Nahum, Habakkuk & Zephaniah by Youthworks

Contents

Foreword vi Preface vii General introduction

1. The character of God (Nahum 1:1–6)

2. The salvation of God: judgement upon Nineveh and freedom for Judah (Nahum 1:7–15)

3. The invasion and fall of Nineveh (Nahum 2:1–13)

4. The downfall of Nineveh the prostitute (Nahum 3:1–7)

5. The downfall of Nineveh and her king (Nahum 3:8–19)

6. Habakkuk’s first complaint: violence and iniquity in Judah (Habakkuk 1:1–4)

7. God’s unexpected answer: the Babylonians were coming (Habakkuk 1:5–11)

8. Habakkuk’s second complaint: how could God use the evil Babylonians? (Habakkuk 1:12–17)

9. God’s answer: the Babylonians would be judged, the righteous would live by faith (Habakkuk 2:1–20)

10. Habakkuk’s response: a psalm of faith (Habakkuk 3:1–19)

117

11. The day of God’s judgement (Zephaniah 1:1–18)

138

12. God’s judgement on the nations (Zephaniah 2:1–15)

160

13. Salvation of a remnant (Zephaniah 3:1–20)

180

General introduction

READING THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST 1. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah are ultimately about Jesus The whole of the Old Testament is about Jesus—this includes Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. Jesus himself said that the Old Testament is primarily about him. On the road to Emmaus Jesus taught his friends that the Old Testament is about himself: ‘And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’ (Luke 24:27). To the apostles Jesus said: ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled’ (Luke 24:44). Jesus said in John 5:39: ‘You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me’. According to Jesus, the Old Testament is about Jesus—about his person, life, death and resurrection: ‘Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead”’(Luke 24:45–46). The Apostle Paul said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 1:20: ‘For all the promises of God find their Yes in him’. The Old Testament foreshadows God’s redemption in Christ. It is all about Jesus. It all applies to him and is fulfilled in his person, his death and his resurrection. I want to preach on Nahum because I want people to know about Jesus, and the book of Nahum must be ultimately about Jesus. So, one of my key presuppositions about the books of 1

The End of Evil Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah is that they are about Jesus.

2. Presupposition: the unity of the Bible I can say that Nahum is about Jesus, or that any other part of the Old Testament is about Jesus, because of the unity of the Bible. Although there are many human authors of the Bible, such as Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, ultimately there is one author of the Bible: God. The fact that there is one author of the whole overarching story of the Bible means that the Bible has a profound unity. And the storyline of the Bible, as a unified story, finds its fulfilment in Jesus. But some modern Old Testament scholars would disagree. Sometimes modern biblical studies have effectively excluded God from our study of Scripture. Some philosophers and scholars would say that although we may believe that God is real and is there, since we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t observe him scientifically we must exclude God from our studies. This would mean that we cannot say that the Bible is the word of God, as it claims for itself. The Old Testament then becomes a document that is human only. Nahum then is merely read as a text that illuminates for us the views of certain people in Judah in the seventh century BC. If we cannot say that God is the author of the Bible and Nahum is the word of God, then Nahum is not the word of God for us today and is not about Jesus. And so, in modern Old Testament scholarship, there are commentaries on the books of Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah that will say little or nothing about Jesus or about application of the text to us today. Such an approach to the Old Testament will mean that we spend all our time thinking about what the text meant (back then in the seventh century BC), and spend very little time on what the text means (what it means for us today). The result will be dry, academic study or preaching, which does not connect with 21st century life here and now. We should understand both what the text meant and what it means today. Even a theologically Reformed pastor can be 2

General introduction in danger of doing precisely what a liberal theologian does: preaching the text for what it meant, not for what it means as the word of God today. Biblical Theology can help us here. Biblical Theology does not merely describe a theology that is biblical. Biblical Theology describes an approach to the Bible that reads the whole Bible as a unity; it reads the Old Testament in the context of the whole Bible, in light of its fulfilment in Jesus Christ.

3. The moralising approach to the Old Testament vs Biblical Theology Often we evangelicals can have a moralising approach to the Bible. Instead of seeing how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus, and only then applying it to us, we can jump straight from the Old Testament passage to us. That is, we take one step in application, from the Old Testament straight to us, instead of taking two steps in application, from the Old Testament first to its fulfilment in Jesus and only then, secondarily, applying it to us. Graeme Goldsworthy has done excellent work on how to read the Old Testament using a Biblical Theology approach. In his book Gospel and Kingdom 2 Goldsworthy gives an example of the moralising approach to the Old Testament, and a Biblical Theology approach to the Old Testament, from the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). The classic evangelical moralising approach to the Old Testament would jump straight from the David and Goliath story to us. That is, there would be one step in application directly from the passage to us, not two steps: from the passage to its fulfilment in Jesus first and only then an application from the passage to us. The moralising approachâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;jumping in one step from the passage to us in applicationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;could be done quite cleverly, but usually would involve reading ourselves into the text,

See Goldsworthy, G 1981 Gospel and Kingdom, Paternoster Press, Cumbria, UK. Also, Goldsworthy, G 1991, According to Plan, IVP, Leicester.

