SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/23/2016
10:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Captive Leaders are Taunted
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Nahum
2:11-13
Message of
the verses: “11 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? 12 The lion tore enough for his cubs,
Killed enough for his lionesses, And filled his lairs with prey And his dens
with torn flesh. 13 “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.’”
11 So, what happened to the famous and fierce Assyrian lion And all
those cute Assyrian cubs? To the lion and lioness Cozy with their cubs, fierce
and fearless? 12 To the lion who always returned from the hunt with fresh kills
for lioness and cubs, The lion lair heaped with bloody meat, blood and bones
for the royal lion feast? 13 “Assyria, I’m your enemy," says
GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies. "I’ll torch your chariots. They’ll go up in
smoke. ‘Lion Country’ will be strewn with carcasses. The war business is over—you’re
out of work: You’ll have no more wars to report, No more victories to announce.
You’re out of war work forever’ (Message).”
We believe that it is Nahum who is speaking on
behalf of God here as the prophet has the last word. The Assyrian captives are now marched away;
all of them, their leaders, their common folks, all of them are carried into
captivity. Nahum is taunting them by
contrasting their present plight with their former glory.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The image of the lion was often
used by the Assyrians in their art and architecture. Visit the Assyrian room in any large museum
and you will see huge statues of lions.
But even more, the Assyrians acted like lions as they stalked their prey
and completely devoured their captives. ‘Where
is the lions’ den now?’ Nahum asks as
the city is destroyed. ‘Where is your
prey, the treasures you ruthlessly took from others?’ Lions will normally take to their lair enough
food for themselves and their cubs, but the Assyrians amassed wealth beyond measure,
far more than they needed, and they did it at the cost of human lives.”
As
I searched some data on the internet about Assyrians and lions I found that
there are pictures in museums that show how the Assyrians leaders would go out
and kill lions.
“In ancient Assyria, lion-hunting was considered the
sport of kings, symbolic of the ruling monarch’s duty to protect and fight for
his people. The sculpted reliefs in Room 10a illustrate the sporting exploits
of the last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC) and were created for
his palace at Nineveh (in modern-day northern Iraq).
“The hunt scenes, full of tension and realism,
rank among the finest achievements of Assyrian Art. They depict the release of
the lions, the ensuing chase and subsequent killing.”
Because of all that the Assyrians were doing to
their enemies the Lord said to them that He was against them as seen in verse
13, and it is no wonder. It was over a
century before this that the Lord sent a reluctant Jonah to Nineveh and the
Assyrians repented, but that was over 100 years before this and they certainly
changed. Dr. Wiersbe writes on this “But
now their time was up and the end had come.
Assyria would be left with no weapons, no leaders, and no victories to
be announced by their messengers.
Instead, Assyrian’s enemies would hear the voice of couriers announcing
peace because Assyrian had been defeated (1:15).”
1/23/2016 11:18 PM
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