Where are Your gods on the Day of Trouble?

Psalm 87 and the Comfort of Gathering Around God’s Word

We sing that psalm, Psalm 87, it is quite a crazy thing we do, gathering every Sunday around this little book, teaching from it, singing from it, preaching from it, and yet this book tells us that the Lord loves this gathering more than all the dwelling places.

Of Jacob.

That's a good psalm, Psalm 87. But we're not in Psalm 87, we're in Nahum. We're walking through Nahum verse by verse, and the question I have for you this morning as we begin is, have you ever been let down?

Maybe another way I could ask that is this, take your hand and put it on your wrist here and do you have a pulse, alright? Because the answer to both of those questions is what?

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Now if you want a little secular illustration, I think about that movie, there's a specific scene I see in my mind in the movie Braveheart, and it's that movie where Mel Gibson is William Wallace and he's going to fight the British, he's going to fight the English.

And the Scottish nobles, they're there and they're supposed to do one part and he's supposed to do another part, and like he gets going, and in this particular scene, like all the Scottish nobles, they just turn their backs on him and they leave.

They betrayed him, they let him down. Well, the reality is, maybe not to that extent, but we've all been let down. And I need to tell you this morning that there is nothing that will let you down more, drop you harder or farther or faster than false gods.

If you put your hope, you think to yourself, I'm not, I'm here, I'm at church, of course I'm not worshiping a false god. Well, I hope you'll listen well to the sermon, because if you put your hope in false gods, if you trust these things, you will be put to shame.

Where are your false gods on the day of trouble? That's the title of this morning's sermon. And it comes from Nahum chapter two. Now, last Sunday, we read the whole chapter and I'm not going to do that again.

Not this week anyway. So this week, we're just going to read verses seven through nine. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word? So this is where we're at. So what we do here, just a reminder, we typically normally preach the next verse.

And that's where we're at. Verse seven. Its mistress is stripped, she's carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.

Halt, halt, they cry, but none turns back. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things. Father, what a weighty text we have before us today.

Help us to understand it. We pray, oh God, that you would be pleased to preach, that we would hear the words of Christ this morning being heralded. Not not mere man's words, but speak to your people, encourage us.

Lord, some of us need to some of us are are playing with false gods today, whether that be money, whether that be work or idolatry or whether it be pornography or greed. God, save us from these false, wicked things that cannot save.

Let us turn from them and cast down our idols. Some need to be rescued from the very grips of hell this morning and repent and believe the gospel and know that you are the God full of compassion and mercy.

We pray they would meet you even today. Bless our time together in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Now, I just remind you, like what in the world did we just read? Some of you understand, you know, you're there, we're going through.

But here's a little bit of a review. Nahum is written by the prophet Nahum, which means comfort. And it's written somewhere around 650 BC to the city of Nineveh.

You remember Nineveh?

There's another book about the city of Nineveh. That's a more positive book.

That's Jonah.

Jonah comes in around 750 BC. He preaches and Nineveh repents. Now we're 100 years later and Nineveh has hardened their hearts and Nahum prophesies.

Judgment.

Nineveh’s Decree of Judgment and the Problem of False Gods

So in verse seven, there are probably in this room a variety of translations. Almost every almost every different translation translates verse seven in a unique way. So the Hebrew word that we begin with is why has of.

And I know that no one cares. You don't care.

Whatever.

Who cares about that?

I get it.

But this is a unique word in the way that it's used. The word itself in the form that it's used here in the verbal form, it's the only place in all the New Testament. So let me just walk through some of your translation.

So some of you looking at it, you're like, I'm not reading what you're reading. So in the King James, if you have the King James this morning, it just says and Hatshap. That's how verse seven starts and Hatshap.

So what it's doing is it's taking the word, the Hebrew word, and it's just transliterating it. Excuse me.

Give me a drink.

Hmm.

Okay.

It's taking the Hebrew word and it's transliterating the Hebrew word. It's just making it a noun. And so some people say Hatshap would be the name of the of the queen of Nineveh. So that is one thought.

