Nahum 0 (Introduction)

6/22/25 11:16 AM
Solitary Man
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20250613

Introduction

God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

If you want to start your own megachurch and have lots of friends, then I advise you to read Nahum and do the exact opposite of what he does!  The above sentence is how he starts his prophetic work.  Just another example as to why prophets are hated by far more people than those who love them.

Nahum means comforter, and may be the short form of Nehemiah, which means comfort of Yahweh.  The name also comes from a root word meaning vengeance.  Thus Nahum simultaneously means being a comfort to God’s people, and an avenger against God’s enemies.  Two sides of the same coin.  Sadly, our western churches have no knowledge of the latter, it seems.  I pray that this work will help to rectify that.

Nothing is known about this man, except that he was an Elkoshite.  Apparently there was once a village in Galilee called Elkosh or Elkesi, and the village of Capernaum literally means the village of Nahum.  Perhaps he was born in Elkosh, and then grew up in Capernaum, which was renamed in honor of him.  All of this is the scholar’s best guess.  Regardless, as with many of God’s true prophets, the man was not important, but rather the message that he conveyed.  Too many times the so called man of God seems to want to place themselves above the message that they are sent to convey.  God does not share his glory with another.  The fastest way to lose your anointing is to take the attention meant for God onto yourself.

Obadiah, Jonah and Nahum preach solely to a heathen nation.  Obadiah to Edom, the other two to Assyria, with an emphasis on their main city Nineveh.  When Jonah preached to Nineveh in 750 BC, the people repented and were granted a reprieve.  But this reprieve would not last forever.  In 722, they destroyed Israel, or the northern kingdom.  In 701, Sennacherib invaded Judah, but an angel of the Lord slew 185,000 Assyrians, and he retreated home in shame.  Thus this prophecy must have occurred after that.  King Esarhaddon had transplanted heathens into Samaria and Galilee around 670 BC.  Nah 3:8-10 speaks of the destruction of No, or Thebes, a famous city in Egypt by the Assyrians.  After the death of Ashurbanipal in 626, Assyria fell in 612 to Babylon, or the Chaldeans as they were also known.  Thus we can date this work between 663 and 626 BC, which would most likely place it during the reign of Manasseh (697-642 BC).

The first truth we may glean from this work is that repentance must be practiced by all generations, if one desires to continue in the favor of Yehovah.  Assyria was one of only two Gentile nations where God raised up a prophet to write a biblical text prophesying their doom.  One repented, one did not.  But the one that did repent, repented only for a season.  Remember, within 30 years they had invaded Israel more than once, and utterly destroyed her.  They then engaged in what the globalists are doing to the west today, that is, replacement migration.  Assyria’s tactic was to flood any conquered land with alien cultures, thus weakening the cohesion and social fabric of these lands, minimizing the chances of them ever uniting and rebelling against their new masters.  Is that not what makes it so difficult to see real positive change today?  While America has yet retained just enough social cohesion to elect a partially righteous government, all other western nations are on the brink of total societal collapse, being overrun and outnumbered with people who share no common values with us.  Unless some sort of massive revival occurs and causes genuine conversion by the millions, there will be no more western civilizations going forward.  We are all destined to turn into Samaria, hopelessly intermixed with the heathens of all stripes and colors.

The only verse that is even obliquely referenced in other parts of the bible is found in 1:15.  Is 52:7 uses similar language, having been written between 739 to 686 BC.  Rom 10:15 does use this passage, but greatly out of context.  Paul extracted a timeless truth, the unparalleled blessing of evangelism,  as opposed to the original meaning, a herald announcing the destruction of Judah’s age old enemy.

This is not the only case where a New Testament writer does this.  Far too many today think this gives them license to do the same.  This is dangerous and possibly quite stupid.  First, you are not a New Testament author.  Second, are you sure you are hearing the voice of the Spirit accurately and precisely enough that you risk extracting a secondary meaning out of a verse that possibly no one else has ever done before?  Remember that bible teachers will face a stricter judgment (Jam 3:1).  I am not saying that secondary meanings are not in the text, only that this should be left for very seasoned men of God, those who have been tried and tested and found acceptable and pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.  Far too many neophytes in the faith recklessly step out on sketchy theological branches, only to have them snap off under the weight of their own hubris. We will deal more fully with the exposition of Nah 1:15 when we come to it in the text.

So what is Nahum all about?  Judgment.  Harsh judgment.  Total judgment.  Complete judgment.  Judgment against a wicked nation.  Judgment against a nation that had the advantage of a genuine prophet of God (Jonah) having visited it in their past.  Judgment against a nation that had repented once, but had now reverted back to its wicked ways.

The second, and minor part of this work, was a few verses that were meant to comfort God’s people who had, and were continuing to suffer, at the hands of these fiends.  While God is severe to his enemies, he is a rock of comfort and safety to his own.

God will talk to us about how fearsome he really is, when his wrath is kindled.  He will show us that there is no stopping him, once he is aroused.  But while sinners should quake in terror, those who are truly his should be comforted in the fact that justice will be meted out on his (and our) enemies.  Only that we need patience, as Yahweh’s timing is never the same as ours.  When he judges, it will be thorough.  It will be fully deserved.  It will be after his timeless patience has finally run out.  If will be complete.

We need to take heed of the truth that, like a nation that once repented and now backslid is certainly destined for total destruction, so it is true in anyone’s and everyone’s personal life.  Eternal security is a fairy tale.  It does not exist.  Never has, never will.  It is a dangerous, demonic doctrine that causes far too many to treat their faith walk far too casually.  I believe it came about as an extreme overreaction to the heresies of the medieval Catholic church.  While they taught a works based form of salvation, not works based on obeying the commandments of God in the bible, but man made commandments of the Catholic church, the Protestants came along and wanted to ensure that no one fell for the idea of working your way into heaven.  Thus they fell into the other ditch, almost demonizing good works, the kind that the bible demands, in order to distance themselves as far as possible from the errors of the existing church at the time.  Five hundred years later, that overreaction is still plaguing the church today.  Faith and works are two sides of the same coin, as James clearly shows us in his epistle.  They are inseparable.  Assyria is our historical example in that one must endure to the end to be saved.  You may have repented in the past, but are you still living in that repentant state?  Or are you like Nineveh, fully returned to your sin, as a pig returns to wallowing in the mire?

This book will grant us a wonderful balance to books such as the gospel of John, which too many believers refuse to leave and explore the other scriptures.  God is not all about loving the world.  God is also all about justice and judgment.  God could not love if he did not punish sin.  Else how could he love the good if he did not hate the evil?  Would you want an unrepentant Hitler and Stalin in heaven with you?  In the same way, would you want any unrepentant person alongside you in heaven?  Wouldn’t be much of a heaven then, would it?

As Judah took great comfort in the judgments of the Lord on their enemies, so we too can take great comfort that one day, just like Nineveh, our current day Assyrians and Babylonians and all their evil works will be totally wiped out by a furious Creator.  As we are now ready to turn to chapter one, let us open our hearts and our minds to the genuine, biblical, fear of the Lord.  Let us slowly meditate on these verses, until a proper balance concerning the true character of our God is firmly rooted in the soil of our hearts.

Solitary Man

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