April 8, 2018 PM End Of A Cruel Nation by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Nahum 3: The End of the Cruel Nation

Open your Bibles, please, to Nahum. This afternoon we will finish this short series we've been on with chapter 3 and all 19 verses therein. This message was titled, An End to the Cruel Nation. And this is what Nahum has been preaching to the people in Judah throughout this prophecy.

Chapter 3 is the end of it. It reads like this, Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder, no end to the prey, the crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot, horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without ends, they stumble over the bodies.

And for all the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings and peoples with her charms. Behold, I'm against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will make nations look upon your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.

I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, Wasted is Nineveh, who will grieve for her? Where shall I seek comforters for you?

Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? Cush was her strength, Egypt too, and that without limit. Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

Yet she became an exile. She went into captivity. Her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street, and for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. You also will be drunken.

You will go into hiding. You will seek a refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs. If shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, your troops are women in your midst.

The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies. Fire has devoured your bars. Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your forts. Go into the clay. Tread the mortar. Take hold of the brick mold. There the fire will devour you.

The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust. Multiply like the grasshopper. You increased your merchants more than the stars of heavens. The locust spread its wings and flies away.

Your princes are like grasshoppers. Your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold. When the sun rises, they fly away. No one knows where they are. Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria.

Your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. There is no easing your hurt. Your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.

For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil. Well, the attentive listener might have noticed something missing. Or perhaps you were hoping to hear something in this final chapter of Nahum. Not that anything is actually missing from the Word of God.

The Word of God is complete in every way. But some of us, when we read or hear an oracle like this, we're searching for what? We're searching for a word of hope. We're listening for that hopeful sound from the God of mercy, the God who withheld His judgment against His very city some centuries before, as we learned in the preaching through the book of Jonah.

We want something more than just hearing God is going to destroy His enemies. You're one of His enemies. God is going to destroy you. Now have a nice day. But Assyria is given only that. God's wrath has been held in abeyance until their pride, their idolatry, until all this has filled His cup of wrath to overflowing and it's time for it to be emptied.

The nation that had heard the Word of God in the preaching of Jonah, the nation that had seen the fruits of repentance long before when they heard that preaching is now to come under judgment. That spark of revival that they had under Jonah's preaching soon faded away.

They returned to their wicked ways. Defeated nations were destroyed after they were subdued. Surrendered foes were tortured. Demeaned with barbaric savagery. Idolatry and lewd worship practice were rampant.

Now finally, finally, their fate is sealed. They will be destroyed by a destroyer who will show them no more compassion than they showed to others. They found no place for repentance and now the opportunity has passed them by.

God's Word is final. His justice is perfect. The punishment does always and here again will fit the crime. See in the first seven verses there, this nation, Assyria, they're exposed. Verses one through four indict them for their avarice.

They're full of lies. No end to the prey. Verses two and three tell of how the bodies of their victims are so many that they get in the way of the soldiers. But they just won't stop slaughtering them.

We said last week they become like beasts. Actually it was a couple of weeks ago. They become like beasts. Looking back, that might not have been fair to the actual beasts that they're compared to. Lions kill because they must.

They have no other way to eat. But lions don't slaughter with abandon. The Assyrians had this rapaciousness to them and they had fallen beneath the dignity of mere animals. Their chariots rumbling like tanks.

Their war horses snorting and charging against men on foot, daring them to stand against them. Archers are blotting out the sun with their volleys of arrows. Their soldiers are resplendent and they're yellow and they're purple.

Any sane man's heart would melt and even the bravest would want to give ground against this force. And then there's their temples, especially the temple that they had to Ishtar. She was the goddess of war and fertility and she was attended by women whose job it was to care for the depraved needs of all her devotees.

And with all this God has had his fill. But even so they must have been quite a sight. Can you imagine? They must have been quite a sight with their soldiers dressed in those yellows and purples and the huge war horses and the chariots and this massive army that was so successful.

But only in the eyes of men were they impressive like that. Verse 5 tells in very graphic terms what God sees. He says, I'm against you. I'll lift up your skirts. I will throw filth upon you and all the rest that we just read.

