Through the Bible - Nahum

God, as we just sang that song, we believe that You're here now, standing in our midst. We thank You that wherever two or more are gathered, there You are in their midst. We know that You promised before You ascended into heaven, before You were crucified, that You would not leave us orphans, but that You would send the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, to guide us in all truth and teach us all things.

So, Lord, we ask that You, by Your Holy Spirit tonight, would teach us Your Word. Give us insight and application into the book of Nahum, Lord, and may we see Your character revealed—Your nature, Your will—as we read through this powerful book and study it tonight. Lord, hide Your Word in our hearts that we may not sin against You, that we may walk close to You, Father, and have a great relationship with You. You haven't given us Your Word just so that we can know about You, but, Lord, that we could know You. As we study it tonight, may we be getting to know You more. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

How many of you read through the book of Nahum over the last couple of weeks? Wow, more than normal. That's good. Praise the Lord. It's only three chapters, so God is good. If you haven't read through Nahum, I encourage you to do so. Next week, we'll be in the book of Habakkuk, so you can do double time, because Habakkuk's not a very long book either—just another three chapters as well.

These minor prophet books are kind of nice, aren't they? It's not like Isaiah, where you've got 66 chapters to read in a week, or Leviticus, which not only is long but also makes you wonder, "What is all this stuff we're reading through here?" As we're plotting through the Scriptures and going through the Word of God, we've now gone past the halfway mark of all the books of the Bible. There are 66 books in the Bible, and this is the 34th book. So, we're kind of on the downhill run now, and we're going to continue right on through the New Testament, just taking a book a week and considering what the Lord wants to speak to us.

You can almost imagine this as the Bible at 50,000 feet. We're doing a brief flyover and getting an idea of what the scope of the Scriptures is. I hope, as many of you have been with us since we started last August, that you are finding this journey enriching.

Now we've been going through each of these books of the Bible, and I hope you begin to see that common theme as God speaks to His people, often through these prophets. One of the things we talk about in our School of Discipleship, in the first course that we have, is the way that God reveals Himself to us. David tells us in Psalm 8 that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. In Psalm 8 and Psalm 19, God speaks of this to us. David considers the moon and all the stars and asks, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" When he reflects on the vastness of God's creation, he realizes that God wants to speak to man, and so He reveals Himself through creation.

Furthermore, in the Old Testament, we see that God reveals His nature and character to us through prophets. These were men who were stirred by the Lord; holy men of God spoke as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance. How blessed we are to be the recipients of God's Word! We are thankful to the Jewish people for keeping the oracles of God for centuries and passing these things down. What a blessing it is that we can sit here thousands of years later, open the Word of God, and receive from Him what He wants to speak to us.

As you go through these three chapters, you will see a very clear and common theme about something that the church does not often want to talk about as it relates to God. Especially in the last hundred years, the church has desired to focus on the nice attributes of God—those things that make us feel good, the aspects that make us think, "Yes, that's the God I want to have." We tend to focus on the attributes of God that, while true, can give us a slightly skewed view of who He is. We emphasize the grace, mercy, and love of God. The love of God has been highly exalted in the church over the last century.

Yet, when we read through the Scriptures, we also see that God is a God of wrath. That is not something we like to talk about. There are times when God gets angry, and we find ourselves questioning how that fits with our understanding of who Jesus is. When we think of the Jesus portrayed in Western Christianity, especially over the last hundred years, we often envision gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He is depicted as good-looking, with blue eyes, blondish-brown hair, and a cool goatee. That is the kind of picture we have of Jesus. However, when we read the Scriptures, we see a different picture, an ideal of God. Sometimes, people begin to think that when they look, especially at the Old Testament in contrast to the New Testament, they see a different God altogether.

They think that the God of the Old Testament was kind of like God in His teenage years, throwing chairs around and getting angry. However, that's not what we see. We do see a merciful and loving God in the Old Testament. As we've been going through the major and minor prophets, God reveals His love to His people through the prophets. Jeremiah, speaking for God in Jeremiah 33, says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." God desires that we would know Him in that way, but He also reveals that He will not clear the guilty.

When God defines His name for Moses in Exodus chapter 34, it is a passage I return to constantly as we go through the Word of God. You'll remember that Moses wanted to see God. What a request! I would say that any of us who have walked with the Lord for any period of time share that desire.

There is a story about a teacher in a children's ministry classroom. She has the kids drawing pictures at the end of class, and there is a little girl named Lucy, about seven years old, who is drawing on a piece of paper. The teacher asks, "What are you drawing, Lucy?" Lucy replies, "I'm drawing God." The teacher responds, "Oh, Lucy, well, we don't know what God looks like." Lucy confidently says, "Well, we will in a minute," as she continues to draw. It reflects the desire of humanity to see what God looks like and to know what He is like.

Moses spent 40 days with God on the mountaintop at Mount Sinai, in communion and constant fellowship with Him. Then God tells Moses that he must go back down the hill because there are problems in the camp. When Moses descends, he finds that the children of Israel have rebelled against God's law and built a golden calf. They are dancing around it, and in his anger, Moses takes the commandments of God and casts them down, breaking them. This act symbolizes that the children of Israel had already broken God's law.

