God Is The Lion-Killer (Nahum 2:1-13)

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God Is The Lion-Killer (Nahum 2:1-13) Series

Contributed by Garrett Tyson on Jan 12, 2022 (message contributor)

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Scripture: Nahum 2:1-13

Summary: God tells Israel He is killing the lion (Assyria) before He does it, so the people understand that this is not a lucky fluke. This is God, revealing his power and love for them.

I'm not sure of the best way to describe our passage for today, Nahum 2. You could call it sarcastic, or mocking. You could call it a taunt. This chapter has the kind of bite you only find in people who have been badly hurt or offended by someone, and who anticipate getting to gloat over them when disaster strikes.

Imagine that your spouse leaves you for someone else, and then gets cheated on. Or your boss fires you, and then gets fired. You may not let yourself voice the thoughts in your head... but the thoughts are right there.

And it's for this reason that lots of Christians struggle with Nahum. They think that Nahum represents a less advanced ("evolved") form of religion. They think Jesus' words about loving your enemies, and praying for those who persecute you, are at odds with Nahum.

Now, there are certainly psalms, where we have to wrestle with these questions. But Nahum, even though it's sarcastic, and mocking, and a taunt, is also something else-- Nahum tells us that these are Yahweh's own words.

And that should make us reconsider how we read it. Nahum is Scripture. It is, directly, God's word.

The chapter begins, in verse 2, with Nahum sarcastically addressing Ninevah. He calls the city to ready itself for the defense of the city. Someone is coming up against them, and now is the time to prepare:

Verse 1:

(2:1) A scatterer has come up against you!

Guard the fortification!

Watch the road!

Make strong the loins!

Strengthen a great strength!

My wife babysits a two year old during the day, and he LOVES legos. But he is a scatterer at heart. He will tear apart the houses my children work hard to build, and doesn't stop until they are in pieces. When the scatterer comes against you, you need to ready yourself.

And we maybe smile about this, because we are talking about kids and legos. But imagine being Ninevah. You've worked hard to become THE world's superpower. You are wealthy, and strong. You're determined to keep what you have. If you heard Nahum's words, and take them seriously... you'd heed his call here. Now is the time to prepare-- both from a military perspective, and from a mental/emotional perspective. It's time to psych yourself up for what's about to come.

In verse 2, Nahum explains why the scatterer is coming:

(2) For Yahweh shall restore the pride/majesty of Jacob, as the pride/majesty of Israel.

For ravagers have ravaged them,

while their vine shoots they have ruined.

The scatterer is coming against Ninevah, why? "Because Yahweh is working to restore the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel."

What does this line mean?

There was a time when "Israel" was a single, undivided kingdom. Under King David, and King Solomon, the nation was prosperous, and powerful. Regionally, at least, it was a force to be reckoned with. Right now, by contrast, the kingdom has been reduced to just "Jacob." And "Jacob" has had a rough time of it-- the nation has been ravaged. "Jacob" looks more like a country after we've attacked it-- Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan.

In the last line of verse 2, we read this: "While their vine shoots they have ruined."

"Vine shoots" are the new growth on a vine. You can tell if a plant is doing well, not by how big it is, but by how well it's growing. Vine shoots are evidence of health, and prosperity, and expansion.

Ninevah has left Jacob without hope-- without any prospect for something good.

But God is going to fix that.

Starting in verse 3, Nahum gives a picture of the scatterer. He describes the assault, and siege, and capture of Ninevah. But this is not a dry historical account. It's poetic-- it's more like a series of pictures, being shown to you quickly, one after another. And you have to struggle to keep up-- it all happens really fast (which is maybe partly the point?).

Rather than break these verses down slowly, and help you make sense of it, I'll leave explanations for the footnotes (which didn't carry over to this website, sorry), and let you just get the force of it as a whole:

(3) The small shield of his warriors is dyed red.

Mighty men are clothed in crimson,

as the fire of steel, the chariots [are/shall be] on the day he appoints /prepares,

while the horses quiver.

