Nahum 2:13 - Homilies By S.d. Hilman

Man incuring the Divine displeasure

"Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts." This attitude of God towards man—

I. IMPLIES WRONG DOING ON MAN 'S PART . God is not thus adverse to man for naught. "His delights are with the sons of men" ( Proverbs 8:31 ). Sin alienates man from God, and causes God to be righteously displeased with man.

II. INVOLVES MAN IN PRESENT DISTRESS . Man cannot be at ease whilst under the ban of Jehovah. "In his favour is life" ( Psalms 30:5 ). Separation from him through sin means disquietude and unrest. "The worst troubler in the world is a wilful heart." "Conscience makes cowards of us all." "The heart melteth, the knees smite together" ( Nahum 2:10 ).

III. RESULTING IN ULTIMATE RUIN TO SUCH AS WILFULLY PERSIST IN SIN . God is " the Lord of hosts. " All power is his. "Who shall stand when he is angry?" ( Psalms 76:7 ). All have sinned, and hence have incurred the displeasure of him who "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;" but in Christ, whose day the seers saw afar off, God is reconciled to man; so that the distress and ruin indicated can alone result from man refusing to be reconciled unto God.—S.D.H.

Nahum 2:13 (with Nahum 1:15 )

The messengers of Nineveh and the messengers of Zion. a comparison.

"And the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. ( Nahum 2:13 ) "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" ( Nahum 1:15 ). Messengers, differing very materially in their character and mission, are referred to in these words. The messengers of Nineveh and the messengers of Zion are alluded to in these passages. A comparison of these respective messengers may prove suggestive and useful in its application to certain developments in these modern times. From the Second Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles we learn that the heralds or messengers of Nineveh cherished the spirit of blasphemy with reference to the God of heaven. The faith of the pious Hebrews consisted in the recognition of the one living and true God, and of his providential care over all his creatures; and it was against this bulwark that the emissaries of Assyria constantly directed their assaults in words foul and filthy (see Rabshakeh's appeal to the Jews, 2 Kings 18:33-35 ; and his letter, 2 Chronicles 32:17 ). The great and distinguishing characteristic of the messengers of Zion was loyalty to the God of heaven. Their feet stood upon the mountains, and their voice proclaimed to the people, "Behold your God!" ( Isaiah 40:9 ); "Thy God reigneth!" ( Isaiah 52:7 ). In the present age there are messengers who boldly declare their non-acceptance of the teaching that recognizes the Divine Being and his working, and who seek to disseminate their views, and in doing so are not particular if they blaspheme the God of heaven. And whilst there are such messengers in the world doing their injurious work, there are also those who are thoroughly loyal to the King of kings, who delight to show forth his praise, to tell the story of his love in the gift and work of Christ, and to seek to draw men in loving obedience to his authority and will. Note certain contrasts, then, suggested; thus—

I. CAPTIVITY IN CONTRAST WITH FREEDOM . The messengers of Nineveh approached Jerusalem, to which Sennacherib was laying siege, but they bore no tidings of liberty. They claimed full submission , and declared that even this must be followed by captivity in a strange land ( 2 Kings 18:31 , 2 Kings 18:32 ). The assurance of ultimata deliverance came from the messengers of the Lord ( Nahum 1:12 , Nahum 1:13 ). Sin is bondage. Evil passions, habits, desires, are fetters; a life of alienation from the true and the right is a life of hard bondage. Transgressors are slaves. And scepticism has nothing to offer such by way of helping them to escape. The messengers may expatiate to such a one upon the nobleness of virtue, may sound in his ears some wise sayings of sages and philosophers, may remind him of the injury he is inflicting upon himself, and bid him "be a man," and "turn over a new leaf." But he is down; he is conscious of moral inability; he lacks inward strength. Lo! the messengers of Zion come. They tell him of the great Father's unwearying love, the Saviour's obedience unto the death of the cross, the energizing and sanctifying Spirit ready to gird him with all-sufficient strength, the elder Brother who has proved his trials and his tears, and who is prepared to be near him in every season of need as his "strong siding Champion." He feels the tidings to be "good;" is bowed low in penitence; his eye of faith turns to the hill called Calvary, and rises to the everlasting hills whence cometh help; the fettered soul is released, is free, for the messengers on the mountains have proclaimed deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison to the bound ( Isaiah 61:1 ).

