And that is one of the interesting things that we've had in this sermon series. Of course, the sermon series is entitled From 30,000 Feet. We are giving you a one-sermon summary of each book of Scripture. And along the way, I've discovered that there are several books that just don't get a lot of attention in preaching. And this is a good discipline to force us to maybe consider some books that we've not given a lot of thought to in the past. So if you've done a Bible reading plan, you've probably read through this book. You know how it goes though. Often we can go through a Bible reading plan and our mind kind of goes into neutral when we start reading. And maybe we don't give a lot of deep thought to what we're reading. And some of the difficulty with a book like Nahum, maybe we don't even understand the historical circumstances surrounding the book. And so we hope to remedy that tonight and maybe give you an appreciation for a book that you might know something about, but maybe have not delved into in any great depth. And of course, what we can do in this sermon series is limited because we're only giving you one sermon. In any of these books, even the shorter books, there is much more depth that you could get into. And so it is my hope that we might stimulate some interest on your part and that you might be determined to study these things in more depth on your own. But we wanna read from the book of Nahum tonight and we wanna start in chapter one, verses two through eight. These verses really set the stage for the book as a whole. Nahum chapter one and verse two. The Bible says, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry. He dryeth up all the rivers, Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood, he will make an utter end of the place thereof. and darkness shall pursue his enemies. Father, we are grateful to be gathered here tonight. Lord, we know that there are a few that have been able to come amid the cold weather, but we thank you for those that are here. We thank you for their desire to sit under the word of God. Lord, give them a hunger. For the word, give them a hunger to know you more deeply. Lord, we pray that you would reward those who have come, Lord, with greater depth in their understanding of scripture. Lord, with greater holiness. Lord, we know that you are working in all of our lives. If we know you to conform us to the image of Christ. We pray that this service would be one critical tool in that task to make us more like your son. Lord, if there be any here who do not know you, Lord, awaken them, cause them to see their need for the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray, amen. Modern humanity finds comfort in unusual places. Here is a small sampling of news articles that appeared recently when I did a Google search for the word comfort. These are just some headlines. House of the Week, Timeless Elegance Meets Modern Comfort at the Marsh House. How Comfort Foods Affect Patients' Mood and Stress Levels. Hit by Trump, Canada and EU Seek Comfort in Numbers. Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport makes necessary upgrades to help with passenger comfort. Calming canine, Hazel the Tooth Fairy brings joy and comfort to Chicago dental patients. It says Tooth Fairy, but I assume that's a dog. There's mention of a canine. And then Southern Comfort Restaurant closing in Boardman. Now, you probably know that in scripture, names are often quite significant. They indicate not just how a person is called, but what a person's reputation, character, or mission is. And this is certainly true with the prophet Nahum. His name literally means comfort. And yet, a casual reading of the book of Nahum reveals seemingly very little comfort. Let me give you just a few representative passages from the book. Chapter one in verse two, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. You skip down to verse 10. For while they be folded together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. If you go over to chapter 2 in verse 10, 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. Down to verse 13 in chapter 2. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions, and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. Then chapter 3 in verse 3. The horseman lifted up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses, and there is none end of their corpses. They stumble on their corpses. Now, I wouldn't imagine that if you were facing a grim doctor's diagnosis or if you were suffering from the loss of a loved one, I don't imagine that those are the types of verses you would want to turn to. So you might wonder, how was this book a comfort to the nation of Israel? Well, to understand that, we have to understand a little bit about the historical background to this book. Now, the background is given to us in some detail, not much, but some, in the first verse of the book. Notice chapter 1 and verse 1. the burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkishite. Now, Nahum is identified here as an Elkishite, and scholars are not agreed exactly where the city of Elkosh was located. I would say probably the most likely suggestion is that it was somewhere in Judah, because his message seems to be focused particularly on the southern kingdom at this time, with the northern kingdom already having fallen. We also learned that Nahum's prophecy had a specific focus, which you see in verse one, the burden of Nineveh, or we could say the message of Nineveh, the oracle, the prophetic message related to the city of Nineveh. Now that should capture our attention. Now, we've got our young people here again tonight. So young people, there is one other book in the