The book is set 20 to 100 years after Jonah.
Nineveh has returned to its sin, and God (who is slow to anger) is not happy.
Nahum is basically sent in to call them toward repentance. They do not listen, so the book describes (very graphically) how God unleashes his wrath upon the people of Nineveh.
I always found it weird that I could not find Nineveh on any maps, until I read this book. No, it will not be on any maps after what God did to them for their sin.
Now I have heard it said that "Oh, thats just the Old Testament God." on things like this, but does that mean they are different Gods? Does not the bible say there is but One God?
I have also heard the argument that God changed.
Oh how foolish, does not the word of God say that he changes not!? You can not improve on God, and it is against the nature of God to change from what is absolute good.
No, the church in America has for some reason rejected these attributes of God because they are not politically correct.
They dont show the 'God of Love' that people want to have.
Instead they show a vision of a God of wrath, anger, hatred, Justice, and Holiness.
The American church has a tendency to focus too much on the Love and Mercy of God which is truely very important! but you should not just focus on one small aspect of God and deny the rest. We tune out what makes us uncomfortable.
What effect does it have on the church when we do this?
Lets take a few looks...
When we deny these aspects of God, then we fail to understand passages in the bible.
Where it says we are to Fear the Lord, all of a sudden we see God as too loving for us to fear, so we change that verse and say it means we are to Respect the Lord. Look at verses that talk about Fear of the Lord in Hebrew, and it turns out the word they use is "Fear", not "respect." Yes, you are to respect the Lord, but you are also told to Fear him.
This is the God who has the power to Cast People Into Hell for eternity.
Speaking of Hell, that is another aspect of God that we often fail to understand. If we only look at the love, then we think 'How can a loving God send people to Hell?'
So people change it a bit, they start thinking things like God wont send people to hell, or God will only send the truly bad people to Hell.
They do not understand that God will only send the truly bad people to hell, but all of mankind is truly bad!
The bible says even our Good works are as filthy rags. (Isa. 64:6)
Thats the polite version. You want to know what the unedited version is? The true translation of that verse is that all of our good works are as used menstrual rags.
Not just blah, but a total eewww. Gross and disgusting. You wouldn't want to touch those good works with a ten foot pole.
Why is this? Because the vast majority of our good works are done with evil intentions. We do good works for men to see, to gain praise and glory, and to gain approval. Often men try to do good works to try and gain salvation.
We are so self centered. So sinful. Man has not only denied that God will send the 'bad people' to hell, but Man has tried to justify himself, saying that he is not bad. Others are.
No. Mankind is sinful. You want proof, let me ask you, do you have to teach a child to lie? To quote Paul Washer, "Do you have to teach a child to be greedy? How about to be vicious to other children? No. They learn that on their own.
Set them free, Discipline a child not, and see what you have in ten years. A monster! "
Genesis 6:5
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Why is this so important? Why am I so concerned about telling you of the wickedness of man? Because a man who does accept his illness can not be healed. A man who continues to trust in his own self righteousness for salvation can not be saved.
The book of Nahum is not only about the wickedness of Nineveh, but it should be seen as a warning to the world.
The main message is this.
Man is Evil, and God is Just. If Man does not Repent and turn to God, then God will destroy them.
Nahum says once again if man does not repent, and does not trust God, then God is Just to destroy them.
Now we seem to have a problem. We see how wicked man truely is. And we are starting to see how Just God is.
God is the Judge of the universe, and on judgment day, we see that his Holiness and righteousness makes it so that he can not let a man off the hook.
Once again, I am going to quote Paul Washer...
"What people do not understand is this... If God is just, He can not forgive men. Its the same as if someone slaughters your entire family, and you caught them and turned them over to the police. The police handed them over to a judge. And the judge said 'I'm a very loving Judge, so I'm going to let this man go free."
You would cry out for justice, you would write the congress, call your senator, you would be on the 6:00 news saying there's a judge more vile on the bench then the men he sets free. A judge must do righteously.
God is the Judge of all the earth, and he will do right.
The problem is, Man has sinned, man must die. Man is under the wrath of God, Jesus our loving savior taught that in John chapter 3. The only way for a Just God to forgive wicked men is to first satisfy his own justice and appease his wrath. And he has done that through the death of his son."
If all you take away from Nahum is that Nineveh was bad, and God didn't like that, then you have been paying no attention to the scriptures.
Now, after seeing these aspects of God, we should take a look at the mercy and love of God. How much Greater is his mercy when we see how wicked and deserving of wrath we are? How much greater his love when we see how undeserving of it we are!
Oh let us not ignore these important aspects of God. For to ignore them is to deny the Power, Holiness, Righteousness, and Justice of our Lord. But more, its to deny his love and mercy.
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