MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2026
8:55 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Intro to Nahum 2:8-13”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Nahum
2:8-13
Message
of the verses: “8
Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!"
they cry, but none turns back. 9 Plunder
the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth
of all precious things. 10 Desolate!
Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins;
all faces grow pale!
11 ¶
Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the
lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? 12 The lion tore enough for his cubs and
strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens
with torn flesh. 13 Behold, I am against
you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and
the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the
earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.”
This morning I will continue to
quote from the introduction to these verses from John MacArthur’s commentary
and will also quote from the verses that he includes in his commentary.
“Nahum proclaimed that God would
judge Nineveh with that kind of power.
As the greatest military power of the ancient Near East, Assyria assumed
itself to be invincible even from the wrath of Yahweh. When the Assyrian commander Rabshakeh came
against Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah, he defied God and claimed the Lord
was powerless to defend Jerusalem.
Rabshakeh’s message was:
“Do not
let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, ‘Jerusalem will not be
given into the and of the king of Assyria.’
Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the
lands, devoting them to destruction. So
will you be delivered? Did the gods of
those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them, even Gozan and
Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the ding of Hamath, the king of
Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?” (2
Kings 19:10-13; cf. 18:32-35).”
(2 Kings 19:10-13; cf. 18:32-35)
(I will just look at 18:32-35)
“32 until I come and take you away to a land like
your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land
of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to
Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us."
33 Has any of the gods of the nations
ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where
are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of
my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of
the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should
deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’"
“The
Assyrians not only declared their king superior to Yahweh, but they also mocked
God and likened Him to false and impotent idols. While this taunt was meant to intimidate God’s
people (18:26, 37; cf. 19:1-3), the Lord encouraged them with the simple words,
‘Do not be afraid’ (19:6).”
(18:26, 37; cf. 19:1-3)
“26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah,
and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in
Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah
within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.’”
“37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over
the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the
recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of
the Rabshakeh.”
“1
¶ As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he
tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of
the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was
over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered
with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah,
This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come
to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.”
“To show
that the Assyrians could not oppose Him and that He would defend Jerusalem, God
sent the Angel of Yahweh to single-handedly put to death 185,000 Assyrian
soldiers in one night (19:35). Because
Nineveh set itself against the Lord, He set Himself against Nineveh and
declared to them through Nahum: “Whatever
you devise against Yahweh, He will make a complete destruction of it’ (Nah.
1:9; cf. 1:10-13).
(cf. 1:10-13).
“10 For they are like entangled thorns, like
drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. 11 From you came one who plotted evil against
the LORD, a worthless counselor. 12 Thus
says the LORD, "Though they are at full strength and many, they will be
cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no
more. 13 And now I will break his yoke
from off you and will burst your bonds apart.’”
“Through Nahum, God prophesied that
He would destroy Nineveh’s pride (2:8), prosperity (2:9), power (2:10, and
preeminence (2:11-12), which were all decreed by His divine prosecution of the
city (2:13). The Lord’s comprehensive
judgment would devastate the city and the surrounding empire, so that Assyria
would never again wreak havoc against Israel.
By destroying the mightiest nation in the ancient Near East, God
demonstrated His power to judge His enemies, protect His own, and keep every
promise He made to His people.”
The verses mentioned in this
paragraph above are all at the beginning of this SD, and so I will not quote
them again.
This is the end of John MacArthur’s introduction
to these verses and so in my next SD I will begin looking at “Destruction of
Pride” from Nahum 2:8).
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: One of the things that is mentioned in this
story of Nineveh has to do with pride, and we could also see that when the men
of Assyria came to Jerusalem to tell God’s people there that they were going to
destroy them, so they might as well give up.
God hates pride and in an earlier SD I went over things from both Isaiah
and Ezekiel which included some verses in each letter about who Satan is, and
one can see a great deal of pride in Satan, and I suppose that is the main
reason that he fell from being an archangel to becoming the enemy of God. Pride is a deadly sin!
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Give all glory to the Lord for what
is happening in my life and certainly not be prideful.
From Dr.
David Jeremiah I read “The wise man is he who has given himself to Jesus
Christ, and who by the help of The Holy Spirit, keeps his intellect in submission
to the will of God.” (Spiros Zodiates)
Give
Instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man and he
will increase in learning.” (Proverbs 9:9).
1/29/2026
9:29 AM
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