The ESV in verse seven just says there, it's mistress. So that is similar to the King James. Actually, I kind of find that odd, but it's not as bad as if you have the CSB. I don't know if anybody has that.

It says beauty, which I think that's crazy. But then you have the LSB and the new King James. So some of you guys have that. So we have the LSB or the new King James. I think we're getting a little bit closer.

So the LSB says it stands fixed. So it stands fixed. The new King James. I know some of you have that says it is decreed. Now, this is because the word used there in verse seven that I said, why, why just a minute ago, it's it's often translated.

It comes from the root word. It's often translated in the scriptures as stand or set. And so the verb form, let me just give you a translation. The verb form would render it something like this. It has been caused to be established.

That's what's being communicated, I believe, in verse seven. That's a long way to simply make this point. Nahum two seven starts out telling us that Nineveh's overthrow is part of an unshakable decree.

It is set. It is decreed. It is established. This is going to happen. Now, you don't always have this in the scriptures like this. For example, let's use Jonah. When Jonah goes to Nineveh, he says what?

God is going to overthrow this city in how many days?

You remember?

Forty days.

Did God overthrow the city? No, he didn't overthrow the city. So what do we do with that?

All right.

God said he was going to overthrow the city, but he didn't overthrow the city. So does God change his mind? Answer, of course, is no. Rather, God's promises of judgment most of the time carry with them an understood offer of mercy for those who repent.

God is going to do this. Here comes judgment. But the understood aspect is if you repent, God shows mercy. And this is because of the nature of God. God is compassionate. He is slow to anger. We serve a God.

Don't forget this church. We serve a God who is ready to forgive. But it appears in our text, if this translation is right, that Nahum is prophesying here a fixed judgment. It is established. It is set.

This overthrow of Nineveh has been decreed and it ain't going to be changed. So we go on still not done with the translation issues. Its mistress, ESV says, is stripped. The word for stripped in the ESV there is the Hebrew word.

It's it's feminine. That means she is stripped. That's what's being said. She is banished. She is uncovered. That's what's being communicated. So now the idea is, OK, but who are we talking about?

Right.

Who is the she? Well, option one would be back to the King James. It's Hatshepsut, the queen of Nineveh. That's contextually possible. I'm not buying that because we have no context anywhere else in the book of the.

Queen of Nineveh.

So I don't think it's that one. Now, option two, you might find this one funny. John Gill says that it's feminine because it's referring to the king, but he's a feminine. He's an effeminate king. So John Gill says the text is translated feminine, poking fun at the king.

Go with that if you want. Gill's not usually wrong, but maybe here he is. Option three, the she is referring to the city itself. So Nineveh throughout the letter is referred to as she. So that would make sense, right?

The city is laid bare would be what the text is telling us there. And her citizens in the text, verse seven, they're mourning, moaning and lamenting. There's a fourth option, but I'm going to that's the option I'm going to take.

But I'll get there in a minute. Let's move on to verse eight. So verse eight says. Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away, halt, halt, they cry, but none turns back, so the imagery in verse eight is this Nineveh is likened to one of those beautiful ancient pools.

And for a long time, she was beautiful and she was prosperous and she was filled up like a pool that you think of a pool that you would see in a royal garden, an ancient pool in a royal garden in the fountains there.

And everything's beautiful and feel and everything's right. But now, if I can, I'm going to jump a few thousand years for the analogy. Now, she's like one of those pools. You ever been in one of those pools, above ground pools that you get from Walmart?

And have you ever been in one of those pools and the sides go out and you're in one of those pools and maybe you're jumping around, everybody's having fun, but then the sides go out and what happens to all the water?

It's gone, man.

Halt, stop, water stop.

No, there's no stopping it. It's gone. And that's what's being communicated in the text. It is now within the city, a complete route. The people are running away like a cheap Walmart pool, like the water running out of that pool.

Stop, stop.

Don't stop.

But there ain't no stopping. They're fleeing for their lives. And then you have verse nine, which says, plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There is no end of all the treasure of the wealth of all precious things.