Moses then goes back up the mountaintop, where God's anger is revealed against His people. God speaks about destroying them, but Moses calls out for mercy, and God responds, "I will be merciful to my people." This shows the merciful heart of God and how He is a forgiving God. When Moses sees this, he says, "God, I want to see You." God replies, "Moses, you cannot see Me and live, for My glory is so great that you would die."

God tells Moses that He will place him in the cleft of the rock and pass by, showing him His afterglow, a part of God's glory. Even more than just seeing whatever it was that Moses saw, we can be certain he experienced something profound because when he came down from the mountaintop, his face was shining. So much so that the people were scared to look at him, and he had to put a veil over his face.

Because they were so freaked out by Moses' appearance, he did see something on the mountaintop. But more than that, God declared His name. God defined who He is, and the Lord says, "The Lord, the Lord God." The very first thing that God defines His name with is what? Merciful. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful.

God speaks of His mercy, His forgiveness, and His grace, but He also says something very important that we in the modern church need to recognize. God says, "By no means clearing the guilty." He visits the iniquity of those who have sinned against Him. God says, "I will judge iniquity. I am going to judge those who are guilty." Now, God's judgment is just.

There's a story in the book of Genesis. You'll remember that God comes down and reveals to one of His prophets, Abraham, "I'm going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah." Abraham cries out and says, "Lord, what if there are 50 righteous people there? Will You destroy it? Will You save that city for 50 righteous people?" God says, "I will." Abraham continues, "Well, maybe there are not 50 righteous. Oh man, what if there are 45 righteous?" God says, "I'll save it for 45." He says, "What about 30?" God replies, "Yeah, I'll save it for 30." Abraham asks, "What about 20?" God says, "Yeah, I'll save it for 20."

Then, the last time he says to the Lord, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" That's an important question. If there is one being that is going to judge all humanity, should He not judge humanity with justice? He has to be perfectly just.

We have a hard time with God judging all humanity because we live in a society where our justice system oftentimes is not just. Do you notice that? I think we've noticed that recently, especially if we've seen some of the judges in our nation make unrighteous judgments. We see some of the things that are happening, and we realize, we recognize that justice is not always served in man's courts. There are people in prison, people in jail today that shouldn't be, and there are people out on the streets today that are guilty and should be in prison.

We recognize that justice in our society, our culture, and man's kingdom does not always happen. You're tracking with me? You understand? You see that, don't you? Yet with God, when we consider Him, we cannot apply our bias; we cannot apply our difficulties in the way that we work to God. We can't just say that, well, because we're limited in being able to judge, God is limited also.

We need to understand that God has no limitations, and when He judges man, it will be with complete justice. He will be completely right when He judges man, and there's coming a day the Bible reveals.

When all of us, all mankind, will stand before God for judgment, and when God judges an individual and casts them into hell, the lake of burning fire, none of us are going to be objecting and saying, "Lord, that's not fair." On that day, we will all recognize that God is completely just and completely righteous when He judges humanity. This book, Nahum, reveals the justice, the judgment, the anger, and the wrath of God upon a city we have already talked about.

You remember just a few weeks ago, we were in the book of Jonah. Jonah was called upon by God to go and speak to the people of what city? Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the country or the nation of Assyria. During the time that Jonah went to Nineveh, although he didn't go there willingly—he wanted to avoid it—Assyria was the empire of the world. When he took this message of judgment to Nineveh, what did they do? They repented. From the top down, they repented. From the king in the palace in Nineveh all the way down to their animals, they put sackcloth and ashes on their animals. They made their animals fast. They were so into this repentance when Jonah came through and said, "In 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed. If you don't repent, you're toast." And they repented.

As a result of that, we see the grace and mercy of God because He recognized their repentance. Instead of destroying them, 40 days came and went, and those people were saved because they repented.

Now, 100 years have passed since the time of Jonah, and we come to the book of Nahum. Let's see if the people of Nineveh continued in their repentance. Nahum chapter 1, verse 1, says, "The burden of Nineveh." Obviously, they didn't stay repentant for long. In fact, as you read through not just the book of Nahum but also through secular history, you find that this city and this nation, the Assyrians, repented from their repentance. It is a sad thing when people turn away from their repentance, but these people did.

It says here that God has a burden against Nineveh, this great city. We read on, and it says, "The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite." Now, this man Nahum, we don't know a lot about him, but like Isaiah before him and many of the prophets before him, he saw visions.

He saw something that God was going to do, and now he writes about that vision. This vision surrounded a specific city at a specific time, and he says, "I'm going to destroy this place of Nineveh."

Now, Nahum, this Elkoshite, is a figure we don't know much about. We don't know where Elkosh is, but it's very possible that it is located around the Sea of Galilee. You've heard of the city of Capernaum, right? Capernaum is the city from which Jesus did much of His ministry; He used it as His base. If you were to read it in the Hebrew language, Capernaum is Kafir Nahum, which means "the village of Nahum." There are many people who believe that Nahum very likely came from that region, specifically from the area around the Sea of Galilee.