The End of Evil and usually, reading ourselves into the text as the hero: in this case, David. Thus the application might be that we should be like David: having great faith in God in the face of the overwhelming Goliaths that we might meet in life. Such Goliaths could be: setbacks, sickness, death of a loved one, and so on. And while such application has some merit and much truth to it, Goldsworthy would question whether this is really what the David and Goliath episode is all about in the context of the whole Bible. The Biblical Theology approach aims to show how the Old Testament story is fulfilled first in Jesus, before moving to apply the story to ourselves. Thus in the David and Goliath story we shouldn’t read ourselves first and foremost into the character of David. David in the chapter before this story was anointed as the King of Israel. He was the unique, anointed King and Saviour of God’s people. David then showed in the next chapter of 1 Samuel that he was God’s appointed Saviour by defeating Goliath. Where do we fit into the story then? We best fit into the story in the place of the ordinary people of God—the Israelites. The Israelites were cowering on the sidelines unable to face Goliath. They were helpless to defeat him. The Israelites watched on instead while their unique Godappointed Saviour and King defeated Goliath on their behalf. We can then move forward easily to Jesus from there. Jesus has been raised up, as the ultimate Saviour and King of God’s people who comes to rescue us. He rescues us from our ultimate enemies: not of flesh-and-blood giants, but of sin, death and the devil. Jesus achieved this in his death on the cross. We were cowering on the sidelines unable to face sin, death and the devil in our own strength or faith. However God raised up for us our unique, God-appointed saviour in Jesus, and he defeated our enemies of death and the devil on the cross. We merely watch on from the sidelines as it were. However here then is where the application in preaching is different. Rather than calling on us to have faith like 4

General introduction David, a faith that may end up being fairly triumphalist and unrealistic, we will be called on to have faith in the Saviour God has raised up for us. David is a type of Christ. We are to trust in our Saviour, who rescued us when we could not rescue ourselves. We are to put our faith in Christ. My point here is that reading the Old Testament using Biblical Theology will look different to a moralising approach that directly applies the Old Testament to us. There are two steps involved here in applying the Old Testament to us, not one step. Instead of jumping straight from the Old Testament passage to us, we move forward to the fulfilment in Jesus, and only then, to the application toÂ us.3 I may not have convinced you with such a brief description of Biblical Theology, but I hope you can see the problems with the moralising approach. The moralising approach to the Old Testament would logically lead to absurd applications. Preaching on the books of Deuteronomy or Joshua could lead to a direct application of declaring Jihad. Preaching on Leviticus could lead us to reinstate a system of priests who make sacrifices for the people. A direct application of the Old Testament sacrificial system, which bypasses Jesus and jumps straight in its application to us, would see us reinstate the whole priesthood and sacrificial system today. The moralising approach to the Old Testament is fraught with dangers.

I will not elaborate on other approaches to Old Testament prophecy. In the last 150 years some Christians have looked for the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, not so much in Jesus, but in current world events. The modern state of Israel has been seen as a fulfilment of prophecy. Prophecy is treated as prediction rather than proclamation (which is more usual). Application of the text again jumps straight to our modern situation, bypassing fulfilment in Jesus.

The End of Evil

THE WORLD OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY PROPHETS4 Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah all lived and gave their messages in the seventh century BC, by which time Israel had long been in the Promised Land.

1. Background to Nahum: the superpower Assyria There are two whole books of the Bible that deal with the superpower Assyria: the book of Jonah (eighth century BC) and the book of Nahum (seventh century BC).5 Jonah was sent by God to preach to the capital city Nineveh in the first half of the eighth century (2 Kings 14:256). He was sent against this ruthless enemy of Israel, which would shortly conquer the ten northern tribes7 (in 722 BC). He preached God’s judgement against Nineveh: ‘Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”’ (Jonah 3:4). The people of Nineveh repented and were spared (Jonah 3:5–10).8

Note that Jeremiah (not part of this commentary) is also a seventh century prophet.

