Intro: Welcome to the Spoken Gospel Podcast. Spoken Gospel is a ministry that's dedicated to speaking the gospel out of every corner of scripture. In Luke 24, Jesus told his disciples that every part of the Bible was about him. So each week, hosts David and Seth work through a passage of scripture to see how it's all about Jesus and his good news. Let's jump in.
David: Well, welcome everyone to the Spoken Gospel Podcast. We are so glad to have you with us today for the book of Nahum.
Seth: Yes. How are you? I'm doing great. This, for me at least, for us at least, this is our first podcast to record in the new year.
David: You're right.
Seth: Not the one other people are hearing in the new year, but it's our first record in the new year. Year.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And I feel kind of rested actually after a long break, just like, okay, I haven't had the podcast. I know, podcast weekly for a while.
David: I've missed it. I feel—
Seth: I missed it and I feel like some new energy for it. New energy for it. So I'm excited.
David: That's exciting. Yeah, that's good. Um, I mean, yeah, general podcast news too, like it's been cool. Uh, the YouVersion Bible app has started, uh, putting podcasts on the app and we got to be one of the first podcasts there. So If that's how you found us, hello, welcome. If you've been listening all along not knowing that, you can now listen to our podcast on the Bible app and read the Bible right there with it, which is super cool,
Seth: which is really cool.
David: So we're glad to be there, and, uh, it's brought some new listeners to us, so we're glad you're here. Um, we are in the book of Nehemiah today. Uh, yeah, talk to me about— talk to me about his name.
Seth: Oh, Nehemiah. It means compassion.
David: Compassion, which is a strange kind of ironic name for a book that starts off with, the Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful.
Seth: Yeah. It's funny. Nahum actually makes a pun on his own name.
David: And, uh, I like to play with my own name.
Seth: Yeah.
David: All right.
Seth: I've never, something I've ever considered doing for myself, but Micah did it. Like, who is like God? Right.
David: That's his name.
Seth: That's his name. And then he like takes that as part of the prophecy. So Nahum means compassion, but Nochem, means avenging. Ah, and so he's the compassionate prophet. We'll talk to us about the avenging God.
David: Is there something in that about this book as a whole that it's like, yes, okay, I think so. We're supposed to think about God is avenging and compassionate.
Seth: I think so. Nahum is on the whole a pretty violent, bloody, and gloomy book. Yeah. But it is gloomy to the people. It must be gloomy towards— ah, it's written against the nation of Nineveh and Assyria and the brutality and inhumanity they exercised against Israel while they conquered it.
David: Right. Okay. Now let me pause right there because you said the nation of Nineveh and Assyria. Yeah, but the nation's Assyria, right? And Nineveh is the capital.
Seth: Yes. Yes, that's right. Nineveh is the capital city of the nation Assyria.
David: That's right. Okay, so are we basically— we'll probably switch back and forth.
Seth: We're calling it Nineveh or Assyria.
David: Yeah, but Nineveh is the big city inside of Assyria, so it's like Washington, D.C. and America.
Seth: That's right.
David: Or something like that. Yes. Okay, I just want to make sure.
Seth: Beijing said, which is code for China said.
David: Sure.
Seth: Yeah. Yes. Okay.
David: And you're saying that they have been oppressing Israel? Israel?
Seth: Yeah. Violently, bloodthirstily, gruesomely. Right. And we talked in the Jonah podcast about some some of the ways in which the Assyrians were innovators in torture and brutality. Uh, they invented crucifixion. They had giant reliefs of beheadings and decorated their palaces with the entrails of their conquered foes.
David: That's so intense.
Seth: It's really intense. And to those kind of oppressors, to those kind of bloodthirsty people, Nahum gives us a picture of God that has no patience left for them. There is, at the end of the book of Nahum, there is no gospel for Nineveh. There is nothing left to atone for their atrocities. Right. And it's really kind of dark. Yeah. But in that same moment where there is perfect proportionate justice against bloodthirsty Nineveh, there is compassion in that God saves and rescues innocent Israel in the middle of it.
David: Yeah. Which is funny that you said there's no good news for, for Assyria because there is actually good news for Israel and we'll get there. But it actually says, hey, there's good news for you. Assyria is going to die.
Seth: It's going to—
David: yeah, it's like the wicked old witch is dead.
Seth: Yes, that's right.
David: All the munchkins are singing.
Seth: That's right. Yeah.
David: So like, you kind of have to read— you have to think about yourself as an oppressed nation.
Seth: Yes.
David: Hearing that your oppressor is going to die or else you're going to read this book and be very sad because it's just gloomy. But what if all this gloom and doom was against a very evil thing and you were the one being oppressed by it, it would sound very good to you.
Seth: Yeah, I forget the exact quote, but Miroslav Volf talks about this idea and he says he grew up, you know, Czechoslovakia, Czechs, the civil war that happened.
David: This is a Bible scholar, Miroslav Volf.
Seth: And he talked about how he needed a God of vengeance, of an avenging God. After the brutality of what he saw there. And the idea that God wouldn't be avenging, that he wouldn't be angry at the rape and plunder of his nation, uh, was a liberal construction that— or a privileged construction. I said like, only privileged people, right, can think about a God that has no avenging anger towards the level of injustice he experienced.
David: Yeah, I think maybe even putting it another way, it's like Only oppressors don't need a God who judges the oppressors.
Seth: Yes, that's exactly right.
David: They don't want a God. They don't want a God, which is why the book of Nahum exists. Yeah.
Seth: Yes.
David: Okay, cool. One helpful thing you've taught me in looking at the book of Nahum is as a sequel to the book of Jonah.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Can you explain that?
Seth: Yeah. So one, the, the literary way to flag this is the book of Jonah and the book of Nahum are the only two books of the Bible to end in a rhetorical question. The book of Jonah ends with a rhetorical question meant to remind the prophet, the faithless prophet Jonah, of God's mercy.
David: Yeah.
Seth: The book of Nahum ends with a rhetorical question reminding the king of Assyria of his violence.
David: Wow.
Seth: And what's interesting historically, and the reason why you should think of it as almost a sequel to the book of Jonah, is that in the book of Jonah, Nineveh was on the up and up. Assyria was a growing superpower and was doing all sorts of violence. They were no less violent in those early years, but they had not yet conquered Israel.
David: Yeah, but you could imagine Israel's concern if you had a growing superpower coming up near you that was completely bloodthirsty and violent. You would have a lot of geopolitical concerns about that for your own safety, even if they weren't necessarily coming after you.
Seth: Right.
David: And so that's why Jonah doesn't want to go preach the gospel to them, doesn't want to go preach salvation to them because he wants them to die because they pose such a threat, even though they're not actively attacking Israel yet.
Seth: Right.
David: Okay.
Seth: And so God comes in and corrects Jonah's assessment of Assyria and said, no, I can have mercy even on a brutal nation like them. Yeah. And that's what the whole book is about, right? Should I not have mercy on Israel? Oh, Jonah, is— am I not right to show mercy on them? Is how the book, right? Jonah.