Man's impressed by many things, by wealth, by mighty armies, by beauty. And Assyria had them all but God sees beyond the appearance, does he not? God sees what is real. Simon Magus, the Samaritan sorcerer that we meet in the book of Acts he impressed everyone.

He amazed everyone. People flocked to him. He had them under his sway because he was so impressive. We don't get any description of him but we do imagine as we read of him in the book of Acts that it wasn't just his arts that impressed people.

It was him. A good looking charismatic leader who spoke well. He amazed everyone. They gathered around him. Peter comes along and Peter sees through it all. Peter saw through it all with God's kind of eyes seeing the real man behind it and he cursed him.

Your money perished with you, he said. Ananias and Sapphira who we meet in the fifth chapter of Acts they must have been very impressive also. You can almost see the congregation standing awestruck in silence as they go down the aisle with their awe inspiring offer.

And again it was Peter eyes opened by the Holy Spirit who saw the truth. Who saw them for what they were. It was he speaking under inspiration I believe who exposed them. The rich young ruler the one who came to Jesus and said what must I do to gain eternal life?

So prestigious that when Jesus said that camels proceed more easily through an eye of a needle than such a one as he attains to heaven. Do you remember what the evangelist tells us? The disciples Jesus' disciples were shocked.

They were amazed. Wait Lord. He can't. Do you see who you're looking at here Jesus? He's rich. He's well dressed. He's educated. Surely you mean someone like me can't get through. Can't be meaning him.

Scripture does that doesn't it? Tears away the layers. Forces us to see ourselves as we are. The word of God is powerful and active and it's a living God and it tears us asunder. And sometimes the Lord God by his spirit through a believer gives us eyes to see a truth.

This has happened to me before. I just had boldness to speak a truth that wasn't obvious but I knew it was true. Not because I figured it out because God just gave me confidence to speak and I did and it was right.

God sees things for how they are. In the scripture he gives us a glimpse of these realities. And Assyria with this wonderful army and the beauty of the dress of the soldiers and what's beneath it all.

Depravity. Rebellion. Coming judgment. You would think of Elisha with his servant when he said Lord open his eyes they were surrounded by the Syrians not the Assyrians that we're studying now the Syrians.

And God opened the eyes of Elisha's servant what did he see? The chariots of the army of the Lord of hosts surrounding Elisha. We think of the Laodiceans. Think of ourselves how we view ourselves too.

To the Laodiceans Jesus said For you say I am rich, I have prospered I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable excuse me wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Because God exposes what is hidden.

That's why Jesus says So have no fear of them for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Our God is a discerning God is he not? Our God is a revealing God. Our God shows us what is true.

What is actual. We as God's people are able to see with his eyes not fully but enough to avoid deceptions we have his spirit, we have his word the word of God is living and active sharper than any two edged sword it pierces to the division of soul and joints and marrow and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the hearts.

If this word does anything it removes the veil of excuses that we so easily manufacture the divine view of things first of ourselves and then of the world at large it forces us to see things as they really are and most violently ourselves.

It was said by the early churchmen that the serpent attracted Eve by its beautiful scales and it was a great success. Now scripture is silent on that point but 2 Corinthians 11 -14 might offer some support for that it says.

For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light our Lord shows the truth. The humiliation of raised skirts is nothing less than the degradation just beneath the surface of all the allure of this wonderful looking people and the filth that God says he will throw on them.

The word means something abominable something detestable. He's throwing at them what? It's reality. It's showing them for what they really are or were no matter the outward appearance. I mean how many times did Jesus tell us not to judge by outer appearances regardless of how we prize their looks their money, their influence.

Here's the Lord's assessment. And then in verses 8 -13 in Nahum 3 what do we find? This wonderful powerful army that had conquered everyone that they came across. They're shown as just being completely helpless.

There's nothing you can do as strong as you think you are as much pride as you had merchant ships as many as the stars armies that couldn't be stopped extracting wealth from everyone you conquered you're going to be helpless.

That reference in verses 8 -10 about Thebes. Thebes was then a very powerful city-state. It stretched from Egypt down to Ethiopia and her armies were powerful and she had many allies and they were all very loyal to her and they were powerful.

And the question is are you O Nineveh. Are you better than them. Are you better than Thebes whose ramparts were insurmountable whose defenses were augmented by the mighty Nile River. Thebes by that time was of course gone.

They'd been destroyed, they'd been conquered. And Assyrius asked what makes you think you're any better than them. Look at history. Not just if you don't want to just hear the word of the prophet to you.

Look at history, look at what God has actually in fact done. Verse 12 likens their capital city to a ripened fig tree and the picture there is pretty clear when all you have to do is shake the tree and it all falls off whether it wants to or not into the mouth of the one who shook the tree the mouth of the eater.

As the scripture said their merchants had once plied the seas in uncountable numbers like the stars of heaven in verse 16. And now they're gone. Her princes have flown away like grasshoppers. They've taken what wealth they could find.

They've deserted the once fearsome king and left him to his own devices. Of course we know and as we continue in the minor prophets we will find direct references to the instrument that God used for this judgment which is of course Babylon.

One way to read these histories is what we call the idealist view. Ideal doesn't mean it's the best view. It's the ideal way but what it means is that history unfolds in a deliberate and progressive way with ultimate events pictured or hinted at by past events and it's kind of a cyclical way.

It's the way I prefer to look at the book of Revelation. The idealist view meaning it's the ideal, it's the picture of the continuous experience of God's people from the time of Christ's ascension until his return.

And it's actually a good way to look at all of history. So for example we look at Israel's 40 years of desert wandering as the prototype of Jesus' 40 days of trial in the wilderness. We might even say that the reason for Israel's 40 years was so that Jesus might come and make good of it in his 40 days.

Abraham's faith becomes the paradigm for our own King David pictures God's ultimate and sovereign rule and so on as one cycle of events relates to the next often adding some greater revelation some new clue to God's final purposes but we see history working in this evolving cycle.

Assyria was an enemy of God and of his people. They were all that was wrong with humanity thumbing their noses at God, insulting him by their proud speeches and by humbling his people. Their lineage goes back to the time of the garden, they being the offspring of the serpent seed.

Goliath was their spiritual cousin and King Ahab was their uncle, because I don't mean cousin and uncle literally and their family, their types together as scripture from the time of the garden goes through these cycles and they seem to repeat.

So how to understand Assyria and this gruesome judgment that I read in chapter three of Nahum against them. As we continue in the minor prophets we'll ask the same about their conqueror Babylon. Understanding really comes by reading backwards, newer revelation sheds light on the old in revelation the inhabitants of the earth mass themselves together in one last desperate attempt to fulfill Psalm 2 by doing what?

By trying to burst their bonds apart, by trying to cast away God's cords. If the final book of the Bible is used to interpret the earlier books as I think we should taking the newest revelation the revelation that reveals Jesus Christ and reading that back which is the way Christ and the apostles read it, then Assyria.

From then they pointed forward to man's last rebellion into God's final word the last verse in Nahum. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. When God's enemies are vanquished it's God's people who rejoice over that in that day they were glad that the greatest threat in the region was gone.

But reading our Bibles correctly we see his ultimate victory as the end of the whole idea of sin and death. Revelation. Chapter 14 verse 8 and chapter 18 verse 2 we see celebration when Babylon comes to an end.

Babylon who had for so long been consigned to the ash heap. In revelation the term represents all worldly ways that are against God. Often Babylon simply means the world view that denies God and says his son didn't come in the flesh the view that claims Jesus was less than God.

If Assyria's defeat means anything at all it is to show us that history's whole unfolding is something that we we await and we wait to be certified by God's great acts in the past such as wiping Assyria away which tells us what was going to come in the book of Revelation as we read it backwards.

Revelation 2014 to 21 4 speaks of the ultimate fulfillment of all this. Then death and Hades were thrown into the fire into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And with every enemy now purged and sent to their eternal destiny. This is the final clapping of hands in joy the end of Nahum. Verse 13 of Nahum 3 nations clap their hands over Assyria's defeat and final judgment in Revelation.