So there the word plunder is is a command. It's a command. So the invading army, so the Babylonians and the Medes, as they come in and they invade the city and now the city, the route is on and everybody's running away like water running out of a pool.

And and now God is commanding them to plunder the city. That is, plunder the silver and the gold. You think about Assyria, remember Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. So Assyria for years had brought in vast amounts of treasure.

They had conquered people and brought in their money. And then for for for year after year after year, they got tribute from these nations. And so, like the text says, there there is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.

Money was it was never a problem for this great empire. And now it's all being plundered. It's all being plundered. It reminds me of the old song that says you've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul, right?

All the stuff's over, it's gone. Well, similar here, all this stuff that maybe even for centuries they had amassed, it's over at God's command. We're not really going to cover verse 10, but I'll read it because it you understand how it not in this sermon, you understand how it connects.

Verse 10, desolate, desolation and ruin, hearts melt and knees tremble. Anguish is in all loins. All faces grow pale. Now, I told you back in verse seven, I have one more thought about that where the ESV says it's mistress.

It's been a long time now, it's a bad thing when we take a long time to preach, but back in Nahum 1 .8, I told you that some commentators see a possible reference to the goddess Ishtar there. And I think it's possible, actually, that verse seven would have us think again about this false goddess Ishtar.

First of all, it makes sense with the text. So it's mistress, so it has been established, we already talked about, but who is being stripped and carried off? I'm saying that I think the text is referring to Ishtar.

And the example I thought was of this. Have you ever seen one of those news coverage of a flood in a foreign country? I saw one not long ago. I think it was India, maybe it was somewhere else. But there's this crazy picture of this guy in India and he's at water, like waist deep.

And you know what he's carrying on his shoulder? He's carrying this large false god. I don't even know what false god it was, but he's carrying it. He's rescuing his false god from the flood. Newsflash, if you have to rescue your god from a flood, it is no god.

But that's what's going on there. But I think that's the picture of verse seven, because metaphorically, you could have the city being carried away. I get that. But really, the city is not carried away so much as it's destroyed.

It's destroyed completely. In fact, there were times past people wondered if Nineveh even existed. They couldn't find it. They finally did find it. But I think it's the fake goddess Ishtar that's being carried away.

What's interesting about Ishtar is this. She was associated with several things, including war and violence. So here's what happens. Nineveh is overthrown. And this goddess of war and violence, what has she done to stop it?

Nothing. She's powerless. To me, this is a fascinating picture of the weakness and inability of false gods. The Ninevites had given their time and their talent and their treasure to this wicked temple, to this false deity.

And when the day of trouble came, what did she do? Nothing. Save us, Ishtar. The Babylonians are at the gates.

Save us.

No answer. Do something, Ishtar. Rescue us from this overthrow. Silence. Remember this. False gods are futile when the day of trouble comes. So what does this have to do with us? Well, in Romans 15, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says this, 15 for, for whatever was written.

In former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. And you think about that for just a second, y 'all. Nahum was written not just for Judah's comfort.

Nahum was written also for the church's instruction to teach us, to teach us that we might endure and that we might have hope. Now, my outline this morning is based on the fact that we have a reference to God overthrowing Ishtar in the text.

But even if I'm wrong, even if like, no, it's actually just referring to the city or whatever, I think you'll find that the application actually is still 100 percent derived from the text. So if Ishtar is not being referenced here, then the city itself was a false hope for the Ninevites.

Or if you think it's the queen, the queen herself was a false hope for the Ninevites and the application still stand. Let me put it to you this way, you understand that the first two commandments, right?

The first two commandments, first commandment, thou shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment is what thou shall not make any graven image, thou shall not bow down and worship idols. You need to know this morning that it's not just the ancient Assyrians who broke those commandments, right?

Modern man does this as well. And even as Christians, so hear this, you say, well, this is just for lost people, no, even as Christians, we can be prone to allow other things to take the place of God in.

Our hearts.

Not me, what are you talking about? What about money? How about sports? What about prestige? What about youthful beauty or strength or think about worldly philosophies in our day? You're going to tell me that socialism and Marxism are to some people.

