Nahum

AN INTRODUCTION TO NAHUM The word ‘Nahum’ means "The Comforter". Although several prophets came in a period of pitch spiritual darkness, yet, in the midst of revealing the danger of the ailment of sin, they opened the door of hope by repentance proclaiming its blessings: “Comfort, comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1). Nahum’s name came corresponding to his mission as his book presents comfort to the people revealing that, although God allowed for the captivity of the kingdom of Israel to chasten them, yet at the same time He would destroy their enemies who humiliated them, and mocked them and their God.  Nahum, the comforter of the world, after uttering his words: “Woe to the bloody city” (Nahum 3:1) he proclaimed: “Behold, on the mountains, the feet of Him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!” (Nahum 1:15)1. St. Jerome Nahum refers himself to Kosh, which some believe to be a village in Galilee, while others believe it to be on the eastern bank of the River Tigris, few miles away from Nineveh. Knowing well the conditions in Mesopotamia led some to believe that Nahum was one of the captives there. As the Kingdom of Israel has fallen under the violent Assyrian captivation, and as some prophets anticipated the falling of the Kingdom of Judah under the Babylonian captivation, Nahum presented this prophecy proclaiming the devastation of the great city ‘Nineveh,’ because of its use of violence; a prophecy that brought great comfort to the captivated Israel (the ten tribes). It is claimed that Nahum escaped to Judah during the Assyrian invasion of Israel and resided in Jerusalem until the time it fell under siege by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, when 185000 of his men were killed in one night (2 Kings 18:19; Nahum 1:11). He wrote his book right after that episode. THE GOAL OF THIS BOOK: Its topic is to proclaim how the apostasy from God would end up. That is why it talked about how the great empire of Nineveh, which was set upon violence, had come to its end with violence 85 years after this prophecy. He talked as well about the devastation of ‘No Amon’ (Thebes) in Egypt that symbolized the pride in the human strength (Nahum 3:8-10) to show that sin will definitely lead to perdition! In a superb poetic style it demonstrates the struggle between the work of the living God and that of His adversaries, revealing the might and justice of God, Who runs history according to His holy will. TIME OF WRITING OF THIS BOOK: Nahum wrote his prophecy before the destruction of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, probably in the days of King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. DIVISIONS OF THIS BOOK: 1. A Jealous God Chapter 1 1 Letter 53:8. 3 2. Peace for those who lean on Him, and perdition of the adversaries Chapter 2 3. The destruction of Nineveh Chapter 3 A JEALOUS JUDGE (Chapter 1):  The descendants of the people of Nineveh, who gained God’s mercies by their repentance (Jonah 3), apostatized to extreme violence. Their kings used to amuse themselves by cutting off the noses of the captives, plucking out their eyes, and severing their hands and feet then mockingly parading them before their people.  The Lord is a jealous God, on His name and on His people. If Nineveh became a sea, “He rebukes it and makes it dry” (7); “He will take vengeance on His adversaries” (7), and will support the good.  “He reserves wrath for His enemies, who, “while drunken like drunkards, they shall be devoured like stubble fully dried” (10).  God proclaims peace to His children (15). PEACE FOR THOSE WHO LEAN ON HIM AND PERDITION FOR THE ADVERSARIES (Chapter 2):  God, in His jealousy, does not stand evil and keeps those who lean on Him: “Will restore the excellence of Jacob;…though ravagers have ravaged them” ( 2).  Portraying the destruction of Nineveh, he proclaims that sin would bring about: emptiness with no fulfillment, spiritual devastation with no edification, faint hearts, trembling knees, quaking lions, no possibility for work, and all faces would grow pale for shame (10).  If man thinks of himself as a lion, lioness, or a lion’s cub, by walking in evil, he would lose every authority and possibility (11, 12). THE REASON FOR THE JUDGMENT OF ADVERSARIES (Chapter 3): God in His fatherhood debates with them, and reveals the following reasons for their judgment:  Cruelty towards others (1): “Woe to the bloody city!”  Lying (1): By which it deprives itself of the truth, and seeks the vain.  Harlotry (4): By which the soul loses her spiritual beauty and strength and gets destroyed.  Not heading the lesson of other cities, like that of No Amon (Thebes), that eventually collapsed. THE ACTIVITY OF EVIL  It turns its army into spoiled and weak women (13).  It brings them down into mire (14), to bear earthly minds.  Its commanders become like swarming locusts (17) devouring their people.  Their people will scatter, and will become a lesson to others.