The Book of the Vision of Nahum - November 2nd, 2025

If you guys can stand with me and uh I'll read Naum chapter one verses one to three. We're starting a new book of the Bible today. So we're gonna be looking at Nahum chapter one, verses one to three. It's about right in the middle of your Bibles, and it reads the oracle of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkishite. A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh. Yahweh is avenging and wrathful. Yahweh is avenging against his adversaries, and he keeps his anger for his enemies. Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power, and Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Let's pray together. Father, we're thankful that you call us this day into your house to worship you in song and prayer.

And now as we avail our hearts to hear your word, Lord, we are here to feed off of your truth. So I pray that you would help us to be free of any distraction, any sleepiness or anything that comes that'll impede our understanding and intake of your truth. We pray that you would really speak clearly to us, and that this morning's service will be a source of so much strength and comfort, so that we would be empowered to live to please Christ. So we ask that you would bless this time, guard, protect, and guide it. And we pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. Well, a few years ago, uh we finished a family trip at Yellowstone National Park, and our family was on the return home.

And if you guys know that route, uh we were on the 15th southbound, and at about the 15 and 91 freeways near like Riverside, a driver almost swerved into us, and he just barely missed us, and he kept driving as if nothing had happened. He was driving recklessly, almost as if drunk, just swerving in and out of the lanes. And so we kept our distance from the car as he was clearly impaired. And then when he started running into the little line of poles that separate the carpool lane from the fast lane, you guys know those little line of poles. He started just hitting them. We were thinking, okay, something's really wrong. So the driver was severely impaired, and we feared that perhaps that he was dying or losing consciousness and in need of medical attention.

At the very least, he was endangering many people because he was driving at a highway speed, but he kept going, and so we followed the car all the while keeping our distance. And my wife, who was on the passenger side, she called the police, gave them our approximate location on the freeway. She described the car, and then she made a report. And when she got off the phone, she said with some exasperation, imagine her voice, okay, because I don't do a good job imitating her voice. Where is the highway patrol when you really need them? Now we've been married nearly 19 years, and that's the only time I've ever heard her lament not seeing the highway patrol on the freeway. Usually when she's sitting on the passenger side and I'm driving, she's hoping that the highway patrol isn't nearby on our stretch of highway.

And I assume that we can all visualize a scene like this, and I can assume you all understand the emotion of all of that. Depending on what side of justice you are on, we want the representatives of that justice either very present or completely absent. If we're breaking the law, we don't want to be in the presence of law enforcement officers. And we have three of them at our church, so please don't be breaking the law. But if something or some or something unjust or illegal was happening to us, if we are the victim, we would delight in the fact that law enforcement officers are nearby because we want their help. We want them actually to witness our grievances. We want them to see our suffering.

We would want them to act and to act swiftly. And we want the law to give us justice by any means necessary, and we would love to have the law unleashed on our transgressors. So the authorities would be a source of great comfort. One, if we are in need of their help, and two, more importantly, if they are good and just. So the law and the representatives of the law would be a source of comfort if they are our protection and if they are good and just.

That's a great source of comfort for the people of Judah. So the book of Nahum is a book whose purpose is ultimately to comfort God's people. And that's actually the very meaning of the name Nahum. When people are named things in the scriptures, usually there's a point, right? So the word the name Nahum means comfort or comforter in the Hebrew. It's similar in meaning to the name Nehemiah, which is basically Nahum with Yahweh's name added onto the end of it to mean Yah comforts or God comforts. So this book, Nahum, filled with wrath, vengeance, and justice, is a source of immense comfort. And I'm going to remind us of a very powerful verse in the epistle to the Roman church. And you guys have probably seen or heard this verse before.

Romans 8:31 to 32. What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who is against us? He who indeed did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? If you're familiar with the Bible, Romans chapter 8 is one of the most beloved chapters on the goodness and the love and the sovereignty of God and the whole of the scriptures. It begins with the truth that in Christ Jesus, there is therefore no longer any condemnation for the believer.

