MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/12/2026
8:50 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Vengeance
For Spiritual Harlotry”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Nahum
3:4-7
Message of the verses: All because of the many harlotries of
the harlot, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by
her harlotries And families by her sorceries.
“Behold, I am against you,” declares Yahweh of hosts; “And I will
uncover your skirts over your face And show to the nations your nakedness And
to the kingdoms your disgrace. I will
throw detestable filth on you And display you as a wicked fool And set
you up as a spectacle. And it will be
that all who see you Will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh s devastated! Who
will console her?’ Where will I seek
comforters for you?” (NASB)
“4 And all for the countless whorings of the
prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her
whorings, and peoples with her charms. 5 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of
hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations
look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. 6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with
contempt and make you a spectacle. 7 And
all who look at you will shrink from you and say, "Wasted is Nineveh; who
will grieve for her?" Where shall I seek comforters for you?” (ESV)
I begin this section in the same way
that I have been writing about this book by quoting John MacArthur’s
commentary, and then add my views, and also quote all of the Scripture
references that he has in his commentary.
“Of the many atrocities Nineveh
committed, Nahum identified the particular evil that primarily incited God’s
wrath: ‘All because of the
many harlotries of the harlot.’
While harlotry can refer to sexual immorality, it was often used in the
Old Testament as a metaphor for the spiritual adultery of false religion and
idol worship (cf. Hos. 1-3; Ezek. 16:23).”
(cf. Hos. 1-3; Ezek. 16:23). (I will not quote the first three
chapters of Hosea.)
23 "And after all your wickedness (woe, woe
to you! declares the Lord GOD),”
“In this
context, spiritual harlotry is in view since the remainder of the verse
parallels harlotries with sorceries, indicating that the focus of
this condemnation relates to idolatry and pagan worship. In 2 Kings 9, a similar parallel between ‘harlotries’
and ‘sorcerers’ appears in reference to Jezebel, the wicked queen who seduced
Israel to follow Baal (2 Kings 9:22).”
(2 Kings 9:22)
“22 And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it
peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the
whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?’”
“In a
similar way, Assyria seduced many nations to embrace their false gods and to
engage in despicable acts of pagan worship.
Even the southern kingdom of Judah fell prey to this spiritual harlotry,
as King Ahaz gave up the treasures of the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to the
king of Assyria. Ahaz then installed a
replica of the Assyrian altar in the temple court and led the people of Judah
into false religion (2 Kings 16:7-18; cf. Isa. 7-8).”
(2 Kings 16:7-18)
“7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser
king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and
rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of
Israel, who are attacking me." 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was
found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king’s house and
sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The
king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people
captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin. 10
¶ When King Ahaz went to Damascus to
meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus.
And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern,
exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah
the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from
Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. 12
And when the king came from Damascus,
the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on
it 13 and burned his burnt offering and
his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his
peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the
bronze altar that was before the LORD he removed from the front of the house,
from the place between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the
north side of his altar. 15 And King
Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, "On the great altar burn the
morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt
offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of
the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it
all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the
bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by." 16 Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz
commanded. 17 ¶ And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands
and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze
oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. 18 And the covered way for the Sabbath that had
been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go
around the house of the LORD, because of the king of Assyria.”
“As the
example of Ahaz illustrates, Assyria used its influence to promote spiritual
apostasy and Pegan worship (cf. 2 Kings 21).
That God singled out spiritual harlotry as Assyria’s most grave offense
against Him accentuates His hatred for all idolatry (cf. Exodus 20:2-5; Jer.
16:18).”
(cf. Exodus 20:2-5; Jer. 16:18)
“2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4
"You shall not make for yourself a
carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them,
for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,”
“18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity
and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their
detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.’”
I will continue looking at these
verses in my next SD, as I did not get too far this morning but I do think it
is important to quote all of these verses in order to better understand what is
written in MacArthur’s commentary.
Spiritual
Meaning for My Life today: I am still thinking about how this
little book of Nahum has so much to do with what will happen in the end times,
something I brought up in earlier SD’s.
This shows me that God is in control of not only the past, but also the
future.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I am putting my trust in the Lord
to give me the grace and mercy for me to teach our Sunday school class for the
next two Sundays, as our present teacher is enjoying a well deserved rest in
Florida.
From the
pen of Dr. David Jeremiah: “Press on:
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not…Genius will not…Education
will not…Persistence and determination alone are overwhelmingly powerful.” (President
Calvin Coolidge”
“One
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to
those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-13)
2/12/2026
9:23 AM
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