David: But then years progress, and Assyria does grow more and more in power, more and more in their bloodthirsty violence, and turns the ship and turns their horns toward Israel herself. And they have conquered completely by this time the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes in the north, and are now setting their sights on Jerusalem, Judea in the south.
Seth: That's right.
David: Okay.
Seth: That's exactly right. And, um, So one of the questions that I had at the end of the book of Jonah, which Nahum answers conveniently, was like, okay, but in history, Assyria gets mercy for a time being. This is great revival.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And then what? And then what happens? What happens to them? Why do they suddenly get the book of Nahum, which is all judgment? Why does Assyria no longer exist on the world map? Yeah.
David: Did God just like change his mind one day?
Seth: Right.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And what's interesting between the books of Jonah and Nahum is the books, all these other minor prophets.
David: Yeah.
Seth: I talk about why Assyria conquered Israel in the first place, right?
David: Yes.
Seth: Um, the reason Assyria conquered Israel is because God was using Assyria to judge Israel for its own injustice and corruption, right? Israel was supposed to be a blessing to all the nations, and instead of being a blessing to all the nations, it ended up becoming like them.
David: Becoming like they're worse than them.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Look at Amos.
Seth: If you look at Amos, exactly right. They're sacrificing their own children, oppressing the poor, and showing that there is nothing better in Israel than anywhere else in the world. Right. Okay.
David: So let me repeat this in a way. So in Jonah, in a sense, you have, even though reluctantly and imperfectly, you have Israel doing what it's supposed to do, uh, sending out a blessing to the nations.
Seth: Yep.
David: Even though it was— he didn't really want to. Yeah, he gets there.
Seth: Jonah blesses the nation.
David: Yes.
Seth: Yes.
David: And so it's like, okay, they're exporting the blessings of God. And this should all trigger our brains if you're, you know, in your Bibles, back to Genesis 12 and the calling of Abraham, the founding of the nation of Israel. And God says that he'll bless those who bless them and that he'll curse those who curse them and that Abraham's seed his children would bless all nations. And like that word nations is the word Gentiles, like the whole world was going to be blessed through this people Israel. And as they, you know, became their, their own nation, they had their foibles and their troubles. But like, by the time of Jonah, they're still exporting blessing, even against their own will. But as the time goes on, and we get to books like Amos, Israel looks worse than the nations, and they're not exporting blessing, they're exporting curses. And they look worse than their neighbors. And so if you, if you think about it, like one of the ways that Israel was going to bless the world was by clearing it up of evil. You know, you look at the conquest of Canaan in Joshua, and that's what they were doing. They were God's chosen instrument to go judge the nations, clean, to clean evil out of the world, clean evil out of the world, so that there would only be righteousness and peace and equity in the world. They failed at that project so badly that they were becoming the cesspool of inequality and injustice. So now God has to raise up another nation to come clean them up.
Seth: That's right.
David: And that's what Assyria is.
Seth: Yeah. If you go and read Isaiah 10, the prophet Isaiah explains, like, the mind of God in choosing Assyria. Assyria is the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hands is my fury. And against a godless nation, I sent him, meaning the godless nation is Israel. And against the people of my wrath, I command him to take spoil and seize plunder and to tread them down like mire in the streets.
David: Yeah.
David: And so God uses Assyria to come and judge Israel. But now, in Nahum, the knife gets turned, right? And Assyria, God's own instrument, is starting to be judged.
Seth: Yes.
David: Why?
Seth: Well, because of their cruelty in doing God's work.
David: Okay. So they were being judged not for carrying out God's work against Israel, but for how they were carrying out God's work against Israel.
Seth: That's right. God never tells them to kill children or to impale them or to slaughter them or disembowel them or put their heads on pikes. God never—
David: all of which they were doing.
Seth: All of which they did. What? God is judging them for their crimes against humanity.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Which is an interesting thing. We've talked about off air a few different times. God always judges Israel according to the standard of his law. Uh-huh. But to the nations that don't have that standard, he judges them against their crimes against the image of God in other human beings.
David: Things they should have known were wrong just by being human.
Seth: Yes. Yeah. Uh, and they don't. And so the reason why God, one of the reasons why God is coming to judge Assyria is because of their inhumanity against Israel. And as you read the book of Nahum, that will be the major note that Nahum brings up over and over and over again. They make plots against God. They have vile behavior. They shed blood, they lie, and they plunder. They enslave other nations. They have the sin of presumption. They lure weaker nations, uh, uh, and they carry them as prey into their own lion's den. Like, okay, so it's like there's all this, like, language of injustice and cruelty and political brutality that Nahum uses, when a lot of other prophets are much more happy to talk about idolatry, especially within Israel.
David: Right. Because that's their biggest sin.
Seth: That's right.
David: And it's also— they often identify it as the root of other types of oppression. Yeah, it kind of all starts with idolatry with Israel.
Seth: Right.
David: Also, though, outside though, it's like these crimes against humanity. Yes. They haven't been commanded to worship one true God. And signed a covenant with their blood that says we will.
Seth: Israel should have been that city on the hill so they would have known better.
David: Yes.
Seth: But they're— that's not the primary focus of the book of Nahum and why God is bringing judgment against them. Okay.
David: So, I mean, we've stumbled into some deep waters here.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And like, I mean, one thing that we've just said is that God raises up nations to punish other nations. Yeah, well, like, yeah, that's a big— that's like a— and we're going to talk about one of the ways God is going to then execute what he has promised to do in Nahum is by raising up another nation, the nation of Babylon, to come and conquer Assyria.
Seth: Yep.
David: Right.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And then he's going to use Babylon later to finish off Jerusalem.
Seth: That's right.
David: And so it's like some people might be hearing this for the first time, this idea of God raising up and orchestrating armies and kings and nations and politics and war strategies in order to carry out his purposes here on earth. If you were thinking about somebody hearing that for the first time, like, yeah, okay.
Seth: Yes.
David: Like, what do we need to say to them?
Seth: I'm just, I'm thinking like, yeah, I'm thinking this whenever, as the Hebrew Bible unfolds, God decides to deal with a nation, right? And a nation as a corporate thing is supposed to represent his will to the world and bless the world. And so a lot of the rest of the Old Testament after the mo— that moment on Mount Sinai when Israel, the people of Abraham become a nation, is conducted on a national scale.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: So you, the way that God orchestrates correction with his people happens on a national level, the way that, the way that God functions throughout most of the Hebrew Bible is on a national level. Right. In many sense. Does that start to answer your question?
David: Yeah, it does.
David: I mean, I'm already thinking about the difference between how he executed justice against his people in the wilderness, in Numbers, versus here in Nahum.
Seth: Yep.
David: Like in Numbers, he opens up the ground and swallows them.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Right.
