And guess what they found there? The remains of Nineveh. The largest, vastest city in the world in that day disappeared off the face of the earth. And now the only thing that is left is what people go dig up to go find there because it all was crushed and burn the pieces. And that's what God says is coming for the entire world. And everything in it that is not of Him is gonna be crushed and burned up and done away with. That's why we had that one seven, that the Lord is what? Good. And He is a stronghold for those that what? Trust Him, amen? That trust Him. So what you're reading about men of Assyria, is so fundamental for what we do in an everyday life of reminding people that look, Jesus has paid the way for us. Jesus has taken our judgment. And man, we've got to give our life to him and put our trust in him because without him, we are in no better shape than Nineveh in that day. Destruction is coming and the Lord's done dug our grave. And he says, behold, I'm what? Against you, amen. That's why you hear me say turns, when Jesus saves us, what does he do? He salvages us. He makes us safe with him and then makes us safe to go to work for him. Because without that, we're not safe with him. Behold, I am against thee, he says. But praise God, Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, he came to what? Save an already condemned world. So therefore, man, we wanna help people see their need for him, amen? All right, let's get in it. We'll run out of daylight shortly. It will go by fast. So we are in the book of Nahum. We will wrap that up, what, today? And then be in Habakkuk tomorrow and Friday and Saturday, and then we'll kick off a new month, if I'm not mistaken. on Sunday but does anybody have anything any questions anything you want to give away anything that stood out to you as you was reading now it don't have to be a Nahum y'all know that but it could be from anywhere we've been in all these prophets and they'll kind of start running together if you're not careful with it they will run over into one another and you'll start putting this one with that one and all, but I've enjoyed reading them. They've been a blessing to me. I've enjoyed spending the time. One seven is a great word, isn't it? One seven in the midst of it all. That is something that you want to remember and keep in mind. All of it you want to keep in mind because they all tie to several things, but yeah, I put a little paraphrase together on that verse. Of course, I'm gonna read it out of the New King James says, the Lord is good and all God's people said. And because he's good, what have we said? You gotta remember, what does verse three say? The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. Why? Because he's good. That's why. He's good. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. You know a couple Sundays ago while we were reading through Joel and Joel 3.16 it said something very similar and we looked at Joel 3.16, we looked at Isaiah 3.10, we looked at Jeremiah 16, and we looked at Nahum. We looked at these verses in the midst of all that was being said about what God was doing and going to do In every one of those hard messages, God planted a seed of hope in the midst of it and says that I know those who trust me. I will be their strength. I will be their shield. I will be their stronghold. and that it will be well with them. And that's the message that when you accumulate those verses together in Jeremiah's prophecy, in Isaiah's prophecy, in Joel's prophecy, in Nahum's prophecy, which is extremely hard of what was to come, in every one of those, he says, for those that trust me, it be well with them. He refers to them in Isaiah as the righteous. He refers to them in here as those who are believers, who are trusting me. Talking about the same group of people in different ages and different times, now they can be the same because some of these prophets overlap one another, but the message is applicable today. You trust the Lord, you're righteous. When you're righteous, you know that in spite of what's coming, it'll be well with you. He says, even in days of famine, though you have to suffer along with everybody else, it still be well with you in the midst of that. And this is one of those that you want to keep in mind. Why? Because this word, though it was a word about Nineveh, Assyria, the word goes way beyond that, as well as who was he proclaiming this word to? He was proclaiming it to His people. You see that as you walk through it. Even though He's speaking of what's to come, the horror that's about to fall, Assyria, He is telling His people that they will afflict you no longer. Their day is coming to an end. So the message is to Judah, His people that trust Him. that they can put confidence in the Lord. That's what it all boils down to. Now there's other places. That's why when we read these things and you take and couple what God has said in other places, everything you've read thus far in Nahum, he tells us over in the book of Isaiah, what happens to Assyria, Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, the nation. The nation was the most powerful group of people in the world at the time. They have ransacked the northern 10 tribes. They have overthrown portions and most of Egypt was their vassals. And one thing they learned in their conquering these places, they had a philosophy when you read on it, They had a philosophy that it was too expensive for them to raise up or send their own leaders into nations. They would just take a leader from that nation and make them serve their purposes there. They became what you would call a vassal king, that they would use a king and a land that was already there established, but they would beat him into submission and he would have to do life their way. And they just utilized people that way and they conquered the whole world