5. There are other prophecies against Assyria in other books of the Old Testament too: Isaiah 7–8; 10:5–34; 14:24–27; 19:23–25; 31:8–9; 37:21–38; Micah 5:5–9; 7:12; Hosea 9:3; 10:6; 11:5, 11; and Zephaniah 2:13–15. 6.

‘

About 200 years earlier, the ten northern tribes had split from Judah in the south. This happened after the death of King Solomon, during the reign of his son Rehoboam in 930 BC (1 Kings 12).

Jonah 3:5, 10, ‘And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them … When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.’

He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.’ This verse is speaking of the reign of Jeroboam II, who ruled the northern tribes 790–749 BC.

Chapter 1

The character of God (Nahum 1:1–6)

STRUCTURAL SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 1 Before diving into the verse-by-verse explanation of chapter 1, I will give a brief overview of the structure of the chapter. Verse 1 is the heading and introduction for the whole book. The chapter is then divided into two sections: verses 2–6, which speak of God’s character, and verses 7–15, which speak of God’s action. That is, verses 2–6 speak about the nature of God, which will mean judgement for the Assyrians, the enemy of God’s people. Verses 7–15 speak about God’s future actions to judge the Assyrians and free his people. In our first section, verses 2–3 speak about God’s jealousy for his people, his wrath against their enemies, and his coming vengeance upon them. Verses 3–6 speak about God’s power, comparing the forces of nature in poetic fashion to the power of an Almighty God who comes to save his people. Verse 6 finishes the section by asking who can stand against such a powerful God. In our second section, verse 7 speaks about God’s goodness as a refuge for his persecuted people. Verses 8–11 speak about God’s coming judgement upon their oppressors. Verses 12–15 speak about the end of that oppression for the people of God, who will be able to worship God once more.

The End of Evil

INTRODUCTION (1:1) Nothing is known about the prophet Nahum outside of his book. I don’t find this fact surprising at all. What is important is Nahum’s message, not the prophet himself. We don’t know exactly when Nahum prophesied, but it must have been after 663 BC because that is when Thebes fell, which is referred to in 3:8f. And he must have prophesied before 612 BC, because that is when Nineveh fell. It is likely that Nahum prophesied before the death of Ashurbanipal in 630 BC, since Assyria was at full strength (Nahum 1:12)48 only before this date. So scholars think that Nahum prophesied some time around the middle of the seventh century BC.49 The northern ten tribes had been defeated and largely removed from the land. The people of Judah, who were left, had suffered under the Assyrians for decades. But now Nahum announced that their oppressors would be dealt with by God.50 Verse 1 is the title of this little book of prophecy. Verse 1 tells us that the burden51 of the book concerns Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which was the superpower of the day. Nineveh here stands for the whole Assyrian Empire. In fact in the context of the whole Bible Nineveh, like Babylon52, really stands for any rebellious city or nation that is opposed to God, his people and his purposes. Verse 1 also tells us that the book comprises the words of ‘Nahum’. Nahum was a prophet of God. His name means ‘comfort’, but the significance of his name is not of concern for the book. ‘Elkosh’ is probably a place name and is

48. ‘Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and many …”’ 49. So Baker, DW 1988, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah TOTC, IVP, Leicester: IVP, p.19. 50. See the introduction for further background to Assyria and Nahum’s time. 51. The word ‘oracle’ literally means ‘burden’. 52. See Revelation 17–18.

The character of God (Nahum 1:1–6) unknown apart from a reference by Jerome (in the fourth century AD) to a location in Galilee.53 What is most important in this verse however is the fact that this is a vision given to Nahum from God. This vision is therefore the very word of God and is still God’s word to us today.

THE CHARACTER OF GOD: HIS ANGER AGAINST NINEVEH (1:2–6) Our English Bibles set out the words of Nahum’s prophecy in a way that indicates that they are poetry. There is parallelism and alliteration in the Hebrew (typical of Hebrew poetry). Parallelism occurs when two phrases say similar things in different words. For example, verse 2b: the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries And keeps wrath for his enemies.

That the book of Nahum is a literary work in no way diminishes the fact that it is the word of God. However it is a word of God rich in imagery and poetic devices. Verses 2–6 begin by focusing our attention on God himself. Nahum describes the character of God. God had raised up the Assyrians to discipline his own people (Isaiah 10:5–6).54 However their arrogance and cruelty knew no bounds. Even a century earlier God had said through the prophet Isaiah that he would punish Assyria for their cruelty (Isaiah 10:7f). 55 Now in the time of Nahum God 53. Palmer Robertson, O 1990, The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, NICOT, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p.2. 54. ‘Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to read them down like the mire of the streets.’ 55. For example, verse 12: ‘When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes’.

