Around 150 years after Jonah preached in Nineveh, God has another prophet to preach to that wicked city, the prophet Nahum. It is interesting to consider that God has given us two books in the Old Testament, Jonah and Nahum, that directly deal with one Gentile city. Nineveh is a prime example of the ‘goodness and severity of God.’
The city had quickly fallen from the previous generations trust in the Lord. They again had become a bloody city of war, a ravenous, predatory, bloodthirsty people. The Assyrians were steeped in idol worship and false prophets and false gods. Their riches, commerce and city walls had become their resting place and they have, as a people, totally forsaken God. For two hundred years, the known world trembled at this mighty power.
We might wonder at whether or not the people were really saved in the book of Jonah since they have fallen in to egregious sin again. Both Jonah and Jesus said they repented and believed, so there is no need to question the salvation of the Ninevites in the book of Jonah. Think about this example; we are in 2010, what was America like in 1860? Has the morality and the people changed here in 150 years? The infants that did not know their left hand from their right had lived and died, seven generations from Jonah and the city is back to where it was before Jonah. It is not hard to see how after seven generations, the city had forsaken the Lord.
We do not know much about Nahum himself. We know that he was an Elkoshite, but that doesn’t really tell us much either. He was a man of God, with a heavy message from God to a wicked people. In the order of prophets, he would have prophesied either during the reign of King Manassah, or King Josiah. If you put this historically and chronologically in the Old Testament, the book would have been written during the times of II Kings 22-23 area, II Chronicles 35-36 and most likely a contemporary of Jeremiah. We know this from the accuracy of the prophecy and knowing the time when Nineveh was brought down. It was no small event that Nineveh fell. The Assyrians were the scourge of the world, and many leaders and many countries tried to fell this capital city.
Nahum is a vivid book with amazing imagery. The book’s theme is simple and straight forward, God’s judgment on Nineveh. God lays out for us first that He will not acquit the wicked. After the verdict, secondly God will judge the guilty. Third God pronounces His woe upon the guilty and judged city. Verse number one gives us our title, The Burden of Nineveh. Burden – load, carrying; the burden of Nineveh is the burden of unforgiven sin. Judgment is hanging upon the wicked city, waiting for the judgment. Not waiting to be condemned, but condemned already.
B.H. Carroll had a good alliterated outline of the book.
I. Verdict of Vengeance (chapter 1)
II. Vision of Vengeance (chapter 2)
III. Vindication of Vengeance (chapter 3)
My outline is not as clever, but serves the purpose.
I. GOD WILL NOT ACQUIT THE WICKED
II. GOD WILL JUDGE THE WICKED
III. GOD’S WRATH ON THE WICKED
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Douglas Newell IV
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