There is some debate about it. Some people believe that he came from the southern part of Judah, south of Jerusalem. However, there is a lot of good evidence suggesting that he very likely came from the area of Galilee, particularly from the village of Capernaum.

Notice what God says through His prophet in verse 2: God is jealous. This is an attribute of God that we oftentimes don't understand. The reason we struggle with this concept is that jealousy, in our minds, is tainted by our flesh. When someone gets jealous in our culture, we often view it as a selfish, fleshly desire.

How can we say that God is jealous when the Scriptures clearly state that God is jealous? Well, God is jealous for us, not of us. He doesn't look at us and think, "Boy, I wish I had what they have." There are certain things that you and I can do that God cannot. Did you know that you can lie, but God cannot? I guarantee you He is not jealous of you being a liar. It's not as if He thinks, "I wish I could do that."

Similarly, did you know that you can worship, but God cannot? What would God worship? He is the highest of all creation; He is not even part of creation. He is above everything that has ever been made, so He cannot worship, but you and I can.

There are certain things that we can do that God cannot, but He is not jealous of us. He is not looking at us and thinking, "I wish I could do those things." No, God is jealous for us. He is jealous for our attention because if we place our attention and affections on anything else, it will ultimately destroy us.

Remember, the first four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship with God and instruct us to have no other gods before Him.

They speak of us making no other idols and bowing down to nothing else. They speak of us not taking His name in vain. They speak of us spending time with Him on a Sabbath. Those first four commandments deal with you and me and the way we relate to God. If we break those commandments and do not relate to God in the right way, then what will happen to us? Well, the soul that sins shall die. God looks at us and says, "I don't want you to die." God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance.

God is jealous for our attention because if our attention and affections are placed on anything else, we will die. God doesn't want that to take place. We read here that God is jealous, and the Lord avenges; the Lord avenges and is furious. Here is another attribute of God that we oftentimes don't like to focus on: God is furious. God brings revenge. He brings vengeance upon His adversaries and reserves His wrath for His enemies.

The church often wants to focus on the love of God, and understandably so, but it has a hard time considering the wrath, vengeance, anger, and fury of God. Yet these words describe who our God is, just as much as God's love, mercy, and grace describe His attributes. God's fury, wrath, and vengeance also reveal to us the whole counsel, the whole picture of who our God is.

So, we read that God is jealous for our attention, but He is also vengeful, furious, and angry, bringing wrath upon those who are His adversaries and enemies. Now, hearing that, if that was all you knew about God, if the only thing you knew about the character and nature of God was Nahum chapter 1, verse 2, how many of you would be scared? I am putting both hands up; that sounds kind of fearful to me. God is jealous, vengeful, furious, and wrathful, and He will reserve His wrath for His enemies. If that was all we knew about God, I would want to make sure that I am not His enemy. I don't want to be on the receiving end of Almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing God's wrath, vengeance, and anger.

Anybody else with me on that one? I don't want to be there. On the day of God's wrath, I don't want to be abiding underneath His wrath. But here's the great thing: I wrote "praise God" next to verse 3 in my Bible. The Lord is slow to anger. The Lord is slow to anger. Exodus chapter 34 reveals that to us as well.

This is the first thing we need to understand about anger because the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 4 that we're to be angry, and yet we're not to sin. Be angry and do not sin. How many of you have wrestled with that verse before and kind of wondered what it means? How can I be angry and not sin?

Well, the first thing we learn about God's anger is that He has a long fuse. He has a long fuse before He blows up. It says here that God, as Gail Irwin would say, is slow to anger. God is slow to anger. When we read about His vengeance, His fury, His wrath, and His anger, how awesome it is to know that our God has a long fuse. He doesn't just blow off like some teenager or some high school guy who can't contain his temper. He's not just ready to throw down all the time. That's not God. The Scriptures reveal that God is slow to anger, and we also read that He is great in power.

But here in verse 3, we see another important attribute about our God: He will not at all acquit the wicked. God will not acquit the wicked. He does not pass over guilt. God doesn't just look at the guilty and say, "Boy, you know what? The prison is crowded; I guess we're just going to have to let you go." No, God doesn't do that. He is slow to anger, but the Scriptures make it very clear that He will bring wrath upon His enemies, upon His adversaries, and upon those who have rejected Him.

Why? Because He is jealous for their affections. If their affections are not focused on Him, they will abide under His wrath; they will die. So, He will not acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm; the clouds are the dust of His feet.

Now, when we read in verse 3 that God is great in power, we can't completely understand the greatness of God's power. So, God speaks to us in earthly terms. God always does this for us, and it's so great that He helps us to understand what it means when God says, "I love you."

How does He show us that? He has to give it to us in earthly terms. He tells His disciples, or He tells His prophets, "I've loved you with an everlasting love." They respond, "Well, we can't understand that; we can't fully grasp that." So He comes and tells His disciples that the greatest form of love that man has is that he would lay down his life for his friends. But God's love goes a step further. As we see in Romans 5, verse 8, it says He demonstrates His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, while we were His enemies, He died for us.