II. STRIFE IN CONTRAST TO PEACE . The messengers of Nineveh to Judah had nothing conciliatory to convey; they told only of contention and strife. The assurance that peace should ultimately be enjoyed came to the anxious King of Judah from God's messengers, who published peace. The messengers of scepticism have no proclamation of peace to make; their work is altogether destructive; contumely is their delight; to seek to unsettle the minds of men and to shake their faith is their poor mission. It is the privilege, however, of the messengers of Zion to proclaim those spiritual and eternal verities in which the heart may securely and tranquilly repose, and to point to him who can quell every storm and give rest unto the soul.

III. GLOOM IN CONTRAST TO GLADNESS . Hezekiah and his people were in extremity; it was to them a time of "trouble;" but not a ray of hope came to them through the fears were confirmed; the foe was unrelenting. messengers of Nineveh. Their worst Their hope was in God, and in the words spoken by his holy prophets. So in the extremities of life—in sickness and sorrow, and specially at life's close, hope springs not from unbelief, but from the words God has addressed to us through his servants. The gospel has no rival in such seasons. Scepticism has no voice then, or, if it speaks, it. but deepens the prevailing gloom; but the good tidings God has revealed dispels our sadness and fills the soul with immortal hopes. Happy messengers, who are thus enabled to "comfort all that mourn," etc. ( Isaiah 61:2 )!

IV. SHAME IN CONTRAST TO HONOUR . The voice of all messengers who blaspheme the holy Name of God "shall be no more heard," for God will put them to silence; but voices publishing his love and grace shall go sounding on through the ages—the bright succession of proclaimers shall not cease. Growing numbers shall be raised up who shall find their way to all nations and kindreds and tribes, until the glad tidings shall reach every shore, and the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth ( Isaiah 11:9 ).—S.D.H.

Verse 2:1-3:19

Wicked nations: 1. They are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness.

"He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily," etc. We take these two chapters together,

1 . That nations are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness.

2 . That it is the decree of Heaven that, however long they exist, the time must come when they shall be utterly destroyed.

3 . That Providence often employs on, wicked nation to inflict ruin upon another. We shall devote a separate sketch to each of these propositions. Our subject now is that nations are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness. Assyria, the nation referred to here, was one of the oldest kingdoms in the world; it could count its age by centuries. Generation after generation came through centuries, played their part, and passed away, whilst Assyria stood. Its beginning is so far back that it is lost in obscurity. An early reference to it in Scripture will be found in Numbers 24:22 . Reference to its capital, Nineveh, and its founder, Asshur, we have also in Genesis 10:11 . Our proposition suggests two questions—

I. WHAT WERE ITS LEADING CRIMES ? From these chapters we can infer a few.

1 . Rapacity. The city is described as the dwelling place of lions. "Where is the dwelling of the lions?" etc. ( Nahum 2:11 , Nahum 2:12 ). "The point of comparison is," says Keil, "the predatory lust of its rulers and warriors, who crushed the nations like lions, plundering their treasures and bringing them together in Nineveh." As lions prowl about with ravenous instincts in search of their prey, and are utterly regardless of the sufferings and agonies they inflict, so long as they gain their object, so the King of Assyria and his minions went forth to rifle and to ruin distant countries, in order to augment their wealth and promote their aggrandizement. This rapacity seems to have been their habit; the city was a dwelling place of lions. What an enormity is this!—man preying upon man like predatory beasts. The spirit of this rapacity lives too strongly in modern nations. It is seen, not only in aggressive wars, but in trade and commerce—the strong everywhere preying on the weak for the sake of gain.

2 . Cruelty. The lion instinct was so prevailing in the population, that the very city is called "the bloody city" ( Nahum 3:1 ). The golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," was trampled in the dust. Instead of respect being paid to the rights of men, life itself was cheaply held; their feet were "swift to shed blood." It lived by rapine. Its cruelty is handed down in its sculptures, where we have lions of every form, winged and unwinged. Cruelty is the worst stage of depravity. When all social love in the human breast gives way to malevolence, what have you but a devil? There are men in every age and country whose chief pleasure is to inflict torture. Atrocities are being perpetrated to a greater or less extent in all ages and lands. "Beasts," says our great dramatist, "are not cruel save when urged by hunger;" but men are often so, and into a cruel nature it is impossible to work the humane and generous.

