What on earth has an obscure preacher in about six hundred years before Jesus came to teach and the gospels were written got to do with us people in 2026/7? But this message has been carefully recorded and printed in the Old Testament part of our Bibles. The Assyrians based on Nineveh ruled everywhere and were ruthless and brutal even atavistic. They had already wiped-out Israel in Samaria in 722bc. Despite some revivals, the city of Jerusalem still stood until 597bc Nahum, whose name means “The Lord comforts” writes in the few years before Nineveh was conquered, and forecasts judgement on the Assyrians. Nahum writes deploring the way of life and forecasting retribution. That happened in 612bc by the Babylonians. We do not know much about Nahum although some say he had lived in an Israeli village which took on his name in Capernahum, missing out the h later. He was possibly a prisoner when he wrote this vicious description. There is no reference to Nahum elsewhere in the Bible. We think he wrote in the period just before 612bc. <br>Modern living The main theme of the book which is recorded as a vision is that God will punish those who do not live by his principles. Now he forecasts destruction to Nineveh. God’s justice is in his own time and we can be certain of it. Do not ignore his powers over the earth. The Assyrians had taken Thebes in 663bc who thought they were the strongest city in that area of the known world. Thebes had the great river Nile as one side and the protection of the Egyptians on the other so thought they were safe. Nahum comes in the middle of all these great events and castigates both. Of Nineveh he says that much of their society is “like locusts with more people buying and selling than there are stars in the sky”. Then again “There are too many bureaucrats, bankers and brokers who are all keen to be at your service with smiles and promises. But later when you return with questions or complaints you’ll find they’ve flown off and are nowhere to be found”. People were goods. The Assyrian soldiers reportedly first marked their slaves by cutting off a few fingers. When they found this limited their use as slaves, they cut off noses and ears instead. That made them obvious. Misbehaving male slaves had their vital parts removed. Jonah had already written against the Nineveh ways of life and suggested that God would take vengeance on the city because of their behaviour.<br> Surprises Nahum deplores this way of life with the promise of inevitable divine retribution. This was done by the Babylonians. Nineveh was thought to be impregnable. It had walls 100 feet high with fort towers extending 100 feet above the wall. The wall itself was so wide that three chariots could drive abreast along it. It was surrounded by a moat 45 meters wide and 18 meters deep. Although the Babylonians had built a siege ramp working under a defensive shelter called a mantelet which was a moveable structure, they never used it. It was a deception. Instead, they dammed the local river that had gone round the city and dug a diversion into the city and so flooded it. No preparation had been made for this form of attack and the city was taken. That rupture of the old river bank into the new channel took the city by fatal surprise.<br> Who were the worst? His criticism is not reserved for just the people. He addresses his remarks to those he calls “the shepherd leaders who are in charge of caring for your people. They are busy doing everything else but.” And later, “They are not doing their job.” He uses some lovely similes when he says the “forts are like peach trees with lush peaches ripe and ready for picking. One shake of the tree and they fall into hungry mouths”. He makes no difference between the hedonic and the bestial..The soldiers or the traders? Nahum seems to make no difference. Seeing cruelty and wrong and doing nothing about it is as bad as doing it.<br> Questions. Why has this message been included in our Bibles? Is it that God will inevitably bring judgement on everyone?. Big is not always good and safe. They had relied on their forts. Nahum said that the people were like locusts, too busy to remember God, relying on their own strength. Are the great powers in the world now so busy that they forget God? Are we?<br>His country had been surrounded by great empires like Solomon and possibly the Philistines to the Egyptians. Then the Assyrians who were pushed out by the Persians and Medes. Their empire was taken over by the brilliant Alexander in 332 who had conquered the whole of the then known world when he was only young. Some say he sent a detachment into Britain, but that is not clear. He certainly was crowned Tutankhamen the second in Egypt and even anointed Messiah in Jerusalem. He was twenty three when he died. His empire was soon superseded by trade forces as Rome had money and Egypt had grain. To protect the trade route Israel asked the Romans to establish fortresses and army bases which they did in Samaria and Jerusalem. The Romans did not conquer Israel, they organised it. Was Britain the last of the empire seekers or do we look for another? Is one sin worse than another? Do empires fall for greed or just plain jealousy? Or are there religious or societal reasons? <br> Bob Quotes in italics are taken verbatim from the Message version of the Bible<br><br>
