The Minor Prophets: #6 Nahum

One hundred years after Jonah preached to Nineveh, and they surprisingly repented, I was also called to prophesy for Yahweh, the most high God. My name, Nahum, means “comfort.” I was called to prophesy for the comfort of God’s followers in Judah. Yes, it is true. Sometimes, the Lord gives words for our comfort. He lets us know that we can be assured that he is in control...

In this sixth lesson in the series, the prophet Nahum comforts the people of Judah by letting them know he was going to judge their enemies, the Assyrians, by using the Babylonians to destroy the capital city of Nineveh once and for all. Although this did not happen for 50 years, the promise of it comforted the remnant of Judah during dark days under the reign of wicked King Manasseh.

Nahum's prophecy of the fall of Nineveh is given in precise detail. God wanted you to see that the details outlined in his word always come true. These words were fulfilled with amazing precision! This comforts us all, knowing that the other prophecies in the Bible that God has given us regarding the Day of the Lord, or the "last days" will also come true! God did not give the details of Nineveh’s fall only for the faithful in Nahum's day. He gave them to us! He wanted us to see that every detail of what he said would happen, would indeed come true!

God will not tolerate the actions of our enemies forever, either! Isn't that comforting! Whether it be individuals who torment us, wicked political systems, or the antichrist himself, God will bring justice... if not here on the earth, in the hereafter!

Enjoy this 10:08 video narrated by Tom Schlehofer. Thanks, Tom! If you would like the worksheet for this lesson, click here. Also, you may wish to make a paper copy of the scriptures and questions. If, so, click Here!

Scriptures: Book of Nahum, 2 Chronicles 33, 2 Kings 21, Matthew 4:13

Questions:

1. How do God's words for the future of his kingdom comfort you today?

2. Why do you think God wanted his people to know he had plans for their enemy, the Assyrians?

3. How can we remind ourselves that God is in control, even when it doesn't feel like it?

4. Has the Lord ever given you a "word" about something, through reading a scripture or having another believer give you a message from God, and it came true? What happened?

5. Why do you think God not only told them that Nineveh (and Assyria!) would be utterly destroyed, but outlined exact details about their destruction? Why are the details important?

6. Why might we get prideful if God destroys our enemies? How could this end up being a trap for us?

7. Which bible prophecies have not come true yet? How does knowing that every detail foretold in the book of Nahum came true strengthen your faith about what is yet to come?

8. How do we "hang out in the stronghold of his presence and love?" What does that look like in our daily lives?

Don't miss this 2 minute video on the fall of Nineveh, and the Assyrian Empire. So good!!

Want to take a trip to the Holy Land? Here is what the "Village of Nahum" looks like today! Enjoy this 9 min. video.

If you prefer to read the lesson, here is the text of the video:

One hundred years later after Jonah preached to Nineveh, and they surprisingly repented, I was also called to prophesy for Yahweh, the most high God. My name, Nahum, means “comfort.” I was called to prophesy for the comfort of God’s followers in Judah. Yes, it is true. Sometimes, the Lord gives words for our comfort. He lets us know that we can be assured that he is in control.

I was from a village in the Galilee I believe you are familiar with, Capernaum, which means the village of Nahum. They named it after me! Jesus spent a lot of time there. During the hundred years between Jonah’s prophecy and my own, much had happened to Israel and Judah. Jonah gave his warning to Nineveh in 760 B C. to repent, and they did. Remember, he was a prophet to King Jeroboam II in Israel, in the Northern Kingdom. In 722 BC, just about 40 years later, the entire Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians (the Ninevites!) at the hand of King Sargon II. (2 Kings 17). The capital city of Samaria was besieged and completely overtaken. The people were taken into captivity and dispersed in many different areas throughout the empire, that is, the ones that survived the Assyrian takeover. They brought foreigners from remote parts of the empire to live in Israel. Israel, as a nation, was no more.

Judah was still hanging on in the South. Right about that time, King Hezekiah was king in the South. Eight years after the fall of Israel in the north, Sennacarib began a military campaign against Judah. Isaiah prophesied in Chapter 8, that the Assryrians would overflow the country of Judah, up to it’s very neck! The Assyrians did take all the fortified cities of Judah, including Lachich! But they could not take Jerusalem. King Hezekiah and Isaiah interceded for the city! And the city was spared. This is not my story to tell, but it is one of the most fascinating accounts of God’s intervention in the entire scriptures. You can read it in the book of Isaiah Chapter 37 and 38.

During the reign of Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, now 50 years later, the kingdom of Judah was in the darkest period of its history. Manasseh was a wicked king. He was paying tribute to Assyria. The remnant of the followers of Yahweh were in hiding. The temple was filled with altars to false gods, and the king himself worshipped the host of heaven. He allowed his sons to be sacrificed into the fire to the god Molech. Manasseh seduced the people to do more evil than all the nations the Lord had destroyed before the people of Israel. It seemed all hope was lost. God wanted His people to know that his mercy for a season, did not prevent their impending judgment. Judgement was coming!