You're going to tell me that the government is not a god to some people. Absolutely, CRT, LGBTQ, these things become gods to people. Think about how people idolize the majority. Think about how people feel safe, they feel secure because everyone else is doing it.

Right. We used to have that conversation with your children, didn't you? Well, if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you do that, too? Because we know the the futility of that. And yet we use that as a nice little safe cocoon.

Everyone else believes it. So we're OK. Now, I was told about this at Men's Bible Study Thursday, so I didn't come up with this myself, but I looked it up. I was like, wow, that is a fascinating picture if it's true.

So I looked it up to look at it. And there's this picture. I think it's true. I think it looks true. There's this picture of a of a of a LGBTQ painted fire hydrant in California. And behind you understand the fire hydrant has no water in it because of the liberal policies.

And so behind the fire, you see the fires just raging. And I think, like, what an apt and fitting illustration as we're thinking through these things. Where are your gods? They can't save you from this.

And yet mankind continues to do that. Now, let me say to us in there, in here, you can also make an idol out of religiosity. So two comments I'll make about that, the first is you can make an idol out of that old time, nostalgic 1950s American religion.

You can make an idol out of that very easy. People do that. And you think that you're safe and you're secure with the Lord. But really, what you love is just what it was like in the 50s. Or you can make an idol out of reformed theology.

You can fail to see that the purpose of reformed theology is not that you can pop your collar and look down your nose on the people who don't understand it. It's to magnify Christ. And you can make an idol out of these things and tulips will not save you in the day of judgment.

Errol Hulse says it this way, often religion is used as a veneer to cover what is in essence idolatry. Do you think you're religious? But really what it is, is you're worshiping self. The point is, you may not have an idol, surely not.

If you do, obviously this point, get it out of your house. You may not have the false god Ishtar in your house. I get it. But. Do any of you in this room have a false god in your heart? And the point is, on the day of trouble, all Nineveh's money, all her former glory and even her false gods could not save her.

The question you need to ask yourself, and then we'll walk through these points. What will you do in the day of trouble? OK, point number one, what do false gods result in? Point number one, false gods result in functional slavery.

False Gods Result in Functional Slavery

False gods result in functional slavery from the text, verse seven, its mistress is stripped. She is carried off her slave girls, lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. Now, the term for slave here can mean like maidservant.

So some of you may say maidservant, but it's the very term that Sarah uses to refer to Hagar. Right. So either way, whether you're talking about slave or maidservant, the point I'm trying to make, I think, remains.

And that is these women in the text are serving another as their master. So whether you're to take this, whether you're to take this as the city, they're serving the city and it's the inhabitants of the city are moaning because they're serving the city.

Or if you're to take it as the temple priestesses of Ishtar, the point remains, false gods have slaves. Its mistress is stripped. She is carried off her slave girls, lamenting. Now, also think about this for just a moment.

They lament, but they don't repent. How sad is that? You hold on to your false gods until the day of judgment. And when God exposes them and before God cast you into the lake of fire, you may lament. She won't repent.

False gods result in functional slavery. Now, some of you need to listen to this very carefully. Some of you are in this and you don't even realize it. You're consumed and you love it. They didn't even understand fully their slavery.

They were in until the day of judgment came and others. Maybe you're in here and you're like, I know I'm trapped, but I can't get out of it. I think about getting out of it, but I just can't. I just when I try to pull away, it pulls me back in.

I try. But at the end of the day, I'm enslaved. False gods enslave you. Idolatry enslaves you. Think about your time. It controls your thoughts. When you have free time, that's what you're thinking about.

Your daydreams, you're thinking about this thing, whatever the case may be, your meditations. You're thinking about these things. And then, of course, you have the actual time that you have to commit to whatever it is that it may we may be referring to.

And it could be something as simple as, you know, something as simple as watching TV or movies like I don't have time to read. I don't have time to further my knowledge of Christ. I don't have time to study just because I'm in front of the TV so much.

