November 12, 2007 Nahum 1:2-3

11/12/2007

Nahum 1:2 - 3 (HCSB)

²The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
     the LORD takes vengeance
     and is fierce in wrath.
     The LORD takes vengeance against His foes;
     He is furious with His enemies.³The LORD is slow to anger but great in power;
     the LORD will never leave _ëthe guilty_û unpunished.
     His path is in the whirlwind and storm,
     and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

Nahum wrote this oracle against Nineveh approximately 75 years after the account of Jonah. You will recall that Jonah went to Nineveh and walked through the streets proclaiming destruction. But the people of Nineveh repented and God delayed their destruction. But here, decades later, Nahum resumes the oracle against Nineveh.

Nineveh was notorious in its barbarous treatment of its enemies. The Assyrian king Senacherib III boasted of building a pyramid of chopped off heads in front of defeated cities. That is one of the reasons that Jonah feared going there. Nevertheless, God proclaimed the end of Nineveh and the city fell in 612 BC to a coalition of Babylonians, Medes and Scythians.

Then Nahum turns his focus with these words:

Nahum 1:7 (HCSB)

⁷The LORD is good,
a stronghold in a day of distress;
He cares for those who take refuge in Him.

I am thankful for a God who has promised to take care of me. No matter how strong I am or how much of a fortress I build with my hands, there will always be someone stronger. But I have a God in whom I take refuge. Whatever befalls me, He takes it personally and will be my protector.

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