at that time. The Babylonians was under their authority. The Judah Israel was under their thought, they done wiped out the northern 10 tribes. Egypt, all these other nations around there belong to them. They were in control and they felt like they were untouchable. that they could not be conquered, that they couldn't be penetrated because they had built a vast city. They had built walls around that city. It sat along the Tigris River and their walls were so big you could run three chariots side by side on them. And they would race chariots on their walls. That's how vast of a kingdom that it was. Remember Jonah went to them a hundred plus years before. And what did it say? The city was so big it take him three days to walk across it. Three whole days to walk across Nineveh to proclaim. It was vast, wealthy, humongous, warriors after warriors. And that's what Nahum is saying. Your generals is like grasshoppers that invade a land. You've got so many of them. Your commanders are like multitudes of grasshoppers. If you was to survey right now the American military, the United States Army and Air Force and Marines and Navy and Coast Guard and now the Space Command, a new division of the military that's dealing with out in the solar area, they, as big as they are, they don't have thousands upon thousands of generals. They just don't have them. But in Nineveh, the Assyrian Empire had multitudes of thousands of generals and commanders. They were humongous. So they're thinking, who in the world can stop us? Nobody can stop us. Well, God says that you can go ahead and count your end because I've already dug your grave. You're over, you're done. And matter of fact, when the Babylonians who belonged to them, see the Babylonians was a kingdom south of them in pretty much the same area, just another group of people, but from a very same, you got Iraq, Then you had the Medes, the Iranians, and then you had the Chaldeans. All these were in the Mesopotamian area, and lower Iraq, Babylon, upper Iraqi area was Assyria, Nineveh. And you had the Medes, and the Medes, the Iranians, were a group of people, when you read about them, they were dangerous. And when I say dangerous, they were ruthless people to the point that even the Babylonians who were ruthless in what they were doing were appalled at some of the practices they would do when they would go in and fight. And I picked up something and looked it up today. I'll read it to you. This was in 614 BC. This happened around 612 BC. Nahum gives this prophecy and within 35 to 40 years, it came to pass. So there was a 35 to 40 year period, the Medes and the Babylonians. You got to keep in mind, these were kingdoms that the Assyrian empire ruled. but within those kingdoms they rose up and began to organize and go up and fight against. They would have never in a million years thought the Babylonians could have overthrown them. A little bitty group of people who hardly had anything who were under their strong arm is the ones that God raised up, brought in, and overthrew them. Why? Because when God is against you, which he says twice in here, behold, I am what? Against you. When God's against you, nobody in the world can be for you. Nobody, and that's what he says. Call all the people. See if any of them's gonna come help you. Nobody's coming to help you. You are a sitting duck. You're gonna die. You're not gonna make it. But he gave them time. to get things together for that. The brutality of the Medes was so excessive that it shocked the Babylonians. That Nabopolassar, that would be the king of the Babylonians, that would be a Nebuchadnezzar, you know that name? Nebuchadnezzar's daddy was Nabopolassar. He's the Babylonian king who overthrew Nineveh because it was so extensive and so brutal that they claimed it was an act of God upon it so that nobody would think so terrible of them in how they overthrew and destroyed these people. But you see, it was divine intervention. It was a move of God upon them, and it was from God, but there's things that we've gotta pick up on through it all, is that as he says here, if God be against you, who in the world can be? But when God's for you, who can be against you, right? But when you read about And I know y'all read this and it was pretty ugly what he said was gonna happen. And this vivid vision that Nahum had, I mean, he tells them, man, I see them. He tells them what color uniforms they're gonna be wearing. They would have never imagined that. They couldn't see it happening. It was as if there's no way that could happen to us. But Nabopolassar and his men and their mighty shields, that's what he says in chapter two, look in two, three. The shields of his mighty men are made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. That was the color of their uniforms. The chariots come with flaming torches. in the day of his preparation. And remember Sunday we talked about those chariots, right? God's people were never to involve or have or put their confidence in horses and chariots, even though, now think about this, God can use chariots whenever he wants to, but his people couldn't. Remember when that prophet, when the Syrian army come looking for him, and that prophet Elisha was in the city of Dothan, And they went out that morning and the whole army was surrounding the city. And he asked God to open the eyes of the servant. And when he did, he looked up in the mountains and what did he see? He seen chariots of fire, but it was angels that he saw. You see, God can use in his angels of chariots and fire. God can do what he wants when he wants. But for us, he knows what's best for us because if we use something we wasn't supposed to use, what we're gonna do is put confidence in it and not in him. But he'll use other armies to use their chariots as he did with the Babylonians. Verse four, the chariots rage in