By Tom Garner
WHEN I READ THIS VERSE "The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him" (Nahum 1:7), this one verse gives me comfort and hope, for which I am grateful. For you see, the rest of this small book deals with a subject that many in Christianity today would rather not deal with, which is God's Wrath and Judgment.
Though many try to ignore this attribute, it is still an attribute of God. And within this small book of Nahum it is stated so strongly and so concisely it can not be denied. What I hope to share with you this day is this, that to truly know who God is, we must have a full picture of the one we serve.
To do that we must understand and learn all aspects of what makes God, God. God is more than a loving God; He more than just a merciful God; He is more than just a gracious God. To be able to show grace and mercy there must be an offense to show mercy to. To give grace and pardon there must be a judgment of being found guilty.
God is the Great Judge. We all know there have been many good judges both past and present, both now and biblical times. And from these fair judges there has come fair and impartial judgments that have been rendered. Now, if God is indeed "The Great Judge", then, His judgments that are reached are just. If there is a need for punishment within His judgment, they are true and just. So when the wrath or judgment of God is given, it has come out of fairness and from His Holiness. When God's anger is kindled and judgment falls, there is always fairness and justice in it for He can nothing less. This little book is also full of prophesy, history while it also shows us this great and awesome side of our God.
To get a background on this book we must see on whom the judgment has come and what nation the judgment is about to fall. The country is Nineveh, the person is Sennacherib.
This book reveals what is about to happen to this great nation, whom the other nations tremble with fear. Let us stop and think for a moment; Do you remember the name of the nation to whom Jonah was sent?
Jonah 1:1-2-"Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."
Now do you remember what happened when Jonah spoke the Word of God to the king and to the city? They repented of their evil and covered themselves with ashes and sackcloth from the great king down to the lowest citizen, and God withheld His wrath and judgment this time.
Jonah 3:4-10-And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
This is the very same nation now Nahum is sent some 100 years later.
Nahum 1:1-The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Now, this is the same nation whom had repented of their great sin almost a century before. They have now repented of their repentance. Let me repeat that again so you can understand, they had repented of their repentance of Jonah's proclamation of judgment. Now God's judgment is prophesied again and His wrath has now been rekindled towards this same nation and against this man named, Sennacherib.
Within Nahum you can find the following pattern regarding God's Judgment and His terrible Wrath. These are the four basic points contained within Nahum that describe the Wrath of Our God.
God's Wrath Is Terrible - 1:1-7
God's Wrath Is Personal - 1:8-15
God's Wrath Is Thorough - 2:1 - 3:11
God's Wrath Is Irresistible - 3:12-19
God's Wrath Is Terrible
A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet. - Nahum 1:2-3
When I read this side of God which, to many, is foreign or forgotten, I see not only is our God great and awesome, but he is slow to anger. This nation to whom God has pronounced judgment before had repented, and He withstood (or held back) the judgment they deserved, for they repented of their sin, and they saw their sin as God saw their sin and they were broken by it.
Now, they have turned back on God, a second time. Those to whom He had shown great mercy towards, have now returned to their old sinful and idolatrous ways. In the past 100 years this country has grown strong and powerful. History records they were one of the cruelest army's ever, and their wrath was every before the nations of their day. They had burned one city after another, they had destroyed many nations and plundered and killed like no other people before them. The other nations trembled before them.
So God, now uses this man Nahum, His prophet, to warn them a second time. You see, God is just, he punishes the wicked but He is slow to anger. When God's wrath does fall, it falls hard, and it terrible to witness. But we must see, for if we see only the Love of God we miss His fairness, and to only see this one side of God which many today preach and teach, will not give to us a overall picture of Him. We will not be able to understand the full nature of God. For to be just, he must judge fairly, and to judge he must pronounce sentence on those whom are found guilty and wanting. So He sends this man Nahum, and in this oracle. He has him describe the terribleness of His coming Wrath to this nation and this man.