"You may as well use question with the wolf,

Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;

You may as well forbid the mountain pines

To wag their high tops, and to make no noise

When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven;

You may as well do anything most hard,

As seek to soften that (than which what's harder?)—

A cruel heart."

3. Imposture. The city is represented as "full of lies and robbery" ( Nahum 3:1 ), or, as Keil renders it, "full of deceit and murder." Falsehood and violence were rampant. The imposture or falsehood is expressed in the fourth verse, "Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts." "The idolatrous practices of the Ninevites, and the means which they employed to seduce others to worship their gods, are here represented as the principal cause of their destruction. At the same time, the commerce, luxury, etc; which they carried to the greatest height, are not to be excluded; for in making contracts and treaties with the more powerful of their neighbours, they not only employed these as inducements, but did not scruple to deliver into their power nations and tribes that were unable to help themselves (comp. Joel 3:3 , Joel 3:6 , Joel 3:8 ; Amos 1:6 ). The metaphor of an unchaste female, and the seductive arts which she employs, is not unfrequent in the prophets" (Henderson). The cunning and deceptive policy is here called whoring or love making, because it was that selfishness which wraps itself up in the dress of love, but under the appearance of love seeks only the gratification of its own lust. It was a mistress of this art, and by it sold nations, deprived them of their independence and liberty. Such are some of the crimes here referred to, of which the Assyrians were pre-eminently guilty—rapacity, cruelty, imposture. These imply every species of moral evil, and moral evil in its most inhuman and ungodly aspects. Where these are there is no rectitude, no benevolence, no moral order, no true religion.

II. WHY WAS SUCH A NATION ALLOWED TO EXIST SO LONG ? It was wicked from the beginning: why did not righteous Heaven crush it at the outset? Why was such a monster of iniquity allowed to perpetrate such enormities in the world from age to age? The question is similar to that which Job asked, "Wherefore do the wicked live, Become old, yea, are mighty in power?" ( Job 21:7 ). Without presuming to penetrate the mind of God, or give the reason, we can see some important purposes which the continuation of the existence of wicked men in this world answers. It serves to show:

1 . The freedom of the human soul . The natural tendency of all the blessings and beauty of life, the spirit of grandeur and beneficence that runs through all nature, are against wickedness and in favour of virtue and holiness. Notwithstanding this, men are wicked. They have a power to resist the Divine, to pervert the good, and outrage their own natures. Here is freedom of nature. Men are not bad by necessity; they are bad by their own free determination.

2 . The wonderful forbearance of God. Though wickedness is to the last degree repugnant to his holy nature, and though by a volition he could annihilate a universe of sinners, through his infinite love he forbears. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" ( 2 Peter 3:9 ).

3 . The existence of a future state of retribution. Under the righteous government of God such a state of things cannot go on forever. There must come an end, a balancing of the world's accounts, and an administration of justice to every soul. Human society is in an abnormal state; like water in a flood, it is hurrying onward to a more settled destination. "The mills of God grind slowly."—D.T.

Verse 2:1-3:19

Wicked nations: 2. However long they exist, they will be utterly destroyed.

"He that dasheth in pieces," etc. "The Scripture," says Sherlock," takes notice of a certain measure of iniquity, which is filling up from one generation to another, till at last it makes a nation or family ripe for destruction. And although these persons on whom this vengeance falls suffer no more than their own personal sin deserved, yet, because the sins of former generations, which they equal or outdo, make it time for God utterly to destroy them, the punishment due to the sins of many generations is said to fall upon them" ( Genesis 15:16 ; 2 Kings 24:3 , 2 Kings 24:4 ; Matthew 23:32-36 ). So thorough was the destruction of Nineveh, that its very site for ages was a matter of conjecture. The wonderful discoveries of Botta in 1842, followed up by Layard in 1845, not only determined its site, but disclosed the dwellings, ornaments, history, manners, of the inhabitants of the old Assyrian metropolis. Now, in the prophecy which Nahum gives, we learn that its destruction reveals several things.

