NAHUM---NEMESIS OF NINEVEH


INTRODUCTION

1.    This book deals with God’s judgments upon the city of Nineveh.

 

2.    This is the second book of the Bible that has Nineveh as its major subject.

A.   Jonah was sent to this city about 150 years earlier and the people turned to God.

B.   The turning to God at the preaching of Jonah was not lasting. The city fell again into gross wickedness.

C.   God waited these many years to pronounce His final judgment upon the city.

D.   Nineveh was not simply a nation of backsliders--they deliberately rejected the God they had accepted.

 

3.    A word about the cruelty of the Assyrians

A.   Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.

B.   “This empire had been built up through violence. The Assyrians were great warriors. They were out on raiding expeditions continually. They built their state on the loot of other people. Their practices were cruel. They skinned their prisoners alive and dressed columns with their skin or cut off their hands, feet, noses, and ears. They put out their eyes, pulled out their tongues. They burned boys and girls in fire. They made mounds of human skulls. They did everything to inspire terror. They said they did this in obedience to their god, Asshur.” (cf. 2:11, 12) --Mears

C.   Nineveh was at the peak of its prosperity and power when Nahum prophesied against her.

 

4.    A word about the city of Nineveh: “The city of Nineveh seemed impregnable. Standing on the left bank of the Tigris, its walls towered one hundred feet into the air and were further strengthened by more than twelve hundred mighty towers. The walls were wide enough for three chariots to drive abreast on them, and they enclosed 1800 acres. The city could maintain its own food supply in case of a siege, and the sides not protected by the Tigris were surrounded by a moat. Nothing seemed more unlikely than the fate Nahum announced against Nineveh.” --Phillips

                                                                                                       

5.    Israel had been carried away captive by Assyria and Judah had been threatened and invaded.

 

6.    The fulfillment of Nahum’s prophecy came to pass some 86 years later (612 BC).

 

MESSAGES OF THE BOOK

1.    It is a message of comfort to a harassed and fearful people in peril through the cruel and awful military power of Assyria. (Nahum means “comfort”.)

 

2.    It is a message of warning, showing that all God can do with an apostate people and nation is to destroy it.

 

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

  I.    NINEVEH’S DOOM DECLARED (ch. 1)

A.   Nineveh’s revival under Jonah forgotten

B.   Nineveh’s judgment declared because:

1.    She had turned against the Lord who spared her.

2.    She had become more wicked than ever.

3.    God’s righteous character demanded it.

C.   Nineveh’s treatment of Judah and God’s people (vs. 9-11)

 

 II.    NINEVEH’S DOOM DESCRIBED (1:9-2:13)

A.   Nineveh’s armies and the invasion of Judah (1:9-15)

1.    A great army led by a great leader threatened Judah. (v. 12; II Kings 18:13)

2.    The army would be destroyed as it moved across Palestine. (v. 13; Isa. 37:36-38)

3.    Judah would be released from the pressure. (v. 14)

4.    This was good news to Judah. (v. 15)

B.   How God would accomplish the defeat of Assyria (ch. 2)

1.    He would raise up a superior army.

a.    A revolt of neighboring and conquered nations took place against Assyria.

b.    Nabopolassar became King of Babylon and formed strong alliances with Assyria’s enemies.

c.    In 612 B.C. the confederacy attacked Nineveh.

d.    Nineveh defended herself for two years.

e.    Her defeat came in fulfillment of 2:6.

 

III.   NINEVEH’S DOOM DESERVED (ch. 3)

A.   The categories of her vices (2:11-3:1)

1.    Aggression (2:11-13)

2.    Atrocities and violence (3:1)

3.    Rapacious; she robbed and plundered her neighbors. (3:1)

B.   The city’s doom (3:8-19)

1.    As certain as the destruction of No-Amon (Thebes), the great northern Egyptian city destroyed 51 years earlier by the Assyrians

2.    The defenses and the city would fall like overripe fruit. (v. 12)

C.   The complete destruction (vs. 16-19)

1.    No remnant to be left of the city (v. 19)

2.    The nations that once feared her would clap their hands in joy at her doom. (v. 19)