FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS volume 12, number 29, July 18, 2013
The Fall of Thebes
Are you no better than No-amon, which was situated by the waters of the Nile . . . yet she became an exile, she went into captivity; also her small children were dashed to pieces . . . Nahum 3:8,10.
Even though God has shown mercy to Nineveh some one hundred or so years before by sending Jonah to preach repentance, and though the people responded in heartfelt repentance, thus averting the disaster of Yahweh's fiery and just judgment; they, nonetheless, had now returned to their old ways of bloodshed and destruction, taking Israel away in exile, threatening the same on Judah. So Yahweh raises up Nahum to preach judgment and condemnation on these Ninevites who had previously tasted the goodness of the Lord in revival and salvation. He reminds them of what had recently happened to the city-state of No-amon (Thebes on the Nile in Egypt). This once great city was overrun when Assyrian King Ashurbanipal surrounded the city, laid seige to it, and then killed thousands of people, taking away untold wealth, bringing it back to Nineveh along with many slaves. Thebes seemed unassailable, almost completely surrounded by water. This event, of course, was "front page" news for the people of Nineveh. They would have known all the details. So Yahweh chooses this event to drive home to the people of Nineveh that the same judgment is soon to come upon them. Like the people of Thebes, the Ninevites would have certainly believed their demise was impossible. Earlier Nahum announces the sordid details of the coming judgment-"Woe to the bloody city . . . the noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses and bounding chariots . . . many slain, a mass of corpses and countless dead bodies," (Nahum 3:1-3). He then records the lurid description of their judgment-"Behold, I am against you . . . I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your nakedness, and to the kingdoms your disgrace," (Nahum 3:5). Nahum's words are dripping with embarrassment and shame.
After reminding them of what happened to Thebes (going further by saying that all the great men of Thebes were bound with fetters and taken away into captivity), Nahum says to Nineveh, "You too will become drunk, you will be hidden, you too will search for refuge from the enemy. All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit-when shaken they fall into the eater's mouth . . . the gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; fire consumes your gate bars," (Nahum 3:11-13). By this Nahum means they will be unable to stand against the coming onslaught of their enemy who will utterly destroy and annihilate them.
We know from history that in 612 B.C. a combination of Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, and Cimmerians destroyed Nineveh, the greatest city in the world at the time, depopulating and de-urbanizing it. God plays hard ball. He does exactly as He says He will do. He is a jealous and avenging God. He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
My friends, if God judged the people of Nineveh who had previously tasted the goodness of God in revival, but who later jettisoned the revival culture, returning in folly to their idolatry and debauchery; then what makes us think the same will not happen to the United States? We have tasted of the revival culture but have long since left it for a modern day Deism that vaguely acknowledges some sort of divine being but who only winks at our sin and who is not really too interested in what we are doing or how things are going with us. Know this straight up-there is no relief for the unrepentant.
What do I mean by relief? I mean at least three things. First, you need relief from the condemnation of your sin. In your unregenerate state, you are at enmity with God. You are under His wrath, displeasure and condemnation. You are without hope and without God in this world. I remember my wife recently speaking to one of her atheist friends who has countless times rejected the overtures of gospel grace, who was struggling with many personal issues. My wife had no words with which to comfort her. There was nothing she could say since her friend was rejecting gospel truth. What can you say to an unbeliever to comfort her? Second, as a believer, you need relief daily from the constant battle with indwelling sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Do you not succumb too often to the machinations of the evil one? You must daily, many times per day, go back to Jesus in contrition, repenting and asking for Jesus' holiness (1 Corinthians 1:30), claiming the marvelous promise of 1 John 1:7-11, that God is faithful and just to cleanse us when we confess our sins. And third, you need relief from the threat of death that hangs over you like a dark cloud (Hebrews 2:14-15). Jesus told His disciples to not be troubled, that He was leaving them to prepare a place for them in heaven (John 14:1ff). After all, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).
And who are the unrepentant? There are two groups of unrepentant people. First, there are those who have never come to see their perilous condition, who are still dead in their sins and the circumcision of their flesh, who are on the road to perdition. These are the lost people around you. And second, there are those who are in Christ Jesus but who have, for a season, lived apart from God in sin. They have been careless with their spiritual lives, failing to heed the words of Hebrews which say, "See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, for by it many are defiled." We are not to allow sin to fester in our souls, lest we become like Esau, a careless and immoral man who sold his precious birthright for a single meal, like some men who sell their souls to hell in order to have a twenty minute liasion with an adulteress (Hebrews 12:16-17). I have known men, who like Esau, gave it all away for a "little fun" only to realize that they could not find or secure the gift of repentance, even though they sought it with tears.
Do you understand that our nation is hopeless unless we repent and run to Jesus for refuge? Do you really believe that? There is no relief outside of Jesus. Money won't do it, neither will your family, neither will your friends, neither will your church. Hell no doubt is full of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, and Pentecostal professors.
What must you do? You must ask the Holy Spirit to reveal a greater depth and experiential reality of your own sin, peeling back the layers of idolatry and spiritual sin, and then running to Jesus in repentance, asking for His relief through the blood of Jesus applied afresh and anew to your heart and soul. My friends, the world has always been wicked. The problem is not ultimately with the world. It is with those in America who claim to be followers of Jesus but who live like the world. Will you search your own heart? Have you tasted of the heavenly gift but now are in danger of jettisoning it for worldly pleasure? Repent and run back to Jesus for justifying and sanctifying grace.