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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Bob Quotes in italics are taken verbatim from the Message version of the Bible
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Bob Quotes in italics are taken verbatim from the Message version of the Bible