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Bro. Bill Nichols
Good morning. We're going to continue our study of the book of Nahum.
And we'll be in chapter two this morning. But before we do, let's take a moment to pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for all the things that you have done for us.
We honor you. We worship you. We thank you for your son. We thank you for the scripture that you've left us with.
We thank you for the Holy Spirit to help us in our understanding. As we proceed into this morning's
Bible study, we humbly ask that you continue to bless us as a country, to protect us, and to nourish us.
It's my prayer that our country will repent and will return to you, and maybe you will see fit to spare us the judgment experienced by Nineveh.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, Nineveh's fall in 612
BC at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, though still future in Nahum's day, is described by Nahum in present tense terms.
Of course, it is, after all, a prophecy. So I'm just going to begin. He that dasheth into pieces is come up before thy face.
Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
Let's look a second at the phrase, he that dasheth in pieces. Of course, in the ultimate sense, he that dasheth into pieces is the same he that created everything that exists out of nothing in the beginning.
And that, of course, was and is Jesus Christ. But in this passage,
Nahum is referring specifically to the agent of Christ's wrath.
A mighty army made up of a coalition of Medes, Persians, and Babylonians.
An army prophesied by Nahum, led by Nebuchadnezzar, whose sole purpose was the destruction of Nineveh.
And as we continue through this prophecy, consider how complete this destruction was.
Matthew Henry had this to say, an alarm of war is sent to Nineveh, Nahum speaks of it as just at hand, for it is neither doubtful nor far distant.
Look about thee and see, he that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face.
Nebuchadnezzar, who is noted and will yet and be yet more so for dashing nations to pieces, begins with thee and will dissipate and disperse thee, so some render the word.
Jeremiah will call Babylon the hammer of the whole world later when he prophesies of their destruction.
In fact, in Jeremiah, when he said that, he said, how is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken?
How has Babylon become a desolation among the nation? So it will come
Babylon's turn to face the wrath of God. And just as Nineveh's destruction was prophesied, so was
Babylon's. So the destruction of both Babylon and Nineveh was prophesied.
Now might be a good time to plant the seed of this question. Has the destruction of the
United States of America been prophesied? And this question
I will not attempt to answer, I'm just going to ask it and consider it as we go through.
Has the destruction of the United States of America been prophesied? Well, the answer to that is not really so important because whether it's prophesied or not, either we will be or we won't be.
But if it is prophesied, then we know that it will be. The destruction of Babylon is clearly prophesied in Isaiah 45 verses 1 through 7.
And what I wanted to do is to go to that, look at the destruction of Babylon later, and then go back earlier and look at the earlier destruction of Nineveh.
So here we are in Isaiah chapter 45 verse 1. Thus saith the
Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I hold. Two hundred years before Cyrus was born,
God announces him by name as the deliverer for his people from captivity.
So I'll start again. Thus saith the Lord unto his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I hold, to subdue nations before him. I will loose the loins of kings to open before him.
The two left gates, and the gates shall not be shut.
Now we're talking about the destruction of Babylon, not Nineveh. And Cyrus is who he's talking about.
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold, to subdue nations before him.
I will loose the loins of kings to open before him. The two left gates, and the gates shall not be shut.
So he's talking about what's going to happen as Cyrus comes upon Babylon to destroy it.
We know the story well. The Persians diverted to the Euphrates River, and that allowed the army to wade under the river gate.
The water went down, so the soldiers just waded through underneath the guard, the gate that was separating
Babylon from the outside world. However, the inner gate would still have been a problem.
There's an outer gate around the whole city, and then there was an inner gate around the most heavily fortified part, the king's dwellings.
And that inner gate would have still presented problems, except in their drunken stupor, the guards failed to secure the inner gates that he refers to here as the two -leaved gates.
Verse 2, I will go before thee. He's talking about Cyrus. I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight.
I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron.
I will give thee the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest know that I am the
Lord which call thee by thy name. I am the God of Israel.
But I hasten to say that the
Lord is going to quickly tell Cyrus that he's not the reason. It's not for you that I'm doing all of these things.
Verse 4, for Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect.
That's who he's doing it for. He's not doing it for Cyrus. He's doing it for Israel and for Jacob. I have even called thee by thy name.
I have surnamed thee, though thou didst not know me. I am the
Lord and there is no other. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.
That they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord and there is none else. Who's going to recognize this? It's everybody from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun.
Everybody will know that there is no other God beside me.
I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace.
I create evil. I, the Lord, do all of these things. And that's an interesting passage and we could linger on that forever and ever.
Does the Lord actually create evil? Well, we know that evil couldn't exist if the
Lord didn't let it. So at least we know he allows it. I am the
Lord. I, the Lord, do all these things. So now we're going to go back to Matthew, Henry and to Nineveh and to verse one of Nahum.