Seth: Right. Right. That's pretty crazy.
David: Yeah. And it's like, instead of using the elemental forces of the world, he's using people, people that he, through prophets like Jonah, are— is actually trying to save. Yeah. And like bless and, and like do good through. Um, okay. So I think that makes sense. Why, why nations? Why armies? Well, because he chose a nation that has an army and like he's working with people inside of political systems. So I guess the next kind of question that might be ringing in other people's heads and that's ringing in mine is the idea of like God's ability to do that. That, right, that God is able to orchestrate armies and change the will of kings. Because it's like in order for what, what God promises in Nahum to be true and to happen, God has to know that he's going to be able to move the heart of the Babylonian king to come to Assyria, finish whatever other skirmish and agenda he has over in another part of the world. And bend his attention here. And that means, well, that means their nation's going to have to get a certain amount of resources, that children are going to have to be born to be risen to be the generals of— I mean, so many things, millions of things have to happen for this to occur. And so like, I just, I just want to just put on people's plates, I guess, that like, this means that God is sovereign over everything. Yeah. In order for Nahum to be—
Seth: yeah, Nahum never has a problem with saying God controls the way nations move. Isaiah doesn't have a pro— none of the prophets have a problem with it because their prophecies are based on the idea, right, that God is in control of the movement of nations, that the most powerful thing in the world is not politics but God.
David: Yes.
Seth: And that's why when Nahum, like, prophesies accurately the way in which Nineveh falls He talks about Nineveh being flooded, which is exactly what the Babylonian army did. They diverted the Tigris River into Nineveh and flooded the city. And he predicted that.
David: That's crazy.
Seth: In, in Nahum 2.
David: Wow. So I think that's the other thing I just wanted to put on. It's like, in stepping into the biblical worldview, if you were just in the world at the time that this was written, you might have been like, you might have been thinking like, Oh, as the king of Babylon starts coming into Syria, oh, here's all these political reasons he's choosing to do that. And, you know, if the, if the news coverage was out there, they would all be speculating on why has Babylon turned against Assyria and all this stuff.
Seth: Yeah.
David: But behind the scenes in the prophetic worldview, the biblical worldview is that God was turning the hearts of nations to accomplish his own will. So just saying, like, in bringing this up, we are granting the absolute sovereignty of God over the events of the world.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's just a big deal that some people don't often think about.
Seth: Right. Yeah. Politics are always in God's hand. Yeah. Like that's never not on the line in scripture. The movement of kings is always up to God's purview. That's everywhere within scripture. It's difficult to get around it.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Um, and I think something else is on the line in this as well. Um, God's like character and name is on the line in all of this.
David: Why is that?
Seth: Um, Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations and to bless the world.
David: Why?
Seth: So that all people would know the goodness and greatness and holiness of God, the God who saved Israel out of slavery. The light of Israel was God, the liberating God of justice and equity for all people.
David: I see. So not only is the mission of God on the line in that Israel's not blessing all nations, and therefore God's light is not going to the nations.
Seth: Right.
David: But God himself and his name and his reputation is on the line because if his nation, Israel— yes— dies and or, or like shows him to the world as something terrible through all their evil. Yeah. Then— or is completely consumed by Assyria, I guess, is the context of Nahum.
Seth: Right.
David: Then what happened to Yahweh if his people died, right? Okay.
Seth: And what happens to the God who is supposed justice when a wicked nation like Assyria conquers God's own people?
David: Right.
Seth: God's name is still on the line. I thought you were God of justice, and yet you're allowing this wicked nation to come and conquer your own people. No, he's raising up another nation to conquer that one.
David: I see.
Seth: Either way, like whether it's Israel being corrected for her sins or the nations being corrupted for their inhumanity, God is still being proven as the God of justice and holiness that he revealed himself to be in the book of Exodus when he made Israel a nation.
David: And I was even thinking the book of Exodus with like, why did he judge Pharaoh? Why the Red Sea? Why the plagues? Like he tells Moses it's for his own name's sake so that Pharaoh would know that I am the Lord.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And so it's like, that's why he does what he does here is if I let an evil, bloodthirsty nation overrun my kingdom, no one in the world will know that I am a good, just God who hates what they're doing.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: That's right. He's doing it for his own name and character's— yeah, fame's sake.
Seth: Right. So let me ask you another question. Okay. Why not do it more directly?
David: What do you mean?
Seth: Wouldn't it make more people worship God? If God just came down and just destroyed Assyria with an army of visible angels? Why go through all the political drama of raising up another nation to make his own battle plans to come in? And then you can just— and then did God do that or did Babylon do that? Right now, we always have the question about who's really in control of the moment. Why didn't God just show up?
David: Right.
Seth: Why does he hide behind the politics of Babylon to prove that Assyria's cruelty is bad?
David: That's a very good question. I think I have 3 answers.
Seth: Clearly you've thought about this before.
David: So one, I would say, didn't he? When Assyria and Sennacherib's army was destroyed outside the walls of Israel in Hezekiah's day, he just killed like how many? 185,000 people with no army to show for it.
Seth: Yeah.
David: So he did do that. He has done that. When Joshua was in battle and meteors fell from the sky, God God does do this sometimes. The other thing I would say is I was reminded of the story in the New Testament where you have the rich man and Lazarus, and, and the rich man kind of asked the same question you asked. He's like, man, if only my brothers knew this place existed, this place of Hades existed, that there was actually like, if I could warn them, if you would just send an angel to them, a physical angel, like, of God would go and warn them, then they would believe.
Seth: Right.
David: And Jesus. Right. And Jesus.
Seth: Or Moses.
David: I think it's Moses.
Seth: Yeah.
David: In the story. Or Abraham or something. It says in the story is like, even if an angel from God goes and tells them, they won't believe. They have the word of God and that's all they need. That's what convicts hearts is like. I don't think we have a fully formed understanding of how hard our hearts are.
Seth: Yeah.
David: That apparently the New Testament says we entertain angels every day, you know?
Seth: Right. Right.
David: We still don't see them or believe in them. So I actually don't think it would matter. And then third, because I think there's something complex about the nature of God and his dealings with humanity. And there's something about the way he works with humanity that gives him more glory to work through humans in orchestra with them. That gives him more glory and presents his character to us in the way he wants it presented. There's something about him not wanting to just like show up and just— Yeah. I was cute.
Seth: I think the way I was thinking about that last point, I was like, what takes— what would take God more effort? Not that I don't think anything takes—
David: it gets tired.
Seth: Yeah. But like what feels more impressive to me as a human, right? If God showed up with some angels. Yeah. Or if he orchestrated the entire political drama, right, of the Mesopotamian world.
David: Yeah.
Seth: To make it that Assyria was judged for her cruelty.
David: It is spectacular.
Seth: And so like, I am also wondering, like, I wonder if we are also supposed to see, like, I think the fact that God uses nation proves the point that I am saying is dismissed by the fact that he does not come up with 180,000 angels. That is right. Right. Like, no, like to do, to control the politics of the world requires only one being, only one being can do that.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And that is God.