(4) Through the streets they will act/drive like madmen;

The chariots will rush to and fro in the open places;

their appearance is like torches;

like lightning they dart.

(5) He (=the scatterer) remembers his nobles/officers;

they stumble in their marching;

they rush to her wall,

and the protective screen is put in place.

(6) The gates of the rivers have been opened,

while the palace has tottered /despaired/melted,

(7) and it is decreed, "she has been exiled; she has been led away,"

while her slave women are moaning like the sound of doves,

beating on their heart,

(8) while Ninevah is like a pool/cistern of water from her days,

while (=but) they are fleeing.

"Stand! Stand!",

while there is no one turning back.

(9) Plunder the silver!

Plunder the gold!,

while there is no end to the supply.

An abundance of every precious object;

(10) Emptiness/desolation, and wasteland, and devastation,

while the heart faints,

while tottering/trembling, the knees [do],

while shaking, in all their loins,

while all their faces have grown pale.

Nahum began by calling Ninevah to ready itself for a scatterer/invader. But he does so, knowing that it's hopeless for them. The city will be besieged, and conquered, and plundered.

Assyria at this point had been a superpower for hundreds of years, and it showed in her vast wealth. Ninevah was a city without parallel-- no end to the gold, and silver, and precious objects. But the scatterer will take it all, leaving Ninevah like a wasteland.

And Ninevah, no matter how hard it works to prepare itself mentally and emotionally for this battle, is going to end the battle unable to even stand. Their bodies will betray them, when they realize it's hopeless. Their hearts will faint. Their knees will tremble. Their loins will shake. Their faces will grow pale. All they will be able to do, in the end, is collapse, and accept their fate. Accept the sword that runs them through.

In verses 11-12, Nahum raises sarcastic questions-- taunting questions-- to Ninevah:

(11) Where is the den of lions,

and the feeding place for the young lions?

Where has the lion, the lioness gone?

There is the cub of the lion,

and there is no one making [them] afraid.

(12) The lion tears apart as much as needed for his cubs,

and he strangles for his lioness,

and he fills up with prey, his holes,

while his den [he fills with] torn flesh.

In their own writings, the Assyrian kings boasted about how they were like lions. They bragged about their cruelty, and violence, and their domination of the nations. They were, truly, lions.

Here, Nahum calls out-- where did the lions go? Everyone's used to tiptoeing around the lion, hoping not to provoke it, or end up as the next meal. But where are they?

When we were at Yellowstone as a family a couple years ago, there was a sign at the entrance to one of the trails.

There was a deer carcass by one of the lakes, and a bear had been feeding on it over several days. The deer was HIS torn flesh, and the sign warned hikers to use caution. The bear was super protective of it.

When you start your hike seeing a sign like that, you hike differently. You pick a different trail, but... still. You're not casually talking with your spouse or kids. You're searching the woods with your eyes; you're listening for noises not caused by the wind. You're... cautious? Scared? And when a biker comes flying around the corner at you without warning, you jump (but manage not to bear mace her).

Now, when you go hiking somewhere where there's no bear, it's a completely different thing. You walk; you enjoy the sounds of nature; you enjoy the time spent with family.

You can tell when the lion is gone. And you're happy about it. You're tired of living in fear; you're tired of turning into food. And so you stand on a rock, and you call out, taunting: "Where is the lion?"

In verse 13, Nahum brings his oracle to its conclusion:

(14) LOOK! I am against you --utterance of Yahweh of Armies,

and I will burn with smoke, her chariots,

while your strong lions, the sword shall devour,

and I will cut off from the earth your prey,

and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

In the end, Ninevah's enemy is not human. Yahweh of Armies is the one opposing her. And so God himself calls to Ninevah, to get her attention. LOOK! SEE ME! SEE WHO IS FIGHTING YOU!

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So that's Nahum 2. What do we think about it? What do we do with it?

