· web viewi’ve got them underlined on the slide, ... the word is used a lot in the old...

Metz, Barry 12/03/17

What kind of God is our God?Nahum 3

We bring our study in the minor prophet Nahum to a close today with Nahum chapter 3.

We’ve said that the book of Nahum is about God’s determined purpose to destroy the Assyrian capital of Nineveh--his determined purpose to wipe Nineveh off the map.

Now we can talk so glibly about this but it should make us a bit uncomfortable, don’t you think? Wasn’t Nineveh a city filled with women and children like any other city? And quoting the book of Jonah, in Nineveh weren’t there more than 120,000 persons who didn’t know their right hand from their left?1 {And by the way scholars think that the phrase “persons who didn’t know their right hand from their left” is an idiom that suggests that many of the people of Nineveh were morally and spiritually unaware.2 } Nineveh was filled with people who were morally and spiritually unaware!

Why would God, speaking to Nineveh, say twice in the book of Nahum, Behold I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts?3 Why would God be against Nineveh?

What was it about Nineveh that brought out God’s red hot wrath?What was it about Nineveh that caused God to turn into an avenger to pay them back for their

evil? What was it that caused God to be against Nineveh? We could visualize our contemplations like this:

What kind of God is our God? What kind of God is our God?

Justin preached the first message from Nahum. In the second message, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I set out to justify God. I didn’t use that phrase in the sermon but that’s what I was doing. It’s kind of a funny thing looking back-- It’s as if I said, “This morning I’m out to make sure

1 Jonah 4:112 ESV Study Bible3 Nahum 2:13a and Nahum 3:5a

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God’s reputation isn’t affected by what he does to the Ninevites. I’m going to show you that the Assyrians deserved every ounce of God’s wrath that he gave them and that God was completely just in his plans to express his wrath on them.” Seriously I did want to convince myself--and you I guess-- that God was justified in his determined purpose to destroy the city of Nineveh. If you were with us for that second message, I paraded a host of Assyrian emperors before your eyes and did my best to highlight their wickedness. I capped it off by taking you to the last verse in Nahum where Nahum indicts the Ninevites for their ‘unceasing evil.’ In a sense I held out the scales of justice before you and I did everything I could to show you that Assyrians were evil to the max--and God was right in determining to destroy them, God was right in paying them back.

Well all of my justifying may have made God’s wrath and vengeance toward the Ninevites a bit more palatable. But I’m not sure it helped us come to terms with our God who avenges and expresses wrath. Here we sit in the 21st century. Do we really have a vengeful and wrathful God? And if we do, is he safe? Or does he fly off the handle in a moment’s notice? What about the flood? Or what about the early church and Ananias and Sapphira? They sinned; they died. What kind of God is our God?

There was a verse in Nahum chapter 1 that helped us more easily get our arms around God’s wrath --at least it helped me as I contemplated the measure and extent and exercise of God’s wrath. That verse was Nahum 1:3a….the first part of Nahum 1:3. If you’ve got your bible, look there, Nahum 1:3. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

Now you might ask why that’s helpful in contemplating God’s wrath? Well, we’re helped when we realize that Nahum 1:3 is a faint echo of God’s most famous self-disclosure way back in Exodus 34, a self-disclosure that comes two chapters after the golden calf incident. Let’s look at Exodus 34:6-7a on the screen and compare Nahum 1:3 with it. (We did this in the second message from Nahum but I think it’s worth repeating)

So on the slide we see a comparison of Exodus 34:6-7a with Nahum 1:3a.

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According to Exodus 34:6-7a, who is our God? Who is this God that we call God? What kind of God is our God? He is a God merciful and gracious…He is slow to anger…He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness….he forgives iniquity, transgression and sin…

You and I couldn’t create such a stunning God if we tried! He’s all that we would ever want! He’s all that we would ever need! BUT there’s something else about him on the slide that I didn’t mention…look at the screen…. he will by no means clear the guilty….