David: I think one last thing I think is actually the most clear I can think of it from a biblical theological standpoint is what you're asking to happen is for the new heavens and earth to happen now. What you're asking for is for God to rule on earth. That's not here yet. We are in the kingdom of man and the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of man are fighting. And God does not dwell on the earth right now. Do you know, like, He will in the new heavens and new earth, and he will execute perfect justice then. But he doesn't now, maybe because this is actually what will afford more people salvation. Why does God just come and execute all the wicked people right now? Because then fewer would be saved.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: But whenever he lets Assyria be part of his plan and lets Babylon be part of his plan, some remnant inside of them wake up. And come to faith in Yahweh. Yeah, there's like a kindness in that. And we're talking about the wrong dispensation. We're talking about like the wrong time. It's not the time for God to live on Earth right now. We are, we are in our own kingdom right now, in a sense.
Seth: Yeah.
David: The Kingdom of Heaven is breaking in.
Seth: Well, it makes me think like, I don't understand God showing up with angels. I do understand power and politics.
David: So in a way, this is God speaking our language.
Seth: He's speaking our language.
David: So we come up with lots of reasons. We come up with lots of reasons.
Seth: Well, No, that's helpful. It's, um, it's helpful for me just to continue to process why does God work in this way, work this way, and why do the prophets seem so blasé about it? That it's assumed that God is control. Like, they're not arguing with it, they're not questioning it, they're just assuming God is in control of it.
David: Uh, I mean, think about this though. What's funny is we're asking a question, they they don't even understand to ask, because number one, this is the way God works. They assume that. But then they— you have all these theophanic visions, which are just like pictures, prophetic pictures of God showing up.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And they actually explain the coming of the Babylonian army or the coming of the Assyrian army as God showing up in glory and destroying his enemies.
Seth: Right.
David: It's like, and God steps out of heaven and the mountains melt with wax and It's like, so actually he's doing what you're asking him to do.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: But we just don't have the prophetic eyes to see that that's actually what's taking place.
Seth: And I think that's part of prophetic literature. Yeah. It's supposed to reveal what's actually going on behind the scenes.
David: So cool.
Seth: It's not just predictions of the future. It's like, it's the divine perspective on human action in the world.
David: Yes.
Seth: There's nations fighting against nations. Political craziness is happening everywhere. But Nahum comes in and says, this is what's happening behind the scenes.
David: Yep.
Seth: The reason Assyria is going to be conquered is because they've been so cruel to Israel, and God is coming to, to leave no justice left undone.
David: Okay, so we kind of zoomed out to lay the foundation for the book of Nahum, the political environment, and the theology behind what kind of makes it all possible.
Seth: Right.
David: Now let's dive into the book itself. Can you walk us through how the book is laid out? Kind of give us a general structure?
Seth: Yes, there's two ways to, two ways to kind of understand the book of Nahum as either four oracles of doom against Nineveh combined with oracles of salvation for Israel. Okay, so you can think about four and four. That's, that's what hap— that's what happens. Or rather, that by God's oracle of doom against Nineveh, that is itself salvation for Israel, right? Like, the reason why innocent Israel is saved is because their guilty oppressors are judged, are judged, they are no more.
David: Okay.
Seth: So that's one way to think about it. Another way to think about it is chapter 1 and chapters 2 and 3.
David: Okay.
Seth: So chapter 1 is Nahum's a prayer by Nahum. Okay. He sees a vision of God coming in glory, and he asks God to act on Israel's behalf. And then Nahum 2 and 3 is prophecies about what Nineveh's fall will look like. So chapter 1 is a petition and a prayer. Chapters 2 and 3 are prophecies describing what will happen to Nineveh.
David: Prayer, prayer, or sorry, chapter 1, prayer asked.
Seth: Yes.
David: Chapters 2 and 3, prayer answered.
Seth: Yes. Okay. Yes. That's a pretty simple way to understand it.
David: You know, simplicity.
Seth: And in what's interesting, it's— Nahum is an interesting book. And then it's who's it written to? Is it written for Nineveh's sake or for Israel's sake?
David: Yeah.
Seth: If you read chapter 1, it seems like it's for Israel's sake. 2 and 3, it seems like it's for Nineveh's sake, warning them what's going to happen unless they repent, unless they change their ways.
David: Right.
Seth: They don't.
David: Yeah. Because Israel would need this kind of oracle. Because they think they're doomed. And they're like, is God even on our side? Is he going to do anything? Is his name going to go away forever? Are we going to go away forever? He's like, no, Assyria is going to be judged. But then Assyria needs this oracle. And giving Assyria this oracle is a measure of mercy in itself. Yeah, God did not have to warn them about their upcoming demise. He could have just done it and would have been just to do so. But what's interesting about this is in a way, Nahum is like a new Jonah. Because he is bringing a warning to evil Assyria. Yeah. And this time he's doing it willingly. But like, we don't really get to hear the full content of Jonah's sermon unless that really was it.
Seth: Yeah. If you haven't listened to our Jonah podcast, go back. Jonah delivers a 5-word sermon reluctantly to the people he doesn't want saved. Nahum gives 2 whole chapters to the people, warning them of the coming destruction.
David: Yeah. So it's like, I almost like to playfully— don't quote me on this, you know, but I kind of like to playfully think about Nahum as the full prophecy that Jonah should have given.
Seth: Yeah, you know, the willing prophecy Jonah should have given.
David: And so, um,
Seth: yeah, because I think what you're— we're saying here is that it's not just that it's inevitable, Nineveh will fall, no hope for them.
David: Ah, that were true, why would this book exist?
Seth: Right? Part of the function of prophecy isn't just to prophesy future events. But prophesied future events in hopes that they would not be.
David: Right.
Seth: God doesn't want— God desires all people to be saved. Even Ninevites. That's what the Book of Jonah was all about. Right. This prophecy is supposed to help Nineveh repent.
David: Right. I mean, look back at Jonah again, right? The Book of Jonah does not offer an if-then.
Seth: Right.
David: Right. It's not a if you repent, then you will be saved. It's just like, if doom is coming, Yeah, 40 days, you will be overturned. And they're like, okay, let's repent. Yeah, that wasn't even on the table. It's like, but that's the purpose of prophecy. I mean, it's the same reason why I would say to my son Ezra, about to run out into the street, I would say, Ezra, there's a car coming. Yeah, I don't say, unless you stop and come back, you will be run over.
Seth: Right.
David: And I just say, a car's coming. And he knows that means Action is required. Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. And don't run into the street.