Old Testament. that has to do with the city of Nineveh. Does anybody know what that book is? Ah, very good, Jonah, that's right. Jonah and Nahum both deal extensively with the city of Nahum. And very interestingly, these two books in our Old Testament are only separated by one book, which is of course the book of Micah. Also very interesting is the fact that actually what we call the minor prophets are referred to as the 12 in the Hebrew Bible. And by the Jewish people, that is actually regarded as a single unit. Now we know that of course they are 12 different books really, 12 different authors, but they are regarded as a single collection in the Hebrew Bible. So there's something that's quite noteworthy here, because when you think about the book of Jonah, you find Jonah going into the city of Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria, and you find him giving a very simple message, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now, of course, we know that Jonah was reluctant to give that message, as we discussed a couple of weeks ago. And initially he rebelled and disobeyed God's command. Ultimately he did go, of course, after his altercation with the great fish. But ultimately we find that even with Jonah's simple message of judgment, the people of Nineveh were stirred to repentance. They fested in sackcloth and ashes. They turned away from their evil deeds and they pursued the one true God. Now, the book of Nahum takes place a little over 100 years after the events of Jonah. And what is quite striking is that when we come to Nahum, there is no indication that God is going to show mercy. Whereas He poured out His grace to the Ninevites in Jonah, in the book of Nahum, the only note that we have is the note of judgment. There is only condemnation for this people. This people that had been offered such mercy and such grace, this people that had responded with fasting and repentance, now this people is hard-hearted. They're locked into their rebellion. They are in conflict with the Lord of hosts. And really, the arrangement of these books in our Bibles prompts us to ask a question. How does a nation go from zealous repentance to hard-hearted rebellion in such a relatively short period of time. You know that Billy Sunday famously said that revival is only temporary, but so is a bath. And of course a bath does you good, right? Now there is some truth in that, but it is a reality that every major revival in history has been temporary. The country of Wales underwent a significant revival in 1904. Today, less than half the people in Wales consider themselves Christians. And of course, you understand we use that term quite loosely, right? Because that covers a broad range of beliefs, many of which are heretical. The city of Pyongyang in Korea experienced a significant revival in 1907. Today Pyongyang is dominated by North Korea's state religion of atheism. The United States has experienced great movements of God. Some historians classify as many as three great awakenings in the history of this country. And you think that this is a country where, before, it was just natural that pretty much anybody you talked to would claim to be a Christian. Now, about two-thirds of adults identify as Christians. Again, a pretty broad-ranging term. Only about a third of adults identify as Protestants. And of course, a far fewer slice among that number would actually uphold the full authority of scripture and the gospel. We are reminded, friends, that we cannot rest on the blessings of the past. We are in desperate need for a work from heaven in our own day. Give us this day our daily bread. Should be our cry, not just for physical nourishment, but for a movement of God from heaven. We must diligently teach our children about the works and the ways of God so that our faith will not be lost in the next generation. And we think of those instructions given in Deuteronomy 6, when we sit down, when we rise up, this obligation we have to be continually showing our children and instructing them in the ways of God. Now, the decades between Jonah and Nahum were extremely significant. 722 BC, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and took away captives. Now, this is difficult for us to fathom, but one of the reasons God spared the city of Nineveh was so that God could take this same people and use them as an instrument of discipline against his own people. And that strikes us as odd because we think that the Assyrians were even more wicked than the Israelites. That's a problem, incidentally, that is also going to be related to the southern kingdom when they're invaded by the Babylonians. And we'll see that come to fruition in the book of Habakkuk, which, of course, is on the docket next in our series. So unusually, God works in ways that transcend our own human understanding. But Assyria was not just a problem for the northern kingdom of Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah also had a colorful history with Assyria. You'll recall, if you've been here for Sunday school, that wicked King Ahaz entered into an alliance with Assyria to try to protect himself from Syria. And you always have to keep those two straight, right? Syria and Assyria, two separate nations. In the ensuing decades, Assyria continued to wield great control over the southern kingdom. Even righteous King Hezekiah found himself paying tribute to Sennacherib, king of Assyria. And eventually Assyria tried to intimidate the southern kingdom and Hezekiah sought the Lord with the end result that 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were found dead without a single military action being undertaken by Judah. Now Hezekiah's son Manasseh did