Nahum

To have a high view of God, we must realize he is not like us.

If someone does something wrong to us, we are supposed to forgive.  We are not in the position to judge them as we have done wrong things ourselves.  It is not our place to get revenge. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord (Romans 12:19).”

But God is completely different from us.  He is the one in the position to judge and according to Psalm 50:21 we can be confident he will do so.  Think about this: It is appropriate for God to take revenge.  He is the one who must punish people according to what they have done.

And this is what the book of Nahum is all about:

Nahum 1:2 – The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

In this book we will read about God’s coming judgment of Nineveh.  Previously in Jonah we read about God’s compassion on those people in giving them an opportunity to repent.  But this is a century or so later and now God is ready to judge them because they have returned to their wicked ways.

Believe it or not, this is actually good news to God’s people in Judah that this prophecy is given to.  Nineveh was their enemy who was oppressing them in evil and so it would come as an encouragement to them.  In Revelation 19, it is clear that all who are in heaven rejoice at the judgment of God on the wickedness of the world.  They see it is right for God to be the one who punishes people for their sins.  This is something we will better understand in heaven and praise God for in eternity.  He is the only one who should be in the vengeance business.  And he will do a good job.

If you thought the burn pictures in Pastor Lucas’ power point at Revival X were intense, you will find many similar word pictures here in this book.  The wrath of God is compared to fire and he is breaking rocks into pieces in anger (Nahum 1:6).

There are still verses about God’s goodness (like Nahum 1:7 which is on the Double-Double wrapper) and there are verses about Judah responding to their evil enemy.  But the main theme of this book is the vengeance of God.  Let us raise our view of him to see that when God takes revenge on someone it is not a bad thing.

It is exactly what God should do.