the streets, they jostle one another in the broad roads, they seem like torches, they run like lightning. Verse eight, though none of old was like a pool of water. Think about a pool of water. When you think about a pool of water, what do you think of? Let's try to visualize this for a moment. A pool of water. If you see, if you have a pool of water out there, first thing I think of, it's something that's undisturbed. It's just, it's a pool of water that is casting a good reflection. Something you can walk up and get a drink off of. Something to, it's undisturbed, it's refreshing. It gives life to those who are being supplied by it. That's the idea. That's how Nineveh was. They was undisturbed at the time. Nobody a threat to them. But now they what? They flee away. They holler and halt, halt, they cry. Meaning don't run, don't leave us. But no one what? Nobody turns back. This is verse eight. But none of them turned back. Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold. There is no end of treasure or wealth. of every desirable prize. She is empty, desolate, and waste. The heart melts and the knees shake, much pain in every side, and all their faces are pale with their color drained from them." Then he says, where's the dwelling of the lions? Why? Because Osiris, quote, unquote, mascot was the lion. They prowled like a lion and nobody could stop them. And the feeding place of the young lions, where the lions walked and the lioness and the lion's club and no man, no one made them afraid. The lion tore in pieces enough for his cub, killed for his lioness, filled his cage with prey and his dens with flesh. That is what Assyria has been doing for years. But then the Lord says in verse 13, behold, I am what? I'm against you, says the Lord. I will burn your chariots in smoke and the sword shall devour your young lines. I will cut off your prey from the earth and the voice of your messenger shall be heard no more. Woe to the bloody city. It is full of lies and robbery. Its victims never depart. The noise of whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of clattering chariots, horsemen charged with bright sword and glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, a great number of bodies, countless corpse. They stumble over the corpse, they everywhere. Because of the multitude of her harlotries, of the seductive harlot, the mistress of her sorceries, who sells nations through her harlotries and families through her sorceries. Now what they've been sowing, they are gonna reap. The disaster they brought to everybody now is coming to their door. The plundering, will now be plundered. Behold, I am against you, says the Lord. And then he gives them an illustration. For an example, look in verse number eight. Are you better than no Ammon? Or you can say what that place is. The place is Thebes. It's in Egypt. And just 15 years prior to this, the Assyrians overthrew Thebes. And Thebes was a fortified place that had the Nile River as a protection for it. And it was the capital of the upper region of Egypt. And they waltzed in and overthrew it like it wasn't nothing. So he's reminding them that you remember how nobody could conquer Thebes, but y'all did? And how you thought it was such an easy prey? Well, that's how you're gonna be. But you're thinking you can't be ransacked, but you will be. So he's just letting them know that no different than what you've done to these other places, this is what's about to happen to you. And you have no control over it. It's out of your control. The best thing you can do in the midst of it is what? Turn your eyes upon the Lord, amen? Because think about Nineveh. Remember 100 something years before, Jonah preached to them and what did they do? They repent it, they repent it. Now, here's a couple things you wanna think about. You gotta ask, well, who's the king of Judah at this time? He's not mentioned here. He's not brought the light in this, though God reminds them that this Assyrian is not gonna bother you no more. See, Assyria at the time had been threatening them. They'd been coming down. They'd been doing all they've been doing. They put sieges on them. They'd done all this stuff. Remember in Hezekiah's day and Isaiah's day, that Sennacherib and these others, they just was one problem after another for Judah, but God wouldn't let them overthrow Jerusalem. God kept protecting them. Remember that 185,000 that died in one night? That was around the Assyrian Empire. That was with their army. Sennacherib's gonna go home and he's gonna die, but another king's gonna take his place, and then you're gonna see all these things happening. But there was a king who was in charge after Hezekiah, Hezekiah's son. Anybody remember his name? Manasseh was the king. Manasseh reigned for 55 years and Manasseh was wicked. He was a wicked king, done wicked things, done terrible things. He done exactly what God told his people not to do. He incorporated everything about the land of the Amorites and the Hivites and the Canaanites, and he put all that into practice in the promised land. And remember what we looked at Sunday morning, Leviticus 18, where God says, you can't do what you did when you was in Egypt, and you can't do what the land is doing. I'm gonna give you a new way to live, my way. We see Manasseh, when his daddy died, Hezekiah, at 12 years old, he took over. and he was this ugly, ruthless king who lived and reigned for 55 years. Now, here's the other thing. In the last few years of his life, Manasseh got his heart right with God. He repented, and God blessed him in his repentance. Now, the problem is he'd done so horribly bad that when the Babylonians eventually come in and overthrow Jerusalem, Jeremiah 15 in verse number four says it was because of the sins of Manasseh. Even though Manasseh got right with God, he got right with the Lord. Here's