(new article tomorrow)
The military is the strength of the state; that's where the state gets its power and you have to do what they say. The guy with the gun's always going to run things and the guy with the gold is going to tell the guy with the gun what to do.
This city in Nahum 3 ("Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not") is the city that provides the philosophy and the spiritual animation behind the guy with the guns and this is what God's destroying, explains Richard Jordan.
What He's doing in Nineveh is He's going to destroy the whole shooting match, but He's going to really get the things behind it.
Nahum 3: [4] Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.
[5] Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.[6] And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.
That's a terrible description if you really read what He says. That's a description of the shame. He says, "You're going to be like a woman who has all of her clothes torn off and then has piles of manure thrown on her and then set out in a gazingstock" (you remember how they used to put people in the stocks in the square and everybody would come out and look at them).
In other words, "I'm going to hold you up to open ridicule and the worst shame possible. I'm going to bring you from the high lofty perch you were on right down to the lowest . . . I'm going to lay you bare in front of everybody."
[7] And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
"No one's going to want to be around them they look so bad. Nobody's going to come and say, 'Oh, it's okay.'
[8] Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
When it talks about No, come with me to Jeremiah 46. Nineveh's a small place and No was a big place. The point is, "If they couldn't stand up and I could wipe them out, I don't think you're going to get away."
Jeremiah 46:25: [25] The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
[26] And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.[27] But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
So, He's going to destroy them all. He's not simply talking about the Babylonian captivity. That would be nation singular. He's talking about the WHOLE of the captivity all the way to the end, which is where you are in the Second Advent.
God's using the Antichrist and the Gentile nations to chasten Israel, to correct her, to do what Leviticus 26 says: [27] And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
[28] Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.God uses the Gentile nations in the sense, as the Psalmist in Psalm 76 says, "He uses the wrath of men to praise Him": [10] Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
They don't mean to be serving God. They mean, "Hey, let's go get Israel," and God does what He does with Job. He says to Satan, "You can have him but you can't touch his soul."
Nahum 3: [15] There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.
[16] Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.
[17] Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
If you go to Revelation 9, that's what those dudes that get out of the bottomless pit look like. So, there's all this satanic stuff floating around in the back of this stuff that are the powers who animate these guys. But they're not going to be able to do them any good. They're all just going to melt away.
[18] Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
[19] There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
What a way to end. I mean, you're done for, dude. And when you go, all the people you've oppressed are going to clap, "Woo-hoo, good job, get rid of them! Yippee! We're glad they're gone!"
They're going to be laying out there looking like the woman who's been stripped and had manure piled all over her and held out to be a gazingstock for everybody. Shame and reproach. Something that no one will come and approach to. That's the kind of destruction . . . Edom from Obadiah and now Nineveh in Nahum, and then Babylon in the next book.
*****
Nahum is really a forward-looking book to the tribulation with Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and the Antichrist. You see Christ is there pouring out His vengeance in chapter 1:
[5] The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
[6] Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
The books of Jonah and Nahum, when you put them together, tell you something about God's wrath and judgment. In Isaiah 28 He calls judgment "his strange work":
[21] For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
[22] Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
That means it's something that doesn't really fit into what He wants to do; He's got other desires. He wants to see people change their mind and believe. So, He extends mercy.
Sometimes you get the idea God's just going around looking for someone to whack in the head and it's just the opposite of that in the Bible.
When you see these books filled with judgment and the wrath of God being poured out, you need to understand God doesn't resort to that until ample time's been given to see whether the person is going to have a change of heart.
He did that with Nineveh in Jonah and they responded immediately. In Nahum, though, they've gone way beyond that. Nahum doesn't just show up out of nowhere. It's written to a bunch of people who had God's message, responded positively to it and then apostasized from it and returned to their rebellion and rejection.
That's why it says in Nahum1:3: [3] The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Judgment is like the last resort with God. Here's what sin leads to and He's left to no other choice but that. This is the common theme throughout Scripture.
Isaiah 30:18: [18] And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
He's waiting that He may be gracious. He's waiting to see if there's a change of heart and they would respond positively.
II Peter 3:3: [3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
They say, "You said He's coming, He's going to pour His wrath out and He hasn't done it. Where is He?! After all this . . . "
[4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Now, we're talking in the last days, future from where we are. They're going to say, "Look, two thousand years ago you were saying this and He hasn't come yet."
You ever hear anybody say that? "You guys talk about the Second Coming of Christ; you been talking about that for two millenniums and He ain't here yet."
Scoffers, and then they make a mistake. They're arguing, "All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."
In geology they call that uniformitarianism: "He's never poured His wrath out yet" Now, this they are willingly ignorant of because He did pour His wrath out.
[5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
God did destroy the earth. He has judged the world. The world hasn't gone on from the creation the way it is. But people are willingly ignorant. You see, it isn't that they couldn't know; it's that they don't want to know.
You have to remember that when you're dealing with people about creation and the gospel, it's never a head problem. When they make it that, that's an alibi. They're trying to use these arguments, these reasonings, in order to get around and have an alibi to do what they want to do.
[6] Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
After the Flood, God said He would never destroy the world again with water. He said, "Next time I do it, I'll just do it with fire." You see, He already did it once. Destroyed everybody but Noah and his family, eight of them, in an ark. Eight's the number of new beginning in the Bible.
Next time, He's going to have an ark, His "little flock" of believers in Israel, and He's going to destroy the world with fire. That's what you read about in Nahum; about Him coming and melting the earth.
[7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
[8] But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Verse eight's interpreted a lot of different ways that are kind of hokey, but it's saying, "Look, if God said something today, or a thousand years from now, time doesn't make any difference. If He said it, He'll do it. Time is not an issue. He's not going to change His mind no matter how long it is that He waits. After a thousand years it's like He just said it yesterday."
The point is the passage of time isn't going to lessen the severity of His judgment. His attitude about judgment isn't going to be mitigated at all. As Nahum 1:3 says, [3] The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
So why does He wait? Why does He make it a thousand years instead of a day?
[9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
[10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
He's not procrastinating because He just doesn't care. Somebody makes a promise and doesn't keep it, well, they're just not true to their word. That's not God. But He is longsuffering, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
That's like that verse in I Timothy 2 when Paul says that God's will is that "all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."
God knows they aren't all going to come to repentance, but His desire is to give them a little longer to do it. He wants to treat them like Jonah treated Nineveh. God's desire is to have the message of Jonah and to have the response of Nineveh like in Jonah, so He waits.
No comments:
Post a Comment