Seth: I mean, we haven't— didn't define prophecy at the beginning of this podcast. Yeah, maybe it's helpful to do it again. Prophecy is either the correct explanation of God— like, is the correct explanation of God's covenant, right? And taking God's covenant, which was, I will bless the world through Israel, and if you fail to that, this is what's going to happen. And then extrapolating out what that looks like to current circumstances, to current circumstances. And what's happening right now? God's covenant has been broken by Israel. Correction has come through Assyria, and now God's covenant will continue by bringing justice against them. And he's interpreting the political landscape with all this covenant-like law stuff back from Exodus.
David: Right. And like, yeah. And I think prophecy is also like that. That's the, that's the mind of the prophet. And the power of the prophet is that they're hearing the words of God and saying them.
Seth: Yes.
David: Right.
Seth: Yeah. It's not self-evidently clear that Babylon's rise to power is because of God's hand.
David: Yeah. You would, you would need God God's revelation.
Seth: Yeah, you would need his perspective, right?
David: You wouldn't just be able to read Deuteronomy, you would not be able to read the newspapers of Mesopotamia during that year and figure all this out. Yeah. And so it's, yeah, that human report of divine revelation guided by the covenant.
Seth: Yes. Okay. And that the reason why we set all that up was, what is— why is Nahum giving the prophecy? Why is he interpreting the covenant for this, this period of time? Is so the covenant might be obeyed again, right? So that there would be repentance, that people— that Israel would return to be the city on a hill it was supposed to be, the nations would come to it, and that the world would be blessed. That's why Nahum's writing at bottom, right? Not just because he wants to see Nineveh burn.
David: Yeah, I mean, you could— I mean, imagine the landscape for a second. Nahum could have easily given the exact same excuse that Jonah gave. You know, where it's like God comes to him and he's like, hey, I'm planning to destroy Assyria. And imagine if a global superpower had wiped out 80% of your country and it was coming for the capital. And then God comes and says, I'm going to stop them. Don't worry. You'd be like, sweet, this is great news. And he's like, cool, go warn them that I'm going to destroy them. And then you would be like Jonah being like, no, I don't want to warn them.
Seth: Right?
David: Because what if they repent? And then what, they get off scot-free for destroying 80% of our nation? You know, like, you can easily see Nahum offering that retort here. Yes, but he doesn't. He faithfully goes and warns them.
Seth: Yeah, it's, it's significant that Assyria doesn't repent.
David: It is.
David: Yeah.
Seth: 612 BC, Nineveh burns. Well, drowns. Burns. Drowns. And then Babylon takes it over. Do you know who sits on the throne?
David: Who?
Seth: Once this Nineveh, named Nineveh, crumbles? No. Nebuchadnezzar's father. Oh, the Book of Daniel.
David: Ah, yes.
Seth: Yes. So it's like, that's the storyline of the Bible progressing anyway.
David: Crazy. Okay. So, okay. So you said then chapter 1 is the prayer and you— and it starts with a vision.
Seth: Yeah. And I think what chapter 1 should also do for you as you read it, it should give you the ways to think about the whole letter. And so it's like the question I wrote down as we're outlining this podcast was like, who is God in Nahum?
David: Yeah.
Seth: And I think he gives us 3 different answers to that question, which I think will also lead us to 3 different ways to see Jesus in this.
David: Okay.
Seth: As well.
David: Okay.
David: So what are those ways?
Seth: Well, verse 2, the Lord is jealous and avenging. The Lord is avenging and wrathful and takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
David: Okay.
Seth: The Lord. Yeah. So that's verse 2. So the first— who is God to name him?
David: Who is God?
Seth: He is jealous and avenging.
David: I mean, imagine though, imagine you're Israel, you're Jerusalem, and the global superpower is breathing down your neck and you're like, who is God? Is, is he forgetful and merciless?
Seth: Right.
David: Like, is he lazy and apathetic? Because we're about to die. And then this prophet shows up and he says, no, God is jealous and avenging and he is wrathful and he's going to take vengeance. You're like, thank God.
Seth: Literally, thank God. Yeah.
David: So it's like that to be—
Seth: this is what the oppressed Israel needs to hear. Yeah. God is jealously passionate and will avenge the wrong done against them. And I want to—
David: yeah, yeah, they do. And I want to lean into, to like, if anyone's thinking like, that's reductionistic to say God is blank, right? There's two things I want to point out to you here.
Seth: Reductionistic meaning like, what do you mean that like, in this context,
David: God's not wrathful, he's loving,
Seth: right, right, right.
David: Or like, yes, okay, yeah, he's describing something he's going to do, but that's not who God is, right? And I'm like, and I'm not saying that's all God is either. But like, he is trying to reveal something about his character here. And I say that for two reasons. One is because he's repeating his covenant name.
Seth: Yes. Can we get to that in a second?
David: Oh, yes.
Seth: Because I want to land on jealousy and avenging.
David: Oh, great.
Seth: Before getting to the divine name deal, because I think— and I think they'll talk.
David: Yeah, that's why. Yeah, they will.
Seth: But, um, let's talk about the word jealousy for a second.
David: Oh, yes. Okay.
Seth: So what does it mean? Who is God in Nahum? God is jealous.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Um, I think we normally think of jealousy in a negative light.
David: It's an evil green sin.
Seth: We are jealous for things that are not ours.
David: Yeah. And we're jealous for them for our own sake.
Seth: Right. I think the biblical way to understand jealousy, or at least how it comes to God, it— he's passionate for something that's rightfully his. Like Jealousy refers to this deep passion that God has that what is his is protected and remains his. Yeah. Um, it's not petty. It's like he— these are his children. This is his nation. These are his people. They are his and he wants them for himself. He does not want Assyria to conquer them. Yeah. He is passionate in avenging the wrongs done against them. And so I just want to like put that, say that positively.
David: Yeah.
Seth: As strong. I mean, and like, I think we don't have a problem with the word avengers after like the Avengers movies. So it's like, I feel like I could lean on that word just even just more popular. Like, right. He is a passionate avenger for his people and he is wrathful. What's funny about that word is the Hebrew says he is the master of wrath.
David: Hmm.
Seth: He has mastered the art of wrath is another way to say it.
David: He perfectly executes his anger against injustice and evil, which is another reason why he probably works through Babylon instead of doing it how you and I would come up with it. Why doesn't God just send a bunch of angels?
Seth: Right?
David: Oh, because I'm way smarter at using wrath.
Seth: Right. Yeah. And what's really interesting as you go through the last 2 chapters of Nahum, beat for beat, um, Nineveh gets what Nineveh dished out. So I'll just give you one example.
David: Okay.
Seth: In, uh, Nineveh— in, uh, Nahum, uh, 3.
David: Okay.
Seth: Chapter or verse, um, 8. It says this: Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile with water around her, her rampart of sea, her water her wall? Egypt was her strength, yet she became an exile. She went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street, and her honored men were cast out, bound in chariots. You also— and he goes on to say this will happen to you.
David: Ah, so they, they did that to Egypt.
