Introduction
Bailey Commentary.- We often wish (the Book of) Nahum were not in canon, and the book has been almost totally ignored in the modern church. Its message of judgment does not fit the picture we want to have of a loving, forgiving God. Nahum centers attention entirely on the impending fall of Nineveh (the Assyrian Capital) resulting in the delivery of the people of Judah. This central focus produced a message of hope to the people of Judah in a most unusual literary form, sometimes called a hymn of hate. Nahum’s message has become the prototype of the destruction of all evil-from that of Nineveh to Nazi Germany to the final end of all evil like that of Babylon. Nahum’s message is essential and timeless: the Lord reigns and will have the final word against evil. This means hope and deliverance by God for God’s people.
The Book of Nahum dramatically portrays God overwhelming Assyria to relieve His oppressed people. Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the Sovereign Lord of the universe. Like the prophets who came before him, Nahum saw the Lord exercising His authority over all the nations. Nahum had an uphill battle convincing his Judean audience with such a message. To the suffering remnant, there was little question that God would and did punish His own covenant people; but whether He was equally able and willing to impart justice to the powerful heathen nations surrounding Israel was untested… The severity and kindness of God were both under scrutiny: the former as to whether it applied only selectively to this own people and the latter in the context of God’s ability and desire to bring about ultimate salvation (rescue and deliverance) of those who were faithful to Him.
Nahum’s message follows the theme of Isaiah, who saw Jehovah as the Lord of history. Like Isaiah, Nahum knew that the Lord works in history was to accomplish His purpose. The same God who could use Assyria as the “rod of My anger” (Isa. 10:5) also could punish “the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes” (Isa 10:2). Nahum powerfully portrays the pride, greed, self-centeredness, idolatry, violence, lack of mercy, and false security of Nineveh. All nations condemn such characteristics and crave the destruction of such an all-powerful and all-sinful world dominator. No nation by itself has power to bring such dreams to actuality. Nahum introduced to the scene the One who could destroy the destroyer. The Sovereign Lord of history rules all nations, even those who do not acknowledge Him. He would accomplish what no other gods and no other nations could. Assyria would fall!
All history stands under His control. He waits in patience but eventually brings His justified judgment on the sin of every greedy, prideful nation because of His zealous jealousy to maintain the loyalty of His own people. His word is not entirely one of judgment. He gives hope to those who trust in Him. When the forces opposing God are so firmly ensconced and the flickering lamp of God’s people is at the point of extinction, however, it is easy for the remnant to forget. Nahum reminds us, as do the ruins of ancient Nineveh, that God Himself is the ultimate Ruler. He will have the final word.
Though these attributes seem contradictory, Nahum showed the righteousness of a caring God, a God who is zealous for the well-being of His people. After all, what truly good human being could sit idly by in the face of cruel oppression such as that meted out by Assyria? How much less could God allow such wickedness to continue? At the heart of his message is recognition of Jehovah as a God of justice who will not let injustice and oppression go unpunished.
Nahum showed that ending oppression requires the removal of the oppressor. He showed the compassion of the one who fights against evil. A man who is deeply and truly religious is always a man of wrath. Because he loves God and his fellow men, he hates and despises inhumanity, cruelty, and wickedness. Every good man sometimes echoes the words of Nahum.
Far from presenting a one-sided view of God, Nahum pictured God as faithful, mercifully, good, and just.
Nineveh, the head of the Assyrian world-dominating empire, had gone far beyond any moral boundaries acceptable in international diplomacy much less by the Holy God. She treated nations as objects of commerce (exchange) to be bought and an sold or as harlots to be paid for their love and loyalty and then discarded at will.
Nahum is a “seer of God who declares that the haughty city has decreed its own destruction because of its moral corruption, its oppression of Judah and other nations, its violence, bloodshed, lies, deceit, and, above all, its rejection of God.” Nahum shows that when the military might of a nation becomes its security and its god, then sin has conquered the nation, and it will fall. Sin is not limited to those with specific instructions from God’s book about it. Every person knows basic human values is condemned as a sinner and faces God’s judgment.
Nahum’s “concern to reassure Judah of Jehovah’s ability and will to destroy Nineveh runs throughout the book.” Nahum’s message was ultimate proclaimed to God’s people, not to Nineveh. He promised a day they would again celebrate their feasts and complete the vows they had made during times of hardship and oppression. The message of God through Nahum was to encourage God’s people. Oppressed by a seemingly invincible foe who had overwhelmed the entire region, Israel could not look to her own power, but only to God for deliverance. The message once fulfilled became a beacon of hope through the ages. Its light continues to shine brightly as God’s people endure a world ruled by materialistic godlessness. God did it once for Israel against ugly Nineveh. We know God can and will win the battles we face today. He will also win the intimate battle against all the forces of darkness until His glory and splendor are recognized and praised in all the ends of the earth. “Nineveh is not an ordinary city for the prophet, nor is Assyria just another degenerating civilization. They stand for the ultimate evil that frustrates and suppresses the purposes and people of God. Their defeat is a sign of the victory of God and the basis for hope that this power and justice will ultimately conquer all evil.
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