The soft approach. The Bible is not a history book, nor does it set out to be. Incidents are recorded as lessons to both the people then but more importantly, to us now. We looked recently at one of the occasions when the Israeli king was, as usual, warned of Syrian attack by the prophet Elisha. He was ready and prepared and the attacks failed. The Syrians wanted more land, so they next sent a detachment to capture Elisha but suffered blindness so severe that when the humourist Elisha meets them and explains that they must have lost their way he can lead them. Straight into the main city square. Elisha tells the king (who wanted to kill them all) to give them a good meal and send them on their way. That detachment went back North to their homes with their tails between their legs, no weapons (you try carrying a spear without sight) and no Elisha.The fearsome approach. Some time later the Syrians were so determined to get the land and their own way that they sent quite a large army to drive out the Israelis, who had gone back to idol worship, from their city of Samaria and surrounded the walls. Food ran desperately short so much so that some women were even contemplating killing their own children. They blamed Elisha for the famine, and his answer was that “tomorrow you can have as much flour as you want”. A city official’s reaction was that if God should “open the floodgates of heaven, should this happen?” Elisha tells him he would see it but not benefit. During the night some men with leprosy who were camping outside the gates said to each “We are going to die anyway so lets go into the Syrian camp and beg there”. To their surprise, they found the camp deserted, so helped themselves to whatever they wanted (and hid some silver and gold) before thinking of the people in the city and shouting to the guards. That official was ordered to stand in the gate to ensure order, but the crowd was so keen to get food that he was crushed and died. The Syrians apparently had heard the sounds of an huge approaching army and panicked and run away leaving their tents, their horses and donkeys, lots of food and money. The Syrian army went back home again in humility. So the good meal treatment and then the fear/panic therapy were forgotten and something severe was required to satisfy their greed.The hard approach. Meanwhile, the Egyptians had invaded because the Israeli people had been “unfaithful and abandoned the law of the Lord”. The Egyptians wanted to control the north/south M1 that was used to transport grain from Egypt to Rome. Despite that conquest of parts of Palestine by Egyptians, Jerusalem still stood. We read that they had “come as far as Jerusalem”. The Israelis in Samaria had not learned the lesson, went back to their old ways, and the city was taken and the Israelis were “resettled” into other countries and Samaria was lost to the nation for several hundred years. We read that they had adopted the traditions and rituals of the surrounding nations and forgotten God. Jerusalem still was held until they too forgot God and adopted local fashions. So the Assyrian army came back down in force and surrounded Jerusalem and food ran short. We are now In 740bc under Tiglath-Pileser 3. who is famed for his libraries and state records. Conditions in the city were desperate. Isaiah is the local prophet and he says the enemy will not enter the city or even shoot an arrow over the walls. He was laughed at. We read that when the people got up the next morning they found that the invaders were “all dead men”. The Bible says that a hundred and eighty five thousand bodies were counted. The Assyrian remnant went home and Jerusalem was left in relative peace until they again persisted in forgetting God and the Babylonians came and destroyed the city and temple in 597/5 BC.Really? Now that number is rather large and we are often told that Bible stories are only good fables. The Assyrian press reports have been found recently and they tell of a glorious campaign with victories. Contemporary histories often do miss out on failures. However the army pay records have also been found and they show a shortfall of exactly one hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers for that year. Some commentators have suggested Bubonic plague. Others water pollution. Plagues were not uncommon and several have been carefully recorded. Tiglath-Pileser has left us with detailed styles and scrolls which confirm the Bible account.Questions. Why did God allow the people in the city to suffer so badly from hunger and hopelessness before relief and assurance? Why did the Syrians keep attacking? Why did the soft approach (with the feast) or even the amusing humiliation of the temporary blindness not deter attacks? Did they really need three increasing lessons? What does the church need now to prioritise spreading the gospel over traditions and fashions? (Not to mention bright ideas) What do we really learn from these events and the way God deals with people? First things first? What are first? What does it mean to forget God? How does God teach us now? What do we know? Jesus got rid of temptations by quoting Deuteronomy from memory. I don’t think I could.Bob
