150 Years Later…

Have you ever have to redo a job that someone else already did, pickup the pieces and start from the beginning? I wonder if that’s what Nahum was thinking when God called him to prophecy judgment on Nineveh. Approximately 150 years earlier in Nahum’s day and about a month ago I wrote of Jonah who prophesied to the same city where they experienced the mercy of God, a time where God accepted their repentant hearts and relented on the destruction of their city.

Nahum was called to a different task, we read that the people of Nineveh had turned from God and developed a taste for greed and violence toward His people. Nahum speaks words of destruction to the people, warning them of their ultimate destruction. Verse 6 of chapter one paints a picture of God’s wrath against Nineveh, “Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.” Even with the wrath and anger that we read about, the God of Nahum, our God is still good and loving and does not forget those who trust and take refuge in Him. Through the words of Nahum and the events that surround the destruction of Nineveh we get a glimpse into the power of and sovereignty of God, we can better understand how just He is and that He protects those who follow Him.

We have seen the mercy of God on a people with repentant hearts and the wrath of God on the same people with unrepentant hearts many years later. Sometimes I wonder if our culture has rebuilt the city of Nineveh around us today? Have we become the few that have taken refuge in Him? I am thankful that I serve a patient and loving God that continually through his Son allows me to bring my sinful nature with a repentant heart before him to seek and receive His forgiveness.