God Speaks of Himself PT-1 (Nahum 1:2-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/18/2016 10:38 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  God Speaks of Himself PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Nahum 1:1-8

Message of the verses:  “1 The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. 5 Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. 6 Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him. 7 The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him. 8 But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of its site, And will pursue His enemies into darkness.”

We have mentioned in our two introductions that the book of Nahum speaks of the destruction of Assyria, and as we begin to look at these verses in the first chapter of Nahum we can see a side of God that most people in our day and age do not want to talk about.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Nahum made it clear that God is indeed the Judge of the nations, and that ‘[p]ride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’ (Prov. 16:18 NKJV).  In the seventh century BC, the very mention of Nineveh brought fear to people’s hearts, but today, Nineveh is mentioned primarily by Bible students, archeologists, and people interested in ancient history. Sic transit Gloria!

“In his brief book, Nahum makes three declarations about God and Nineveh.”  Now the first declaration is about God and it covers the first chapter of Nahum, but we will only begin verses 2-8 in our SD for today. 

Now in his introductory statement about his first main point entitled “God Is Jealous:  Nineveh Will Fall,” which covers verses     1-15 Dr. Wiersbe writes:  “The prophet characterizes his inspired message as both a ‘burden’ and a ‘vision,’ something he felt and something he saw.  The word translated ‘burden’ simply means ‘to lift up’ and was often used to describe prophetic messages that announced judgment.  Isaiah used the word ten times in his prophecy as he wrote about ‘the burden of Babylon’ (Isa. 13:1), ‘the burden of Moab’ (15:1), etc.  These burdens came as a result of the visions God gave His prophets (‘seers’) of dreadful events determined for the nations.  It wasn’t easy to be a prophet and see what lay in the future, and they felt the burden of their messages.  Nineveh isn’t mentioned by name until Nahum 2:8, but its destruction is the theme of the book.”

As we look over this paragraph in Nahum (2-8) we will see three words in it that must be understood for they speak of the character of God, and they are “jealousy”, “vengeance”, and “anger.”  I have mentioned the character of jealousy that God has in earlier SD’s and this kind of jealously is not like one a person can have.  An example of man’s jealously could be that a man is jealous for his wife and does not even want to see anyone talk to her because of his jealousy.  God is the Maker and Sustainer of the Universe and He is the only One who deserves worship and when a person begins to worship idols as Israel did in the past He is rightfully jealous.  Dr. Wiersbe states that human jealously is a sin as “it means being envious of what others have and wanting to possess it, but it’s a virtue if it means cherishing what we have and wanting to protect it.”  He goes on to say that “jealous” and “zealous” come from the same root “for when you’re jealous over someone, you’re zealous to protect the relationship.”

When we studied the book of Hosea we learned that God married Israel at Mt. Sinai in a covenant relationship, and any breach of that covenant aroused His jealous love. 

Next we move to vengeance and Dr. Wiersbe explains that vengeance is usually presented as a sin.  Jesus and Paul warned about it (Matt. 5:38-38; and Rom. 12:17-21).  When the Holy Law of God is broken then God will do something about it.  “35 ’Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them’ (Deut. 32:35).”  “If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me (Deut. 32:41).”  Dr. Wiersbe writes “When God takes vengeance by judging people; it’s because He is a holy God and is jealous (zealous) for His holy law.”

We will finish our SD for today by looking at anger and this like the others is different in God than in humans.  God anger is holy and righteous indignation against all that defies His authority and disobeys His law.  We can see from Ephesians 4:26 “"Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath,” that we should be angry over what God is angry over, but when we are angry we must not sin in being angry, and that is the hard part of people to do.  Dr. Wiersbe quotes Thomas Fuller who said “Anger is one of the sinews of the soul, he who lacks it has a maimed mind.”