He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face. Keep the munition.
Watch the way. Make thy loins strong. Fortify thy power mightily.
Matthew, Henry says this. The attempt of Nebuchadnezzar upon Nineveh is bold, public and daring, allowing his design to ruin thee and therefore stand to thine arms,
O Nineveh. Keep the munitions. Secure thy tower and magazines.
Watch the way. That is, set guards upon all the avenues to the city.
Make thy loins strong. Encourage thy soldiers. Antimate them and thyself.
Fortify thy power mightily as cities do when an enemy is advancing against them.
Of course, this is spoken ironically. Do the utmost thou canst, yet thou shalt not be able to put by the stroke of this judgment, for there is no counsel or strength against the
Lord. And that was verse one. And now verse two. For the
Lord hath turned away the excellence of Jacob as the excellence of Israel, for the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.
The Assyrians have been abusive to both Judah, the two tribes, as well as Israel, the ten tribes.
And for this, God will reckon with them. Though this abuse was done long ago, the reckoning is going to come at this time.
Right now, God is ready to reckon with them. God's quarrel with them is for the violence done to Jacob.
That is to say, done to all of Israel. Verse three. The shield of his mighty men is made red, and the valiant men are in scarlet.
Chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fig trees shall be terribly shaken.
What's that talking about? Shields in those days were either overlaid with copper, whose reflection of the sunshine would make the army appear larger and stronger, and strike terror into the enemy.
Or they were covered with hide, and that hide was dyed red and then soaked with water to extinguish burning arrows and to minimize the sight of blood.
So that's the reason they were red, and they had water poured on them to quench the fires of burning arrows.
The fir trees shall be terribly shaken. That's a strange thing to say.
The English Standard Version translates this in a way that's a little bit easier to understand.
The cypress spears shall be brandished. So these soldiers that are coming up to attack
Nineveh will be covered in red.
They will be carrying shields that are either polished bright copper or soaked in water dyed red to minimize the sight of blood.
And the fir trees shall be shaken. They will be shaking their spears in the air.
That's what that's talking about. Their cypress spears are brandished. Verse four, the chariots shall rage in the streets.
They shall jostle one against the other in the broad ways. They shall seem like torches.
They shall run like lightning. Now, he's referred back to inside Nineveh.
The chariots that he's talking about are not out in the open attacking the enemy.
They're the chariots that belong to the Ninevites. They're not outside. They're inside the city.
They rage in the streets. Meanwhile, within the city, confusion shall reign.
Chariots designed for creating a havoc among the enemy and open warfare will instead dash through the streets, bumping into one another in a futile effort to defend the city.
So they're running around inside the city, trying to find some way to be of help. But instead of successfully defending the city, all they're doing is adding to the chaos that's already there.
He shall recount his worthies. They shall stumble in their walk. They shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.
This is talking about the royalty and the military leaders dashing to one of her many defense towers built into the walls, which a
Greek historian numbered as 1 ,500 defense towers built on the wall, reaching a height of 200 feet, 1 ,500 defense towers on the wall, each reaching 200 feet tall.
But even though the defense is properly prepared, they will not prevail.
They will be conquered. You know why they'll be conquered? Because the
Lord God wanted them to be conquered. The gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.
Now, remember when we talked about Babylon a little bit earlier? They depended upon the natural river to protect them.
And here, earlier, the Assyrians do too.
But what does it say? The gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.
It's interesting to note that natural defenses were of no value to either
Nineveh or Babylon. Nineveh, lying at the merging of three rivers, the
Tigris and two other smaller rivers, constructed dams to minimize damage of the seasonal flooding to her walls.
Chapter 6, verse 6, the gates of the river shall be opened, seems to suggest that these dam gates were opened, probably by the
Babylonians, and that caused the walls to be dissolved, breached by the flooding, and the palace taken.
And as we saw earlier, Cyrus effectively just flipped the problem over when he was intent to destroy
Babylon. He also diverted the river. Verse 7, and Huzbah shall be led away captive.
She shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her, as with the voice of doves, tapering upon their breast.
Tabering, not taper. Tabering upon their breast. Nahum not only sees the battle, he also sees the outcome.
What's the outcome going to be? Nineveh will fall before this mighty army, and she will be led, she'll be humbled and led away captive, even as the
Assyrians led other nations into their captivity. Now some take the she,
Huzbah, to be the queen of Nineveh. It really doesn't matter whether it's the queen or it's just a word like, we use the word she to represent a country, or whether it's the she that we're talking about is the whole country of Assyria, or whether it's just the queen, either way it's the same thing.