I. THE FRUITLESSNESS OF THE MOST STRENUOUS EFFORTS OF RESISTANCE . "Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily" ( Nahum 2:1 ). This is supposed by some to be ironical, and to mean—Do your utmost to resist, concentrate all your forces, bring them into vigorous play, it will be utterly worthless. No doubt Nineveh, in her extremities, strove to the utmost to crush the invader and to preserve her own existence. But all efforts failed; its doom was sealed, its time had come, it had filled up the measure of its iniquity. There is no resisting God's judgment when it comes. "There is no discharge in that warfare." We learn from this prophecy that its destruction reveals—

II. THAT THE SAME VIOLENCE WITH WHICH IT DESTROYED OTHERS WAS NOW EMPLOYED FOR ITS OWN DESTRUCTION . Nineveh was a city of blood, full of lies and violence, the dwelling place of ravenous lions, which had preyed upon other nations and ruined them. Now this violence is brought to bear upon them. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." See the description given of its conquerors ( Nahum 2:3 ; Nahum 3:2 , Nahum 3:3 ), "The shield of his mighty men is made red," the emblem of slaughter. "The chariots shall be with flaming torches," their wheels rolling with such velocity that they flash lightning from the stones. They "rage in the streets," jostle against each other, and "run like the lightnings," and there are the "noise of the whips," the "rattling of the wheels," the "prancing of the horses," the flashing of the swords and the glittering spears. Crowds are struck down, "a great number of carcases," there is "none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses," etc. The Bible is full of the doctrine of retributive justice; it abounds with examples of sinners receiving back in punishment the very same evils that they have inflicted on others. "Every man shall be rewarded according to his works." How often it happens in the government of the world, that the deceiver is punished by deceit, the ambitious by ambition, the avaricious by avarice, the violent by violence "His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." £

III. THE WORTHLESSNESS OF ITS CHIEF METHOD OF DEFENCE . "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved" ( Nahum 2:6 ). "The river wall on the Tigris (the west defence of Nineveh) was 4530 yards long. On the north, south, and east sides there were large moats, capable of being easily filled with water from the Khosru. Traces of dams, gates, or sluices, for regulating the supply, are still visible, so that the whole city could be surrounded with a water barrier. Besides, on the east, the weakest side, it was further protected by a lofty double rampart, with a moat two hundred feet wide between its two parts, cut in the rocky ground. The moats, or canals, flooded by the Ninevites before the siege to repel the foe, were made a dry bed to march into the city, by the foe turning the water into a different channel, as Cyrus did in the siege of Babylon" (Maurer). This, however, is not substantiated. "In the earlier capture of Nineveh by Arbaces the Mode and Belsis the Babylonian, Diodorus Siculus states that there was an old prophecy, that it should not be taken till the river became its enemy; so, in the third year of the siege, the river, by a flood, broke down the walls twenty furlongs, and the king thereupon burnt himself and his palace and all his concubines and wealth together; and the enemy entered by the breach in the wall" (Fausset). It is often thus with the sinner, that the very things on which he relies contribute to his ruin. It may be wealth, physical strength, genius, morality, etc.; but when judgment comes, these, like the Tigris, "flee away."

IV. THE INEVITABLENESS OF ITS UTTER RUIN . The reason of it was, "I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts" ( Nahum 3:5 ). "Art thou better than populous No?" ( Nahum 3:8-10 )—the Egyptian name for Thebes, the possession of Ammon. The populousness of Thebes and its wonderful natural productions did not save it from ruin. Her "strength" was "infinite," yet she was "carried away into captivity;" if she could not resist, neither canst thou. "How vain," says a modern expositor, "are all the defences of sinners when the Lord is against them! No-Ammon, or Thebes, was one of the grandest and most magnificent cities of the earliest ages. Yet her rampart and seawall, with her seemingly infinite strength, were of no avail to save her young children from being dashed in pieces and all her great men from being bound in chains. Such was to be the doom of Nineveh likewise. God acts on the same unchanging principle in all ages, and in the case of all nations. Unrighteousness towards man and impiety and idolatry towards God bear the same bitter fruits everywhere, however for a time transgressors may seem to prosper. Let us as a nation remember that our safety consists, not in our fleets and armies, nor even in the 'multiplication of our merchants above the stars of heaven' ( Nahum 3:16 ). Riches, like the cankerworm or the grasshopper (verse 17), certainly make themselves wings, they fly away ( Proverbs 23:5 ). The strongholds (verse 12) on which we rely would fall before the invader as easily as the ripe fruit into the mouth of the eater, if God were against us. The nobles and captains who are the glory of England would soon be abased in the dust (verses 17, 18). Our security therefore depends on our godliness. Wickedness persevered in continually (verse 19) would bring on us a grievous wound, not to be healed, and the very nations now in alliance with us would clap their hands over us, exulting in the tidings of our fall Let us therefore repent of our sins as a nation, as families, and as individuals, and 'bring forth worthy fruits of repentance.'"—D.T.