Seth: So yeah, in 668 or 664, 663, Assyria, Ashurbanipal, the same leader that Nahum is talking to right here, conquered the city of Thebes and killed the infants in that place. He ransacked the city. And Nahum is saying, what you dished out, yeah, you will receive back. He— God is the master of justice, the master of his anger, in such a way that exactly what you do will be repaid, right?
David: Exactly what you deserve, you will get.
Seth: That's, that's right.
David: I mean, to, to like double down on the point that he's a master of wrath. It's interesting that it happens in Egypt because in a, in a sense, Assyria is judging Egypt for killing Israel's children.
Seth: Uh-huh.
David: And the chain, the chain of justice is continuing.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's like, like, yeah.
Seth: And eye for eye. That's exactly right. If you're a proud nation, by a proud nation you'll be judged. You think you're the superpower of the world, the newest superpower will overcome you. You think you have the most money, a nation with more money will come against you.
David: There's always a bigger bigger fish.
Seth: There's always a bigger fish. Qui-Gon Jinn.
David: Qui-Gon Jinn, Episode 1: Phantom Menace.
Seth: The best of the Star Wars.
David: Oh my gosh. No, no, it needs to be said that we do not believe that. Stop it. Okay. Um, um, yeah. Okay. So jealous, avenging, wrathful. Yes. That's how he's defined himself.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And yeah. Uh, and jealous is a, is, can be a really good thing.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Right? Like, like, like you were saying, avenging. The Avengers are— it's nice to have Thanos not get off with, right, you know, killing half the world. And then wrathful is proportionate, and he's a master over—
Seth: he's not—
David: we think about wrathful, you're mastered by wrath and you get angry, right? God is a master of wrath.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And he uses it perfectly.
Seth: I was reading one commentator and he just talked about how— and it goes back to the point you made before, it's like, uh, but wasn't— isn't God love? Like, right, like none of God's actions in the world are unqualified by his himself, right? His other attributes. And he just talked about how God's anger towards Nineveh is qualified by his faithfulness to Israel. He's promised to protect Israel and he's promised to judge people who are inhumanely cruel. And he's doing so. He is— has a passion. His anger is tempered or qualified— not tempered, but qualified by his passionate love for his own. And it's also qualified by his perfect justice. And not only that, and this goes back into the— into what you were saying about the divine name, but that he is slow to anger. Remember how many decades ago the same message get preached to Nineveh? Right. Like Nineveh has had decades and decades and decades to go away from this path and it has refused to.
David: Right. God's slow to anger.
Seth: God's current wrath against Assyria has been slow so that it might repent and it has not. Right.
David: Yeah. This did not happen overnight. Nahum did not happen overnight.
Seth: Right. Yeah.
David: Um, yes. And so, so yeah, what I was saying is like, I think we can, we can feel comfortable, maybe not comfortable is the right word. We should, we should open up ourselves to receive these words as descriptive of God himself. And I was saying that for two reasons. One is they're repeating the covenant name of God here. You know, it's not God is, it's Yahweh is these things. This is who he is. And it's like the I AM THAT I AM is this. And, but then not only that, he then transitions into quoting Exodus, where God himself expands on the meaning of his own name. So Moses asks God to reveal himself to him on Mount Sinai, and God says, yes, I will let all my goodness pass by you, and I will proclaim my name to you, which is Yahweh.
Seth: And he—
David: and so God passes by the cleft of the rock, shows Moses his radiant glory. And as Moses is burying himself in the dirt in fear and over being overwhelmed, God says his name to Moses, but he doesn't just say, my name is Yahweh, right? He expands on what his name means. And it's the longest self-description of God by God in the Bible.
Seth: Do you want me to read it?
David: Yes, please.
Seth: Says Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generation. Yeah. What is interesting about this—
David: so we have that we just read, and it is full of how he is slow to anger and forgiving and all this stuff.
Seth: When this is recorded elsewhere, it also says that while the guilty are punished to the third and fourth generation, forgiveness is offered for hundreds of generations.
David: Like, I am going to by no means clear the guilty, but my forgiveness runs to 1,000 generations, whereas my wrath runs to 3 or 4.
Seth: Right. And the point is that he's fair.
David: Yeah.
Seth: In that, right.
David: He is merciful.
Seth: He's more merciful than he is wrathful. Yes. How you're supposed to take away from that. But what's interesting is in the way in Exodus, when it describes God, God's more merciful than he's wrathful.
David: Yes.
Seth: Nahum edits God's self-description. To focus on his anger.
David: Yeah. Verse 3, Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in the whirlwind, in the storm, referring back to Sinai when God showed up.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And he's like, he gives you that he is slow to anger, but that's almost as a warning now. He's like, right, he's been slow in doing this.
Seth: Remember Jonah?
David: Yeah. Remember Jonah? Remember these years you've had? So he will by no means clear by no means clear the guilty. And so, yeah, he is— he's edited it down to be like, this part of God is coming to you.
Seth: Yeah.
David: You've taken advantage of God's grace for long enough, so his anger is coming towards you now. Yeah.
Seth: Okay. How do we see Jesus as a jealous, avenging, wrathful, slow to anger, but by no means pardoning the guilty God?
David: Yeah, because I think this is one of those moments in the Bible where people come to and very easily ask the question, um, man, I just feel like Jesus is not like the God of the Old Testament. I feel like they're so different.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Um, so, but it's not—
Seth: it's—
David: that's not the case.
Seth: Yeah. I think one thing we haven't said, which we probably should say in this turn, is who is he jealous towards and who is he avenging against? Oh, right.
David: Yeah, yeah, I— there's two ways to answer that question, right?
Seth: So like, he is jealous for his people and angry at those not his people, those that are committing atrocities against his people.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Um, and in Jesus, I think we see that same dichotomy. Jesus isn't just blanketly wrathful at whoever comes around him, right? He's compassionate towards some while fiercely angry at the abuse of power of the Pharisees.
David: Woe to you, Pharisees.
Seth: Yeah, that's exactly right. So you had said two ways to answer that. Did you have another way?
David: I did, because yeah, it's— he's also jealous for his own namesake.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: For the sake of my name, he's jealous that, yeah, that the world will not see him for who he is, because who he is is so good.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And he's Yeah. And yeah, what was the other question? He's wrathful or avenging against— what was that the other question you asked?
Seth: No, I didn't. I don't think I asked.
David: Okay. But yeah, he's jealous for himself too.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So how do we see Jesus as this picture? Yeah, well, I mean, is it possible to—
David: yeah, I mean, number one, I think you've nailed it already, is that I think it's just so easy for us to, like, forget the moments when Jesus gets wrathful in the Gospels, plainly wrathful. Like, woe to you Pharisees, you know, you make people twice the son of hell that you are. You're going to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea. Does that sound like kind, sweet Jesus?
David: He—
Seth: no, he flips over the tables in the temple.
David: He makes a whip. He starts whipping.
Seth: And who is he wrathful towards?
David: Right.