The outcome is exactly the same, the total destruction of Nineveh.
Matthew Henry takes it to be the queen herself, and it's interesting what he says, so I'm going to read it.
The queen shall fall into the hands of the enemy. Huzbah shall be led away captive.
She that was established, so some read it, though thought herself safe because she was concealed and shut up in secret, shall be discovered, so the margin reads it, and shall be led away captive in greater disgrace than that of the common prisoners.
She shall be brought up in a mock state, and her maids of honor shall lead her, because she is weak and faint, not able to bear such frights and hardships, which are doubly hard and frightful to those who have not been used to them.
They shall attend her, not to speak cheerfully to her, nor to encourage her, but murmuring and moaning themselves, as with the voice of doves, the doves of the valley.
Ezekiel refers to that, but they that escape them shall escape and shall be on the mountains like the doves of the valley, all of them mourning every one for his own iniquity.
So they'll be mourning among themselves with the voice of doves, the doves of the valley, noted for their mourning, and they shall be taboring on their breast, beating their own breast in grief and vexation, as if they were drumming upon themselves.
So the word signifies. So now we're on verse eight. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, yet they shall flee away.
Stand, stand, they shall cry, but none shall look back. Though Nineveh was like an oasis in the desert that attracted many people, they fled from the devastation.
They were not willing to defend it. Verse nine.
Take ye the spoils of silver. Take spoil of gold, for there is none end of the store and the glory out of all the pleasant furniture.
Take ye the spoil of silver. Take spoil of gold. An impressive confirmation of this prophecy is that nothing of all of this gold and silver has been discovered in the ruins of Nineveh by archaeologists.
Nineveh was indeed stripped bare. She is empty and void and waste, and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
Matthew Henry said this. The soldiers and the people shall have no heart to appear for the defense of the city.
Their spirits shall melt away like wax before the fire. Their knees shall smite together, as Belshazzar's did in his agony in Daniel 5 .10.
And the faces of all of them shall gather blackness, like that of a pot that is every day over the fire.
Verse 11. Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions?
Where is the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lions whelped, and none of them made afraid?
John MacArthur says this. Archeologists have found a carving from a palace showing an
Assyrian king on a lion hunt. Nahum is rhetorically asking where Nineveh has gone.
Where is the lion hunter? No longer describing
Nineveh's fall, he is now taunting her, ridiculing her fall from power and glory.
He goes on to say, or Nahum goes on to say, the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his den with raven.
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. It doesn't matter how well prepared the lion was, that he had all the food stored for his lionesses and for his whelps.
It doesn't matter how much they prepared. Nothing matters. Why? Verse 13 says it all.
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. What a terrible thing to hear from God.
The principle of Romans 8, 31, which is true for the believer.
What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us?
This same principle implies that the opposite is also true for the non -believer.
If God is against you, then who or what can be for you?
Verse 13. And I will burn her chariots in the smoke.
Nineveh, known for burning the captured cities, would receive the same fate.
And the sword shall devour the young lions, and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more.
Nineveh enjoyed its status as the greatest center of power in the world at the time.
And they relished the fact that the voice of her messengers commanded attention in palaces all over the world.
That day would come to an end under the judgment of God. What did it say?
The voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more. One wonders how the
Ninevites compare to the Americans of today. We also enjoy our status as the greatest power center in the world today.
And we relish the fact that the voices of our messengers have the attention of the entire world.
It doesn't matter what message we have to deliver. It doesn't matter who delivers it.
The world pays attention when the voice of America speaks. And we like that.
We like the fact that when our leaders speak, the world listens.
So you got to wonder how much like we are to the Ninevites. Let us pray.
Most gracious Heavenly Father, as we leave the scripture this morning and proceed to the worship service, we humbly ask that you continue to bless us and protect us and to nurture us both individually and as a country.
And finally, it is my prayer that our country will repent and will return to you.
And maybe like you did the first time with Nineveh, you will see fit to spare us the judgment ultimately experienced by Nineveh.
In the name of Jesus Christ, your son, we pray. Amen. And that's the end of it.
If you have any comments or questions, be glad to attempt to deal with them.
I want to try to paraphrase that in order to get that comment out there for anybody that happens to be listening.
And I totally agree with what you said. If the Lord is for us, who can be against us?
If the Lord is against us, who can be for us? It doesn't make any difference really how much we prepare, how much we try to prepare.
We can lay aside all we can lay aside. We can prepare all we want. If it's the Lord's will, we will fail.
If it's the Lord's will, we will succeed. Did that pretty much get the idea that you tried to convey?
That's good. I appreciate that. And I didn't repeat it because I thought I could do a better job. I only repeated it because I know that it was silence on that end.
Anything else? If not,