{Now some of you may know this but there’s a very famous paradox here--Our God is forgiving, Moses writes in Exodus 34, but he will by no means clear the guilty. He’s forgiving but he punishes the guilty. Do you see the paradox there? Now in a New Testament setting we know that Jesus Christ, God’s son, ultimately resolved this paradox. Because Jesus paid the penalty of our guilt, God was and is free to forgive us for our sins.}

But the real point I want to make, as I said, has to do with the fact that Nahum 1:3 is a faint echo of Exodus 34:6-7. Why is that important? How can that help us get a handle on God’s wrath? Well what are the similarities between the two passages? I’ve got them underlined on the slide, God is slow to anger AND God will by no means clear the guilty. What are the differences in the passages? What has Nahum left out in his description of God? All the phrases in yellow. Don’t miss that!

Why do we think Nahum left out the phrases in yellow? Now we can only conjecture here but surely God was the same in the time of book of Exodus and the time of Nahum, right? Yes. We know he was the same in Nahum’s time as he was in the time of the Exodus. God never changes. We even have evidence that the Assyrians experienced God’s mercy and grace when Jonah made his visit. And God had been slow to anger with them. But many years had passed… his grace and mercy and lovingkindness and steadfastness had run their course…and it was time to punish sin. God’s patience had run out. That’s why I think Nahum’s character quality list for God is shortened. That’s why I believe that Nahum 1:3 leaves out the ‘positive’ attributes from Exodus 34 and that he reminds the Ninevites that it’s time for judgment.

So here’s the point as we contemplate God’s wrath. I think we err when we think about God’s wrath in isolation from his other character qualities. So even today we’re free to go back to Exodus 34:6-7 and proclaim, “Behold Our God!” He is merciful! He is gracious! He is slow to anger! He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness! BUT…. he will by no means clear the guilty. Eventually… he must in his wrath, his hatred of sin, punish sin.

So again we’re contemplating God’s wrath. And I admit I’m belaboring this a bit.

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What kind of God is our God?

Isn’t this tension --the tension that God is merciful and gracious and slow to anger but eventually full of wrath toward sin--expressed thru Jesus’ ministry in the gospels? Consider the book of John chapter 3…. For God so loved the world…say it with me…that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved

through him4 And then later in the chapter, verse 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jesus full of grace and mercy and truth came not to condemn the world but to save it. But when Jesus comes the second time, the wrath of God will fall.

So what are we saying? We’ve said that the book of Nahum is all about God’s determination in his wrath, in his hatred of sin, to destroy the city of Nineveh. We’ve said that the Ninevites were evil beyond measure and that they deserved God’s wrath. But we’ve also said that God’s wrath must be contemplated in view of all of his character qualities; we mustn’t contemplate God’s wrath apart from all that the scriptures show him to be. The Assyrians experienced his wrath after centuries of mercy and grace.

Well with that background, Nahum 3 is on our horizon so let’s spend some time in it. Nahum 3 continues to picture the fall of Nineveh, a theme that began in chapter 2. Follow along as I read the first three verses of chapter 3…..

3 Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey!

2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!

3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear,

hosts of slain, 4 John 3:16-17

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heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end—

they stumble over the bodies!

In verse 1, Nahum quickly reminds his readers why God is judging the city5: the city is full of bloodshed; the city is full of lies and deceit; and the city is full of plunder. “At its height, the Assyrian empire controlled the Middle East from north Africa to modern day Iran, and the city of Nineveh received many stolen treasures.”6

Verses 2-3 picture the battle for Nineveh from beginning to end..

■First the army is mobilized, verse 2, the crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot.;

■ Next the battle is joined , the first part of verse 3: Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear,

■And then the carnage is in view, verse 3b: hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! There are so many dead that the attacking soldiers stumble over them.

The phrases in verses 2-3 are dramatic, abrupt, and clipped. They help us feel the confusion and panic associated with war.7 Nahum really is, as Justin shared in the first message, the poet laureate of the Old Testament.