not fare as well as his father did. Manasseh forsook the Lord and served idols. He even offered some of his children as human sacrifices to pagan gods. And so God judged Manasseh by bringing the commanders of the Assyrian army into Jerusalem, which bound him with chains as a prisoner and led him away to the city of Babylon. And Manasseh's distress ultimately caused him to humble himself before God and to beg for mercy. Interestingly enough, there is a very short extra-biblical book that is called The Prayer of Manasseh. It's accepted as scripture by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and it is purported to give the prayer that was prayed when Manasseh humbled himself before the Lord. We don't know for certain the precise date when the book of Nahum was written, but it is my contention, and the contention of some conservative scholars, that this book was probably written sometime during the reign of Manasseh. It was during this time that the threat of Assyria still loomed large for the people of Judah. And yet God moved upon Nahum to prophesy messages of judgment on Assyria, which would comfort the Lord's people and assure them that even this mortal enemy of Israel would not undo God's promises toward his people. Now, we note that Nahum's calling was not Jonah's calling. Jonah was called to deliver his message directly to the people of Nineveh. Nahum, however, was called to deliver his message to the people of God. The fact that Nahum was not called to Nineveh demonstrates that there was no longer an open door for repentance and a reversal of the threatened judgment. That door now was closed and now the wheels of God's justice would most certainly turn in a dramatic fashion. Friend, this same reality is true on an individual level. There comes a time when a lost sinner has no more opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and to turn in saving faith. Second Corinthians six in verse two testifies that now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Friend, if there's anyone here without Christ or maybe someone listening in on sermon audio that is without Christ, I would urge you do not presume upon the mercy of God. You don't know what a day may bring forth. Every beat of your heart. Every breath of your lungs is a gift from a gracious God. The air you breathe is God's air. The water you drink is God's water. The food you eat is God's food. Dear unbeliever, you may enjoy these rich blessings even though you are an enemy of the cross of Jesus Christ. God is not obligated to keep any of us alive. He has every right to snuff out your physical life or my physical life at this very moment. And that would be a devastating outcome for anyone without Christ, because that means that now we are lost in the pit of hell. Friend, how much longer will you rebel against the God who created you? How much longer will you turn away the wonderful gift of salvation available through faith in Jesus Christ? Friend, delay no longer. Right this moment, turn from your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ. You can cry out to God, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I have broken your law. Right now, I turn away from my sin. I trust in you and your perfect life, your death on the cross, and your resurrection. Friend, if you will do that, you can be gloriously saved. Friend, we must avail ourselves of now, because we don't know what a day may bring forth. Now, as we understand the background of the book of Nahum, we understand how this book would be a comfort to the people of God. You think of it this way. If you were living in Europe during World War II, Wouldn't it be comforting if you received a divine prophecy of the death of Adolf Hitler and the overthrow of Nazi Germany? Or suppose you were an Israeli citizen today. Wouldn't you be comforted if you received a divine prophecy that Hamas would be overthrown? Now, I would argue, in a way, we do have those prophecies in the Old Testament. We just don't know exactly when they're going to be fulfilled, right? This is the type of comfort that Nahum brought to the people of his day. And it's the same comfort that this book brings to Christians today. We can find comfort in God's certain future judgment on the wicked. Now, the book of Nahum presents us with three characteristics of God's judgment to comfort God's people. So first of all, number one, God's judgment is certain. God's judgment is certain. Now let's come back to chapter 1 and verse 2, which we read a moment ago. God is jealous. By the way, we can stop there a moment. That word jealous, that strikes us as unusual. Many times that word has a very negative connotation in our culture. We think of jealousy as something that is a vice and not a virtue. Very interesting, the King James translators recognized that this same Hebrew word can either be used in a positive way or a negative way. And most often you find in the King James, when this word is used in a negative way, it is translated envy. And you can find several references in Proverbs, for example, about the dangers of envy. That's that greed where you're looking at something that someone else has and you're greedily coveting that for yourself. But this word can also be used positively. And more often than not, you find that in those cases, the King James translates it as jealous or jealousy. And you find incidentally that this idea of jealousy, this is not tangential to who God is. Exodus 34 and verse 14, for thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord, notice, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. That's his name. Think of it this way. A husband can be righteously jealous for the affections of