1、Title: NAHUM: The Terrible Wrath of GodBy: Ray C. StedmanScripture: Nahum 1 - 3Date: June 19, 1966Series: Adventuring through the BibleMessage No: 34Catalog No: 234Page 1NAHUM: The Terrible Wrath Of Godby Ray C. StedmanThe book of Nahum is one that is neglected b e-cause it is so obscure, and so sma
2、ll that it is seldomread and much less frequently understood. Butevery portion of Scripture is indispensable; eachhas its own contribution to make. This is why theApostle Paul could say, “All scripture is inspiredby God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, forcorrection, and for training in rig
3、hteousness, thatthe man of God may be complete, equipped forevery good work,” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 RSV). Andthis little prophecy of Nahum is no exception.When you read this you may feel that it is arather dry account of ancient history, but, actually,this prophecy reveals something of God moreclearly tha
4、n any other book of the Bible. It is thejob of the prophet to reveal to us the character ofGod. The prophets unfold for us the divine attri b-utes and each sees God in a different light. As youread through the prophets, therefore, you are seeingone facet after another, flashing like a diamond inthe
5、sunlight, of the mighty character and attributesof an eternal God.Now the attribute which the prophet Nahumwas given to reveal was Gods anger. There is nodoctrine quite as repugnant to people today as thatof the anger of God. This is one doctrine whichmany would like to forget. There are some whopic
6、ture God as a kindly gentleman with a merrytwinkle in his eye who cannot bear the thought ofpunishing anyone or judging anyone. Nevertheless,it was Nahums task to unfold the anger of Godand in this prophecy the God of Sinai flashes forthin awful fury, a God before whom man must standsilent and tremb
7、ling. You cannot read this prop h-ecy without sensing something of the solemnity ofthis tremendous picture of God.As we begin this book it is important to knowwhy and at whom God is so angry. This prophecyis directed against the city of Nineveh to whomGod sent the prophet Jonah. When Jonah preachedi
8、n Nineveh, the city repented in sackcloth andashes. Gods anger was withheld from the city andhe spared it, because from the king on down to thelowest citizen, they turned to God and repented oftheir sins.The book of Nahum comes some one hundredyears after the prophecy of Jonah. During thistime, Nine
9、veh had repented of its repentance, andhad begun to do the same things again that calledforth the threat of judgment through the prophetJonah. The prophet Nahum was sent to minister tothe southern kingdom of Judah at the time of theinvasion of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. KingSennacherib who came
10、from the capital city ofSyria, Nineveh, invaded Israel at the time of theprophet Isaiah, and it was from this great city in thenorth that the armies of the Syrians frequentlycame against the land of Judah and of Israel. ButGod moved to protect his people and met and d e-stroyed these enemies of the
11、king overnight.Nahum means “consolation, or comfort.” Andas the Assyrian army was spread out around thecity of Jerusalem, the prophet was given a messageof consolation. You can imagine how consoling itwas when the armies were right there with theirterrible reputation as ruthless warriors, burning an
12、ddestroying, raping and pillaging, killing the childrenand sparing no one to have this prophet stand upin Jerusalem and declare to them that God woulddestroy Nineveh, the capital city of their enemies.This is one of those parts of prophecy inScripture which already has been fulfilled. Muchof Scriptu
13、re remains to be fulfilled, and many ofthe predictions of the Old Testament prophets lookbeyond our own day to a time when the Lord willcome again. But as we look at this book, we seeprophecies that have long since come to pass. Thisis one of the great proofs that the Book of God isNAHUM: The Terrib
14、le Wrath of GodPage 2from God, for there is a description here of exactlyhow this destruction would occur, given years b e-fore it took place. Those who are interested inapologetics might use this in talking with some whochallenge the fact that the Word of God is predi c-tive.We can divide the book
15、of Nahum into foursections, and each of them is a description of theanger of God.I think the simplest way to describe this firstsection, this vision of God in his wrath, is to simplyuse the Anglo-Saxon word “ terrible .” These arebeautiful poetic expressions, but they powerfullypicture the wrath of
16、God (Chapter 1, Verses 2-6):The Lord is a jealous God and avenging,the Lord is avenging and wrathful;the Lord takes vengeance on his adversa r-iesand keeps wrath for his enemies.The Lord is slow to anger and of greatmight,and the Lord will by no means clear theguilty.His way is in whirlwind and stor
17、m,and the clouds are the dust of his feet.He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,he dries up all the rivers;Bashan and Carmel wither,the bloom of Lebanon fades.The mountains quake before him,the hills melt;the earth is laid waste before him,the world and all that dwell therein.Who can stand before his
18、indignation?Who can endure the heat of his anger?His wrath is poured out like fire,and the rocks are broken asunder by him.Nahum 1:2-6 RSVWhat a description that is! The prophet seesGod in his anger looking at the hosts of Assyria.There are some men and women who live in a pe r-petual temper. Their
19、hot tempers boil over at theslightest provocation, but the interesting thing isthat people do not usually fear this kind of a pe r-son. They pity them or they make jokes aboutthem. There are other people who are more quietand peaceful by nature. It takes a long time to stirthem up. They endure irrit
20、ations for a long time,but when their patience is exhausted and at lastthey are brought to a boil, watch out. They areterrible in anger.That is the picture that the prophet gives here,of an infinitely patient God. As the prophet says,“He is slow to anger.” He does not move rapidly.He has given this
21、city chance after chance to r e-pent. He has sent prophet after prophet afterprophet. They did believe one prophet and r e-pented their evil ways, and God spared the jud g-ment he said he would bring. But they repentedfrom their repentance. That is one of the most te r-rible things that men can do.
