volume 12, number 28, July 11, 2013

Nineveh and America

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful . . . the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, Nahum 1:2-3.

Without question the United States has enjoyed many times of revival refreshment from the King of Glory. From the time John Winthrop set sail in 1630 in England on the Arbella to at least 1863, America has been the beneficiary of God's mighty movements of mass conversions and societal transformation. Nineveh, the major city of the Assyrian empire (located at what is now Mosul, Iraq), was also the beneficiary of God's magnanimous grace. Though they were wicked and cruel beyond measure, though they justly deserved Yahweh's wrath and condemnation, He nonetheless raised up the reluctant prophet named Jonah whose encapsulated message was, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown," (Jonah 3:4). The Holy Spirit brought genuine conviction of sin upon all the people, from the King down to the lowest servant, moving the people to repentance and faith, evidenced by corporate fasting. God relented and spared Nineveh. This was between 750 and 800 B.C.

But now, some one hundred to one hundred and fifty years later, Nineveh in folly, like a dog returning to its vomit, has returned to her evil, pagan, wicked, and tempestuous ways. She has already overrun the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:24ff) and has cast her lustful eyes upon the spoil of Judah (Isaiah 36:1). It is within this historical context that Yahweh raises up the prophet Nahum to preach judgment to the nation of Nineveh. In Nahum 1:1-8 we find four things happening. First, in verse one the prophet is introducing himself, saying that he has an oracle and a vision. Second, in verses two and three Nahum lays out the character of Yahweh, declaring that He is an avenging and jealous God. He is filled with wrath and vengeance, that He takes vengeance on His adversaries, that He reserves wrath for His enemies. He goes further to say that while Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power, He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. This prophetic rhetoric is not reserved for Nahum only (see Exodus 34:7, Joshua 24:19, Deuteronomy 32:35[1], Psalm 94:1). Third, Nahum declares that Yahweh's judgment will be seen in natural calamities in whirlwind and storm, in drying up oceans and rivers, in earthquakes. He asks, "Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire," (verses 3-6). And fourth, Nahum summarizes by declaring that only two types of people exist. The first, in verse seven, are those who take refuge in Him, who flee from the wrath of God to come and cast themselves upon the beneficence of Yahweh's mercy and grace. He knows (cares for, provides for) those who take refuge in Him. The second, in verse eight, are those who refuse His overtures of grace, who persist in recalcitrance. With an overflowing flood, He promises to make a complete end of them. He will pursue His enemies into darkness.

Just as God visited Nineveh with His mercy and grace in revival, so He has repeatedly visited us with the mighty presence of His Spirit, times without number. But, are we not like Nineveh today? Are we not a nation that has returned to folly, like a dog to its vomit? Have we not turned back the pages of time and returned to the barbaric actions of paganism by offering our children on the altar of Molech to appease the gods of affluence and peace? Have we not opened the flood gates of perversion through internet pornography? Seventy percent of church going men regularly visit pornographic websites in America. Fifty to fifty-eight percent of pastors do the same. And twenty-five to thirty percent of women are hooked on pornography in modern day Nineveh.[2] By the way, studies show that addiction to porn has mightily contributed to the rapid acceptance of homosexuality in general and same sex marriage in particular?[3] Actually, we have "one upped" Nineveh and all other ancient civilizations. We are the first to re-define marriage. And though we rightly recoil from the horror of the Sandy Hook massacre of those twenty, precious children in December, 2012 in Newtown, CT, we must not forget that every day in Connecticut another forty children die through the murderous abortionists who ply their wicked trade.[4]

Within a few years of Nahum's prophecy, around 612 B.C., Nineveh was destroyed. Can we not expect the same treatment from the thrice holy, jealous, just, and righteous God who champions the weak and fatherless? If God rightly judged Nineveh after His earlier, remarkable visitation due to her return to wickedness and perversion, why do we think He will not do the same with us? Paul the Apostle tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). In other words, the judgment of God is made manifest in the world through natural catastrophe (Nahum 1:3-5, Deuteronomy 28:38-46), reprobation leading to homosexuality (Romans 1:24-32), and invasion by foreign, godless nations (Daniel 7). Have we not had our share of natural catastrophe? Do we not have the normalization of same sex marriage? To stand against this now is to appear to be homophobic or bigoted.

What are we to do? First of all, get the log out of your own eye before trying to help your brother with the speck in his eye. Are you a surveyor of porn? Are you a liar? Are you unethical in your business practices? Are you emotionally or physically engaged with someone other than your spouse? Are you jealous? Are you given to violent outbursts? Do you abuse alcohol, at times finding that you have lost control of your speech and actions? Are you factious, divisive? Do you frequent bars or other scenes that are potentially compromising of your testimony? Do you watch television programs or movies that are lascivious in nature? Do you make money and your possessions an idol? That is, do you lie awake at night, worrying that you may lose it all? If you say "Yes" to any of these things then you need to repent right now, because Paul says that those who practice such things are living according to the deeds of the flesh, and they will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:5-6, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). And second, we must proclaim the judgment, vengeance, and wrath of God to all, to anyone who will listen. Only those who fear God will heed the message and run to Jesus for refuge, either for the first time in conversion or for the thousandth time in sanctification.

1 Deuteronomy 32:35 is the text used in Jonathan Edwards's

powerful "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon,

July 8, 1741, Enfield, CT

2 From my friend C.B. Nagle's, CRU June newsletter.

3 A Warped Worldview: Another Moral

Effect of Pornography.

4 <www.abort73.com> Connecticut Abortion Facts. The latest

figures I have are from 2009 when 14,442 abortions were