IF GOD IS AGAINST US
By Maynard Pittendreigh
Nahum 1:1-15
1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
5 The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.
6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.
7 The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,
8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of; he will pursue his foes into darkness.
9 Whatever they plot against the LORD he will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time.
10 They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble.
11 From you, has one come forth who plots evil against the LORD and counsels wickedness.
12 This is what the LORD says: "Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be cut off and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
13 Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away."
14 The LORD has given a command concerning you,: "You will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile."
15 Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.
(NIV)
Nahum is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a group of books we have been studying in recent weeks. He has a very sober message of judgment to Nineveh.
Read through this little book and it is easy to see lots of doom and gloom. Sprinkled here and there, we do find a few brief rays of hope in this harsh prophecy. Such a ray of hope is found in verse 7 of our Scripture lesson: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”
God knows us and wants to protect us.
This is consistent with all of Scripture. In fact, Nahum’s name means “comfort” or “consolation”.
But you cannot ignore the fact that most of Nahum’s message is doom and gloom, and little of it seems very comforting or consoling. The reason is that Nahum wants to make very clear his message of what happens to those who reject God.
Beyond our Scripture reading for this morning, in chapter two, verse 13, Nahum quotes God as saying, “I am against you.” God repeats this same statement in chapter three.
What a terrible thing to think of God as being against us!
Nahum wrote 150 years after the time of Jonah.
We looked at Jonah’s message a few weeks ago.
Both Jonah and Nahum preach to the people of Nineveh.
Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. He hates the Ninevites. He wants God to destroy them. But eventually, as you may recall, Jonah, after trying to escape from God and hide from God, and after enduring being swallowed by a giant fish, finally preaches to the people of Nineveh – and the people of Nineveh repent.
God has mercy.
After all, Nahum begins our Scripture lesson with the wonderful promise, “God is slow to anger.”
But the successful preaching of Jonah is 150 years in the past.
That is like relating our day to what this country was like ten years before the Civil War.
Jonah got the people of Nineveh to repent, but that generation has all died away. Nineveh is back to its evil ways, and now it is Nahum’s turn to preach to them.
Through Nahum, God makes it plain that He is angry at Nineveh.
We don’t like to think of God as being angry, yet the Bible is clear that He hates sin.
Jonah is a message of what happens when people turn back to God.
Nahum is a message of what happens when people turn away from God.
You’ve likely heard about billboards along the highway with messages from God. Or maybe you have seen one. There is a whole series of these simple quotations from God, and my favorite one says, “Don’t make Me come down there.”
The Hebrew word used by Nahum for anger literally means “heavy or hot breathing”. Like a vicious bull, snorting in anger. Have you ever seen anyone so angry that they literally begin to snort like a bull? Just think – God is able to become angry with us.
Yet even when God is angry at sin, He is patient with us. Verse 3 of our reading says “The Lord is slow to anger.”
He has control over His wrath.
He gives us many chances to repent.
However, God clearly warns us in Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit will not contend/strive with people forever.” There is a limit to God’s patience.
Many people today are spiritually blind.
They don’t believe God will punish sin,
and they won’t believe that He will pardon sin through the blood of His Son.
In John 3 we’re told, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God’s one and only Son … Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (verses 17-18, 36).
When we place our trust in Christ, God in His grace gives us what we don’t deserve—eternal life. God in His mercy does not give us what we do deserve!
But when we reject Christ, we turn our backs on grace and mercy and eternal life. Which brings us to the thing we deserve – justice.
There is a wonderful story told by historian Shelby Foote. A young soldier was brought before General Robert E. Lee. The soldier had deserted his post. He was young and tired and frightened. He was trembling almost uncontrollably. General Lee tried to reassure the young man, saying, “Don’t worry son. You’ll find justice here.”
To which the young soldier replied, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
We have two problems with justice. One is that we are like that young soldier. We don’t want justice in our lives. We are afraid of justice. We’d rather have mercy.
The other problem is that there is a part of us that never really believes we deserve justice. We convince ourselves that we deserve mercy, not justice.
I used to work as a counselor in a state prison. I’ve got to tell you, I don’t believe I ever met a guilty person in prison. “The judge had it out for me,” one would say. Another would say, “I was framed.”
The warden of our prison once told me, “My hardest job is to convince an inmate that he has done something wrong.”
We live, as did Nineveh, in a culture that thinks ethics are arbitrary, that we can make our own rules, and there is no right or wrong.
This is a terrifying worldview.
The Russian author Dostoyevski said, “If there is no God, anything is permissible.”
When we turn away from God and reject authority and accountability, we in effect become our own gods. What is God’s response to this lawlessness?
Nahum tells us in chapter 3, verse 5 of his book, “’I am against you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” He goes on to say (verses 6-7) that those who walk their own path will be stripped of their glory and made defenseless.
We can offer hope to our lost world, a world going its own way, a way that leads to destruction. We have the roadmap, the right directions.
In our Scripture lesson for today, Nahum announces (1:15), “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!”
We can be that one offering the good news.
We should have a sense of urgency towards those who don’t know the Lord.
We need to offer prayer for our community, care about those who need the Lord, and share what God had done for us.
God will give us opportunities if we ask.
The Nineveh that Nahum knew was overthrown, so completely that archeologists only uncovered the remains of this once mighty power in 1845.
In Nahum, chapter 2 verse 6, we read a prophecy: “The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.”
Historians tell us that the Babylonian army laid siege to Nineveh for 3 months. Then after a period of heavy rainfall the river overflowed and broke down part of the city wall. The ruler of Nineveh perished in his burning palace. The invaders sacked and utterly destroyed the city. So complete was the destruction that armies have actually marched over the city of Nineveh without knowing the ruins of this once proud city lay beneath their feet.
No nation is immune from judgment. Among those who reject God, who refuse to turn from their wickedness, there will be no survivors.
Proverbs 29:1 warns, “Some people are still stubborn after they have been corrected many times; they will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.”
Twice God said to Nineveh, “I am against you” (2:13, 3:5).
Paul says in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us.”
But if God is against us…? God is just and will punish evil. This is a lesson urgently needed today.