God shows us the greatness of His love in human terms, in ways that we can understand. Here, He shows us His power is great, but how do we grasp that? He gives us some gauges, I guess you could say, some earthly ways that we can recognize His power. For example, look at the whirlwind and the storm. It's always amazing. I love the Discovery Channel. About a year ago, they had these storm chasers. Have you ever seen those guys? Most of the guys here would agree that it would be a cool job to chase a storm or a tornado. Most of the guys would say, "Yeah, I'd sign up for that." However, most of the ladies would respond, "I don't think so, nor do I want my husband anywhere near a storm."

When you watch these storms on TV, especially with HD and big screen TVs, you can see all the definition. You see these category 5 whirlwinds, these tornadoes, where the base is like a mile wide. We look at that and say, "Now that is power, isn't it? That is ferocious power." We also see huge lightning strikes and pictures of volcanoes erupting. When God says, "I am great in power," we don't fully grasp it, so He gives us ways to gauge it. The Lord has His way with the whirlwind and in the storm; the clouds and the dust are His feet.

So we see these pictures being revealed to us. How powerful is God? He says, "Well, think about the whirlwind." Yes, that's pretty powerful, but that's nothing in comparison to God. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. Imagine if God just spoke and all of the seas dried up, all the oceans dried up in an instant. That would take some serious power, wouldn't it? That's the kind of power that God has. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface, but again, He's speaking in terms that we might be able to understand. He rebukes the seas and dries up all the rivers of Bashan, and Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake at Him; the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence.

Yes, the world and all that dwell therein. It is as if God, when He comes, everything of the earth melts like wax in front of Him. That is serious power. Now, we can think of maybe the strongest, most powerful thing that we can grasp, which would probably be the atomic bomb. When we see the pictures of the atomic bomb going off in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and we see all these buildings leveled, it is striking. But imagine when God comes; His power is so great that it would be as if Mount Everest just melted like wax in front of Him. That's power, isn't it?

Now, I want you to think about this for a moment. The Lord is slow to anger, but He is great in power. He will judge His enemies with that kind of power. Again, I ask you the question: how many of you want to stand before Him on the day of wrath? Nobody. You see, God reveals Himself in this way so that we would recognize who He is, that we would reverence Him, that we would be in awe of Him, and that we would fear the Lord.

When we talk about the fear of the Lord, Solomon discusses this quite a bit in Proverbs. A lot of times, we misunderstand it and try to water it down. The church has done a good job of watering down the attributes of God in the last hundred years. They have made God seem kind of like a wuss, as if He is not going to do anything and won't raise a finger. In fact, many people in this world today think that because God has not judged their sin, He is obviously okay with their sin. But that is not what the Scriptures reveal. There is a day of God's wrath.

If God were always vengeful and always pouring out His wrath upon the earth, there would be no way that any flesh could stand before Him because He is so powerful. However, God has appointed a time; He has appointed a specific day when He is going to judge humanity. The Scriptures always point to this day of the Lord as being a short period of time. It is not going to be forever. And praise the Lord, His anger will not be forever. David talks about this in the Psalms and how great it is that God will not be angry forever. If He were, everything would be annihilated. There is no way that the universe, in all its vastness and expanse, could stand before the anger of God.

So, God has appointed a time. He says here, "The mountains quake at His presence, the hills melt, the earth is burned at His presence; yes, the world and all that dwell therein." Who can stand before His indignation? Now, that's the important question. That is the focus of everything that Nahum is saying here. He is talking about God's power, His anger, and His wrath upon His enemies.

Who, therefore, can stand before His indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and rocks are thrown down by Him. This is a powerful God. Thank God for verse 3 and thank God for verse 7: the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who trust Him.

If all we knew about God was His power, His anger, His wrath, and His ferocious jealousy, we would all be fearful. Yet, God also wants us to know that He is slow to anger, that He is a good God, and that He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who trust Him.

With an overrunning flood, He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. What do you imagine against the Lord? This is a good question. There are many people who imagine vain things against the Lord, and God wants us to recognize this. As He speaks to us through Paul in Galatians chapter 6, God is not mocked. This means that God will not allow anyone to thumb their nose at Him. Who can stand in His presence?

What do you think you can imagine against the Lord? The amazing thing is that the Bible reveals in several apocalyptic passages, particularly in the book of Revelation, a day when the Antichrist and all of humanity that has rebelled against God will gather together in a valley in northern Israel called the Megiddo Valley. They will come together to fight against God. That has got to be the dumbest thing anyone could ever think to do.

The scripture says in Psalm 2 about those who gather themselves against God: God laughs from heaven at them. Just like you laughed a second ago, God laughs from heaven at them and says, "Are you serious? This is what you're going to do to come against Me—with guns, swords, and bombs? There is no way that man can stand against the Lord."

