Tuesday, December 16, 2025

PT-2 “The God of Inevitable Vengeance” (Nahum 1:2-3a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/16/2025 11:00 AM

My Worship Time                                              Focus: PT-2 “The God of Inevitable Vengeance”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Nahum 1:2-3a

            Message of the verses: 

Aleph

A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh

Yahweh is avenging and wrathful.

Yahweh is avenging against His adversaries,

And He keeps His anger For His enemies.

Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power,

And Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

“2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 3  The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked:” (KJV)

2

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.

3

The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.  (NIV)

 

This morning has been kind of busy for me and so I think that I want to do this Spiritual Diary  by quoting from John MacArthur’s commentary and then make some comments as I deem necessary.

“Because of God’s great jealousy for His people, Nahum unequivocally declared that an avenging God is Yahweh.”  Now let me  just say that those who really don’t know the attributes of God may have a difficult time understanding what Nahum is saying here in these verses, but believe me what he is saying was prompted by the Holy Spirit of God and it is all true.  MacArthur goes on, “Out of His righteous zeal, the Lord would exact the precise punishment from the Ninevites that they deserved and that His holiness demanded (cf. Deut. 32:41; Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30).”  I will quote these verses in the order they are mentioned and will use the NIV.

 

 

41

When I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

 

19

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

 

 

30

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

 

 

MacArthur goes on “The prophet repeated the word avenging three times in this verse, assuring Israel that such retribution would be intense, inescapable, and inevitable.  Because Yahweh is a covenant-keeping God who is loyal to His people (cf. Gen. 12:1-3), He would be diligent to fulfill this vengeance against Israel’s enemies.” “1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

MacArthur goes on to write:  “To convey the fulness of God’s vengeance, Nahum provided a threefold explanation of such divine retribution.  First Yahweh’s vengeance would be intense as Yahweh is avenging and wrathful.  The term wrathful describes hot anger, one that explodes with destructive force (cf. Gen. 27:44; Deut. 9:19; 29:23).”  “44  And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away;”  “19  For I was afraid of the anger and hot

19 displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

23  And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:”

“Ezekiel described such wrath in the following manner:

18  And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. 19  For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 20  So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. 21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. 22  And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” (Ezekiel 38:18-22).

“As Ezekiel revealed about the end of the age, the Lord’s wrath will destroy animals, devastate mankind, collapse mountains, and shake the earth.  Through Nahum, God promised to unleash similar fury in His vengeance against Nineveh.  The Hebrew term translated wrathful literally states that Yahweh is the ‘master of wrath,’ sovereignly deploying divine retribution in accordance with His justice.  God had warned Nineveh through Jonah that He would overthrow the city if the people did not repent (Jonah 3:4).” “4  And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  “Subsequently, He declared through Nahum that Nineveh was about to face overwhelming judgment, much like that experienced by Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:20-21).”

“20  And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 21  I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I am thankful for the salvation that God has bestowed on me trough Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord, became I know that God put His wrath onto Jesus so that I do not have to face His wrath some day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trusting that the Lord will get me through these days where things are not always going my way.  I need His grace.

12/16/2025 11:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

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