Introduction: Our first sermon in Nahum began with a big picture view of God’s character, explaining how God’s intense love for his people combined with holy justicemeans that sin will be punished. So in broad brushstrokes, Nahum wants you personally to believe, I need a refuge because sin will be punished, and provide comfort for the oppressed. God is jealous, avenging his people who are hurt by sin…
The second sermon, covering verses 8-15 tells us that sin is chaotic and entangling having inherent consequences. These consequences can cause problems on both a national scale and on an individual scale.
Third, today In Nahum chapter 2 verses 1-13 we learn that the result for nations and individuals, due to sin, is just sad. It’s awful.
We’ll see the consequences of Assyria’s sin coming from not just the judgement seat of the Lord but through the means of the Babylonian Empire. Themselves, though not as wicked as Assyria, still a brutal Empire. So we have some not good people being used as an instrument against other not good people, producing an ugly situation. But one that ultimately brings about judgement on evil and deliverance for those who take refuge in the Lord. God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.
This principle holds true for Jesus and the gospel…so that when you go to the cross, Jesus is experiencing the ugly consequences of sin, Pilate, the false trial, the soldiers mocking and beating him it’s ugly because the people crucifying him are themselves personally evil, and we will see that with Assyria as a city falls over the next two weeks.
Read Nahum 2:1-13 (begin and end with v. 13)
#1 vv 1-6 The Falling City
#2 vv. 7-9 The Plundered City
#3 vv. 10-12 The Predator Removed
#4 vv. 13 Why? Because God was against them.
#1 Vv. 1-6 The Falling City
[1] The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle (gird your loins); collect all your strength. [2] For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.
· ILL: Gandalf racing on horseback through Gondor, shouting, “prepare for Battle!” And you look out over Pellenor field and see the orc hordes….The Second and terrifying thing is God is telling Assyria to prepare for head to head battle…yes with Babylon but ultimately, this is like Moses looking Pharoah in the Eye saying get all the magicians…Be as prepared as you can in your own human strength. God’s mighty hand is about to Restore the freedom of the Israelites from Egyptian Bondage….Watch Prince of Egypt if you want to see this put to great music.
· Prepare for Battle. Man the walls and What do you see? The Red Babylonian Army. Read v. 3.
· “The Red Babylonian army led by King Nabopolassar. Who seems to be “the scatterer.”
· According to our text, Two different people. Two different agents are acting simultaneously against Ninevah in real time.
o The red Babylonian army is there…What do they want? They are conquerors. They are removing a rival empire. They want to plunder and loot the city.
o Yet God is sovereign. His providence governs all events in history. He has a purpose.
o To understand this event which is filled with bloodshed, death, Wickedness and yet in the midst of it all Deliverance for Judah…
o We must remember two other events that show this same dynamic.
· First, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and the Lord used it…actually the Lord decreed it in order to provide food and grain to preserve the Abrahamic Line, the Covenant people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in his old Age.
· Second, the Crucifixion of Jesus.
§ Genesis 50:15–21 [15] When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” [Who did it. They did it? Why because they desired to, they acted in creaturely freedom to do what they wanted. What they wanted was evil. And they did the evil of selling their brother into slavery….][16] So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: [17] ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. [18] His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” [19] But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? [I am not the Lord of History. God is clearly at work saving us.] [20] As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. [21] So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (ESV)
· So men of selfish desires acted wickedly. God used, ordained, the events to ultimately bring about a deliverance.
· Joseph’s brother crooked sticks. The Lord’s draws the straight line of deliverance and refuge for Jacob’s tiny band that is fledgling Israel being Guarded as they leave the nest to grow into a nation in Egypt…God preserves the stepping stones of history from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Exile, and return, all the way to the Cross of Jesus Christ. God must be sovereign over history. And so we see this same story unfold in Nahum 2.
o In our account today.
§ Assyria is wicked and is a lion killing and devouring prey – in this case frequently JUDAH.
§ God desires to deliver Judah from this wickedness.
§ But the third group Babylon. They aren’t a righteous army of Knights freeing the Judeans…No they are also a wicked conquering army.
§ They are a crooked stick, the straight line of justice however will be drawn by God using crooked Babylon.
· You are invited by Nahim to recoil at the crooked stick, and yet celebrate the refuge and freedom that is produced in God’s sovereign providence. Justice even with a straight stick is at times violent. Warfare is bloody. Nahum desires in his writing for us to recoil at the brutality and the distress of siege warfare to men, women, and children. (Even more intensely in Nahum 3).
o So, the Genesis 37-50 account of Joseph and his brothers is a good example, but a far greater example is the crucifixion of Jesus himself. The greatest act of evil in the history of the world. PURE INJUSTICE against a PURELY innocent and righteous sufferer.
o Bringing about God’s plan, God’s desired salvation.
o Satan is truly throwing all his darkness, wickedness, and evil at God. The soldiers are brutal and beat and mock Jesus, the pretend crown of thorns, the purple robes and being spit upon, being paraded through the streets, questioned repeatedly under false pretense (the Sanhedrin) or under cowardice (Pilate) not acting according to the truth. Acts 2:22-28 describe these events this way.
· Acts 2:22–25 [22] “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—[23] this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, // you [you!] crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. [24] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it… [and the same crucifixion described in Acts 4].
· Acts 4:24–31 describes The disciples praying together, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, [25] who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? [26] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
[27] for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, [They gathered they freely came together to crucify Christ but in the same breathe verse 28 says, [28] to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. [And they ask for boldness to keep preaching the gospel and they are filled with the Holy Spirit to continue to spread the gospel.]
· God has a redemptive plan as the Sovereign Lord of history to save, to deliver Judah. He is good, a refuge in the day of trouble, and he knows those who are his.
· Judah needs to be delivered from Assyria.
· Assyria is under a just judgement and the wrath of God. He is avenging his covenant people. The bride of Christ.
· The Red Army of the Babylonians are on the move with their own set of motivations and desires.
o This events shows both God’s sovereign decree in history, and human responsibility (what the Babylonian army desires and does)
o The ultimate divine perspective and the human level of secondary causes. Sovereign personal reigning, but not impersonal fatalism.
· Assyrian will fall it will happen in this case not by purely miraculous direct supernatural means but through the true acts of the Babylonians, through “The Red Babylonian lead by King Nabopolassar, the scatterer. Look in verses 3-5 again.
[3] The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal [These are like battle tanks, Abrams tanks are rolling in.] on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.
[4] The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
Everything is confusing….the red army has breached a set of defenses the chariots are rushing about…Its warfare…its mad rushing about.
[5] He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.
Assyria is falling faster than expected…History tells us they had won a small victory; the Assyrians are drunk with celebrations and so the Chariots have pushed farther and faster than expected. The officers rush to catch up with the main army and to breach the next set of defense with siege equipment.
[6] The river gates are opened; the palace melts away;
The river floods, the city falls, and the palace of mud bricks is melting away under the mighty waters. Who knows how metaphorical this is or literal.
The king’s palace. Its fallen. The government. The leadership. The city is done for.
Nahum said, at your strongest you will fall.
The siege of a city can be brutal. This siege was a brief siege relatively. So, we do not hear of the horrors of one like Jerusalem in A.D. 70 with starvation.
But throughout history, foreign plundering armies have been brutal. Filled with evil and suffering. This is no different as men flee
#2 Vv. 7-9 The City is Plundered
[7] its mistress is stripped; [That is Ninevah personified as a woman] she is carried off, The City, Ninevah is stripped of resources, beauty, cultural artifacts, everything looted. her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
There is crying out and distress from the city falling. It’s awful. The Babylonian army is like every other conquering army throughout history. The Assyrians have lost and the Babylonian army spread through the city pillaging.
Verse 8-9 Shows two things. The population of the city flees. They are running to the hills they are running to the next great Assyrian city. Like a pool of water fading away…The army begins to dessert…. [8] Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!” they cry, but none turns back.
Men flee from military formations and begin to run to their homes to get their family out of the city.
Perhaps this is the Lord’s influence. The Lord has melted the courage in their hearts. Perhaps this is because of the river flooding. Perhaps the Lord used the river flooding to melt the hearts of the Ninevites. Look in verse 9.
[9] Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.
#3 vv. 10-12 The Predator Removed
[10] Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!
The city that once had conquered and plundered. Is not plundered itself. John Mackay points out the poetry in the Hebrew which we tried to echo in english. Desolate. Desolation. And Ruin. Pillaged, Plundered, and Stripped!
· The Assyrian Pagan temples are filled with gold some of which stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. Pillaged.
· All the heavy taxes demanded through the years of Israel and Judah hauled away. Not given back
· Remember, though the Lord is working through the crooked stick of Babylonian. They do not care about Judea…But nevertheless, the Lion of Assyria has been slain. Jacob, Israel is no longer their prey.
Verses 11-12 tells us the metaphor of Lion’s and their dens. The Assyrians liked Lion imagery, their young men, their soldiers were proud of their strength, and they knew they were the Apex predator. Everyone around them was prey. All they killed, they would bring back to the den, to the city, and give it to their own citizens.
[11] Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? [12] The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
· But no more! No more! Babylon has Conquered, Assyria is Fallen. Judah is free.
· If they will stay free of Idols. And turn and follow the Lord. Lest they too bring upon their own head the curses of the covenant.
· Nahum 2 is a gripping telling by Nahum of the Fall of the city.
· Remember a few things
o First, Nahum is prophesying this. It has not happened yet. But historical Babylonian records show that it happened just as he said.
o Second, This is meant to comfort Judah. And I think it does two things. Its gives HOPE. Hope that one day the Assyrians will no longer oppress and plunder them.
o But Third, it is also gives a warning. Judah – God’s people – will you be no different than Assyria, are you taking refuge in the Lord? Will you as chapter 1 says, will you keep your covenant vows? Will you worship God and God alone? Will you act Justly to the poor and the weak? Will the Lord be your refuge where he knows you by name. And you are UNDER the blood of the covenant, where you are made clean in the temple, and your sins are atoned for.