The End of Evil declared that the time for his judgement upon the Assyrians had arrived. They had persecuted and oppressed his people for long enough and now he would punish them. God’s character is at the heart of this judgement. He is a God who is angry with sin and will judge it. Verse 2 focuses immediately on God. Three times the verse speaks of the LORD, the personal name for the God of Israel:56 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

1. A jealous God (1:2) God is first spoken of as a jealous God. Jealousy here refers to God’s passionate loyalty.57 This was not a new description of God’s character, but harks back to the Sinai covenant (Exodus 20:5; 34:14).58 We must not ascribe petty human jealousy to God’s character. There is a right type of jealousy—a godly zeal or jealousy. It is right that a wife should be jealous for her husband’s love—that his love be given to no-one else. God is right to be jealous for the love of his people. Their love should be given to no-one else. God is also right to be jealous for his honour. It is right that no-one else should be given his place as God. The Assyrians were claiming lordship over God’s people. God’s character, his nature, is such that he could not abide by such a false claim. His people belonged to him, not to the Assyrians. He alone was to be honoured as their Lord. He was jealous for that honour.

56. The Hebrew word for ‘Lord’ only has the consonants ‘YHVH’, often written as ‘Yahweh’. The English Bible often translates this personal name of God as ‘Lord’, which is not the same as the noun ‘Lord’ (Hebrew ‘Adon’). 57. ‘Zealous’ would be another translation of this word. 58. ‘I the Lord your God am a jealous God’ (Exodus 20:5); ‘you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God’ (Exodus 34:14).

The character of God (Nahum 1:1–6)

2. A vengeful God (1:2) God’s exclusive relationship with his people Israel also meant that he would save them. God’s character was such that he could not tolerate injustice. He could not tolerate the oppression and persecution of his people. Therefore God would avenge the injustice of the Assyrian oppression of Judah. God alone is judge and he can take vengeance for wrongs that are done in our world. In fact the notion that there might be no God and no justice in our world—that people can do wrong as much as they like and get away with it—is intolerable. But there is a God and he is an avenging God, as Nahum emphasises three times in verse 2. Some people have a problem with the descriptions of God such as we have in verse 2. ‘My God would not get angry’, they say. But here God is vengeful and angry. This is not something confined to the Old Testament either. The God of mercy in the New Testament is the same God of the Old Testament. Indeed the God of the New Testament is also vengeful 59 and wrathful 60. Yet God is not vengeful or 59. ‘Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord”.’ (Romans 12:19); ‘that no-one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.’ (1 Thessalonians 4:6); ‘… inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus’. (2 Thessalonians 1:8); ‘For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”.’ (Hebrews 10:30); ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgements are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’ (Revelation 19:1–2) 60. ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.’ (John 3:36); ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’ (Romans 1:18); ‘But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed … for those who are selfseeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.’ (Romans 2:5, 8); and many more verses …

The End of Evil wrathful in a human sense of these words. We must not ascribe petty human anger or jealousy or vengeance to God. God does not have fits of rage or tantrums. God’s vengeance is a right judgement of the world. His anger is a righteous anger. The God of the Bible, the real God, does indeed get angry with sin and injustice. Perhaps part of the problem for us comes from living in relative luxury and comfort. For those who are persecuted it comes as a great comfort that there is a God of justice who will avenge them. The Assyrians were a horrifically cruel nation. We might think in recent times of the Nazis. When Nahum prophesied the Assyrians were at the height of their power. Their cruelty was well known. Many of my Jewish family died in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. If I were around at the time, I’m sure it would have been a great comfort to know that God does not ignore injustice but takes vengeance. For the many Christians persecuted in our world today, the book of Nahum should be a comfort. ‘The LORD is a jealous and avenging God.’ He does not ignore wrongs and injustice, especially when it concerns his people. It is hard for me to imagine what it would be like to be persecuted as a Christian. Of course I’ve been mocked, but neither my life nor the lives of my wife and children have been threatened. I can’t imagine what that would really be like. If I had to choose between Jesus and being tortured, could I do it? If I had to choose between Jesus and seeing my son or daughter hurt, could I do it? When I get rejected sometimes in evangelism I can be angry because of the humiliation. But how pathetic is that response compared to the plight of Christians who are being far more severely persecuted today around the world. Many of them may very much want justice and vengeance. But we must recall that vengeance is God’s and is never to be ours. In Romans 12:19 Paul says: ‘Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord”.’ We are to trust God in persecution and suffering. He will avenge us. 22

The character of God (Nahum 1:1–6) The enemies of the people of God are God’s enemies. They are his ‘adversaries’ and ‘enemies’ (v 2). When Saul of Tarsus persecuted the church the risen Lord Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and said to him: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ (Acts 9:4). To persecute the people of God is to persecute God himself, and God will take vengeance.

