Nahum 1:7-11 - The Lord is good

1:7,8

“The Lord is good”. That the Lord is not good is the fundamental lie that the enemy tries to tell us. It is what he said to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Throughout Israel’s history she often failed because she did not believe that God was good or would protect her. The same is true today, much of atheist rhetoric is that God is not good. We need to know that the Lord is indeed good. There will be times of trouble, and in those times we should go to the Lord, for He is a refuge, a stronghold. 1 Peter 5:7 Peter tells us to cast our cares on to the Lord for He cares for us. But God is also a God of judgement, and He will judge the wicked. In the immediate context, Nineveh would be brought to an end, and the end would be overwhelming. This is indeed what happened.

1:9-11

In Isaiah 36-39 (and parallel passages in 2 Kings) we read of Assyria’s plans to destroy Jerusalem. Men may have plans against God’s people, but they will not succeed. The Lord will bring their plans to an end. In the book of Revelation we read of God’s judgement coming upon His enemies. We need to understand things very carefully, or else we will not understand the world, God’s dealings in the world, or our own lives. So let’s look at two mistakes, two extreme views, which take half of the truth and treat it as if it was the whole truth. The first mistake is to think that God will defend His people and judge the wicked, and therefore He will immediately destroy all our “enemies”. God will defend His people, and will judge the wicked, but that is only part of the truth. The worst thing that happens is if we take this as the whole truth, and then take it upon ourselves to execute judgement, claiming to be acting in the Lord’s name.

The second mistake is to say that God is a God of mercy and that as Christians we need to be prepared to suffer for the Lord, and so there is no judgement. Now God is a God of mercy, and following Christ involves sharing in His sufferings, but that again is only part of the truth. We must not choose one of these two parts, instead we need to to choose both of them. Read the gospels, for goodness sake! Jesus was not slow to speak about judgement.

We are called to suffer with Christ and must do so, we must seek mercy, but some will refuse to take God’s mercy and in the end this will lead to their judgement. And those who persecute the church will ultimately pay an enormous price if they persist in their rebellion. History teaches us this, and, most importantly, the word of God teaches us this.

Assyria would suffer judgement because form he had come one who “plots evil against the Lord”. On v10 where it talks about them being “drunk from wine”, it is interesting to note that Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca Historica, book 2, chapter 26:4 says:

It happened at this very time that the king of the Assyrians, who was unaware of the defection of the Bactrians and had become elated over his past successes, turned to indulgence and divided among his soldiers for a feast animals and great quantities of both wine and all other provisions. Consequently, since the whole army was carousing, Arbaces, learning from some deserters of the relaxation and drunkenness in the camp of the enemy, made his attack upon it unexpectedly in the night.

The words of the prophet are true in detail as well as in general.