Yahweh called me as a prophet to bring comfort to the remnant of God’s followers in Judah in 660 BC during the reign of Manasseh. They needed encouragement. My comforting message? I was to announce the fall of Nineveh, and consequently, the Assyrian Empire, and comfort the believing remnant in Judah with the assurance that Yahweh was in control. His judgments were about to arrive.

Oh, yes, I told the people, God was extremely angry with the Assyrians. He comforted the people of Judah by assuring them he would judge the wicked, and also soothed them with these words, “ The Lord is good. A stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in Him.

Yes, God said, he was going to make an UTTER END of Nineveh. They would no longer be able to afflict Judah. Not only was I given this word for their comfort, but I was given the details of how it was going to be done! While this prophecy did not actually come true until 612 BC, 52 years after my words were given to Judah, my words comforted them until it did! In 625, thirteen years before the actual fall of Nineveh and Assyria, Zephaniah, again predicted the destruction of the capital city of Nineveh during the time of King Josiah. Wait for it! God’s word always comes true!

Here are some of the details of the fall of Nineveh that God revealed through me! Of course, I didn’t know until later, but every one of them was fulfilled by the letter. You can read about it in the historical text called Bibliotheca Historia or The History of Assyria by AT Olmstead.

Let’s start out with a humorous one.

1- I prophesied Nineveh would be devoured while the army was drunk! That’s right! The Babylonians made an unexpected attack by night, after they heard that the men were drunk. The city had already been besieged for three years. Let me tell you something about this city. It was a walled fortress city with 20 ft. thick walls surrounding it with a circumference of 60 miles. It also had an inside wall that protected the city itself. The farmlands inside the outside wall were used to grow crops to feed the inhabitants. God had warned of a siege! He told them to be prepared! They would need to make extra bricks for new walls of defense!

2- Another thing God said was that he would cut off the house of their Gods, and their carved and molded images. Now let’s stop for a minute. Do you know that up until 1845 many historians believed that Nineveh was a mythical city? But in that year, the ruins of the city were uncovered right across the Tigris River from modern day Mosul in Iraq. Guess what they found? The ruins of the temple! There was evidence of charred wood and ashes on the site. And a broken statue of Ishtar! Yes, God said the city would be overtaken and destroyed by fire and flood. He predicted the sight of chariots thundering into the city with flaming torches! In the excavations, not only was the temple burned but many of the buildings including the palace. It was also predicted that fire would devour the bars of the gates.

3- God also warned that the city would be flooded. That the “gates to the rivers” would be opened. In the third year of the siege, heavy rains flooded part of the city and broke down part of the walls. This allowed the Babylonians to attack.

4- In the third chapter of my book, I warned of a great massacre of the people. Woe, to the bloody city! They were a brutal culture. They lied, they stole, they were violent people who tortured their victims, they had many sorceries! History recorded that on the plains nearby two major battles were fought. It was so bloody, that the color of the stream waters had “changed color for a considerable distance.”

5- There were many other predictions, all that came true. There would be plundering and pillaging, the royal heirs would try to escape, the officers would weaken and flee, and many others. But the most important one was that “their injury had no healing. The wound would be so severe, they would be utterly destroyed. In the end, the destruction was final. Nineveh was never rebuilt.

While comforting Judah, all of us prophets, including Jeremiah who was in Jerusalem at the time, issued a strict warning. Don’t get prideful! Don’t gloat over your enemy’s fall! Keep the feasts! Perform your vows to me!

So Nineveh and the entire Assyrian Empire were given a death blow in 612 BC. Although I know my words were a comfort to Judah at the time, well, Judah had their own problems. In 586 BC, only 26 years after Nineveh was destroyed, my colleague Jeremiah wept over the destruction of Jerusalem itself.

So how can I comfort you, in your day, with my message? I want you to remember that God keeps his promises. He will not tolerate sin forever. He will judge those that are wicked. And he will remember to comfort you in the meantime with words from his prophets, written in his Holy Book. God did not give the details of Nineveh’s fall only for the faithful in my day. He gave them to you! He wanted you to see that every detail of what he said would happen would indeed come true! You can trust Him! He also gives one small detail about the coming antichrist in my book. Check it out. I believe the antichrist is going to be of Assyrian descent!

Yes, God is coming to judge the earth, and us! In the meantime, wait patiently. Be faithful and keep his word. “ The Lord is good. A stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows them that trust in Him.” Comfort each other with these words! Hang out in the stronghold of his presence and love.He has plans for you, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope!