophecy Is a prophecy that I believe is still in the future.

It's the prophecy of Antichrist Named in at least one other

Old Testament book as the Assyrian This is a passage that we always read at Christmas but now

Bethlehem Elipha Though they be little Among the thousands of Judah yet out of these shall come forth unto me that is to be a ruler

Of Israel whose going forth have been from old from everlasting and that of course is

Jesus the Messiah and that's usually the end of that paragraph that we uh, the verse that we put on the walls at Christmas time, but if you keep reading you'll see that uh

Uh, it goes on to say therefore Will he give them up? Until the time that she which travaileth that is getting ready to have birth to give birth

Israel hath brought forth that would be the Jesus being born Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the city unto the children of Israel and he shall stand

And feed in the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they shall abide

For now he shall be great unto the ends of the earth and this man the

Messiah Jesus Shall be the peace When the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall creed in our palaces

Now there's something to consider Nineveh was located just across the river From what is now

Mosul, Iraq In the heart of what used to be the Assyrian empire verse 12

Then saith the Lord though they be quiet and likewise many Yet shall they be cut down when he shall pass through Though I have afflicted thee

I will afflict thee no more Though they are quiet the enemies of Zion look mighty

They were safe and there were many yet they will be devastated by the judgment that the

Lord promised Though I have afflicted you I will afflict you no more The God's people look weak and afflicted yet.

God promises them that they will be strengthened and restored verse 13

For now I will break his yoke from off thee and will burst thy bonds asunder And the

Lord has given a commandment concerning them that no more of thy name may be stoned

Out of the house of thy gods. I will cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave

For thou art vile. He's talking again about Nineveh The city of Nineveh at once was instantly recognized as one of the greatest power cities in the world

God promises to bring that wicked city so low that they lose their legacy and they lose their name among the nations

I will make thee a grave for thou art vile God warns

Nineveh of its coming judgment and destruction, but unlike the

Ninevites of Jonah's time who Who all repented every last one of them every man woman and child repented and God forgave them

He's just given a greater threat to the Ninevites of Nahum's day But unlike the

Ninevites in Jonah's time the Ninevites of Nahum's time Did not repent

As far as I know not even one repented And that would be even worse than Sodom and Gomorrah When they had a few that got out

Behold the mountains Behold upon the mountains the feet of them that bringeth good tidings

That publisheth peace O Israel Keep thy solemn feast perform thy vows for the wicked shall no more pass through thee.

He is utterly cut off There'll come a time when there'll be no wickedness in Israel.

That's not now But it's a time that's coming The contrast between the fate of the godly and of the wicked

Are bad news to the Ninevites but good news to Nahum and to all people of God and that's about the end of That is the end of the chapter

Any comments or questions? That passage about the

Assyrian It started with that, you know kind of the Christmas passage that y 'all had

That was in Micah I'll get back to it in just a second It was

Micah 5 verse 2 that that's the Christmas passage and we end at the end of verse 2 but if you keep reading it's going to Talk about the other things that will happen and it will it will prophesy the coming of the

Antichrist And it calls that man Uh what it called the

Messiah This man shall be the peace. That's the Messiah. He shall be the peace when the

Assyrian shall come into our land That would be the Antichrist Then the verse where it seems to imply that That he'll come out of this place, you know

It it kind of tells you where will the Antichrist originate It kind of says out of Assyria Well people always say well in Daniel it said out of the

Roman Empire Remember that the the prince of the power of the prince of the people that shall come and everybody says well, that's out of Rome Rome was only half of the

Rome was only half of the Roman Empire The other half eastern half of the

Roman Empire outlasted the western half by over 500 years And the eastern half had in it

Turkey and Iraq and Iran All of the ground where the old

Assyrian Empire was So I think that I think that tells us that the Antichrist is going to originate up from From Iraq Or what is now

Iraq, but I may be wrong that that's conjecture

That's why I didn't bring it up before But it is interesting any other comments or questions

If not most gracious heavenly father, thank you for this day, thank you for giving us your scripture

Your son the holy spirit And thank you, especially this morning for giving us our mothers bless us and bless them and keep them and Remind us day by day

To tell our mothers how much we love them We can't presume to know

Anything about tomorrow But we do know about today Right now we can tell all of those that are important to us