The two kingdoms emerge The country was in a mess even under Saul its first king. We are about 1060bc. Surrounding nations like the Philistines kept attacking. David, the youngest of a big family and in common with others who may feel they have been overlooked or isolated, naturally took chances when they showed up when a little caution may have been wise. You will remember him as a teenager hearing about Goliath and immediately offering to challenge him against advice. David ridicules Goliath who laughs so much that he lifts his helmet in mirth. That proved fatal. The sling stone cracked the skull. In honour David is brought into society where he meets a very wise lad called Ahithophel. They grow up together and become so close that we read that David never set out on any enterprises without talking it over with his friend. Indeed in “those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who enquires of God”. Saul thinks David wants to kill him and be king himself, but David saves Saul’s life several times. Saul dies and David was now king and finally lived in Jerusalem. Apart from some local skirmishes, there was reasonable peace among the population but not among the royal family. Do not forget that in those times it was not unusual for a man to have several wives.<br>Reputations It is recorded that “in all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom”, one of David’s sons.. And so he was very popular and people loved him and he thinks he ought to be king. But he went wrong and had to live in another country until David forgave him. Absalom is now very clever and gets David’s chief adviser Ahithophel to become his chief of staff. David is no fool and realises that with this man Ahithophel advising Absalom, he is on a loser and so runs away to prevent civil war. He prays that God will turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness now he has sided with Absalom. David had relied on Ahithophel’s advice for years. They had grown up together. He trusted him. It is said that their relationship is reflected in some of the Psalms. And yet, in this moment of crisis, Ahithophel changes sides. We may well ask why. But David loved his sons and, in the process of time, allowed Absolom to come back to the city but not to the palace. Now Absalom who was very good looking, married and had a daughter who also was quite pretty. One of David’s younger sons fell badly for this daughter and raped her which made Absalom a bit cross and two years later he gave a party and when the wine flowed, had this younger brother murdered. David is not pleased with Absalom who runs away, gets a following by flattery and even persuades Ahithophel to join him and give more advice. Meanwhile Ahithophel has had a niece called Bathsheba who had married one of David’s army generals but had a habit of bathing on a roof overlooked by David. David effectively murders her husband and marries her himself. So Ahithophel has a grievance against David. Absalom is not pleased with David. And he plots to take over the kingship using that professional advice. David prays that Ahithophel should now give bad advice to Absalom<br>Obvious outcomes Now we have some complications. A popular uprising in favour of Absalom prompts David to run away from Jerusalem before a battle occurs. Then Absalom is caught in an oak tree by his hair and is killed. David is devastated by Absalom’s death. We can read his thoughts said to be recorded in Psalms 55 and 56. David is perhaps the most clever king the Hebrews ever had. Solomon of course the wisest, as he prayed for wisdom. David was clever in that he withdrew rather than face a battle with his own people. He had at last learned to be cautious. But Absalom thinks he has a grievance which festered for several years before he had his brother murdered for seducing his daughter. Ahithophel had a grievance because David seduced his niece before marrying her. Absalom was murdered while leading an insurrection. Ahithophel we read put his house in order before hanging himself because his advice had not been taken. The difference was perhaps that David had remorse and pleads for forgiveness. The other two seek to exact their own retribution. Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king . But he proposed higher taxes and forced labour, and so the northern kingdom revolted and became independent based on Samaria.. They became known as Samaritans. Jeroboam became king in Samaria, and the two kingdoms never respected each other. Rehoboam was king of the small area round Jerusalem called Israel. They are now known as Palestinians and Israelis.<br>Questions? Piecing together all the relationships in these histories is complex and I am indebted to several learned commentators for some details. Even then they do not always seem to agree with each other on details and time scales but the lessons put over are clear for our learning. What grievances may people have now which define their attitudes and actions? Should there have been more forgiveness taking account of their experiences? What would a modern judge say? Or even the papers? Do attitudes derange logical thought? What do these rather sordid histories teach us? What might be the results of our actions?<br>Bob