22、Having turned fromtheir evil, they went back to what they had saidthey would forsake, and this is what evokes thejudgment of God at last.God is angry, and this is no temper tantrum.There is nothing capricious about the anger of God.There is nothing selfish about it. It is a controlledbut terrible ra
23、ge, fearsome to behold. You can getsome idea of the awfulness of this divine anger inthe fact that all the Hebrew words for wrath or a n-ger are brought together in these six verses. Thewords are: jealous, vengeance, wrath, anger, indi g-nation, fierceness, fury. All of them describe theanger of God
24、.Jealousy, that burning zeal for a cause felt sodeeply in the heart. This is not the selfish, pettyjealousy we exhibit sometimes, but Gods ove r-whelming concern for what he loves. His veng e-ance, or retribution; his wrath, that towering anger,the blackness of it, the darkness of it, is describedhe
25、re. The word for anger is the word that literallymeans “heavy breathing,” or “hot breathing.” Andthe word for indignation literally means “foamingat the mouth”! You can see how picturesque thesewords are. The word fierceness in Hebrew literallymeans “heat,” and the word fury means “burning.”And all
26、this to describe a God who is terrible in hiswrath, moved at last to the point of pouring out hiswrath upon that which has awakened it. God in awhite-hot passion, burning with a terrible, bliste r-ing rage.The second section, beginning with Verse 8 ofChapter 1, brings before us another aspect of his
27、anger. Here we learn that the wrath of God, or theanger of God, can be personal , for this is all d i-rected against a single individual. In Verse 11 youhave reference to Sennacherib, the general of theAssyrian armies.NAHUM: The Terrible Wrath of GodPage 3Did one not come out from you,who plotted ev
28、il against the Lord,and counseled villainy?Nahum 1:11 RSVGods anger was all directed against this paganking who deliberately plotted to destroy the people,after God had visited his city with grace and hadsaved them from his anger. Verse 12 refers to thevisit of the angel of death when Sennacherib ca
29、medown with his armies before Jerusalem. In Isaiah,Chapters 36 and 37, you have the description ofhow the Assyrian armies came down and spreadout before the city of Jerusalem. Then with taun t-ing challenges to King Hezekiah, they told him theywere going to take the city and that there was nostrengt
30、h that could stand against them. Isaiah tellsus how Hezekiah took these messages and spreadthem before the Lord and asked God to save thecity, even with the armies of Assyria surroundingit. And that night, we are told, the angel of deathwent through the Assyrian hosts and slew 185,000soldiers (Isa 3
31、7:36). That is referred to in Verses12-13:Thus says the Lord,“Though they be strong and many,they will be cut off and pass away.Though I have afflicted you,I will afflict you no more.And now I will break his yoke from off youand will burst your bonds asunder.”Nahum 1:12-13 RSVAs a result of this, th
32、e Assyrian armies wentback and Jerusalem was saved. (There is an inte r-esting construction there in the Hebrew. It says,“When they woke up in the morning behold theywere all dead men.” Of course, the ones who wokeup in the morning were the Israelites and not theAssyrians.)Verse 14 was literally ful
33、filled in the murder ofSennacherib. When the angel went through thecamp the Assyrian general was spared, and he r e-turned to Nineveh. But while he was worshippinghis false gods in the temple after returning from thisengagement with Israel, he was murdered by hisown two sons, who stole the crown for
34、 themselves.We read here (Verse 14):The Lord has given commandment aboutyou:“No more shall your name be perpet u-ated;from the house of your gods I will cut offthe graven image and the molten image.I will make your grave, for you are vile.”Nahum 1:14 RSVYears before that happened the prophet Nahumwa
35、s told that God would deal with this man in hisown temple, in the house of his gods, and make hisgrave there. Gods anger sought him out andstruck him down. In Verse 15 you have the joyfulshout that went up from Jerusalem when the newscame of Sennacheribs death:Behold, on the mountains the feet of hi
36、mwho brings good tidings,who proclaims peace!Keep you feasts, O Judah,fulfill your vows,for never again shall the wicked comeagainst you,he is utterly cut off. Nahum 1:15 RSVWhat a picture this is of the fact that Godswrath can be directed against a person. This iswhat people are so slow to believe.
