Nahum – warning oppressors, comforting the oppressed
Nineveh was counting on its defences, its economy and its government to keep it safe. God says, “Think again!”
Read: Nahum 1:7 and 3: 14-17
You may remember how Obadiah prophesied against the false securities that Edom was relying upon – Nahum picks up a very similar theme here speaking to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
The Assyrians should have realised that no matter how strong your defences were, sooner or later someone would come along who could breach them. There was an example in their own recent history.
The city of Thebes was a powerful, well defended city in Egypt, thought to be pretty much impregnable. Yet in 663 BC the Assyrian army conquered the city.
Nahum ridicules the things that the Assyrians in Nineveh are relying on for security. No matter how strong their walls, how rich their merchants and how powerful their government, the city is doomed. In 612 BC the Babylonian army captured and destroyed Nineveh and took over the Assyrian empire completely by 605BC.
So, however tempting it may be to rely on economics or governments for our security and well-being, they can never be relied upon, however strong the temptation. What would our lives look like if we really believed that only God can be trusted for our future and our security, instead of putting our trust in the substitute security blankets?
What would happen to you if all support you receive from the government was removed and the economy was struggling. Would you be able to trust fully in God to look after you as he promises?
God promises that one day there will be a new leader who will rescue his people and build a new kingdom across the whole world.
Read Micah 2: 12-13 and 4: 1-4
When I read chapter 4: 4 of Micah I was reminded of a song from a musical!
The musical in question is “Hamilton”, and the song is “One last time”, sung by George Washington as he contemplates stepping down as president after everything that has been achieved:
“Like the scripture says: “Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree And no one shall make them afraid.” (Afraid) They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made (In the nation we’ve made)”
Just as Washington reflects on the infant USA, with all his hopes and dreams for something better than what went before…a land of freedom and security for its people, so Micah suddenly interjects some really hopeful stuff into his narrative of judgement.
By now we have grown accustomed to the normal pattern of the prophecies of the minor prophets…chapters and chapters of judgements. with just a glimmer of hope thrown in at the end (or in the case of Nahum, no hope at all!)
Micah kicks things off in chapter 2 with the image of a new leader who will lead the people from exile into their own land.
But the land is not like the old land, it’s a better place, a place where Jerusalem, the symbol of God’s presence on the earth will become the leading place in all the world.
Because of God’s presence being so clearly seen there, Micah paints a picture of:
People streaming to see God
People wanting to live God’s way
Nations living at peace with each other
Although in the short term the Jews have experience exile, return and rebuilding the nation it’s clear that we’re not there yet! The kind of new nation that Micah envisages is not yet obviously in existence.
In the writings of the prophets up to this time the Messiah has been a shadowy figure, from this point on he takes a more prominent place in the writings of the prophets. The early church saw the life, death and resurrection of Jesus foretold in many of the prophets. After Jesus ascension it very quickly realised that it was metaphorically the “new Jerusalem” which would draw all people to God. As they carried the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth they remembered what Jesus had said in Matthew 5: 14 – “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.”
It wasn’t the Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 60AD) to which all the nations would be drawn, but to the living church of Jesus wherever it went in the world carrying the Kingdom of God with it, culminating in the scene in Revelation 21: 2 where God’s presence comes down to earth like a holy city, the new Jerusalem.
This is a prophecy about enlarging God’s kingdom…from just the Jews to displaying God’s love for the whole world, just as God had promised to Abraham so many years before…”all the families on earth will be blessed through you”.
What sort of person do I need to be model “the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden”? Am I more like Jesus now than I was when I first followed him?
Jonah is not happy. Against all his preconceptions of who God loves and the way God works, God has forgiven the repentant Ninevites. His whole brittle spirituality begins to crack and shatter.
Read: Jonah 3: 10 to 4:1 and 4: 9-11
who do we most resemble, Jonah or Jesus?
Jonah has tantrums when he doesn’t get his own way, he demonstrates a deep poverty of spirit and personifies the utter repulsiveness of graceless religion
God, on the other hand, is infinitely loving, unfailingly patient, extravagantly generous and constantly forgiving.
If we fail to resemble Jesus, God come to earth to show us God’s love and grace, people will not get a true picture of what God is really like…no wonder sometimes they reject him.
The book of Jonah ends with a question.
God says: “Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?””
We do not know how Jonah responded.
If God asked you a similar question, relevant to people and places in your life how would you respond? When was the last time you felt the way God feels about the people who don’t know him in the place where you live and work? Ask him to show you his heart for them, and be prepared to respond, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Pilgrim Traveller 