So that means neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, nor any accuser or transgressor could ever prevail against us and separate us from the love of God. So if God is for us, no foe can be against us. Amen.

But this verse would read terrifyingly if we were to simply switch up a couple of the words in the yellow and read it like this. What shall we say then to these things? If God is against us, who is for us? So if we're on the wrong side of the justice of God, what in the world, what in the heavens could we ever ally ourselves with to prevail against God? It's like the name meaning of the name and Sikan. Her name means what is stronger than God, right? That's the meaning of her name. Nothing. So while the book of Nahum is all about condemnation and doom for the Ninevites, those of the Assyrian Empire, it's a great comfort for the people of God. So the book of Nahum is a terror to the enemies of God, but immense comfort for the people of God.

So today we're going to do a follow-up series to the sermon series of Jonah, and we're going to be in the book of Nahum for a couple months and a little bit into the new year. So today's going to be an introduction to the series, and I'm going to give you the outline here. First, we're going to be looking at the historical context of the book of Nahum. So you're going to have to pay a little bit of kind of attention, okay? Because there's things that are going to be happening. Secondly, we're going to be launching off of verses 2 and 3 to see the character of God in Nahum and the attributes that the short prophecy will be highlighting. And then we're going to close just with a general look at how the wrath of God is a source of great comfort for the people of God, for you and me.

Okay. So the prophecy begins with the subject and with the author. Nahum 1 1, the oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkishite. Okay. So let me start with the author first, as that one is a little quicker. All that we know about the prophet Nahum is that he is from Elkhash. And the exact location of this area known as Al Khash is important is impossible for us to know with any certainty. That's why I put all the possible places with question marks around them. First, it could be Al-Khash, which is in modern day Iraq. And that area of Al-Khash would be in ancient Nineveh. So that would be interesting. Because then the prophet Nahum's family would have been from that area before they had gotten taken over.

So he's got some vested interest in writing this. The second possibility of El Kosh could be Kapernahum, which is near the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum literally means the village of Nahum. Okay? And that would be in a different area. Northern Kingdom. Or thirdly, if you're going off of Nahum 115, he could have been from the people of Judah, which is in the south. So basically, he's either from near Nineveh, or he's from the northern kingdom, or he's from the south in Judah. None of that affects how we understand the text, but that would be of great interest. It's kind of like China is watching North and South Korea in the middle of a war, and depending on if the Nahum is writing from China or North Korea or South Korea, the context would be a little bit different.

But that again, that doesn't change anything. And so that is all that we know about the human agent through which the prophecy comes. Okay, and that's it. Now about the historical context in Nahum, we know a lot. So remember how I had previously said that the prophecies of Jonah and Nahum are like the book ends of God's dealing with the Assyrian Empire. Jonah's prophecy was focused on God's mercy toward Assyria. It was written between 780 and 7.6. Assyria, which was very well known for its barbarism and cruelty, at that time was rising as the global superpower. And at that time, the people of God, the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah, they were in a time of civil war.

And they had been in civil war for about 150 years prior to that. Okay, so again, it's like China is growing as a superpower, watching North and South Korea go at it. Okay. And in the time of Jonah, Assyria was in a period of weakness and division. The Assyrians were not at full strength politically or militarily, and the superstitious Assyrians were very anxious, uneasy, and actually right for the harvest. And so we see when Jonah goes in there, there is some ministerial success. The situation in Nahum is a very different situation than Jonah. Over a hundred years have passed, and a lot had happened. Assyria had conquered the north, and they were back to their evil ways. Now only the southern kingdom of Judah remained, and now Babylon was growing as a global threat.

But Assyria was at full strength, and its height of its power. So it's a different context. So a lot has happened between Jonah and Nahum. And since we're doing an introductory overview to the book of Nahum, I believe it is to be it's a good time to review what kind of people the Ninevites were, and what kind of Ninevites continued to be, right? So remember, Nif Nineveh was exceedingly a great city with exceedingly great people. And this is going to be the third iteration of this review for some of you, but it's important, so I'm going to review it. Everyone in the Mediterranean world wanted the Assyrians to be overthrown. Why? They were cruel.