It could be something as simple of that. It could be social media or maybe more dangerous like pornography. You've become a slave to serve your false god. And that false god may even be the god of self.

And you might think for yourself, I know there's no way I'm my own man or my own woman. So there's no way I could be a slave of myself. But there's nothing greater. There's not a worse master than the tyranny of self.

Because God made you to be his servant and to be the servant of self is a terrible, terrible place to be. Maybe your God is money. Haggai 1 .6 says this,. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough.

You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them in a bag with holes. What a vivid illustration. Money, money, money. You never have enough.

Maybe some of you in here, you're a Christian. You say, I just can't tithe.

I can't tithe.

Has money become a god to you? Consider. It leads to functional slavery. You spend all your time to do what? To get the money.

And then what happens?

The rest of the time, you spend dreaming of more money. Or the rest of the time, you're just worried about losing all the money that you have. Or you just spend it on frivolous things because materialism has become your God.

You understand the point I'm trying to make today? There's so many other things we could say. I could go down a list. Maybe you feel OK because I haven't put a put a mark on your false God. But I think you understand the point, don't you?

If something else has taken the place of Christ in your heart, something else has taken the place of God in your heart, whether that might be a spouse or your children or your job or your country.

It could be all these good things.

It could be bad things. But if it's anything that's taking the place of God in your heart, it has made you its slave. It is your master. So many things. The crunchy mom, the homesteading dad, the hip dad or the certain image that you want, you just can't let go.

You have to make sure that your family sees this image of you or the certain image that you put on social media and the things goes on forever. The point is, we'll put other things before God in our hearts.

And when we do, we become slaves of those things. Sometimes you're just going to have to break away. Because remember, the scriptures say Romans 6, 17 and 18, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness.

So hear me very carefully today. The choice before you is not I'm either going to be a slave or not a slave. That's not the choice. The choice is which God am I going to be a slave of? Am I going to be a slave of the false God of my heart, the false God of self, the false idols that I've made, or am I going to be a slave of the one true God?

Some of you need to break away and it starts with taking ownership of where you are and repenting. False gods result in functional slavery. Secondly, false gods result in faulty security, functional slavery.

False Gods Result in Faulty Security

Secondly, faulty security. I go to verse eight and I think about it. Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. Halt, halt, they cry. But none turns back. I think about this. What if a tank? What if a tank was coming up on your house?

And you thought to yourself, tanks coming. I know where I'm going to jump in. My above ground pool.

Like, are you foolish?

What is that going to do? It's not going to stop. It's not going to protect you. But this is what we do when we put our hope in false idols. And whether this is referring to Ishtar or the city, the point remains, these people put a lot of stock in these things, only have the day of trouble to come.

And they're like an above ground pool versus a tank. It ain't stopping it. It should be obvious, though, right? Psalm 115, four through eight says this, their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak eyes, but do not see ears, but do not hear noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat.

Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. When the day of trouble comes, why do you think the false god that you worshiped or the idol that you've built is going to help you? It will not.

This is true on the day of judgment, Nineveh faced the wrath of God. What did Ishtar do for them? Nothing. Their city walls, what did their strong and mighty city walls do for them? Nothing. Whoa, yeah, but what about their silver and gold?

The text says in verse nine that there was no end, no end of the treasure or the wealth of all precious things they had in mouth.

I think of that.

What is that?

Is it ducktales?

You know, when you got Uncle McScrooge or whatever, and he always like jumping off the diving board into all the money, you know, that's what that's Nineveh. They had all the money to take a bath in their money.

And what did it do on the day of trouble? Nothing. False security. All of it. Verse eight was a vivid picture. Waters are running away like a pool and is listen to this halt, halt, they cry. But none turns back.

They just think about this day, even their family bonds are broken. Friendships are thrown away. The day of trouble has ended it all. They're out of here, man. They're getting out of stop, stop. No, none turns back.

You think if that's too vivid, you think, well, no, you're not right about that in 70 AD, when Rome surrounded, this is a terrible, but it's reality when Rome surrounded Jerusalem in 70 AD, things got so bad in Jerusalem that women ate their infants.