Elisha and blindness<br>We are about 850 years BC and the Hebrews had split into a northern kingdom based on Samaria and a southern state based on Jerusalem, about a hundred years before Samaria was destroyed. Neither kingdom was very stable as there were neighbours who looked at that land by the sea with jealousy. Jehu was the king of the northern lot and he had a reputation for fast driving as he rushed around quelling infiltrations by those neighbours. Ben Hadad was the king of Syria, a country further North, and he was rather upset that on each occasion he tried to take over a bit of Israel, young Jehu was there ready for him. We read that he had a top level meeting with his officials and asked them who was giving away the military secrets. The answer he got surprised and annoyed him when they said that there was this “prophet” who tells Jehu the “very words you speak in your bedroom”. God knows people’s thoughts.<br>The threat<br>Elisha was the prophet then and he lived near a small village called Dothan, about eleven miles north of Samaria. We read that time and again he warned king Jehu of attacks, so the army was on guard in such places. Ben Hadad heard about this and sent a strong force of horses and chariots to capture this prophet. Of course, Elisha had already told Jehu that the Syrians were on their way so they were prepared. One morning Elisha’s servant had got up to cook breakfast when he saw all these Syrian soldiers surrounding the village with Juhu’s little force hopefully on their way and panicked. “Don’t worry”, Elisha tells him, “There are more with us than there are with them”. That was silly because Jehu’s army was very small in comparison. But he prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened. He then saw what the Syrians had seen - the hills full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. Then we read that Elisha prayed that God would make the invaders blind and walked up to them and explained that they must have lost their way. “Just follow me and I will take you to the man you are looking for”..<br>The joke<br>We are not told how this blindness was caused. It may have been a sand storm or lightning strike or an infection. If we pray to a God that is almighty, we don’t need to know the “hows”. Then follows one of those hilarious events which must have caused laughter and relief. Don’t tell me that God does not have a sense of humour. Elisha leads them eleven miles down the road into the main square in Samaria before asking God to restore their sight. I have no evidence for it but I suspect most of them had by now discarded their swords spears and armour while trying to walk. I can imagine most of them were rather surprised and afraid knowing the usual treatment of invading forces who had been disarmed.<br>The soft answer<br>Jehu, in common with common practice, proposed to kill them all which would be easy on exhausted and confused soldiers who were without weapons. Elisha is wise and tells the king to prepare a “great feast” for them. When they had finished eating and drinking the king sends them away back to their master. But that was not the end of the small raids on Israel. Elisha’s closeness to God is shown in a number of other incidents.<br>The harder answer<br>Some years later the Syrians came down in big force and besieged Samaria. The town ran out of food and people were so starving that some were even cooking children. The town official tells Elisha that only if God opened the floodgates of heaven could they be saved. Elisha says he will see it but not benefit from it. Elisha’s cure this time is by sound, not sight, but only at the last minute. Now there were some men with leprosy in isolation outside the city gate who said to each other one night “we might as well try to beg off the Syrians than die out here” and went into their camp. They found it deserted, so helped themselves before telling the town gate keepers. Scouts went out and found the road strewn with weapons, clothes and other baggage and no Syrians. They had heard the sound of an approaching army and panicked. The town people came out with such a rush that they trampled on the official who had doubted Elisha and he died.<br>The question<br>This is just one of a series of extraordinary events that God did through Elisha. In these ones we see that gentle answers can turn away wrath. A lesson not learned by the Syrians and resulted in disaster. Each event gives a different lesson. We will see later that the Syrians ignored these two lessons and suffered a fatal approach. Was God teaching Jehu a lesson, or Elisha, or Ben Hadad or us? We often pray “And lead us not into temptation”, but how else does God teach us? That promise “There are more with us than there are with them” is always encouraging, but we may not always see them.<br><br>Bob<br><br>
