Nahum: Faithful Prophet with a Fatal Flaw (as they all had).

Kelvin Redmile

Nahum was a faithful prophet who saw the “word of the Lord” come true – but how and in what way did it come to pass.

Let’s read the book from the end to the beginning so we are reading the prophecy not only in the light of Christ but with the benefit of hindsight. And hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The conclusion of the prophecy describes what Assyria was like and what its desolate condition is now. This violent oppressor has had a taste of its own medicine. How quickly Assyria forgot the grace of God granted to them in the days of Jonah only a few decades earlier. We too can forget his mercy and forgiveness so easily.

Look at the Assyrians brokenness and iniquity: 

1. Bloody Violence of every kind – ruining and wasting not only the earth but people
2. Sexual immorality, violence, and abuse
3. Liars and deceivers.
4. Robbers and looters

Sounds like the evil empire Babylon in Revelation. Much to mankind’s shame – Assyria is too much like the worst we see in mankind today.

But notice too how the book pictures humankind incurring a self-inflicted fatal wound from which it cannot recover. The resulting death means the end of everlasting cruelty. Is this not the grace of death? God bans Adam from the tree of life so that through physical death, he would eventually escape from the wound he had inflicted upon himself.

Here is my prayer for today on reading Nahum.

“O Lord, remove the Nineveh, the Assyria in me and set up a New Jerusalem in my heart.”¹