Topic: God's Righteous Indignation
Text: Nahum 2:1-13Key Verse:
"Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard" (Nahum 2:13).
It is the irony of life that man born free himself, will subject another man through the force of arms to slavery and servitude. Ancient Assyria with its capital at Nineveh, for centuries, was a prosperous nation; a prosperity it earned through the wicked plundering of other nations it had conquered.
Northern Israel had been conquered and Judah was severely threatened. Indeed, the atrocities of Assyria (possibly God's instrument of chastisement against sinning and obviously incorrigible Israel) were enough reason for the world to tremble.
Only divine intervention prevented the desecration of Jerusalem a few years later. Assyria was destroyed in 612 BC. This was the kernel of Nahum's prophecy, that doom was about to descend upon the world's great oppressor. And because God had decreed it, all attempts to defend it were in vain. Its cup of iniquities was overfull and God's instrument of judgment, the flood, was unleashed.
Prophet Nahum portrays the seriousness of sin in the sight of God. Though His mercy may cause Him to withhold judgment for a season, His hatred for sin, human wickedness and oppression will ultimately make punishment inevitable.
How we need to, as Christian believers, warn the people about the truth of God's judgment over sin and oppression. And we ourselves ought to live above reproach so that we do not court His wrath.
Thought for the day:
God's forbearance ought to elicit repentance and contrition of heart.
Bible Reading in one Year: Ezra 4 - 6
Sources: Premiumnews24, Deeper Life
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