Then they would take many of the toddlers and the children and the babies, and they would decapitate them in front of these watching men, and they would send crates of these tiny heads into other enemy territories to tell them that they're coming. Rulers and leaders of these conquered nations would often be left alive after they've had their nose, ears, fingers, genitals all just removed, big toes, and so they would walk around, humiliated, hobbling and begging.

And with these former leaders, had they survived the torture, they would be made a mockery of. And with the women that they captured, they were stripped naked, chained together, and paraded along toward every battle. So these were a horrible people.

So the Assyrians' cruelty is actually not really discussed too much in the Bible. It's actually all over history. Okay. So it's written in great detail on all of their obelisks. It's depicted all over their artwork. So nobody wanted to be conquered by the Assyrians. The only detail of the Assyrian cruelty is actually in the book of Nahum. So I want to review some of these. In Nahum chapter 3, Nahum describes the Nineveh's great evil and their endless cruelty. Woe to the city of bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage. Her prey never departs. Nahum 3 3. Here's an additional description of who the Ninevehes were. Man, horsemen charging, swords, flaming, spears flashing, many slain.

A mass of corpses. There is no end to the dead bodies. They stumble over the dead bodies. Nahum 310. Yet she became an exile. She went into captivity. This is talking about one of their captives. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound with fetters. So this is the last book. Nahum 319, the last verse in the book.

Your wound is incurable. All who hear the report about you will clap their hands over you, for on whom has not your evil passed continually. So the book ends with great excitement that the Assyrians were going to get theirs. Okay. So this cruel and terrifying people, by God's mercy, had a season of repentance. But old habits die hard, the roots run deep. And it looks like this cruel and terrifying people eventually fell back into their evil ways, and they were on a mission to destroy God's people. Both Israel, which they succeeded, and then in the south. In 722 BC, the Assyrians imprisoned the king of the north. Then they besieged, killed, and conquered, and exiled the people of the north. And that historical account is found in 2 Kings 17.

And it's summarized simply like this. Then the king of Assyria went up against the whole land, and he went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, the capital of the north, took Israel away into exile into Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor on the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes. And it's not too difficult to imagine in the in the three-year siege, many unspeakable things were done to God's chosen people in the north. But now with the northern kingdom of Israel out of the way, the Assyrians focused their attention on the south to Judah. 2 Kings 18 and Isaiah 36 describe how the Assyrians seized the fortified cities of Judah with heavy military force.

Assyrian records tell us that they took over 46 cities of the southern kingdom. So to put it simply, Assyria wanted to wipe out the northern kingdom of Israel, take their captives, exile, and then they're about to do the exact same thing to the south. In the time of Jonah, the Assyrians were up and coming. When Nahum writes, the Assyrians are in full force. They are a very cruel, global superpower. They are at the height of their power. And that's the historical context in which the prophet Nahum writes. Make sense? This is terrifying. So they had messed with God's people. They had inflicted much suffering and pain to Israel and Judah. They had tormented them. And God now says, no more. And he's coming with a vengeance.

You guys tracking? The oracle of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Ukishite. A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh. Yahweh is avenging and wrathful. Yahweh is avenging against his adversaries, and he holds, he keeps, he stores his anger against his enemies. But Yahweh is slow to anger, great in power. But Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty and punished. So that's the opening of the book. We looked at the context of the book of Nahum, and I'm going to give you a little bit of an overview of the character of God, which is actually in the book.

So in verses two and three, we're introduced to about six descriptions of the God of the Bible. I say about six because they're all kind of interconnected, and sometimes it's difficult to discern where one ends and the other begins. So sometimes these characteristics, they're manifested differently, even if they are kind of the same characteristic. But for the purpose of our understanding, I'm going to just say there are six that he gives in these opening verses. Okay? So in verses two and three, God is described as one, jealous. Two, he is an avenging God. Three, he is a wrathful God. Four, he is a God of anger, even though he is slow to anger. Five, he is a God who is great in power, or other words, omnipotent, all-powerful.