a man doing the right thing now, but see, the effect of his life done carried over into the influence of the people. And the people who took upon his identity, even though he got right, they didn't get right. and they followed his lead into trouble. And because of his actions, horrible things happened to Jerusalem. That's in Jeremiah 15, four. See, but in the midst of all that, there's so many things that tie into it. Let's think about Hezekiah for an example. Hezekiah was a king who did many good things. That's his Manasseh's daddy. Many good things. A lot of good things. God delivered him. Isaiah was the prophet. God blessed. You could read about this. I believe it's gonna be in 2 Chronicles like 31, 30, 32. You can find it in 2 Kings 20, 21, in those general areas. You could also see it in Isaiah 37, 38, and 39. But when you study about their journey and their life, you gotta remember all this was going on when this was prophetically spoken about what was gonna happen in Nineveh. Hezekiah sought the Lord on behalf of the people. Isaiah prophesied and we seen 185,000 soldiers dying one night. But the scripture says that Hezekiah got sick. Y'all remember he had a problem. And God told the prophet Isaiah, go to him and tell him to get his affairs in order, cause he's gonna die. Well, when he went and told him that, spoke to him, the scripture says, King Hezekiah turned away from Isaiah and he turned toward the wall and he cried out to the Lord, humbled himself before God and said, God, would you grant me, I've walked with you, I've talked with you, I've done what you asked me to do. And the scripture says that Isaiah left the presence of the kingdom before he got out of the courtyard, the Lord spoke to him and said, go back. He walks back into the room where the King's at. And he tells him that the Lord told me to tell you, he's given you 15 more years, 15 more years. He said, this is what you need to do. They took some paste from figs and they put it on a ball that he had. He had a bad ball. That's what was gonna kill him. It was infected. Well, they did what they needed to do in the scriptures in both in Chronicles and Kings. And this is only brought to light in Chronicles. Chronicles highlights the heart of what was going on. Kings is just gonna give us some acts that took place, but Chronicles is gonna tell us what they were thinking and why they were doing what they were doing. And this is what it says. Gotta remember, his son Manasseh took over when he was 12. So that tells me that Manasseh wasn't born when God delivered him from the ailment. He gave him 15 years. So in the third year of that, Manasseh was born. And he's the son that's gonna take over. But the scripture tells us in 2 Chronicles, and I think it's 32, if I'm not mistaken, that Hezekiah displeased the Lord and did not show himself favorable to God because of the great deliverance that God showed him. And Hezekiah started building, he had great wealth, he had built a great empire and great wealth and God was displeased with him because he did not in return walk with a grateful humble heart in God's deliverance. And he's the king, if y'all remember this, remember because the Assyrians were still in control and the Babylonians was under the Assyrian authority. The Babylonians heard about him being sick and heard about his success. And as the Psalms would tell us that when you're successful, men will praise you. So they sent a delegation ambassadors over to Hezekiah and brought him gifts because of him being sick and wanted to look at how he built his kingdom. And the Bible says Hezekiah opened his doors to him. And he showed him everything that he had, showed him, and this is how the scriptures describe it, showed him his treasuries. his palaces, all that was his, his, and he keeps using that, his stuff, his things, all this was his, his, his, and he's not giving credit unto the Lord. Isaiah comes to him and said, who was those people that come to see you? He said, oh, those were the Babylonians, they wanted to come and see about our kingdom and how we had such great success. He said, well, what'd you show them? He said, I showed them everything. And he said, oh, King, everything you showed them is gonna be taken away from you. Everything. Everything. Everything. Not only what you've accumulated, but what all your fathers have accumulated. the Babylonians are gonna come and they're gonna take it all away. And not only that, they're gonna take your future grandsons and your sons away. And you know what Hezekiah said? Y'all remember what he said? He told Isaiah, well, that's a good thing if God decides to do that, but it's not gonna happen while I'm living, so I'm okay with it. Now think about it. When you think about that kind of spirit, he's raised a little boy who's watched that for 12 years. And now this little boy gets a chance to rule the kingdom. And now this little boy is going to be ruthless. He's going to go a whole other way. and he's gonna carry that on. Now this little boy, after many years, now his father started out right and went bad. This little boy's gonna start out bad, but he's gonna turn and get things right in the end. But you see, the damage that was done carried over and carried over and carried over. Man, that's important for us to recognize, right? So this is all that's going on right now. This is all that's happening with Judah while he's telling Nineveh what's coming for them. But you see the same thing's about to come to Judah too. It's coming. These Babylonians that's gonna overthrow that Northern, that Assyrian empire, guess what? They're gonna march across that Arabian desert. And you know who they coming for? They coming for Judah. and they're gonna take them away too. Now, before we go tonight, look over in Isaiah 14. Let me show you this, Isaiah 14. Before we read 14, look in 