Seth: The Pharisees who took advantage of God's people, his true faithful worshipers trying to come to the temple. And worship God humbly and rightly.
David: And they're exploiting them, excluding them, making them feel guilty, making them adhere to the traditions of man, not the covenant of God. And this makes Jesus angry.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: And he says zeal for the house of the Lord consumes him. Or think about how he's described whenever he sees Lazarus, his friend, dead. Like, what's that? He's— it's like he snorts like a—
Seth: like, oh, embromao mai.
David: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He—
Seth: oh, it's just deeply moved. In most translations, right? But it means both. It means angry.
David: Yeah. It's like a horse, like breathing out and pawing at the ground.
Seth: Yeah. He's angry at death. Yeah. Wrathful at death. And because he's wrathful at death, he raises Lazarus out of the grave.
David: Right. And so, uh, but, but I want, but like, let's think about a God who's jealous for his people. Like I'm jealous for my wife. I think one can be consumed with jealousy. Where it's like, what were you doing? Where were you? Well, that's just wicked because you're in—
Seth: it's like you're jealous for something that's not rightfully yours. Versus your wife doesn't deserve your full attention. Right. Always.
David: Yeah. She should go do things.
Seth: Yes.
David: But it's like if my wife cheated on me and I knew it and I was— I hadn't done anything wrong, like I would be very jealous.
Seth: An appropriate jealousy.
David: And I would— yeah, I would be wrathful. Like I would— I— yeah. Anyway.
Seth: Right.
David: And so, like, I want God to feel that way towards me. I want God to love me like I love my wife, you know?
Seth: Yeah.
David: And so, like, to think about Jesus being drawn to us like a jealous lover and that he is bringing wrath against that which is keeping us from him and that he is avenging us away from the things that are keeping us from him. Like, that's what he— that's what he's doing on the cross is like, it's a jealous lover like being a master of wrath.
Seth: Yeah. Uh, I was thinking about, um, kind of the way that I started this, this moment about who is he wrathful towards and who is he compassionate towards. Um, before the Pharisees even meet Jesus, John the Baptist is wrathful towards the Pharisees and he says, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? The wrath, the axe referring to Jesus, is at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Like, John the Baptist understood Jesus as the no tolerance for injustice God that Nahum describes. Yes, he saw the abusive religion of the Pharisees. He calls it for what it is, and he says there's a wrath coming for you in Jesus that will wipe you out entirely.
David: Makes good on that promise.
Seth: He does.
David: Yeah.
Seth: In even Jesus in Luke 4, how does he begin his ministry? He talks about his— that he's coming to the oppressed and to the poor and preaching good news to the marginalized of Israel.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Not preaching good news to the oppressors of Israel. Right. He's coming in compassion towards the lowly and the humble and the taken advantage of. And he's coming in wrath against the abusive powers of his day.
David: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the earthly ministry of Jesus. How he's described, how he acts towards evil is a, is a perfect way to see how he's God-like. This, I think we can also see that in Revelation, in how he comes again.
Seth: Right?
David: He's going to come in wrath and vengeance as a jealous lover, ready to do what Israel like was supposed to do, which was to clear the world of wickedness.
Seth: Yeah, we— this is something we haven't talked about yet, because as we move on from the very first verses of Nahum, sprinkled in with these prophecies of judgment against Nineveh are also promises of restoration and refuge for Israel. Yes, like in the moment that he judges Nineveh, rescue for Israel is secured. Yeah, peace for Israel. I mean, secured.
David: They are inevitably tied together, right? Like, judgment of the oppressor necessarily liberates the oppressed, right?
Seth: His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. The rocks of the strongholds of the oppressors. But the Lord is good, and he is a stronghold in the day of trouble for those who know him and take refuge in him. Yeah, the refuge— when the refuge of the evil ones, the corrupt ones, are brought down, The refuge of the righteous ones are the ones that are left. The innocent ones are left and they can be safe finally because of that. And so your point, what happens on the last day? There's no evil left, right? All the innocent, all the righteous, those who trust in Jesus, bring— come to him for refuge. Why is that? Like, it's— they're safe. Yeah, finally safe, right?
David: There's a refuge. Yeah, because the stronghold of the wicked has been torn down. There is now a refuge for for the innocent.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah. And that's really good news. Um, and I think like, if it doesn't feel like good news, it's either it's our inability to explain, which is very possible. But if you are understanding what we're saying and it doesn't feel like good news, it's probably because you're closer to Assyria in this book than you are to the oppressed Israelites, which is like, understandable in terms of like, that's kind of who I am too. Like, I have far more in common with Assyria than I do with Israel here, right? From a, from a, from a political where I live standpoint.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like my—
Seth: you benefit from the wealth of a nation that has— that is a superpower.
David: Yeah. A superpower that is oppressing other nations to get their goods and mine their land. Yeah, I have a, I have a chip with precious metals in my iPhone that other people were exploited to get, and I wrestle with that every day. And I, yeah, should probably stop. Well, I was, you know what I mean?
Seth: Like, yeah, well, I was also thinking about, I was reading another commentator and they were talking about the British Empire. It was, its success was built on colonialism, right? Yeah, they don't have those colonies anymore, at least most of them, yet they're still a superpower. Yet they're still a superpower because of it. And they would also say that the way that they treated their colonies in the past was evil and corrupt.
David: Right.
Seth: But they'll— but they also look down on other nations trying to grow in power by using those same resources. So they, they grew to power through corruption and colonization.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Tell others they cannot do that. But how else would they do so? You know what I mean? Like, there's like that—
David: not—
Seth: I'm not defending colonialism for the African nations that want to rise up, but I— The point, I think, might have been clear.
David: Yeah.
David: And so, I mean, the point we're trying to make is the world is full of oppressors.
Seth: Yeah. And it's good news that one day they'll be gone.
David: It's good news that they'll be gone.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And like, we need to position ourselves like when Jesus comes, since Jesus comes against and brings his wrath against the oppressed.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's, it's let It's good to side with them.
Seth: Yeah. Let me maybe go to the very end of the book of Nahum, back to that rhetorical question. So the very end is this kind of funeral dirge against the king of Assyria.
David: Okay. Is it supposed to be like, hey king, you're about— let me, let me, let's come to your own funeral so you can see what your death is going to look like and maybe you'll change.
Seth: Yeah.
Seth: The image is of the king of Assyria gasping for breath on a nearby mountaintop with whatever's left of his army.
David: Oh my gosh. You're like the Ghost of Christmas Future.
Seth: Yeah. Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Israel— of Assyria. Your nobles slumber. Your peoples are scattered on the mountains and there's none left to gather them. There's no easing your hurt. Your wound is incurable. And all who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who upon the earth has not seen your unceasing evil? 'your unceasing cruelty' is, I think, how the NIV says it. And that—
David: so yeah, the king's dying on a mountain, his empire has been decimated, and the people of the world are cheering, right?