You tell me when the day of trouble, what are you going to do if your stock is in the false gods of this world? John Chrysostom, he died in 407 AD, he says this, if you knew how quickly people would forget you after your death, you would not seek in your life to please anyone but God.

Now, I didn't mean that to be a discouragement. I just simply mean it to be biblical and a realist. Stop idolizing people. Stop caring so much what the people of Perryville think about you.

Stop.

When you die, they're not going to care. So don't care about pleasing them. Care about pleasing God. Don't care about what your family or your friends might say to a certain extent. Of course, we don't want to just be ornery or arrogant or rude.

I'm not saying any of that. So don't take me out of context. I'm just saying when you die, you're going to be forgotten eventually. So God will never forget you. Fear him. Now, it's faulty security. Let me also say this, there are lesser days of trouble, you understand, there's a great day of trouble, there's a great day of judgment that is coming, but there are lesser days of trouble that come up in our life.

Moments of tragedy, sorrow, heartbreak, we've all been through them. Question, how do your false gods help you on those days? Again, I think about California, you're going to do all these. Dumb policies for years and years and years and years and years, and now it's not it's not the day of judgment, the day of judgment hasn't come upon California, though you might consider a measure of judgment, but the day of judgment hasn't come upon California.

All these policies that you did for all years and you told everyone else how backwards and silly and antiquated that they were, and you're just going to keep doing these things. And now where has it gotten you?

You understand what's applicable to our lives all the time? Because sometimes I've seen people in ministry, I've seen people, it's the false gods that got them into the problem to begin with. And what they try to use to get out of the problem is their false gods.

And they only worsen whether that's drugs or drunkenness or sexual morality or gluttony. Right. You see it all the time. I find it fascinating, actually, as a pastor in the South, people want a preacher for these two reasons to marry them and to bury them and maybe not for much else.

Well, that's interesting, isn't it? To me, the big day comes and all of a sudden we're going to remember God. Hey, why don't you go call your sports coach? Why don't you call the movie director? Why don't you go call the man at the bank?

Go call Mark Zuckerberg. How about they preach your funeral? At least it would be more consistent. No time for the local church. No time for the scriptures. No time for God. The question is, though, what are all of these things that you filled your life with going to do for you when the day of trouble comes?

Now, listen, I don't mind preaching anyone's funeral. I'll preach anyone's funeral. But you know what I really want to do? I'd rather preach to you right now while you're living and things can still change and plead with you.

If you are in this camp, if you feel your heart being sucked into this world, if you feel your heart being given over to the things of this world and pulled away from God and your affections turned away from God and onto the things of this world, I'm pleading with you.

You're here today to hear me tell you, halt, halt, stop.

And come to Christ, these gods will be like the prodigal son's friends when he ran out of money. They'll leave you. They won't protect you and you'll be alone. False gods result in functional slavery, faulty security.

False Gods Result in Fictitious Salvation

Thirdly, they result in fictitious salvation, fictitious salvation. Now, I'll just read the verses again and give you my application here. It's mistress's strip. She's carried off her slave girls, lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. Halt, halt, they cry. But none turns back. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There's no end of the treasure of the wealth of all precious things. And I don't want to overlap too much with the last point, but here's what I want to warn against in this point, trying to defeat false gods with false gods.

Here's a silly, simple illustration. You're convicted, you're not spending enough time with your family, you're spending too much time at work. Here's your solution. You're now going to use Sundays to take trips with your family.

Now you're just going to forsake the church. So you've taken one problem and you're trying to fix it. You've taken one sin and you're trying to fix it with the sin. You understand? You can't fix sin with sin.

You can't use idolatry to battle idolatry. Or let me give you this. This is happening more and more. Some of you younger guys, you'll know these names and some of you older folks, you may not, but I think this is happening.

I see it happening. So our culture, it's just, it's, it's not debatable. Our culture is a very feminized culture. Our culture hates masculinity. It belittles masculinity. It makes fun of masculinity and on and on.