Six, he is a just God. So no guilty person ever escapes the judgment of God, even though at times he may feel like he's gotten away with stuff because of God's slowness to anger. So in verses two to three, we're given about six character traits of God. And then the rest of the book gives us three more. God is also described as omniscient or all-knowing. He is described as unrelenting or relentless, which is terrifying if he's your enemy. But he is a jealous, avenging, wrathful, angry, powerful, just, omniscient, unrelenting God who is good. Take a minute to think about this, right? Jealous, wrathful, angry, just fiery, unrelenting, and he's good. That's where our minds and our emotions struggle to accurately paint a picture.

The juxtaposition of God's holy rage and his love-filled goodness is something that's very difficult for us to grasp. But when we struggle to understand the truth about God, remember that the problem is with our limitations of our understanding and not with truth. Okay? So it's like this it's like a toddler being terrified, sitting in the chair at the dentist. Do you have an visual in your head? A toddler is sitting in front of the dentist, zzzz, right? Okay? Imagine that. It is difficult for that toddler to understand that the dentist drilling into his mouth and causing pain is good. Now, no matter how well mom or dad explains that the dentist is good, the toddler is not going to understand how this good dentist is going to cause him pain with these sharp instruments.

The toddler will sit and do his best to be brave, not because he understands, but because he trusts his parents. Because his parents are telling him the truth. So though this toddler doesn't quite know how to articulate or doesn't understand how this dentist is good, he trusts that the dentist is good simply because his parents are telling him the truth. Okay? So that's how we have to understand this juxtaposition that we can't wrap our minds around. So God is jealous, avenging, fiercely wrathful, and he is good. So remember, it's not truth that is the problem. It's our ability not to fully understand. Holy wrath, angry God, good God. And that's going to be especially important to remember while we go through 47 verses of Nahum that are mostly wrath.

Okay. And that's why one of the, if you look at the children's Bibles, they have, they all include Jonah. Nobody talks about Nahum. Alright? So we've looked at the context of the book. We've touched upon attributes of God. So I'm going to spend the rest of our time thinking through how is this letter supposed to be a source of great comfort for us? How is a wrath of God supported to be something that is comforting to my soul? Nahum 1 7, Yahweh is good, a strong defense in the day of distress. He knows those who take refuge in him. And if you understand the truth of this verse, it's one of the most beautiful verses in all of the scriptures. It's so beautiful that it's one of the seven verses that you find on In N Out Products.

Okay, if you do your research, there are seven verses hidden in In and Out Products. Nahum 17 is on your double double wrapper. Alright? So next time you go, order a double double wrap, order double double, and then truly be comforted. So Nahum 1 7 tells us that first God is good. There is no hint of any injustice in him. And this is a quality that's unique to God. He is the very definition of good. He is the only definition of good. There is no goodness outside of God. Goodness flows from God. He is the source. Okay. Jesus says of the Trinitarian God, Mark 10.18, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. And that's an indirect way of him saying, I am God. Okay. So God's goodness is manifested in his being eternally merciful and being faithful to all his promises.

Psalm 105, 100 verse 5. He desires for people to know goodness by knowing him. He is a God who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth in him, 1 Timothy 2 4. And that's why he tells us to pray for kings and those in authority and for their salvation. Because he is a merciful God. He is a God who relents. So God is good. He alone is truly good. And you got to pay attention here. His being perfectly good requires and necessitates the ultimate removal of everything that is not good. Right? So that should be a source of comfort. Nahum 1 7. Yahweh is good, a strong defense in the day of distress, and he knows those who take refuge in him. Now, if God were only good, that would not necessarily be a source of comfort.

Okay, I want you to think about this with me. If God was only good, that would not be comforting to you. A cute, happy, and affectionate puppy. Good or bad. Especially if he's not necessarily your own and peeing all over your house. He's good, right? The puppy's goodness, its innocence would not evoke comfort in us. It would evoke delight. It may trigger our protective instincts. It wouldn't provide comfort. Things that are good but harmless and lacking in power are never sources of comfort. So our God is not only good, he is able to act upon and express his goodness into all of creation. God is all powerful, he is omnipotent. So if God was good but without any power, there will be no comfort for us in his being good.

