MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/16/2026
7:10 AM
My
Worship
Time Focus: PT-4 “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)
This morning I continue to look at
this very long section from John MacArthur’s book on Nahum. He writes “The Lord would use Nineveh to demonstrate
that idolatry is not only filthy (cf. Ezek. 16:16-34; Hos. 8-9) but also
foolish as He declared He would ‘display you [Nineveh] as a wicked fool.’”
(cf. Ezek. 16:16-34;)
“16 You took some of your garments and made for
yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never
been, nor ever shall be. 17 You also took
your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and
made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. 18 And you took your embroidered garments to
cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. 19 Also my bread that I gave you— I fed you with
fine flour and oil and honey— you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so
it was, declares the Lord GOD. 20 And
you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you
sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter 21 that you slaughtered my children and delivered
them up as an offering by fire to them? 22 And in all your abominations and your whorings
you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare,
wallowing in your blood. 23 "And
after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD), 24 you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made
yourself a lofty place in every square. 25 At the head of every street you built your
lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any
passerby and multiplying your whoring. 26 You also played the whore with the Egyptians,
your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. 27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand
against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed
of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your
lewd behavior. 28 You played the whore
also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the
whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. 29 You multiplied your whoring also with the
trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied. 30 "How sick is your heart, declares the
Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 31
building your vaulted chamber at the
head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were
not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. 32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers
instead of her husband! 33 Men give
gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing
them to come to you from every side with your whorings. 34 So you were different from other women in your
whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while
no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.”
“In
Scripture, the wicked fool is the worst of all fools, the apostate who
rejects God and makes reprehensible and destructive choices in accordance that
his wicked character (Ps. 14:1; 53:1).”
(Ps. 14:1; 53:1)
“The
fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do
abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”
“The
fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing
abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.”
“Nabal,
whose name means wicked fool was the embodiment of such irrationality,
dying of shock upon being informed of the recklessness of his actions. Nineveh acted in folly as it placed its hope
in idolatrous worship (cf. 2 Kings 29:37), military might (cf. 2 Kings
18:28-35; 19:11-13; 2 Chr. 32:13-19), and national prosperity (cf. 2 Kings
18:31-32; Nah. 2:8). God exposed this
folly, desecrating Nineveh’s idolatrous worship (Nah. 1:14; 3:6), devastating
its military force (1:12-13; 2:13), and deploying its rivers to decimate its
defenses (cf. 1:8; 2:6). Idolatry may
promise insight and sophistication bit in reality leaves one completely unfit
(cf. Isa. 44:9-20; Rom 1:28). God would set
Nineveh up as a spectacle of devastation and disgrace, literally in
Hebrew as ‘something to see,’ so that the city would become a permanent
reminder of the catastrophic consequences of rejecting the true God for false
deities.” There were far more verses in
this section for me to look up as if I did then it would take many more SD’s to
finish this section, so I chose not to put them in this SD.
“Third, the city would serve as an
historic object lesson of the vengeance of the Almighty. Describing the outcome of His judgment, the
Lord proclaimed, ‘And it will be that all who see you will flee from you.’ Flee
conveys the act of frantically trying to escape from danger (cf. Gen. 31:40;
Esth. 6:1). Though Nineveh was once an
oasis in the desert to which travelers came, it would become a place that
people purposely avoided, being horrified by the aftermath of God’s
judgment. Those who bypassed the city
would say in astonishment, ‘Nineveh is devastated!’ recognizing
its irrevocable ruin (cf. Isa. 23:14).”
(cf. Isa. 23:14).
“14 Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold
is laid waste.”
“Reflecting
on the severity of God’s judgment, the onlookers would ask, ‘Who will
console her?’ Console carries the idea of shaking one’s head out of sympathy
or empathy. The question being asked is
rhetorical. No one would come alongside
Nineveh to soothe its anguish for fear that divine judgment would fall on them
also. Emphasizing the city’s
devastation, the Lord Himself added: Where
will I seek comforters for you?’ Nineveh’s
abandonment would be so comprehensive that not even God would seek a comforter for
the ruined city. Comforters in
Hebrew comes from naham, the same root of the prophet’s name Nahum, the
one who delivered this message of Nineveh’s devastation, then any hope of
comfort for the city was certainly lost.
No one would comfort the doomed city after God’s judgment fell.
“On the other hand, nahum also
appears in Isaiah 4:1, in which God said concerning Israel, ‘Comfort, O
comfort My people.’ In keeping with
other portions of Nahum’s prophecy, this near prophecy about the destruction of
Nineveh guarantees that the more distant prophecies will also be fulfilled with
equal precision. The Lord demonstrated
through Nineveh that while the wicked will ultimately have no comfort, He will
provide comfort for His people.
Moreover, while the destruction of Nineveh would bring temporary comfort
to Israel, Isiah prophesied of the everlasting comfort that includes the
forgiveness of sins and restoration of all things in Christ (Isa. 40-53). As the Israelites would behold the
fulfillment of Nahum’s prophecy, they would know that God is faithful both to
avenge and to comfort His people.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life today: As I go through this life on planet earth
with all of it problems, I am thankful that the Lord saved me and that He gives
me comfort like we touched on in this SD.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I am trusting the Lord to continue
to give me wisdom to teach the Sunday school class that I am attending at this
time as our teacher is on vacation. I am
also thankful that the Lord gave me calm yesterday in teaching this class.
From Dr.
David Jeremiah: “Pray the largest
prayers. You cannot think a prayer so
large that God in answering it will not wish you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but wings.” (Phillips
Brooks)
“You
will pray to Him and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light
will shine on your ways.” (Job 22:27-28 NIV).
2/16/2026
10:26 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment