In Sunday school this past week, we studied from the book of Nahum. Certainly not one of your top ten books of the Bible! Little is known about the prophet Nahum. His book is a short one. But oh so powerful.
Nahum is writing a warning to Nineveh of Assyria. God has had just about enough of the Ninevites and all the folks in Assyria. They were just downright mean. The billboard outside of Nineveh said, “Have knives. Will torture.” They were what the mean folks called mean. They had enslaved some of the Israelites and were not treating them well. He is fed up with the evil He is seeing from Nineveh. If Nineveh sounds a bit familiar, it is because that was the town that God sent Jonah to in order to warn them what would happen if they didn’t straighten up.
Jonah preached to them. They changed their ways. God relented and said He would not destroy them at this time. However, the change did not last. Many, many years later the book of Nahum takes place. Perhaps, the change was on the surface only. Or perhaps, the people did not do a good job of passing down their beliefs to their children. For whatever reason, a few generations later, Nineveh was more evil than they had been in Jonah’s time. God’s patience was up.
In Nahum 2 and 3, God said to the people of Nineveh, “I am against you.”
A bit scary, wouldn’t you say? The fact that God looked down from His throne on this town, this community who had been given chance after chance to change their ways, and finally stated, “I am against you,” presents an image of such darkness. I have been giving this thought. Do you think He thunderously announced with righteous rage, “I AM AGAINST YOU!!!” Or do you think He quietly shook His head and said, “I am against you. I am done. I have given you so many chances. Now your punishment is coming.” The anger, or the heartbroken Father who knows the only way for His children to learn is to suffer the consequences of their choices?
He is our Heavenly Father. He looks at us with such love each second of each day. My feeling is that even though He had a belly full of these disobedient people, it was not rage that triggered this response from God. It was, instead, a heartbroken Father looking down on His kids and knowing this punishment had to happen or nothing would ever change.
Now, here we are today. We are not doing too good a job of being obedient to God and listening for His voice. We are pretty content to go our own way and perhaps just give lip service to God, if that. We have lost respect for His day, it would seem. We seem to put other things in front of gathering with His people to hear His Word taught and preached. Is the day coming when He looks down at us, and with a heart that is broken and tears streaming down His face, He has to quietly say, “I am against you”?
May it never be. Live a life of loving and serving God. Teach your children. It will make the difference.