37、 They say thatGod is a God of love. How can he possibly punishanybody? This is the argument. When it is me n-tioned that Gods justice demands that he punishus, they say that this cannot be so. Gods love isgreater than his justice, they say, and therefore,under no circumstances can Gods justice cause
38、him to punish. There are many who are sufferingunder this delusion. But here is a man who wassingled out, as the prophet tells us, to bear thebrunt of the wrath of God, this man who was r e-sponsible for the depredations against Judah.Now, there is a third section, comprising all ofChapter 2, which
39、reveals still another aspect ofGods anger: he is thorough . Here God is addres s-ing Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and hesays (Verse 1):The shatterer has come up against you.Man the ramparts;watch the road;gird your loins;collect all your strength.Nahum 2:1 RSVNAHUM: The Terrible Wrath of Go
40、dPage 4How dramatically this is put, as though thewatchman is looking out and he sees the armies ofthe Babylonians coming up to destroy the city ofNineveh. History tells us that the combined armiesof Cyaxares and Nabopolasser, the father of Neb u-chadnezzar, came up against Nineveh and thisarmy is c
41、alled the “Shatterer.” “The Shatterer hascome.” Here is the way the account of the battle inthe city begins (Verses 3-5):The shield of his mighty men is red,his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.The chariots flash like flamewhen mustered in array;the chargers prance.The chariots rage in the streets,th
42、ey rush to and fro through the squares;they gleam like torches,they dart like lightning.The officers are summoned,they stumble as they go,they hasten to the wallthe mantelet is set up.Nahum 2:3-5 RSVThis fourth verse sounds like it is describingthe freeway: “The chariots rage in the streets, theyrus
43、h to and fro through the squares; they gleam liketorches, they dart like lightning.” As a matter offact, that verse has often been interpreted to be aprediction of automobiles, which is a very goodexample of the folly of removing a verse from itscontext. It has nothing to do with automobiles,althoug
44、h it can be made to describe them in “theygleam like torches, they dart like lightning.” It issimply a predictive description of the battle thatraged in the streets of Nineveh as the Babylonianscame up against it.In Verse 6 you have an amazing, direct prop h-ecy of the manner in which the city of Ni
45、nevehwould be taken:The river gates are opened,the palace is in dismay; Nahum 2:6 RSVThe Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, r e-corded an account of how the city of Nineveh fell,and this is what he said:There was an old prophecy that Ninevehshould not be taken till the river become anenemy with the
46、city. And in the third year ofthe siege, the river being swollen with conti n-ual rains overflowed every part of the city andbroke down the wall for twenty furlongs.Then the king of Nineveh thinking that theoracle was fulfilled and the river became anenemy of the city, built a large funeral pile int
47、he palace and collected together all hiswealth and his concubines and his eunuch,burnt himself and the palace with them all.And the enemy entered at the breach that thewaters had made and took the city.In other words, they came in through the rivergates. The Babylonian armies came in through theplac
48、e where the river had broken out and floodedthe city and because of this mistaken idea of thekings, the Babylonians found them all gathered inthe palace and there they put them to death. Andthis is exactly what Nahum had predicted yearsbefore.The river gates are opened,the palace is in dismay. Nahum
49、 2:6 RSVNow that is how thoroughly Gods anger workswhen it begins to move in judgment. Nothing e s-capes. Remember that old saying, “Although themills of God grind slow, they grind exceedinglysmall.”There is a story of the agnostic who made funof a Christian farmer because he refused to workon his fields on Sunday. The agnostic always wentout every Sunday to work in his fields, and at theend of the year he came to his Christian neighborand taunted him. He said, “Look, you are a Chri s-tian and you dont work on Sunday, and you havehad a fairly good crop, b
