Nahum 3:12-19 - Nothing can heal you

3:12,13

Assyria had great military strength, or so she thought. But at the time of testing they would all fall, like figs from a tree ripe for harvest. Some nations can seem so strong for a while, but then they fall. Suddenly the land that seemed so impregnable is easily conquered.

3:14-17

The graphic description of Assyria’s downfall continues. She had built up vast military power, and a large trading network, but all this would be of no value against the onslaught that was about to befall her. Assyria’s merchants are likened to locusts. Locusts would strip fields bare, just as Assyria’s traders would exploit nations. But then they would all disappear, so would all Assyria’s influence. Empires can collapse very quickly, what seemed like a powerful unmovable edifice and very quickly crumble to nothing at all. Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC and the city lay buried until 1845 when it was uncovered by archaeologists.

3:18,19

All the foregoing stuff was prophecy, words given before the event, but words which would be fulfilled. Here the king of Assyria is warned about what will happen. When Jonah warned the city she repented, this time she would not repent, and so the destruction would follow. Her people will be scattered, her warriors and noblemen will lie down dead. Other peoples will rejoice at her downfall, because they suffered at the hands of Assyria. She was receiving the penalty for her cruelty.

So what are we to make of all this? It certainly isn’t the jolliest of prophecies! It contains hardly anything in the way of “salvation theology”, at least as we commonly think of it. So it tends to be ignored, hardly ever preached on. Well perhaps this highlights the shallowness of our thinking, our desire to ignore the hard aspects of the gospel. We like to pay no more than lip-service to man's’ sinfulness and to judgement. Yet doing so led Israel to make wrong choices, to wrongly assess situations, and so to worship idols and make alliances with pagan nations. If we want to have a correct worldview we need to take the message of Nahum to heart. When we see powerful nations, or powerful blocks within society, nations and power blocks that are ungodly, we need to know what their ultimate fate will be unless they repent.