One of the classic arguments that's designed to "prove" that God doesn't exist, is the problem of evil.

When you look at the world, and see all of the evils and terrible things people do to each other, how can you believe that God exists? Either, the argument goes, God is not All-Powerful, OR, God is not very loving.

Now, when you people making this argument, it's obvious that they aren't trying to disprove the existence of some generic, anonymous god. They are trying to say that YOUR God doesn't exist-- the God of the Bible, the God who made heaven and earth, the God who sits enthroned over all.

I'm not sure how bothered people really are by this argument. From a strict, logical, point of view, has this ever made someone abandon their faith?

But when life gets hard, we find ourselves-- at an emotional level-- wrestling with these things.

When life gets hard, do you wonder if God really loves you? Do you wonder just how powerful God is, really?

In the OT, at least, God's people tend to struggle more with the idea that God is really The More Powerful One, than with whether or not God loves them. And my gut, is that this tends to be our struggle as well.

When we are faced with an enemy-- whether that enemy is human, or Sin, or disease, or something demonic-- we doubt whether God is actually stronger than that enemy on a practical level. Abstractly, in a vacuum, we understand that God is powerful. We say that He is. But when it really matters, in the moment? We see our enemy, and we panic. We think this the end for us.

This isn't something we talk about out loud. It's something half-spoken, in our hearts. We doubt God, because our enemy is too big, and too dangerous. We know that our enemy is far more powerful than we are. We are prey; we are what get's dragged into the lions' den, to feed the cubs.

Any Israelite looking at Assyria would understand that this was the most impressive superpower the world had ever seen. You look at the nation, and her capital, and you know: This is "Mission Impossible." No one could possibly break through the defenses, and kill the king. This is a lion that can't be taken down.

But Yahweh is about to do it. He's going to use some foreign army to do it, in part. But Yahweh himself is coming against her. And what does God want from Israel? He's not calling for Jerusalem to join in the attack. Israel has no role in what's about to happen. What God wants, is for Israel to understand what it's about to see.

When 9/11 happened, millions of Americans across the country went to church that Sunday. Everyone wanted their pastor to explain where God was in those events. We knew what the terrorists were doing-- but what was God doing? What was his role? Why did it happen? And every pastor, as far as I know, couldn't say for sure. They were pastors, not prophets. And without a prophetic word, it's hard to know how to view some historical event. You can see what happened, but you need prophetic glasses, to understand what you're seeing.

In Nahum, God is going to topple the Assyrian empire. And He's doing this to restore the majesty and glory of Israel. Israel is about to regain her freedom. But it's important to God, that his people understand why and how all of this is happening. When Ninevah falls, it's not going to be a fluke. It's not a lucky break. It's God. God is fighting for you, against your enemies.

Now, God knows that his people struggle to trust in his power. And so He (through Nahum) describes the assault, and siege, and fall, of Ninevah in (some) detail. Picture, in your heads, chariots racing through the town, cutting down everyone who stands on the streets. Picture the enemy sprinting to the walls, getting the protective covers in place. Picture the engineers opening up the gates of the rivers, creating (somehow) a weakness in the city walls. Picture the capture of the city, and the despair of all of Ninevah's citizens. Picture the most battle-hardened soldiers, collapsing in defeat.

Babe Ruth is famous in baseball for one at bat in particular. In the batter's box, he pointed toward center field-- calling a homerun. And then he did it. In Nahum 2, God is like Babe Ruth, calling it. God says He will kill the lion. And then he did.

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If God can take down Assyria, He can do anything. There is no enemy who can stand against God, and successfully resist God. Everyone who has ever tried, ended up in a body bag.

Know that there is no impossible mission for God. There is no enemy too strong for Him.

What God wants from you, is for you to have confidence in Him. In the moment, when things seem impossible, trust in your God's power. Know that God loves you. Know that He is the More Powerful One. Know that God is the lion killer. And call out to him for help, in confidence. Have faith in your God.

Translation:

(1) A scatterer has come up against you!