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. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. - Nahum 1:2-3 (ESV)
Nahum is the prophet that Jonah wanted to be. Whereas Jonah preached a message of destruction intended to lead to repentance (Jonah 4), Nahum’s later message is the final knell for the nation Jonah hated so much.
The Big Idea of Nahum
I have taught the big idea of Nahum as the following: Yahweh’s enemies will perish. It may seem ironic at first to learn that “Nahum” means “consolation” or “comfort”. But it makes more sense when we realize the enemies in view are not the Israelites but the Ninevites. The Ninevites were enemies of Israel. Nineveh is part of the kingdom of Assyria, which figures prominently in the books of Kings and Chronicles as the nation that destroyed Israel and threatens to do the same to the southern kingdom of Judah. But Assyria, for all her power, is no match for Yahweh, and Yahweh places himself squarely against Assyria. While Yahweh’s opposition is a terror to Assyria, it is a boon to the Jews. This is why the meaning of Nahum’s name (“comfort”) and the content do not contradict one another.
An Outline of Nahum
Nahum is neatly divided into three chapters which we can think of as a 3-act play. There is a kind of progression in Nahum that clearly moves through three stages, from predicting something, to describing that thing as it’s actually occurring in chapter two, to describing the aftermath in chapter three.
Act 1: Wrath Is Coming
In verses 2-8, we have what is basically a psalm praising God for his power and wrath against his enemies. Verses 7-8 end it nicely: 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
But then in verses 9-15 we have not just a threat against Nineveh, but a promise. Consider the end of verse 14: I will make your grave, for you are vile. Put yourself in the enemies’ shoes. How awful a sentence is that? But then put yourself in Judah’s shoes: how comforting! God has seen what they have done. He knows how wicked they are. He has seemed so distant and uncaring, but it was never that he was ignoring it, only that he is slow to anger! The LORD is good, as verse 7 says, and he will make a complete end of the adversaries (v. 8). So chapter 1, act 1, ends with good news for Judah. Assyria will not take them out. God is going to take them out. The God of Judah has declared it; it will surely happen. God’s wrath is coming.
Act 2: Wrath Is Here
In chapter 2, we see that wrath is here. But you quickly notice that this is not describing some sort of divine punishment directly from heaven, like sulfur and brimstone raining on Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 2 is clearly describing an army coming up against the city, storming its walls, destroying the city and carrying away the spoil. Yet at the end of the description, it is clear that the armies are there to carry out God’s purposes against Nineveh. This happens because, as God says in 2:13, “Behold, I am against you”.
You see here then that the curtain has fallen at the end of chapter 1 and the curtain rises to the clatter of enemy armies destroying and plundering Nineveh, the great city. The imagery is vivid and gruesome. The destruction is total.
This actually happened in the year 612 BC when the Babylonians and Medes joined forces to take out Nineveh and yield a deathblow to Assyria. And this is also the great twist of act 2, just like many plays. We see it in 2:11: “Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, with not to disturb.” In other words, the hunter has become the hunted. The predator has become the prey because, as chapter 2 concludes, the LORD is really waging the battle, and the LORD never loses. And the curtain falls on act 2, chapter 2.
Act 3: Wrath is Terrible and Deserved
The curtain rises on chapter 3 with a cry of woe. This is a cry of anguish, of sorrow. God’s wrath has been poured out on Nineveh, and there is death everywhere. Now God adds insult to injury by taunting them. “And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you?”
The answer, of course, is nowhere. God further describes Assyria’s leaders as weak and ripe for the plucking. In a word, Assyria is going down. Their doom is sealed. This is great news for Judah, and awful news for Nineveh. The last words of Nahum aptly sum up the doom of Nineveh: There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?
Benefits of Nahum
Why the book of Nahum? Why something so depressing about something that happened 2600 years ago? A few reasons.
You need to know what happens to God’s enemies. God’s enemies perish. If you die as God’s enemy, you will suffer a similar fate. But it won’t be merely death here on this earth. The enemies of God will suffer what Rev 20:14 calls the second death. Anyone whose name is not written in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire. It will be worse than what happened to Nineveh, because it will not be a death that occurs and then is over. The second death is a death that never ends. This leads me to my second reason.
You need to remember why the gospel is good news. Jesus came to save us from this second death and give us eternal life! Cf. John 3:16. Why is Christmas so wonderful? Because this awful judgment is not all there is to God. God is a God of wrath and of mercy. He may be properly known as love (1 John 4:16). God’s wrath in Nahum is terrifying. What else could the wrath of an eternal and infinite God be? But if this, how much better is his love? “What no eye has seen, nor ear hear, / nor the heart of man imagined, / what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9)
The better we understand the bad news for Nineveh, the better we will understand the good news for those who love Christ and trust in him for forgiveness of sins. Nahum shows us how much we ought to fear God’s judgment and how gratefully devoted we ought to be to Christ the Savior, whose birth we celebrate this month. Nahum, like the gospel itself, is polarizing. For those who are in Christ, Nahum is indeed a great comfort. Evil does not win and God has shown that he can and will strike it down. But for those who are not in Christ, Nahum is an awful warning of the terrible judgment that is to come. Just like one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so one man’s comfort is another man’s terror. Nahum reminds us that the LORD’s enemies do not win; they perish.