If you imagine anything against the Lord, notice what His response is: He will make an utter end. Affliction shall not rise up the second time. He is going to make a consuming end.

Have to do it twice. It says there it shall not rise up a second time. What that means is I'm not going to have to do it again. So, I almost spank you once, and it's done. This is a powerful God.

As we're reading this first chapter and we're seeing the fury, the anger, the vengeance, and the wrath of God towards His enemies, remember the context: the burden of Nineveh. God is speaking to an individual city. God says, "I am going to judge this city, the city of Nineveh." Why would God judge this city? What is it about Nineveh that was so horrible?

Well, a hundred years prior to the time that Nahum wrote these things, God said He was going to destroy this city. He sent Jonah there to go speak to them. Jonah didn't want to go because he was worried that God might forgive them if they repented, and he was right. God is slow to anger. But Jonah finally goes, and he speaks to these people. He walks through the city; it takes him three days to walk through the city. He says, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed." The people repent, and God relents from His anger.

But now, a hundred years later, they repented from their repentance. Second Corinthians chapter 7 says that godly sorrow leads to salvation. Godly sorrow works repentance leading to salvation, not to be repented of. I think it's very interesting that Paul says they are not to be repented of. When a person repents, don't turn away from the Lord after you have turned to Him and walk away, because that's what Nineveh did. They started to follow God; they did what He said to do. They repented, but Second Corinthians 7:10 says in the very same way they repented of their repentance. Now they've turned back to their wickedness, and God, a hundred years later, says, "I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to bring My judgment and My wrath upon you."

Why? Not because you're not guilty, but because you are guilty, and I'm not going to pass over guilt. What was it that was so bad? Well, the first thing that you can note down if you're taking notes tonight about the city of Nineveh is that they were a cruel city. They were a cruel city. In fact, by the time that Nahum came around, it had a name for itself. Just like we call Las Vegas "Sin City," Nineveh had a name for itself; it was called the "City of Blood." Why?

From their own records, we read some pretty interesting things about the kings of ancient antiquity. They wrote extensively about themselves and their conquests. The Assyrians, in particular, documented a great deal about their victories. You can even see some of their records in the British Museum, including the annals of Sennacherib, Sargon, and Tiglath-Pileser. These kings of Assyria kept meticulous records of their actions against other cities.

Let me read to you some of the things that they did. One of their kings is quoted as saying, "I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountain, I slaughtered them, speaking to the people with their own blood. I dyed the mountain red like wool." This is how they described their conquests. They committed some truly horrific acts; they developed some of the worst torture imaginable. In fact, they were the first to develop crucifixion. They would take many of their enemies and skin them alive. These are terrible things that these people did. They would set up monuments to commemorate all the wicked acts they committed outside of every city, often using the bodies of those they killed. It is a horrifying legacy.

They were a cruel people, and God is going to judge them for their cruelty. But not just for their cruelty; they were also a conceited people. As I mentioned, they kept detailed records of their achievements. One of their kings proclaimed, "I am the great king, the mighty king, the king of the universe, the king of Assyria. The great gods magnified my name and made my rule powerful." These are the words of their own kings. King Esarhaddon, who lived in Nineveh, declared, "I am powerful. I am the all-powerful. I am a hero. I am gigantic. I am colossal. I am honored. I am magnified. I am without equal. I am among all kings the chosen one of Asher, Nebu, and Marduk." Can you see their arrogance, their pride, their conceit?

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 36. In this chapter, their conceit is clearly illustrated. During the time of Isaiah, one of the kings of Assyria, named Sennacherib, came against Judah in Jerusalem. Notice what Isaiah has to say here in Isaiah 36, verse 1: "Now it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against all the defensed cities."

For all the walled cities of Judah, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came down from Nineveh. He and the king before him completely destroyed the northern ten tribes, and they kept moving south to Judah and Jerusalem. They took 41 of the cities of Judah and destroyed them, leveling them. In one day, he took 200,000 men captive, as he writes in his own annals, the Annals of Sennacherib.

The king of Assyria sent his commander, whose title was Rabshakeh, from Lachish, one of the cities in Judah. He sent him up to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great army. Rabshakeh stood at the conduit by the upper pool, along the highway to the fuller's field. Hezekiah, the king of Judah at that time, sent three of his main officials to him: Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the house; Sibna, the scribe; and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder.

Visualize this for a moment: Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sends one of his key generals to Jerusalem with an army of over 180,000 men. They surround the city, and right at the main water supply of Jerusalem, Rabshakeh stands at the conduit of the upper pool by the highway to the fuller's field. Hezekiah sends out three of his officials to speak to him. Eliakim, Sibna, and Joah go out, and Rabshakeh says to them, "Say you now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this wherein you trust?"

He goes on to speak about how great this king is, essentially demanding that they bow down to him. As you read through Isaiah 36 and 37, you can see the arrogance of the king of Assyria. The first reason why God would judge these people was their cruelty; they developed torture like no other kingdom before them. Not only that, Nineveh was a conceited and proud city. Additionally, they were an idolatrous city. The third reason why God would judge the Assyrians in Nineveh was because of their idolatry; they had dozens of idols.

