Nahum 3:8-13 - Homiletics

The story of No-Amon.

I. THE BRILLIANT CITY .

1 . Its sacred name. No-Amon, in Egyptian, Nu-Amun , or "Dwelling of Amun;" in Greek, θῆβαι , or Thebes, with which corresponded the Egyptian Ta-ape, or "City of Thrones." Originally the capital of a home, it subsequently rose to be a royal city. It became the residence of the Theban dynasty of Pharaohs. Homer describes it as having had a hundred gates ('Iliad,' 9:383).

2 . Its impregnable situation. "Among the rivers [or, 'canals']." "In all the long course of the Nile there is no site that can compare with that of Thebes," writes Stanley Leathes. At Thebes "the mountains (Libyan and Arabian) open out a great ampbitheatre, such as a king would choose to build his capital therein." "Nothing more lovely than this great amphitheatre, with its border of yellow sand and rampart of cliffs, can be seen in all the land of Egypt" ('Picturesque Palestine,' etc; 4:190,191). With the Nile running through, and canals formed round it, the city enjoyed a strong natural position.

3 . Its military strength.

II. THE DISASTROUS OVERTHROW .

1 . Its unexpected occurrence. "Yet was she carried away." Notwithstanding her regal magnificence and boasted strength, she was captured and destroyed. Of this humiliation of Egypt's proud capital the monuments afford express information. Rudammon, the nephew (son of his sister) and successor of Tirhakah of Egypt, sat upon the throne. In an expedition against Egypt and Ethiopia, Assurbanipal of Assyria marched his forces first against Memphis, which Rudammon incontinently left, and then against Thebes, into which the alarmed fugitive had fled to save his life. The Assyrian king thus relates the issue of his campaign:" After Rudammon the road I took; I went to Thebes, the strong city; the approach of my powerful army he saw, and Thebes he abandoned, and fled to Kipkip. That city (Thebes), the whole of it, in the service of Assur and Ishtar, my hands took; silver, gold, precious stones, the furniture of his palace, all there was; garments costly and beautiful, great horses, people male and female, two lofty obelisks covered with beautiful carvings.; a hundred talents their weight, set up before the gate of a temple; with them I removed and brought to Assyria. Its spoils unnumbered I carried off. From the midst of Thebes, over Egypt and Ethiopia, my servants I caused to march, and I acquired glory. With the tributes peacefully I returned to Nineveh, the city of my dominion".

2 . Its frightful severity. In addition to the information supplied by the Assyrian conqueror, the sacred narrative declares that it was accompanied by heart-rending excesses.

III. THE PROPHETIC WARNING . The fate of No-Amon will one day overtake Nineveh.

1 . Righteously. "Thou also shalt be drunken." Nineveh will be made to drink of the cup of Jehovah's wrath on account of her sins ( Isaiah 51:17 , Isaiah 51:21 ; Obadiah 1:16 ). As Jehovah dealt with the Egyptian capital, so will he deal with the Assyrian. "The particle 'also' is here emphatical; it was introduced that the Ninevites might know that they could not possibly escape the punishment which they deserved; for God continues ever like himself" (Calvin).

2 . Resistlessly. "Thou also shalt seek a stronghold because of [or, 'a defence against'] the enemy." Nineveh would call in vain for allies to help her against the terrible Medo-Babylonian power, as No-Amon had fruitlessly looked to surrounding peoples for aid against Nineveh.

3 . Easily. "All thy fortresses shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater." The ramparts of Nineveh will go down at the first touch of the foe. "Hence a useful doctrine may be deduced: whatever strength men may seek for themselves from different quarters, it will wholly vanish away; for neither forts, nor towers, nor ramparts, nor troops of men, nor any kind of contrivances will avail anything; and were there no one to rise against them, they would yet fall of themselves" (Calvin).

4 . Surprisingly. "Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land are set wide open to thine enemies." The very last thing Nineveh would ever dream of would be that her warriors, hitherto invincible, would become faint-hearted as women, and that her fortresses would be as easily passed through as opened gates. Yet exactly these two things were what should happen to Nineveh.

5 . Utterly. "The fire hath devoured thy bars," and "thou shalt be hid." Nineveh should perish in flames and pass away as if she had never been, her very site for centuries remaining unknown.

LESSONS.

1 . The worthlessness, for nations and cities, as for individuals, of purely material glory.

2 . The certain ruin of nations, cities, and individuals who do not build on the only permanent foundation of righteousness.

3 . The frequency with which, in the history of nations, no less than of private persons, coming events cast their shadows before.