This oracle concerning Nineveh came about 100 years after the city’s repentance in response to Jonah’s warning. Once again God foretells destruction – that’s a theme so common in prophecy that I used to have the impression that all the prophets ran together nattering on about it. Nahum, like Obadiah, is distinctive because it doesn’t speak of the ultimate restoration of its subject.
Recall that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and Assyria was the instrument of punishment that God had raised up against Israel and other peoples who were eventually absorbed into the Assyrian Empire. So Assyria showed up in other prophecies as the one who would conquer and destroy as God’s judgment on those destroyed. God had in fact fulfilled those prophecies, and Assyria was very powerful and wealthy because of it. In fact, they were so powerful and wealthy that their destruction was absolutely unimaginable. We saw in yesterday’s reading the arrogance of the king of Assyria, bragging that no people, no city, and no god had been able to resist the power of his hand; he was proud because he did indeed seem to be invincible. All nations feared Assyria because of it.
Nahum prophesies the destruction of all of the greatest that man can build and accumulate. History proves that God is able to do as He says. Nineveh was destroyed within about eight years of Nahum’s lifetime, so thoroughly that it was never rebuilt. It was covered with sand so long that its existence had long been forgotten by everyone except Bible readers, and some of them believed that Nineveh never existed. It now shows up on maps as a ruin or archaeological site. God can indeed destroy the greatest accomplishments of man so thoroughly that they are buried and forgotten. Unless He decrees restoration, man has no hope of restoration. Messiah shows up in this book in the form of a want for restoration.
In most of the books of prophecy God speaks of restoration of a remnant as His ultimate purpose for judgment. This book shows that sometimes refining a remnant is not part of His plan. Again, history shows that He is true to His word. Sometimes His mercies do come to an end, but not because He doesn’t love those whom He judges. Recall that these people were not rejected by God; rather, out of love for them He had sent Jonah to warn them to repent to avoid judgment, and they chose to do so and encountered God’s mercy. Thus, Nineveh’s story reminds us that it is not God’s choice to destroy in judgment; rather, destruction is God’s necessary response to man’s choice to continue in rebellion against Him. So rather than despise God for cruelty as the enemy wants to tempt us to do, we need to see the choice to ruin and destroy as whose it is, and accept responsibility for our own choices.
Remember also that the awful, cruel destruction foretold, and doubtless brought to pass, is the end of sin. Its awfulness displays the awfulness of sin. Again, the enemy wants us to see the appalling devastation in a different light so that we don’t hate sin for the horrible thing it is. Otherwise we might abandon it and run humbly to God for a remedy and restoration. Rather than hating sin, the enemy wants us to hate God, and so tries to convince us that God is the bad guy here. Choose well today whom and what you believe!