Major Messages from the Minor Prophets

The Prophecy of Nahum

When the Day of Grace Is Over

Facts About Nahum

• From Capernaum?• Prophesied during the

reign of Ashurbanipal• 663 BC-612 BC

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Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC) receives tribute from Jehu

King Jehu (or a representative)

Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC)

Shalmaneser V and Sargon II conquer Samaria and take Israelites into captivity (722 BC)

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Sennacherib destroys 46 Judean towns and cities (701 BC)

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Esarhaddon (681-669)

• “I summoned the kings of the Hittite land [Aram] and [those] across the sea, Ba’lu, king of Tyre, Manasseh, king of Judah . . .”

Ashurbanipal (669-627

BC)

Outline of Nahum

• Nineveh’s doom declared• Nineveh’s doom described• Nineveh’s doom deserved

Nineveh’s doom declared• God exercises a jealous and vengeful

wrath against those who oppose Him and His people (1:2-6)

• God is good to those who are faithful and knows those who take refuge in Him (1:7).

• It is futile to imagine one can plot against God and win (1:9-13).

• The Lord views with contempt those who worship idols; but the Lord assures those who trust in Him that they will serve Him without fear (1:14-15).

Nineveh’s doom described

• Where is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion’s cub prowled, with nothing to disturb them? The lion tore enough for his cubs, killed enough for his lionesses, and filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions, I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.” (Nah. 2:11-13)

Assyrian kings loved lion hunts

Nineveh’s doom deserved

• Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs. (Nahum 3:1)

• All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries. (Nah. 3:4)

All that God threatened against Nineveh He fulfilled.

• Nineveh was proud of her

invulnerable city, with her walls reaching 100 ft. high and with a moat 150 ft. wide and 60 ft. deep.

• Nineveh was defeated by the Babylonian general Nabopolassar in 612 BC with the aid of a flood that washed out part of Nineveh’s wall giving the enemy access to the city.

Nineveh Remains in Ruins

Lessons to be learned

• God’s sovereignty & justice• Inevitable judgment for the

wicked out of zeal for His people• Comfort and hope for the

oppressed that their enemies will come to a just end

• And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge *said; now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:6-8)

• The divine warrior of Israel in the OT becomes the divine warrior of the church in the NT revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes on his white horse leading His armies against the enemies of the church, defeating them and throwing them into the lake of fire.