his wife. There's nothing immoral or sinful about that. In fact, that's a just thing. And you do find in Scripture that the nation of Israel is called God's bride. That is a common image that you have in the Old Testament. And what you find is that the nation of Assyria is coming against the Lord's bride. So as a jealous husband, God rises to defend the honor of his bride. And so you have this description in verse two. The Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. Three times in this single verse you have the idea of revenge or vengeance. It's really the same Hebrew word that's used each time. Revengeth, revengeth, will take vengeance. All the same idea. Now, We could be mistaken if we look at this and we think that God is somehow some kind of tempest in a teapot who's just flying off the handle mindlessly. Look at verse three. The Lord is slow to anger. The idea there literally, kind of an interesting, this is what we call an idiom. I don't know if you kids know what an idiom is. That's kind of an expression that we have in a language that is distinctive to that language that you really wouldn't take that expression literally, right? This is why, you know, sometimes my wife and I, we're kind of talking past each other because she'll say something that just, to an English speaker, it doesn't make any sense, but it's understood, right, in that culture. Well, the Hebrew here is very interesting. It is, the Lord is long of nostrils. Now probably you've never thought of the Lord as having long nostrils, but it's really just a very clever way of saying what is indicated in our King James that the Lord is slow to anger. You think about when someone gets angry, their nose tends to turn red, right? And you can see visually on a person's face when that person is becoming furious about something. And what the Lord is indicating here is that actually it takes time. It is not, even though mankind is constantly rebelling, constantly sinning against God, God is not just flying off the handle and instantly casting man into the pit of hell, even though he has every right to do that. God is actually patient. And yet, what we have in verse three is the indication that God doesn't lack any ability to judge man, and in fact, he will judge. Notice, he is great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. So, yes, the Lord does get angry. He will pour out His wrath. He cannot overlook man's rebellion. And the ensuing verses really give us a contrast between the Creator and the creation. Look at verse 4. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry. and dryeth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt. The earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. The sea, the river, the mountains, these are all among the most majestic features of creation. When you look at ancient pagan religions, many of these features were associated with pagan deities. And yet God says that when He comes on the scene, even the most majestic features of creation melt away at His holy and righteous presence. And so there is this logical question. It's what we call a rhetorical question that's posed in verse 6. Who can stand before His indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger, his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him." You know, this past week I saw a car that was, the back was plastered over with several bumper stickers. Sometimes, you know, you see vehicles like that. And one of those bumper stickers, I mean, I could tell very quickly this is not a Trump voter, right, by some of these bumper stickers that I saw. But one of the bumper stickers was that, maybe you've seen that coexist bumper sticker, right? You've got all those different religious symbols and they put them all together to make that coexist word. Another one of the bumper stickers identified the vehicle's owner as a member of the Unitarian Universalist religion. And that bumper sticker claimed that Unitarian Universalism is where you go to get all your answers questioned. And I thought, that's striking. It's true, of course, if you know anything about Unitarian Universalism. But I think the owner of that car would not be able to process the certainty of judgment that is pronounced by Nahum. You see, God is not just some kind of doting grandfather figure who pats us on the head and tells us that we can approach him any way that we please. He is a righteous and holy God. And he comes in great power to pour out his wrath on a world that has rejected him. And so verses seven and eight capture very well the thrust of this book. Notice verse seven, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood, he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. There's a very clear cut contrast here. Either you're going to make the Lord your stronghold in the day of trouble, or you're going to find the Lord bringing an overwhelming flood and chasing you into the darkness. You're either a believer in the Lord, you're making him your refuge, or you're an enemy of the Lord. You notice there's no middle ground here. That's something that is disturbing to many people in the 21st century. They want to see some kind of shade of gray in between. You see this even with the modern entertainment now, that a lot of the movies that are being produced, it's no longer, I mean, I remember when I was a kid, you know, you had these kind of classic storylines where you've got the good guys against the bad guys. And when you look at a lot of modern entertainment, they want to present the world in a much more nuanced way that it's not, Good guys versus bad guys. It's, you know, gray guys over here against gray guys over here. Well, the Lord really