Dozens of gods were worshipped, including Dagon, Nisroch, Ishtar, Marduk, Nebu, and Ashur. The people bowed down to these different deities and worshipped them in the most wicked and vile ways, offering their children to them. The horrible things they did led God to declare, "I’m going to judge you. I’m going to bring my anger and my fury upon you because of your cruelty, your conceit, your idolatry, and your impenitence." They refused to repent.

Here’s the powerful thing: you can be a wicked, conceited, cruel, idolatrous individual, and yet if you will repent, God will give you His grace and mercy and forgive you. That is amazing; it is the most awesome thing about our God. Paul speaks to this in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, where he addresses idolaters, fornicators, homosexuals, adulterers, murderers, and liars. He says, "And such were some of you, but you’ve been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ." The awesome and powerful truth is that God will forgive any sinner who comes to Him in repentance. He is not willing that any should perish.

However, the people in question were cruel, conceited, and idolatrous, and they would not repent. Had they completely repented and turned to the Lord, God would have forgiven them and not destroyed them. Yet, God speaks to them around the year 660 BC, saying, "I am going to destroy you." Not long after this, they would indeed be destroyed. The great city of Nineveh would be completely annihilated by a coalition of the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Scythians in 612 BC. God sent His armies to judge and bring them to ruin. Why? Because they would not repent, because of their arrogance.

If you read through the book of Isaiah, particularly in Isaiah chapter 8, you see their arrogance even more clearly. They looked at themselves as so great, claiming, "We have taken this city; we have taken that city. Nobody has helped us." But God responded, "You’re a tool in My hand; you’ve done nothing without My help." Yet, they would not recognize that God was the one who made them great. They remained cruel, conceited, idolatrous, and impenitent, refusing to repent and turn to the Lord.

So, if a man stands against God in this kind of rebellion, proud, idolatrous, and cruel, refusing to repent, what will happen to that individual?

Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 1. God speaks to this in Romans 1 by the Apostle Paul. The attributes of God that we're considering tonight in the book of Nahum are wrath, vengeance, fury, and jealousy. Here in Romans chapter 1, verse 18, Paul says something that should scare the most vile of sinners, especially if they read the first chapter of Nahum and consider how powerful God is.

For the wrath of God is revealed. Underline that in your Bibles. In Romans chapter 1, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed. There is coming a day when the revelation of God's wrath will come. The wrath of God is revealed against whom? It is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. God will reveal His wrath on all those who are ungodly.

Now, we were talking a few minutes ago about the Ten Commandments. The first commandment says, "You shall have no other gods before Me." The second says, "You shall not make for yourself any graven image." The third says that you are not to take the Lord's name in vain, and the fourth says that you are to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. The first four commandments of the law of God focus on our relationship with God. If you break those, you will be called ungodly, and God's wrath will be revealed against you.

First, Paul says, "All ungodliness" refers to those who disobey God, rebel against God, and do not follow the first four commandments of the Ten. The second six commandments of the Ten focus on man's relationship with other men and how they are to live in a righteous way with other individuals. They are not to covet, not to steal, not to murder, not to lie, and they are to honor and obey their parents. These things have to do with our right relationship with other people.

Paul says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness—those who break the first four commandments—but also against all unrighteousness of men, those who live in an unrighteous way with others. God says, "I will reveal My wrath, My anger, My fury." Yes, God is slow to anger; He has a long wick. But there is coming a day when He will pour out His vengeance upon those who stand against Him. They rebel, they stand with conceit, with cruelty, with idolatry, refusing to repent. The wrath of God is coming.

God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Why? Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it unto them. God has revealed Himself to all mankind through two ways. We read about Him in verse 20: "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."

Man is without excuse because God has given him two things to reveal Himself: creation and conscience. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. Additionally, God has written upon the heart of all mankind a moral law. That's why we get so infuriated when people do things that are wrong. How do you know it's wrong? Because God has written a moral law upon your heart. Therefore, all mankind is without excuse, and all will stand before God one day for judgment.

Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto all men to die once, and then comes judgment." God is great in power. Whirlwinds, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and fire give us a tiny glimpse into the power of God's creation. Yet, God Himself is so very powerful that we can't even wrap our minds around it. That kind of power is going to reveal wrath upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

Look over at Romans chapter 2. We read in verse 1: "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges; for wherein you judge one another, you condemn yourself; for you that judge do the same things." Paul says here in Romans chapter 2, verse 1, that every time you judge somebody and say, "That's wrong; you shouldn't do that," you are revealing that you have God's moral law written upon your heart. You know that this is wrong and that this is the right way because God has shown it to you. So, who are you that judges? In condemning one another, you condemn yourself, for you judge and do the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against those which commit such things. God says, "I will judge."

With righteousness, shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Do you think, oh man, that judges them that do the same things, and doest thou the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? He says, "Do you think that on the day of judgment you'll be able to escape when God comes to judge mankind?" Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance?