· OR will you be a lion dragging your prey into your den like Ninevah does? Judah will you follow idols, will you worship Baal, will you sacrifice your children to Molech, will you be like wicked King Manasseh or wicked King Amon, or will you one day be like good King Josiah…
Look at verse 13.
#4 vv. 13 Why? Did Ninevah ultimately fall?: Because God was against them. Because God was against them, they are a predator with prey no more.
[13] Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. (ESV)
God was Against Ninevah. That is why they will Fall. That is why he used Babylon to remove them as a lion preying on the nations.
There messengers can no longer threaten, insult, levy taxes, and put pressure towards idolatry upon Judah.
Remember the progression of Nahum there is
· First, the warning that sin will be punished.
· Second the warning that, sin is chaotic and entangling and has inherent consequences
· Third, now Nahum 2 is saying the results for the sinful nation and unrepentant sinner is sadness and destruction. But in grace God’s word comes as a call to repentance for Judah
What about you JUDAH. But what about you hearing this today? Is God for you or against you?
When Judah is hearing Nahum’s prophecy, Judah is spiritually compromised, and the king is most likely Manasseh (or possibly the very early years of Amon).
Remember King Manasseh reigns in the middle of the 600s BC a few decades before Assyria falls.
Most likely Nahum prophesied during the reign of Manasseh, before Nineveh’s fall in 612 BC but after Assyria’s dominance was unquestioned.
if I were to ask, “name a wicked king of Judah.” Manasseh’s name is THE go to answer.
Manasseh led Judah’s into Deeply Corruption and Idolatry
Under Manasseh, Judah is at its lowest spiritual point since entering the land. Read. 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 description under Manasseh.
* Baal worship was restored; Pagan Altars are inside the temple itself; There is Molech Child sacrifice; Occult practices (fortune-telling, mediums)
* 2 Ki 21:9 says, “Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.”
This matters enormously for understanding Nahum. Because he is appealing to the remnant of Israel to turn back Nahum 1:15
[15] Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (ESV)
* Judah has not been keeping her vows
* Judah has copied Assyria’s gods
* Judah is choosing worthless things over the LORD
So Nahum Wants his readers to remember this:
· “Your enemy will fall, but do not think you are righteous.”
· Assyria’s judgment is not Judah’s vindication; it is God’s patience.
Even in this darkness A faithful remnant still exists. The Scriptures are not gone, the grandson of Manasseh, Josiah, will find the book of the Law, he will read it, be cut to the heart with true repentance, and go on the greatest campaign against idolatry and evil in Judah of any of the kings.
Nahum is preaching to Judah’s ears preparing them for a time of spiritual renewal
Nahum 2:2 For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches. (ESV)
Hear this clearly, Judah is being comforted by a judgment they themselves deserve, except for God’s covenant mercy.
Judah must move from Manasseh to Josiah. From deforming themselves in sin to reforming themselves in faithfulness to the covenant, the word of God, and worship.
You and I must do the same throughout our lives whether we the culture is trending towards wicked Manasseh or a reforming Josiah. Our lives must constantly be wisely turning from sin and turning to Christ. Humbling seeking Christ.
Judah should not think. Assyria is falling. I am righteous. NO that was Ninevah’s mistake, thinking God does not hear, God does not care, there is no justice, sin has no consequences, sin does not distort and lie to me.
o Persisting in unrepentant sin, presuming on grace, or clinging to idols places a person in God’s opposition.
o Mercy, patience is always meant to lead to renewed repentance and trusting in the mercy of God.
· When is God for someone? God is for sinners who repent and take refuge in Him.
o God Is For Those Who Take Refuge in Him
o “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.”(Nahum 1:7, ESV)
o If God Is For You it is Because He Has Acted for your in Christ
o Rom. 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
· Paul does not say this lightly. He grounds it in the cross: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things??
Turn from your sin and Look to Christ in faith, and you will find a certain refuge. If you are battling sin and you feel the guilt and shame of it today. Remember, God is a refuge for sinners. Pray and ask for strength. Seek the Lord. He meets you each week in worship to feed you, to weaken sin, and to strengthen the obedience that flows from a living faith. He will sanctify all those who are in Christ and indwelt by his holy Spirit.
So this week pray to him, speak of your sin honestly. Ask him to put it to death. Speak of his goodness. The beauty and the sweetness of a savior who died for you. Speak to God as your Father who saves you in Christ and ask him to make you more and more like Christ. Christ is a sweet refuge for sinners who are tired of their sins and do not want to live life fearing the wrath of God against their many sins and want refuge in a God who will one day make all things right when Christ returns. That is our certain hope.
Prayer| Benediction.