That's why you would never go into an old convalescent home and take the army of elderly sweet ladies and enlist them for your army reserve. They might be sweet, but they're not gonna help you. Right? The root of Israel's comfort was always founded upon God's power. Especially in the Old Testament.

So Isaiah the prophet, he was contemporaneous to Jonah and Nahum. And in Isaiah, God delivers profound statements of comfort through his prophet. And the opening of Isaiah 40, and that's a chapter where John the Baptist is uh gonna be predicted and prophesied, it begins with this. Comfort. Oh, comfort my people, says your God. That's how it begins. And the rest of the chapter is gonna talk about God being faithful to save, God being mighty to save, and it closes with a depiction of why we need to find comfort in God. It reads, lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their host by number, he calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of his vigor and the strength of his power, not one of these stars is missing.

So God created the stars, he knows their number, he gives, he has given them all a name. God is all powerful, there is nothing he cannot do. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do, right? Later on in this uh in Isaiah chapter 4, he talks about even when even youths grow tired and weary, young men stumbled and fall, but those who trust in the Lord, what happens to them? They rise on the wings like eagles. That's all this chapter. All right? Because it's rooted in God's power. God knows all the stars by name. And take it for what it's worth, but we have astronomers, okay. Okay, I don't trust modern day scientists because they're not always accurate, but modern day astronomers estimate that there are 200 sextillion stars in the universe.

Okay, can you imagine this with me? That's 200 billion trillion stars. That is 23 zeros. How many? 23 zeros, 200 sextillion stars, and we are in a solar system of just one of those stars. And did you guys know that our sun is average? How many guys already knew that? Okay. That's our sun. I'm so proud of it. It's so like mighty. It's there on the far left of the slide. That little red dot. So our star, Sun, is in scale compared to the pollucks or to the Arcturus. And God created 200 sextillion stars like these. How many? 200 sexillion. 23 zeros. So here's our ginormous earth in comparison to our averagely sized sun.

Do you guys look at the earth? Do you see it? Our earth is right there, next to our average sun. Astronomers estimate that 1.3 million earths can fit into the sun. So when we think of the enormity of all of creation, and the power of our God who created all of creation just with a command. It's unbelievable. And if this is all true, we're gonna naturally cry out like Psalm 8.4. What is man? That you remember him, the Son of Man that you care for him. Why would you who created all of this care for me? So the comfort for God's people has always been rooted in the power of God.

That he is all powerful and he is big. You guys want that song? He's got the whole world in his hands, and it's a big world. And then some. So there's nothing our God cannot do. He is all powerful, he is good, and that is a source of our comfort. Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved Psalms of all time. You guys know that the Lord is my shepherd. What's the next few words? I shall not want, right? That's the most, one of the most famous Psalms. And in it, what does King David say is a source of his comfort? The shepherd's rod and the staff. Not the shepherd's smell, not his handsome face, not his kindness and affection, rod and staff. That was the psalmist's source of comfort even when he traversed the valley of the shadow of death.

It was a shepherd's goodness and skill and strength that would chase away any and every evil that would threaten his sheep. The rod and the staff of an experienced shepherd are terrifying things for wolves and other predators. Right? You put a rifle in my arms. But you put it into the hands of very well-trained military that's supposed to protect you. There's a confidence that is built there, right? God's power was King David's greatest source of comfort. So if God is for us, who can be against us? God's power, God's awe-inspiring and terrifying power, is a comfort for those who take refuge in him. I'm going to go back to Nahum 1 7. Yahweh is good, a strong defense in the day of distress. He knows those who take refuge in him.