God says, "I am here pouring out My love, giving My goodness to you so that you'll repent. I don't want anybody to perish on that day. I don't want anybody to stand before Me in judgment." But notice what He says in verse 5: "But after the hardness and the impenitent heart, you refuse to repent." Yes, you're wicked, yes, you're vile, yes, you've broken every law that God ever commanded us to keep. But if you will repent, if you will turn to Him because He's long-suffering, because He's good, then He will receive you.

However, if you, after the hardness of your heart, are not willing to repent, notice what God says through Paul: "You store up for yourself wrath for the day of the wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Now, that is a scary verse. Let's break it down and unpack it. What is it saying here? God is saying if you will not repent, you are storing up wrath—My wrath—for the day of judgment, and it will be revealed. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

I know these are the attributes of God that don't grow churches. You follow me? These are the things that you won't hear at certain churches. Why? Because they're afraid that if we tell you these things, people don't want to hear about sin, righteousness, and judgment. They don't want to hear about these difficult things. But this is what God's Word says, and if I don't speak these things, then those people who do not repent, their blood is upon my head, as God says there through Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 3.

"If you do not warn the wicked, then I will require his blood at your hand." That's a scary thing. James tells us that those who are teachers are worthy of a double judgment because if you don't reveal clearly what the Word of God says, I'm going to stand before God. So I have no problem saying, "Hey, this is what the Word of God says; you're going to have to contend with this."

Now, there are people in the world that will say, "Oh, you're a bigot, you're hateful, and you're all these horrible things," because you say, "No." Listen, if I do not warn somebody, that reveals I do not love them.

I wouldn't warn someone because I didn't love them. If you're standing in the middle of the street and there's a semi coming, if I love you, I'll warn you. If I don't like you very much, I might just say, "Oh well." Follow my drift here.

There are people, there are pastors, there are preachers today who won't tell the church these things. Let me tell you, they have very large churches. I'm not going to name names tonight because it's not beneficial to our study, but listen, there are big churches that won't talk about this stuff because they want more people to come to their church. However, if they really love their church, they would tell them, "Hey, listen, this is what the Scriptures say: the wrath of God is coming upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness against those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

Those who do not repent are storing up for themselves, as it were, God's wrath for the day of wrath, and it's coming. God, because He is a loving God, always sends a prophet in the Old Testament to speak to the people He is going to destroy so that they would turn and repent and not be destroyed. That's why He sent Jonah. When Jonah wouldn't go, God said, "All right, I fashioned a whale, a great fish, for you to get you there because I want you to go warn them."

The same thing happened with Nahum a hundred years later. God said, "I'm going to judge them," but the people wouldn't repent; they wouldn't turn. We see that fifty years later, they were destroyed exactly as the book of Nahum reveals. In chapter 1, we have destruction decreed. God says, "I have decreed a destruction for you." In chapter 2 of Nahum, we see that there is a destruction described; God describes what that judgment is going to be like. Then in chapter 3, He explains to them why this destruction is deserved. They deserved God's punishment; they deserved God's wrath because they were a wicked and vile people.

It's very interesting because the name Nahum means comfort. Are these comforting words? No, they don't seem like very comforting words, do they? God says, "I'm going to destroy you," and yet His name means comfort. How are these words a comfort? Well, look at what Nahum chapter 1, verse 12 says. Thus, God is speaking to His people, Judah; their enemy was Assyria.

Nineveh was a city that faced God's judgment. God declared, "I'm going to judge Nineveh; I'm going to destroy Nineveh." This word of destruction, this word of wrath and judgment, was a terrible thing for the people of Nineveh, but it was a comforting thing for the people of Israel because their enemy was being destroyed.

In verse 15 of chapter 1, God says to His people, "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings and publishes peace. Oh Judah, keep thy solemn feasts and perform thy vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off." You see, God's judgment upon the enemy, Assyria, and the city of Nineveh meant comfort and consolation for His people.

How does this apply to us? Notice that we were deserving of judgment because of all our sin and wickedness. However, God poured out His wrath upon Jesus. Because God poured out His wrath upon Jesus to the full extent, it means comfort for you and me. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive the righteousness of God in Christ, as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:20.

Just as Assyria was judged, just as God's wrath and fury were poured out upon Nineveh, God's wrath and fury and judgment were poured out upon Jesus when He bore our sin on the cross. This allows us to receive God's comfort today.

The call goes out to all mankind. In Matthew 4:17, we read, "From that time Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" The call goes forth into all the world. God says, "Repent, turn to Me, because if you turn to Christ, then you will be safe and you will receive comfort and consolation."

As we see in verse 7 of Nahum chapter 1, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those that trust in Him." If you trust in Christ Jesus, then the judgment of God has been poured out upon Jesus on your behalf. However, if you stand with an impenitent and hard heart, the scripture reveals that there is coming a day of wrath when God's judgment will be poured out upon those who are ungodly and unrighteous.

God does not desire that anyone would receive that judgment. He poured out wrath and judgment upon His only begotten Son so that He would not have to pour out judgment upon you and me. He desires that we turn to Him.