3. An angry God (1:2–3) Finally in verse 2 we note that the avenging God is ‘wrathful’. He is personally angry with people when they do wrong. He is angry with those who oppress and persecute his people. He is angry with those who persecute Christians today. But his anger is not a capricious anger. God doesn’t ‘fly off the handle’ as it were. Verse 3 reminds us that ‘the LORD is slow to anger’.61 He gives time for his enemies to repent (Revelation 2:21)62, but in the end he takes action in his wrath to avenge his oppressed people. His judgement is delayed, but vengeance will come. He ‘will by no means clear the guilty’. Those who repent however will be spared God’s judgement. Nineveh was spared his judgement a century earlier because they repented. But now they clearly refused to repent and they would be destroyed.

4. A powerful God (1:3–6) God is ‘great in power’ (v 3). He alone is God. He will punish those who oppress his people. Nineveh would be destroyed. Assyria was the superpower of the day: a flourishing, strong, vast empire. It must have seemed inconceivable that Assyria could fall. But God is great in power (or strength). He could and would destroy Assyria. God’s power is then described in the poetic images that follow in verses 3b–5. God’s coming in judgement is described in terms that relate to the natural world. The 61. This too refers back to God’s self-revelation at Sinai: ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness …’ (Exodus 34:6). 62. ‘I gave her time to repent …’

The End of Evil whole of creation is affected: sky, sea, rivers, land, mountains, hills, earth and people. In verse 3b God’s coming in power is described like the coming of a storm: ‘His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet’. The picture is of the violent winds of a storm. The clouds should probably be pictured as dark storm clouds moving through the sky. God’s coming in judgement is like a fast-moving, fierce storm. Verse 4 speaks of God drying up the sea: ‘He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers’. This reminds us of God’s power shown at the exodus when he dried up the Sea of Reeds (Exodus 14). God also dried up rivers, as he did when Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land (Joshua 3). Such rivers were a natural defence for Nineveh, but had no power to withstand the God of creation. The people of Israel were reminded here of God’s power shown in salvation at the exodus and in the conquest of the Promised Land. That same power would now come in judgement against the Assyrians. Verse 4 continues: ‘Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers’. Bashan is the area east of the Jordan towards the north of Israel, conquered by Israel and taken from King Og before Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land (Numbers 21:33–35).63 Carmel is in the north of Israel. Lebanon is to the north of Israel’s border. These lands therefore are all to the north and are known for their fertility and fruitfulness. Before God though they wither or languish, not unlike the effects of a severe drought.

63. ‘Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon’. So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.

The character of God (Nahum 1:1–6) The mountains and hills quake and melt before God as he comes (v 5). The earth heaves or lifts up at God’s presence as in an earthquake. God’s coming is like a storm or an earthquake.64 Verse 6b speaks of God’s wrath being poured out like fire that destroys all before it. One might picture a volcanic eruption. The rocks are shattered. God consumes his enemies as a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).65

5. Who can stand before this God? (1:6) Verse 6 asks two questions (in parallelism). Given the frightening enormity of God’s power as he comes in judgement, Nahum asks: Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?

The answer of course is no-one. No-one can stand before God when he comes in judgement and wrath. This is the God that Nineveh had defied, and whose fury they would face. But the judgement of Nineveh was only a foretaste of the day when God would judge ‘the world and all who dwell in it’ (v 5). We are reminded that one day Jesus will come in judgement, and, when he does, the earth will be consumed in the fire of God’s judgement (2 Peter 3).66 Those who have rebelled against God and refused his offer of forgiveness through Jesus will face the awful judgement of God (2 Thessalonians 1:8–9).67 ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Hebrews 10:31). Now is the time to repent and accept God’s free offer of full forgiveness

64. See also Habakkuk 3:6. 65. ‘for our God is a consuming fire’. 66. For example, ‘But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly’. (v 7) 67. ‘… inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might …’

The End of Evil through Jesus Christ. Only then can one stand before God, forgiven for all sin, and right with him.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER 1. Why do some people say that their God would not get angry? 2. What are some wrong ways to think of Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jealousy or anger? 3. What does it mean for God to be jealous? 4. Is God jealous for me? Why? 5. If I see on the news that a woman has been raped, is it right for me to get angry? 6. What does it mean for God to be angry with sin? 7. Is God angry with my sin? Why/why not? 8. Will I be able to stand before God on judgement day, the day of his anger? Why/why not? 9. How is this description of Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character a comfort to the persecuted church?