13. Notice these thoughts. At this point, the Babylonians aren't even really saying of any significance. When those men came over and talked with Hezekiah, they were under the authority of Assyria. They were just a group of people who wanted to expand what they had. And they most likely, there's a good chance they wanted to do it to impress the Assyrians. So they tried to go learn what they could from a man that seemed to do pretty good. That's all it was. They was going to get business advice. Verse one of chapter 13, notice this message. The burden against who? Babylon, which Isaiah saw. It says, lift up a banner on this high mountain, raise your voice to them, wave your hand that they may enter the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, those who rejoice in my exaltation. Verse two, excuse me, verse four. The noise of the multitude in the mountains, like that of many peoples, a tumultuous noise of kingdoms, of nations gathered together, the Lord of hosts musters the army for battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, the Lord and his weapons of indignation to destroy what? The whole land. Now just jump over to verse number 11. Verse 11 says what? God says, it's 13, 11. I will punish, who? The world for its, and the wicked for their what? Iniquity. Now remember, that's what he said to Nineveh, right? That he will not acquit the wicked. You gotta be what? Righteous. Look in 14. And look in 24. Yeah, 1424. There's a lot more to all these things. I'm just gonna, you'll see what I'm talking about in a moment. 1424, Isaiah 1424. The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely, as I have thought, that is God saying, as I have thought, so it shall what? come to pass, 1424. Surely as of our thoughts, so it shall come to pass, as I, God, have purpose, so it shall what? Stand, that's simply saying what God thinks, what God purposes is gonna happen. That I, God, will break the what? Assyrian in my land and on my mountains, tread him underfoot, then his yoke shall be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulders. That's exactly what we see in Nahum. You can tell Judah he's not coming back anymore. But verse 26, this is the purpose that is purposed against what? The whole earth. And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations for the Lord of hosts has purposed and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out and who will what? Turn it back. So the message to Assyria, Nineveh that you see in Nahum and its destruction, that's God's message for the entire world. What's happening to them is what's gonna happen to the entire world that is not right with him. That's the point. Well, when the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, they burned it and tore it completely down. That three-day journey of a city with its great walls and everything it has, demolished it. And you know people didn't even know that it was even there. They didn't know where it was at. Today in Iraq, you know the place, I think it's how they say that word, Mosul, on the west side of the Tigris River, Mosul, well none of us sat on the other side of that river, but they didn't know it. It wasn't until the 1840s, that an archeologist digging on that other side came across a burial, a place, and began to unearth it. Guess what they found there? The remains of Nineveh. The largest, vastest city in the world in that day disappeared off the face of the earth. And now, The only thing that is left is what people go dig up to go find there. Because it all was crushed and burned to pieces. And that's what God says is coming for the entire world. And everything in it that is not of him is gonna be crushed and burned up and done away with. That's why we had that one seven. That the Lord is what? Good. And He is a stronghold for those that what? Trust Him, amen, that trust Him. So what you're reading in Nineveh right now, about Nineveh, Syria, is so fundamental for what we do in an everyday life of reminding people that look, Jesus has paid the way for us. Jesus has taken our judgment. And man, we've got to give our life to Him and put our trust in Him because without Him, we are in no better shape. than Nineveh in that day. Destruction is coming and the Lord's done dug our grave. And he says, behold, I'm what? Against you, amen. That's why you hear me say turns when Jesus saves us, what does he do? He salvages us. He makes us safe with him and then makes us safe to go to work for him. Because without that, we're not safe with him. Behold, I'm against thee, he says. But praise God, Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, he came to what? Save an already condemned world. So therefore, man, we wanna help people see their need for him, amen? Anybody have a question or anything before we go tonight? We'll pray for you, Carolyn, we will. Come on up here, let's pray. Father, we love you, we thank you. Thank you for making us new creations in Christ Jesus. Thank you for your grace and your mercy and your kindness. We pray over Carolyn that you'll help her tonight and tomorrow as she goes to school, that you'll bless her time, that you'll be with each of us. Use us, thank you for the praise reports tonight. Thank you for your mercies, your goodness, and thank you that we can put our trust in you and that we can say in here today that we know because of Jesus that you're for us. That's a given. And if you are for us, what in the world could ever be against us? So Lord, we just bless you. Thank you for your kindness. Help us with these truths. Help us go forth and help others recognize and realize that you've laid the answer upon your son. And I pray he is our answer tonight and that we help other people see the need to turn their affections upon him. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Love y'all. Y'all have a good night.