Nineveh would not turn; they were on a dead-end course toward destruction, on the wide path that leads to ruin. Although the Word of God came to this wicked and heathen city, calling them to repent and promising kindness, they refused to listen. Oh, that we would be those who hear the Word of God and draw near to Him! Oh, that we would be those who take the Word of God out to a sick and dying world that is on the wide path toward destruction. God is not willing that any should perish, and we too should not want to see anyone perish.

As we were reading through the Book of Joel several weeks ago, specifically in Joel chapter 2, God tells us not to delight in the day of judgment. When the day of wrath comes upon mankind, it will not be a pretty picture. God describes that day as one where you might escape from a lion only to be confronted by a bear, or you escape from the bear and finally get home, only to put your hand on a wall and be bitten by a serpent. There is no way to escape the day of the judgment of God when it comes; the only refuge is found in Jesus Christ. Hebrews tells us that we are to flee to Him for refuge and be found in Him.

The Book of Nahum, perhaps more clearly than any other book in the Bible, reveals God's judgment and His wrath upon mankind. I want to share something from a great man of God who wrote on this passage, which I believe is especially fitting for our day. He said, "To those who think that God is only a God of love and never of wrath, let them learn from Nahum that a God who is never angry is a God who cannot love."

Let me read that again: "Those who think that God is only a God of love and never a God of wrath, let them learn from Nahum that a God who is never angry is a God who cannot love." Have you ever thought of that? God's wrath comes from His love. It is because God loves that He is angry; because of love, wrath must blaze forth. You can prove this to yourself: what moves you to anger? Isn't it almost always when something or someone you love is threatened or injured? It may be yourself, because we all love ourselves. What makes us angry? Someone injures us, or because we love ourselves, we get mad at them. Or perhaps someone injures our child, and our wrath blazes forth.

Get angry when you see or hear about injury and injustice. It is proof that you are capable of love. If you look at this world and see murder, rape, and all the wicked things that go on, and it doesn't move you to anger, then there is something wrong with you. The one who cannot be angry is the one who cannot love. If you can read stories of atrocities, oppression, and the awful trafficking of body-destroying and soul-destroying drugs among young people, and never be moved to burning anger, then I tell you there is something wrong with you. You are incapable of love.

If God cannot smite, if He cannot destroy in vengeance, then He has no capacity for love. It is certainly true that God loves the sinner but hates his sin, as we sometimes say. However, that is only part of the story. The Bible tells us that if a man loves his sin and holds on to it at all costs, refusing the grace of God, then he becomes identified with his sin. Eventually, the wrath of God against his sin is also directed against the sinner. We become identified with that which we cling to, and this is what the Bible pictures.

It is time to reassert that God has this capacity for anger. It is time again to warn men to flee from the wrath to come. Men have been saying that if you would only talk about God and the love of God, you could fill churches. If only you would appeal to man about the God of love, they would turn from their wickedness and be drawn to Him. But the facts prove exactly the opposite. For the last 30 years or more, the message of the wrath of God has been almost totally absent in churches and pulpits. People have talked about the God of love, but this has been interpreted in the minds of men as a God of permissiveness—one who will let you do anything and get away with it. As a result, the churches are emptier than ever before, and instead of turning toward God, men have defied God, refusing to believe in Him and turning away from Him.

This was written in 1966, and it is almost prophetic regarding what was being written here. You cannot just preach the God of wrath without the God of love, but the wrath of God grows out of His love; it is a manifestation of His love. As Charles Spurgeon said, he who does not believe that God will punish sin will not believe that He will pardon it through the blood of His Son. But what is the way of escape from this?

The anger of God, well, Nahum tells you in the book of Nahum, chapter 1, verse 7, that the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who trust Him. This attribute of God's wrath and His anger, although the church doesn't like to hear it, is so necessary and important. There is a move in our nation and in the church to turn away from these things. We don't want to talk about this, and now it's become a political issue because those who are living a sinful lifestyle are telling the church that it is not allowed to say anything about it.

But listen, it is out of love that we speak what we do to those who are living in the homosexual lifestyle. It is out of love because we don't want to see them abide under the wrath of God. We want them to be standing with us on the day of Christ Jesus, rejoicing and praising Him. So we say, you need to repent and turn to the only one who can save you. Would to God that He would stir us with that kind of love to take this word out into the world. Amen.

Let's stand and pray. God, I do thank You for Your love that You have shown towards us. You've demonstrated it to us by dying for us while we were yet in our sins, while we were enemies of You. We praise You and we thank You that You have given us life by the death of Your Son. Because wrath was poured out upon Him, we can stand apart from Your wrath today. Abiding in You, we will never see wrath because 1 Thessalonians 5 tells us, Lord, that the church will never experience that.

We thank You so much that we will not stand under Your wrath on that day. Lord, would You give us boldness to speak this truth to others? You are a God of love, and we thank You for Your love, Your mercy, Your grace, and Your truth. But God, we know that You will also not pass over guilt. You desire that all would come to You in repentance. Lord, help us to preach that from the mountaintops, we pray. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.