Seth: Because who on earth hasn't experienced oppression before, right? The book of Nahum places its readers as the oppressed minority, right? And we are meant to rejoice at as a pre— the oppressed when the oppressor finally falls, right? And that's really similar what happens in the book of Revelation. Um, uh, in Revelation 19, God gathers in the Valley of Decision all evil empires, all those guilty of atrocity, every, every evil person, and he avenges all the innocent blood they've spilled and the people they've harmed. And then As the smoke goes up, right, as the image— that's the image of judgment is smoke. The people of God rejoice that their evil is forever judged.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So there's this day coming soon when Jesus will do to all evil what Babylon did to Nineveh, right? Jesus is coming to wage war. Um, and we didn't talk about this. Um, Nahum predicts that the Babylonian army will wear red.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And one of the ways that Jesus is described in the book of Revelation is wearing a blood-red robe, right? And he's gonna ride out against every nation that dared attack God's own people and will rout the world of all evil.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Finally establishing a reign of justice and peace for his people.
David: Yeah. I mean, that reminds me of two things in Nahum that I just wanted to bring up as we close. One is, we didn't talk about this, which I'm surprised about because of how cool it is, but it's like chapter 1 doesn't mention the name of Assyria. It doesn't. It's agnostic about who it's talking to.
Seth: Yes.
David: And it just sounds like God in his jealous anger is coming against every evil nation. And that's the point. Eventually we'll hear that it's about Assyria. And so sometimes your translation, if you're saying, if you're looking at Nahum 1 right now and you're like, I can see it right here. Yeah, that your translator has put that in your Bible to help you understand what's going on.
Seth: But really, the Hebrew just says he, he. Yeah.
David: So it's put— it's assuming that he for you. The point of the ambiguity is that you will see that all evil nations fall under the warnings of Nahum. Nahum should warn all evil nations. All nations.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Should take this warning and repent. And so that's like— I wanted to bring that up. And then the second thing is my favorite verse in Nahum. Which is Nahum 1:15, which is what we've been talking about. This is like, okay, so the— this is a book of gloom and doom as we kind of started the podcast, because it's all this judgment and punishment for the wicked. But how is this described for the oppressor or the oppressed, the people who are being beat up? Nahum 1:15: Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news. Gospel, right?
Seth: Yep.
David: Who publishes peace. He's like, guys, this is the gospel that evil is defeated.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And I'm like, we need to understand that part of the gospel story, the good news of both the book of Nahum and what Jesus did on the cross is that evil is defeated.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: In all, all of its forms, both, you know, in Colossians, we'll talk about this, like both in heaven and on earth.
Seth: Right?
David: Both thrones and powers, but also angelic beings, like both the invisible and the visible are judged. So that means Babylon and Assyria and every physical earthly empire, everything that's evil in the world will be judged. And that is good news. Let's publish peace about that and clap our hands, Nahum says. Yeah, but it's also that on the cross, Jesus also judged the evil spiritual powers, that they were also defeated, that Christ conquered Satan and the demonic realm and the grip of sin that has— he's held over the world, like he triumphed over them and judged them on the cross. And we don't have time to get into everything that means or how that works out. But it's good news. Yeah, that evil's been defeated. Both invisible and visible evil have been defeated and will be defeated forever by gentle and lowly Jesus.
Seth: The compassionate Jesus.
David: Yeah. The Nehum who Nehems.
Seth: The Nehum who Nehems.
David: Is that right? Yeah. So that's my closing thought. Do you have any closing thoughts?
Seth: I don't know if I do. I do keep thinking just about the compassionate Jesus who heals people. Yeah, because John the Baptist at one point asked Jesus, are you, are you the Messiah we've been waiting for?
David: Because you don't look like an ax just chopping everything down, right?
Seth: And then how does Jesus respond? He's like, oh, I am, but just don't worry, the cross will figure it out. No, he says, well, I am healing the sick, the blind see, demons are cast out, and good news is preached to the poor.
David: Yep. That's his answer to John's confusion about why he's not just all fire and brimstone.
Seth: Right. And it cuts to the very heart of the book of Nahum.
David: Yeah.
Seth: There is compassion for his people, and that compassion is expressed when evil is finally and fully judged. Right.
David: You can't help the poor and help the oppressed without doing something about the oppressor.
Seth: Yes.
David: And so Jesus is answering John's question just in a different way, by focusing on the Nahum instead of the Nehem.
Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's— I mean, there's more in Nahum I'm surprised we didn't get to. I know there's like— I'll just throw in a Jesus turn.
David: Do it.
Seth: Why not?
David: Why not?
Seth: So in Nahum chapter 1, It describes God as his way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. And so he— the image is of God walking on the clouds.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So there's a couple allusions you can make here. One is to the ancient Canaanite god Baal, who was the master of the clouds, the storm god.
David: So when God is the one walking on the clouds, squishing Baal's head, squishing Baal's head.
Seth: That's awesome. But it's also how Daniel the prophet, right, describes him when he's in Babylon.
David: He's several times riding on the clouds.
Seth: And it's also how Jesus describes himself right before his crucifixion.
David: Son of Man descending on the clouds.
Seth: He's— and what is he doing as he's riding the clouds? He's riding the clouds to the cross, to the cross. And in that act, what is he doing? We expect when he rides the clouds, right, right, he comes to do as a master of wrath. Is a master of wrath. And he is, he is, because he uses wrath because by his death for all guilt, by his taking on the wrath for all guilt, he demonstrates what happens to all guilty people who fail to turn back from evil. The fact that Jesus died proves that wrath comes against evil.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Like if anyone should have been able to get a get out of jail free card, get out of wrath free card, it should have been Jesus, right? Jesus absorbed all the sins of humanity. Great. He's still Jesus. He should have gotten away with it because he's God, right? He doesn't.
David: He doesn't.
Seth: Why?
David: Not even when Jesus takes on the sins of the world, because when you get away from it, right?
Seth: Because when he rides the clouds, he comes to deal with justice. Finally, all guilt is dead on the cross.
David: Yeah.
Seth: For those that are Jesus's own. Yeah. He rides the clouds to execute justice against himself so that all nations both Jews and Ninevites can experience his compassion.
David: That's so good. Thanks, Seth. Well, thank you guys for joining us in our walkthrough Nahum. I do feel like there's more left unsaid than I was expecting. But go read it for yourself.
Seth: Go read it for yourself.
David: It's going to be so good. So yeah, what's next for us?
Seth: Next for us is a sermon by you. Ooh, we're publishing a sermon that David did for Bridgeway Church, which is the church that he attends. And it's about how How Beholding and Becoming Jesus is Good News.
David: It's— yeah, yeah, how to behold Jesus in the Bible and become like him. So yeah, that was a fun sermon.
Seth: And then after that, I believe we're in the book of Hebrews for an introduction.
David: Well, excited about that.
Seth: Yeah.
David: All right, well, thank you guys for joining us, and we'll see you next week.
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