doesn't give any middle ground here. Now, Nineveh had made its choice as to where it stood on this spectrum. It was not going to make the Lord its stronghold in the day of trouble. Nineveh decided to serve as the enemy of Jehovah. And so verse nine continues, what do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end, affliction shall not rise up the second time. The significance of that phrase at the end, affliction shall not rise up the second time, the idea is that it was so effective the first time, it won't need to be repeated. God's discipline is effective. God's judgment is effective. It doesn't have to be done over and over again to get the job done. It's going to be final and complete. And really, you find that our targets here are those who imagine against the Lord. In other words, they're plotting. They're scheming against the Lord of hosts. You see a similar idea in Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing And the following verses really give us a back and forth between Assyria and Israel. If you look down at verse 11, notice, there is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor. Most of the commentators are agreed that this is probably the king of Assyria, perhaps Sennacherib or one of those that followed after him. Verse 12, Thus saith the Lord, Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds and sunder. and the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave, for thou art vile. Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cut off. And so you see this contrast here. You've got the wicked king of Assyria and judgment is pronounced upon him and upon his people and upon his gods, his idols, his graven images are specifically highlighted here. By contrast, God ultimately promises mercy for his own people. The oppressive yoke of Assyria will be lifted and Judah will once again be able to observe all of its religious festivals. All of this constitutes, interestingly enough, in verse 15, good tidings. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word here actually is gospel. This is good news. Now this is not the type of good news that we often think of, but it would have been good news to the people of Israel. Chapter one shows us that God's judgment is certain. So yes, he's merciful, he's slow to anger. We sang this morning that great hymn that, could we with ink the ocean fill, or were the skies of parchment made, and every stalk on earth a quill, and every man ascribed by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. That is a blessed reality. But it is also equally true that God is a God of wrath. that he punishes sin and he executes righteous judgment on those who rebel against him. That is true for a nation. It has been said that if God doesn't judge the United States, he will have to apologize for Sodom and Gomorrah. Now in one sense, the United States is already a nation under judgment. We really don't know, though, when the golden age of American dominance will end. And you've probably heard that terminology being used recently in conservative media, that this is the golden age of America. We cannot look the other way. Certainly, God cannot look the other way when 60 plus million babies in the womb have been aborted since Roe versus Wade. God cannot look the other way on a society that mutilates young children. or that desecrates holy matrimony through the practice of same-sex marriage. This is also true for an individual. Right now, God might be showing incredible mercy on your unsaved friend, your unsaved loved one, but ultimately, God cannot extend his mercy forever. One day, the unbeliever will close his eyes in this world and open them in That's why it's so critical, friend. As I mentioned earlier, we cannot presume on God's mercy. Now is the day of salvation. God's judgment is certain, but also, number two, God's judgment is effective. God's judgment is effective. This is indicated for us in chapter two of Nahum. And really, as you come into chapter two, in the first two verses, this back and forth between Assyria and Israel continues. Notice verse one. 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. For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel. For the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches. Really in verse two, that word turned away, it actually has the idea of restored. The Lord restores Israel, but he dashes in pieces, or he scatters Assyria. Now, this is interesting in verse 1. This is what we call satire. And that might be something that we're not accustomed to seeing in Scripture. But you do see it. You see it, for example, with Elijah when he's calling out to the prophets of Baal. You remember that in 1 Kings? And they have that great confrontation on Mount Carmel. And Elijah says, hey, you know, cry out louder. You know, maybe Baal can't hear you. You know, maybe he's gone on a journey somewhere or he's asleep. Really, that's satire, right? Well, that's what we have going on in verse one. You notice what is said here. Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. Basically, hey, you know, get all your military preparations in order, Nineveh. Who is the ultimate military commander that's coming up against Nineveh? Well, ultimately, it's the Lord himself. How are you gonna prepare to go to battle against God Almighty? Of course, that is a completely vain prospect. There is no amount of military preparation that can prepare you to go against the Lord of Armies. Jehovah has all power, all strength, and so any military preparations were going to be totally empty, totally futile against the Lord of Hosts. That's ultimately the Lord's point. Now verses 3 and 4 describe in vivid terms the invading army that would come against the Ninevites. What you have here is really a form of psychological warfare. In the ancient world, many times, they would actually take military uniforms, military garb, and they would roll it in blood with the idea of striking fear in an enemy army. Indeed, the invaders of Syria are seeking to do just that. Verse three goes on. The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets. They shall jostle one against another in the broad ways. They shall seem like torches. They shall run like the lightnings. So you have this image here of these chariots coming into the city of Nineveh, and they're so numerous that they're actually rubbing up against each other in battle. Now verse five gives us the response of the Assyrian army to all of this. 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. It's interesting, history records that Nineveh's walls were 100 feet high and surrounded by a moat 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep. Nineveh's fortifications seemed absolutely secure from the possibility of any foreign invasion. And certainly no human invaders could successfully mount the walls and make an attack. But notice verse 6, the gates of the river shall be opened and the palace shall be dissolved. To invade Nineveh would require the flooding of the Tigris River. If the Tigris overflowed enough, it would break the gates of the dam that the Assyrians had constructed so that the invading armies could then enter into the city. So God is promising that he can do what no earthly army will be able to do. He will aid the city's destruction through a natural disaster. And the end result really is verse 10. Notice, she is empty and void and waste. and the heart melteth and the knees smite together." You can see this image here of fear coming into the heart of the Ninevites with knees basically knocking against each other. Much pain is in all loins and the faces of them all gather blackness. So you see a city here that is robbed, it's ruined, it's destroyed in the words of one translation. Notice what Analogy is given in verses 11 and 12. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions? Where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lions' whelp, and none made them afraid? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with raven. It appears that the lion was the national symbol of Assyria, kind of like the bald eagle would be regarded as the symbol for the United States. Assyria envisioned itself as a lion, the king of the forest, devouring prey from all the nations. But in this passage here, God depicts the lion's den as empty. There are no more lions returning with prey at this point. And now the Assyrians are the prey, not just of an invading army, but of God himself. Notice what verse 13 says. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. Boy, can you imagine anything more terrifying than those words from the lips of God himself? I am against thee. It's one thing to have an earthly army against you. But what about the Lord of hosts himself? Indeed, it would be a terrifying outcome. The verse goes on to describe, I will burn her chariots in the smoke and the sword shall devour thy young lions and I will cut off thy prey from the earth and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. God's judgment is certain. It's effective. Finally, number three, God's judgment is just. God's judgment is just, and this is given to us in chapter three. Notice how this chapter begins in verse one. Woe to the bloody city. Really, the Hebrew there says the city of bloods. It's kind of unusual in English, but when you see that bloods, that plural for the word blood, it has the idea of bloodshed being done. It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey departeth not. History records the awful exploits of the Assyrians against their foes. Listen to the words of one scholar. He said that Nineveh was characterized by, quote, an atrocious practice of cutting off hands and feet, ears and noses, gouging out eyes, lopping off heads, and then binding them to vines or heaping them up before the city gates, and the utter fiendishness by which captives could be impaled or flayed alive through a process in which their skin was gradually and completely removed. What brutality. And yet we know the scriptural teaching that we reap what we sow. And so it would be for the Assyrians in the city of Nineveh. Notice verse 3. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses, and there is none end of their corpses. They stumble upon their corpses. The image here is that the destruction is so great in Nineveh that as a person would walk through the city streets, they would be stumbling on the corpses. There would be so many of them. Indeed, brutality. There's an incredibly unflattering image that God gives of this city in verse four. He says, because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts. You see two comparisons here. Nineveh is compared to a prostitute and to a witch. The idea is really that this city, and ultimately the nation it represents, are enchanting. They're pronouncing this sort of magical spell to try to entice all of the nations of the world. Notice the shame that comes about as a result in verse 5. Behold, I am against thee. Of course, the same expression we saw in chapter 2, verse 13. I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame. It was commonplace in the ancient world when there was a harlot or somebody that was a woman that was being judged for adultery, that she would often be shamed by being publicly stripped naked and humiliated. Notice verse six, and I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing stock. The idea is that this humiliated, adulterous nation, if you want to put it in those terms, She's being publicly shamed and garbage and excrement are being thrown at her. It's quite a jarring image, but it's part of inspired scripture. Verse seven, and it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? And what the Lord goes on to do, if you read verses eight through 10, is he compares Nineveh to another city in the ancient world by the name of Thebes. And this was in Egypt. Assyria conquered this city in 663 BC. This was another city that was considered to be impregnable in terms of its fortifications. It was something that was considered indomitable in terms of military strength. And yet, God says, remember that? Remember how you took those people captive from that city? Remember how that city was overthrown? Don't get so high and mighty because the same is going to happen to you. That's the promise that's given here. You notice verse 11, thou also shalt be drunken. You find that in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, incidentally, that God's wrath is often compared to a cup of wine. The idea being that as the nations partake of this cup that then they start to stagger and stumble about because of the effects of God's fury against them. You have in verse 12 this analogy, all thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs. If they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. You have this idea of these ripe figs just falling off the trees and into the mouths of eaters. And what God says is ultimately all your fortifications, Nineveh, are gonna be just like this. You might think they're high and mighty. Ultimately, they're going to be overturned in very rapid fashion. Notice how the mighty of Nineveh are described, starting in verse 16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The canker worms spoileth and flyeth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers which camp in the hedges in the cold day. But when the sun ariseth, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust. Thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. And you see this imagery here. Leaders in business, leaders in commerce, leaders in political leadership, all of these people that once held onto great power, once the city is destroyed, they're going to be like locusts. They're all going to fly away and flee from the destruction. Verse 19 ends the book and summarizes this situation well, notice. There is no healing of thy bruise. Thy wound is grievous. All that hear the brute of thee shall clap the hands over thee, for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually. It's really a note of a round of applause. You have the nations of the world, they've all been afflicted by Assyria, and now they're rising, they're giving a standing ovation as Assyria finds itself suffering from an uncurable wound. Now, as we come to this book, we see all these very vivid prophecies. And you might ask the question, were these prophecies fulfilled? And the answer is yes. 612 BC, a coalition of Medes and Babylonians came into Nineveh and successfully conquered the Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian chronicles record that these armies were aided in their destruction of the city by the flooding of the Tigris River, exactly as prophesied in Nahum chapter two and verse six. The destruction of the city was so thorough that its ruins were not discovered again until 1842, many centuries later. Alexander the Great came to Nineveh and he didn't even realize that he was standing on the ruins of a once great city. The destruction was that complete. You know, God always keeps his word. And the question that confronts each one of us is this, will we make the Lord our refuge? Let me remind you of Nahum chapter one, verse seven. A good verse to memorize. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. Remember when I came to Christ in November of 1999, the big thing that was on the world stage at that time was Y2K. You all remember Y2K? And I remember people were stockpiling goods like crazy. They were preparing for this ultimate doomsday scenario. Of course, it ended up being nothing. But I remember at the time being completely terrified about Y2K. and maybe some of you were. That was a false alarm, but I can tell you that the world is headed for plenty of days of trouble. Currently reading a book by David Bodanus that is entitled Electric Universe, The Shocking True Story of Electricity. And you know, you probably caught the play on words there, shocking true story, right? All right. You obviously know he's a dad, right? A dad would only come up with something like that. But I found this fascinating. Introduction to the book. He describes what would happen if there was a total blackout in the city where he lived when he wrote the book, the city of London. He says this, quote, I live in London now, where people can be pretty phlegmatic, but I still wouldn't want to be around for a complete blackout. Most radios and TVs plug in these days, so it would be difficult to find out whether your kid's school was still open. Your cell phone might still operate, but with no way of recharging your battery, you'd be pretty careful about using it. Driving your kids to school on the off chance it was open would be too much of a gamble, for gas stations depend on underground storage tanks. And until the blackout ended, stations wouldn't be able to use their electrically operated pumps to bring up more fuel to sell to anyone in the city. You couldn't stock up on groceries, no credit cards working, nor could you get more cash. For ATMs depend on electrically run computers too. Within a week, the