So the book of Nahum is about wrath that is coming on the enemies of God. And in Jonah's prophecy, the Assyrians were not quite at their strength. When Jonah prophesied, there was actually a period of uncertainty and anxiety. But in Nahum's day, Nineveh is at full strength. And in that context, God speaks comfort to his people to take refuge in the name of Yahweh. Verse 12 to 13, thus says Yahweh, though they are at full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you. So basically, I have let them afflict you, I will afflict you no longer. So now I will break his yoke far from upon you, and I will break your bands apart. What we learn is God's will is perfect, he makes no mistakes, he is all powerful, and he is perfectly good, and he's gonna put an end to all sin and he's gonna annihilate all sinners.

Now I'm gonna close the overview of Nahum with a very important question. Do you find comfort in the truths of an all-knowing and an all-powerful God? Is that a comfortable thought? Is Yahweh God your strong defense and your refuge? Or is he your judge and adversary? There is terror either way, okay? You can love and trust God and still be absolutely terrified. And you can live a life in total rebellion towards God and be terrified. There is terror either way. But the question is, who is this terrifying God to you? Is he your God or is he your adversary? If you have truly and genuinely repented of your sins, and if you have put your faith in Christ, if you have confessed with your mouth and you believe in your heart that God put him to death for your sins, raised him to life for your newness alive, then he knows you.

Amen. There is nothing that can be done to take away your salvation. Even if you relapse into your sins, nothing is gonna take that away. Have you once been saved? Then you are always saved. Amen. And praise God that our salvation does not depend on us. Many preachers have said this. If we could have lost our salvation, we would all the time.

So here's the question, which serves as the hinge on which everything revolves. Is he your God or is he your adversary? Is he your defense? Or is he your judge? Not Nahum 1.7, Yahweh is good, a strong defense in the day of distress, and he knows those who take refuge in him. I'm gonna give you some good news. Our God is all powerful, and our God is good. And our good and all-powerful God, who is terrifying, is generous, and he is relentlessly generous. He will be eternally generous. I don't understand how all of that works, but I see it in the scriptures. And as the years go by, I see it progressively more and more in my life. Our God is good.

He is a gracious God. So there's a lot more good headed our way.

Exponentially. And if you've sought refuge under his wings, because you're like the name of Yahweh is a strong tower. Proverbs 18 10. There's nothing else. There's no other name under heaven by which I can be saved. So I'm going to put myself under the name of God. Just like the Israelites said, what? Blood over the doorposts? That's all it takes for our whole family to be preserved from the wrath of the angel of God? Yes. All it takes for me is to believe that Jesus is enough? Yes. And all of that righteous rage is poured out not on deserving you, but on undeserving Christ. So his wrath is satisfied. That makes no sense, but I'll take it. Because the Bible says, and I believe that God is true to his word, that if I believe in him and I seek refuge under his wings, no matter what I've done, no matter what I'm doing, no matter what I'll continue to do, he is my strong defense in the day of distress.

And he is on my side.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, makes no sense. I have no understanding. It's unfathomable why. But if God is for us, who is against us? He who indeed did not spare his own son, but put him to death for us. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Praise God that he is good. Praise God that the source of my comfort and confidence is not in just his goodness, but that he is powerful and mighty. There is nothing my God cannot do. Amen. Don't be on the other side of that. And that's Nahum. So I'm a little bit uneasy because I've never preached through a book where 90% of it is anger and wrath.

I'm like, how am I going to? But when I saw the name Nahum and the meaning, I'm like, okay, Lord, you're not making no mistakes. You are my God. And in your goodness and in your power, even though my knees are shaking, I will rest. And if you believe in the same Christ as I do, he is your God, your refuge in this time of strong defense, and he knows you. Other translations will say he cares about you, he knows you. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the opportunity to start a new book of the Bible together. There's a lot that we don't understand, and what we don't understand and what we don't know is infinitely more than what we do know. But our pride tells us otherwise. So as we feel helpless, as we feel small, as we feel finite and limited, I pray that you would overwhelm us with an understanding and an unshakable confidence that you are good, you are all powerful, and you are for us.

That that would change how we live our lives. And that would really clarify why we exist and why we worship. I pray this in Jesus' name.