SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2025
10:36 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“The God of Irresistible Power”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Nahum
1:3b-6
Message
of the verses:
BETH
In
whirlwind and storm is His way,
And
clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
GIMEL
He
rebukes the sea and makes it dry’
He
dries up all the rivers.
Bashan
and Carmel languish;
The
blossoms of Lebanon languish.
HE
Mountains
quake because of Him,
VAV
And the
hills melt;
Indeed
the earth is upheaved by His presence,
The
world and all the inhabitants in it.
HETH
“His
wrath is poured out like fire,
And the
rocks are torn down by Him. (1:3b-6)
“In the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebuked the sea, and maketh it dry,
and dried up all the rivers: Bashan languished, and Carmel, and the flower of
Lebanon languished. 5 The mountains
quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea,
the world, and all that dwell therein. 6
Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the
fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are
thrown down by him.” (KJV) (Nahum 1:3b-6)
I continue looking at this passage
in my morning Spiritual Diary this morning, as I quote from John MacArthur’s
commentary and then add the verses that he references in this section.
“Just as the Lord is sovereign over
the sky and the sea, so His power extends over the dry land. Nahum noted that Bashan and Carmel
languished; the blossoms of Lebanon languish.
Now only can the Lord divide the sea and dry up rivers, but He can
also parch the ground so that it is no longer fruitful. Bashan (Mic. 7:14), Carmal Song
7:5), and Lebanon Ps. 72:16) refer to regions in or near Israel known
for their fertile vegetation.” (We will now look at these verses in the order
given.)
“14 ¶ Shepherd your people with your staff, The flock of your heritage, Who live solitarily in a
woods, In the midst of
Carmel; Let them feed in Bashan
and Gilead, As in the days of
old.”
5 (7:6) Your head crowns you like Mount
Carmel, And the hair of your head
is like purple; The king is
held captive by your tresses.
“16 There will be an abundance of grain in
the earth, On the top of the
hills; Its fruit will wave like
Lebanon, And those of the
city will flourish like the grass of the earth.”
“Though
typically lush, at God’s rebuke these places would languish, a word that
denotes dwindling, drying out, and withering away (Isa. 16:8; 24:4; 33:9).”
8 For the
fields of Heshbon have languished, And the vine of Sibmah; The lords of the nations have
broken down its choice plants, Which
have come even to Jazer And have
wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out,
They are gone over the sea.”
“4 The earth mourns and fades away, The world languishes and fades away; The haughty people of the earth
languish.”
“The
land mourns and pines away, Lebanon is shamed and withers; Sharon
is like a desert plain, And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.)
(NASB)
“Nahum’s
point was that the Lord can make any place, no natter its historic abundance,
shrivel up and become a wasteland. This
is precisely what He did to Bashan and Carmel and Lebanon when Assyria invaded Israel (2 Kings 19:23).” “23 By your messengers You have reproached the Lord, And have said, "With the
multitude of my chariots I have
come up to the height of the mountains, To the sides of Lebanon; And I shall cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; And I shall enter the lodging place of
its borders, And into the
forest of his Carmel.” “He promised
to do the same to Assyria’s capital city Nineveh. In God’s providence, Israel own destruction
at the hand of Nineveh illustrate Nineveh’s pending demise.
“God’s power over the earth extends
beyond its vegetation, for Nahum prophesied that the mountains quake because
of Him. In Scripture, mountains stand
as symbols of immovable strength (cf. Ps. 36:6).” “Your righteousness is like the mountains
of God; Your judgments are like a great deep.” (NASB) “But God’s might exceeds even the grandest natural
monuments on earth, causing that which has stood firm since its formation to quake because
of Him. Throughout redemptive
history, God has displayed His power through earthquakes.”
“1 ¶ The words
of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel
in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah, and in the days
of Jeroboam II the son of Joash, the king of Israel, two years
before the earthquake.” (Amos 1:1).
“5 And you will flee to the valley of my
mountains, For the valley of the
mountains will reach to Azal. Yes, you
will flee as You fled from the
earthquake In the days of Uzziah the
king of Judah. And the LORD my
God will come, And all the
saints with you.” (Zech. 14:5).
“51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in
two from top to bottom, and the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened, and many bodies of
the saints who had been asleep were raised; 53 and they came out of the graves after his
resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now when the centurion and those with
him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that
had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the
Son of God!’” (Matt. 27:51-55).
“The book of Revelation predicts a
future earthquake that will shake the globe so fiercely that cities and nations
will collapse and mountains will not be found (Rev. 16:18-21).” “18 And there were rumblings, and thunderings, and
flashes of lightning; and a great earthquake, a mighty and
so great an earthquake such as did not occur since men were on the
earth. 19 And the great city was split
into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and the great Babylon was
remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his
wrath. 20 And every island fled away,
and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell great hail from heaven upon
men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent; and men
blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was
exceedingly great.” (Rev. 16:18-21) Let
me just say that this is the last of the judgments that God has put upon the
earth and it is my belief that this earthquake will turn the earth into
something like it was when God created it, and so during the Millennial kingdom
the earth will be very similar to how it was when God created it as seen in the
book of Genesis. For this reason it is
my belief that this is how people can live so long during these last thousand
years of earth’s history.
“At the end of the age, the Lord will
exert all His might to shake the world so that He will establish His unshakable
kingdom.”
“6 For thus says the LORD of
hosts, ‘Yet once more (it is
a little while) And I shall
shake heaven and earth, And the sea and
dry land; 7 And I shall shake all
nations, And they will come to the
desire of all nations, And I shall fill
this temple with glory,’ says the
LORD of hosts.” “21 Speak to
Zerubbabel, [the] governor of Judah, saying,
I [shall] shake The heaven and
the earth. 22 And I shall overthrow
[the] throne of kingdoms, And I shall
destroy [the] strength of [the] kingdoms of the Gentiles. And I shall overthrow [the] chariots and
their riders, And [the] horses and their
riders will come down, Everyone by [the]
sword of his brother. 23 On that day,
says [the] LORD [of] hosts, I
shall take you, [oh] Zerubbabel my servant, [the] son of Shealtiel, says [the] LORD, and I shall make you like a signet ring; for
I have chosen you, says [the] LORD [of]
hosts.” (Hag. 2:6-7 & 21-23).
26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now he
has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but
also heaven.” 27 And this, “Yet once
more,” indicates the removal of those things which are shaken, as
of those things which are made, that the things which are
not shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, though
we are receiving an unshakeable kingdom, let us have grace, by which
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:26-29)
Spiritual Meaning for my
life Today: As I look at all of the different things that
God has done and is still doing, then it should never be a problem for Him to
do things in my life so that I can bring glory to the Lord each day.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
Trust the Lord to cause me to be more faithful in doing the different
things in my life that He has called me to do.
12/20/2025 11:09 AM
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