city would really have broken down. Police stations would be isolated with their phones not working. And pretty soon, their radio batteries would lose their charge as well. No one could call ambulances for their radios or phone links would be out too. A few people might try walking to hospitals, but there wouldn't be much there. No x-rays, no refrigerated vaccines, no refrigerated blood, no ventilation, no lighting. Going to the airport to try to escape wouldn't help, for with backup generators not working, the airport's radars would have shut down, nor could planes take off on manual control, for any fuel that remained in underground tanks couldn't be pumped up. As the blackouts spread, the nation's ports would have closed, with no electricity to run the cranes that run over their large containers, and no way to check electronic inventories. The military might try to guard fuel envoys, but with their own vehicles running low on fuel, that wouldn't last long. If the blackout was worldwide, isolation would intensify. The internet and all email would have gone down very quickly. Next, the phone lines. Finally, the last television and radio broadcasts would end. Starvation would probably begin in the dense cities of Asia, especially with no air conditioning and food warehouses. Within a few weeks of a complete blackout, almost all the world's cities and suburbs would be unlivable. There would be fighting, pretty desperate for food and fuel, and with a world population of six billion, few people would have a chance of surviving. Now that description is a bit dated. It comes from a book that was written in 2005. If anything, a total blackout in 2025 would be much worse than what Boudanis describes. Does that scare you? If you think about it, our whole existence in 21st century culture hangs on by a pretty small thread. It wouldn't take all that much to completely upend life all around the world. What is your refuge? in the time of Trump. Well, Brother Nick, I've got my nuclear fallout shelter. I've got enough canned goods to last for several years. I've got generators. I've got guns and ammo. That's all well and good. But far better is Deuteronomy 33 and verse 27. The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. And it doesn't matter what doomsday scenario you want to envision, a worldwide blackout, a nuclear war, some kind of war against the machines, maybe a war against AI, whatever it is, I am sheltered safe in the arms of God. You might hear all of this and you might think, ah, you know, that's nice, but how can we be comforted Brother Nick, when we think about God's judgment on the wicked, let me invite you to turn to Revelation, Revelation chapter 22. Sometimes when we see descriptions like what we have in Nahum, we might be tempted to think, okay, that's all Old Testament. And sometimes when we see those graphic descriptions of judgment in the Old Testament, our minds just kind of go off. We think, okay, I'm supposed to love my enemies, and so I'm just gonna kind of tune out and not pay attention to those. That would be a grave mistake. Because you find the same types of things in the New Testament. Look at Revelation 22 and verse 14. This is the very end of the book. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without, this is outside the city of the new Jerusalem, and the new earth that God will create. For without are dogs, Not literal dogs, this is of course an insulting term that Jews used against the Gentiles and now is being applied to notoriously wicked people. For without our dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie. Do you notice that this is a comfort for John's audience? We sometimes don't think of it that way, but it's interesting in Revelation 21 You have all these blessed descriptions that God is gonna wipe away all the tears from their eyes. There's gonna be no more death no more pain and Then you suddenly have verse 8 But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and whoremongers, and adulterers, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." To us, it seems like suddenly the train of thought has suddenly shifted. That you've got all this note of comfort and then you have this pronouncement of judgment. No, it's all intended to be comfort. Because what this points to, dear friends, is the fact that sin and all of its consequences, including death and disease and depression, all of it will be firmly defeated. The future that we have as the people of God is a future of glorious joy. Now, yes, we grieve when we think of the end of the unsaved. your unsaved neighbor, your unsaved loved one, continue to pray for that person. We do, we pray in these services regularly for the lost. Continue to pray as the Lord gives open doors, you take the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. But friend, ultimately we find comfort in the fact that righteousness will prevail. When you think of all the ungodly things taking place around the world, all the oppression, all the injustice, we can rejoice knowing that in the end, the wrong will fail, the right will prevail. God's justice, it's certain, it's effective, it's just. Let's comfort ourselves in those blessed realities. Father, thank you. For the book of Nahum, Lord, for causing us to encounter something that perhaps is a bit unusual, something that we're not used to thinking about, meditating on. But indeed, Lord, this book is precious. It is, Lord, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Lord, equip us for good works that you have for us through this wonderful book. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Okay, let's sing our final song, number 173, Channels Only, 173. Please stand.