Verse 2:1-3:19

Wicked nations: 3. Providence often employs one wicked nation to inflict ruin upon another.

"He that dasheth," etc. "He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face." "The disperser hath come up before thee" (Henderson); "A dasher in pieces comes against thee" (Keil). Who is "he that dasheth in pieces "? The Medo-Babylonish army. This mighty army, under the command of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, composed of Modes and Babylonians, wrought the terrible destruction so graphically predicted in these chapters. And beneath its triumphant power Nineveh fell, between B.C. 626 and 608—fell to rise no more. Both these powers—the Medes and the Babylonians—were pre-eminently wicked, as bad in every respect, if not worse, than the Assyrians. These were the battle axe with which God broke in pieces the Assyrian power. As a rule, in the government of the world, God employs one wicked nation to destroy another. Who destroyed Edom and Egypt, and Persia and Moab, and Greece and Rome? These were all destroyed by the hands of wicked men. Why this? Why does not the Almighty punish wicked nations by some other way? Why does he not destroy them without any instrumentality whatever, by a mere volition; or, if he employs instrumentality, why not the blind forces of nature, or wild beasts, or poisonous reptiles? Why should he employ wicked men as his instruments? The method clearly answers certain purposes.

I. IT MAKES THE PUNISHMENT APPEAR MORE TERRIBLE . Who would not sooner die by a flash of lightning, or a pestilential blast, or a predatory beast, than in deadly conflict with a man with whom he has measured his strength? In such a death passions are roused that burn in the centre of the soul, and a terrible humiliation is felt. A wicked man can have no greater tormentor than a wicked man. The greatest tormentors of fiends are fiends. In punishing wicked men in this way the Almighty declares to their consciences that they are so wicked that the wicked shall destroy them. Those of their own flesh and blood and character shall wreak vengeance on their head.

II. IT REVEALS THE ENORMITY OF SIN . Man was made to love his brother. His social instincts, his physical relationships, and the law of interdependence, as well as the laws of God, demonstrate this. But when you see him flaming with malign emotions towards his fellows, and wrestling in a deadly conflict, what a revelation of the enormity of sin! The battlefield is at once the product and the type of hell. Such a manifestation of sin is surely hideous enough to make us stand aghast with horror and hate.

III. IT SHOWS GOD 'S MASTERY OVER HUMAN ACTIONS . The wicked engage in bloody wars, and thus become the instruments in administering the just penalties of sin; not to obey the Divine will, but to gratify their own avarice, ambition, malice, and greed. They do not serve Providence by their will, but against it. God is such a Master of human souls that he "maketh the wrath of man to praise him". It is not optional with man whether he shall serve God or not; serve him he must; the option is whether he shall serve him willingly or unwillingly, as an agent or as an instrument. God links the devil himself to that providential chariot which is bearing on his great purposes to their fulfilment.

CONCLUSION . Two things should be remembered in connection with this subject.

1 . That the wickedness of nations does not necessarily imply wickedness in all their members. There are good men in every nation under heaven, even in the worst. There are Noahs, Lots, Daniels, Jobs, amongst the corruptest people.

2 . That the ruin of nations does not necessarily imply the ruin of all their members. Nations are but assemblages of individuals—abstractions, nothing more. They have no future existence; there is no Egypt, Persia, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Germany, Italy, England, etc; in eternity. Nor are there any Churches there, Papal or Protestant, Conformist or Nonconformist. "Public bodies and communities of men, as such, can only be rewarded and punished in this world. This world is the only season for national punishments."

"The individual culprit may sometimes

Unpunished to his after reckoning go.

Not thus collective man; for public crimes

Draw on their proper punishment below

When nations go astray, from age to age

The effects remain, a fatal heritage."

(R. Southey.)