Then I saw a new heaven the apostle John says. And a new earth for the first heaven. And the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be any mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. So think again of verse 5 in Nahum 3. What it said about nakedness exposed and filth thrown out them.

See it happened to them. It happened in history. Our record confirms it. In defeat Assyria was exposed for what they were. Their beautiful garments were removed so everybody could see what was underneath.

And then to complete the picture and force it upon every observer the reality from God's view they're then covered with filth. Their princes once so proud at the head of the column so sure of victory that they insulted Yahweh to his face so unrestrained by any thought of recompense that the defeated enemies were treated terrible cruelty exposed now as the cowards that they are like locusts flying away the princes leaving them to their own fate abandoning their king.

Well all this actually does lead rather nicely to the table before us. 2nd Corinthians 521 says something about our Lord Jesus Christ tempted in all ways as we are tempted in all ways as the Assyrians were tempted in all ways as any human ever was yet without sin.

2nd Corinthians 521 says that this Jesus became sin for us. He stood in our place as though he were sin itself. And at the cross how was he treated in becoming sin for us. He was treated if we can go back to Nahum as if he were the chief sinner in this nation of chief sinners.

He was exposed. He was exposed on the cross. I've read in several background commentaries that these crosses where the victims were far up in the air is not really the way it was. They were down close just a few feet off the ground so that when they heard the taunts of the people going by when things were thrown at them when they were insulted it was virtually face to face.

They weren't that far away. The exposure, the degradation was very up close very intimate. This is how Jesus was treated as if he were the leader of all the Assyrian sinners. And was he not treated exactly that way.

Were not the wagging tongues and the mocking challenges telling him if you're the son of God come down from the cross. Is that not the same as throwing filth upon a person his clothes were bartered for while his heart was failing him.

And in all this he was being exposed for what God made him at that moment. 2 Corinthians 5 .21 is a stunning verse. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He made him to be sin. And in the way he was treated there being treated as that.

But then praise God. The difference is that the Assyrians were exposed for what they truly were. And Jesus Christ exposed for what he represented. The Assyrians really were that Jesus never sinned. Jesus never was that he was exposed for what he represented.

He was representing every stray thought every misdeed, every arrogant attitude, everything God's enemies were and are he made him to be so it's fitting that God's anger was poured out on him because he took upon himself in his own body while he hung on the tree.

Our sins if there are any left over converts in Assyria from the time of Jonah's preaching and that great movement of repentance that revival they had their sins. But then because he was in fact sinless and perfect in every way his suffering could be counted to our credit to yours and mine.

Because none of it was for his own sin. And so we come to a table where we remember that great sacrifice where we look and say. For whom did Jesus die? The son of God who loved me gave himself for me.

I pray God you can say that with full faith and confidence. For whom did Jesus die? Cruel men and women like the Assyrians those who lorded over their conquered enemies as the Assyrians did and were judged.

And yet so great a God with so much grace the power of the cross able to resolve even such sin as that even it brings such as you and me. If we were there with the Assyrians if we were Assyrian citizens we would have joined the army we would have joined in all the things that they did and yet chief of sinners.

And we don't have a chance against the grace of God. Because the grace of God overcomes all that the grace of God overrules all that the grace of God all intended by Jesus Christ all who were in him in his suffering all he represented our sins can be covered by him.

As we come to the end of Nahum we dare not think that the Assyrians were worse sinners than we are or were as Jesus said. Do you think that they were worse sinners than the others when he's talking about the ones that Pilate slaughtered or the tower that fell upon the others.

But you too unless you repent you shall likewise perish says Jesus. Well let's come to this table this afternoon with great gratitude in our hearts with thanksgiving because of what God has done through his son Jesus Christ.

Let's come to this table thinking about the Assyrians here judged in the end of Nahum's prophecy. Remembering that we're no better or we're no better. Why did God save us. But God who is rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us saved us.

And that by the work of his son Jesus who knew no sin that by the work of the cross which can cover all our sin. And with that we close Nahum.