As we come to verse 4 we come to the first of three taunts in this chapter; some believe there is a taunt in verses 4-7, a taunt in verses 8-10, and a taunt in verses 15-17.8 {And Justin mentioned last week that verses 11-13 of chapter 2 are also a taunt}.

What’s a taunt? And why do we care?

One author has suggested that when we think of the book of Nahum we should think of three literary features that characterize the book. 9 First there is the incomplete alphabet poem in chapter 1. We talked about that in the second message…Nahum seems to use a chaotic alphabet or acrostic poem in chapter 1 to drive home the chaos that comes to earth when God powerfully intervenes. Second, there is the delay in identifying who the book is written too; this opens up the application for the book to a host of nefarious empires. The third literary feature according to this author is its taunts--taunts that occur at the end of chapter 2 and in chapter 3

5 ESV Study bible6 Brukner7 Handbook8 Richard Belcher, “Nahum”, Gospel Coalition Website, 3/21/2009 And there was a taunt in 2:11-139 Richard Belcher

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What’s a taunt? It’s a jeering or mocking remark made in order to wound or provoke.10 It’s a sarcastic challenge or insult. “A taunt challenges someone in an insulting or mocking manner.”11

A friend who is leaving his work at the end of the year told me about a staff meeting he attended recently. His manager passed out copies of a single page to everyone on his team at the table but him. The manager then said in a jeering tone, “I bet you feel really left out, don’t you?” That was a taunt-- a jeering remark made to wound or provoke. It’s like the thing we did as kids when we wanted to hurt someone, Na Na Na Na Na.12 That’s what a taunt is.

Well this idea of taunts in the scriptures was a new idea for me but it turns out there all over the Old Testament. Psalm 52 is supposedly a taunt song. Habakkuk 2:6-20 is a taunt song against the Babylonians. Isaiah 14:3-23 is a taunt against Babylon. Zechariah 11:1-3 is a taunt against enemies. The word is used a lot in the Old Testament and often times it’s in judgment settings. Keep that idea in the back of your mind…the word taunt is often used in judgment settings

Well we said verses 4-7 are a taunt. The city of Nineveh is compared to a prostitute who attracted and charmed her victims who later regretted their involvement with her13 And the punishment that Nineveh was to experience ‘was the punishment given customarily to women who had been found guilty of adultery’14 verse 5. Just as the Assyrians had humiliated other nations, Assyria would be humiliated.

6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?”

Where shall I seek comforters for you?

Listen to Nahum 3:5, part of the taunt from the Message Paraphrase… I think Eugene Peterson has really caught the emotional trajectory of the taunt.

“I’m your enemy….Nineveh— I, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies!

I’ll strip you of your seductive silk robes and expose you on the world stage.

I’ll let the nations get their fill of the ugly truth of who you really are and have been all along.

10 Concise Oxford English Dictionary11 Richard Belcher12 Richard Belcher shared this idea in his message13 TEV, “She enchanted nations and enslaved them”14 Handbook, compare Jer. 13:26; Ezek. 16:36-38; Hos. 2:10. “Her clothing would be lifted up over her face so that her nakedness would be exposed to view.”

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And so we could briefly personalize it, O Nineveh, be assured that your harlotry will come back on your head. Na, Na, Na, Na, Na!

Verses 8-10 are a historical taunt about the downfall of the city of Thebes15…and what that signaled for Nineveh.

The city of Thebes, located on the Nile River 400 miles south of present day Cairo, was one of the greatest cities in the ancient world.16 Thebes was the Greek name for the city; No-Amon, the city under the care of the god Amon, was the Hebrew name for the city. In 663 BC Thebes was the capital of Egypt and it was thought to be impregnable because it was “largely surrounded by the Nile’s waters, which divided into several parallel channels”17 around the city.

So just as Thebes had the Nile as a rampart, a wall18 of sorts, so Nineveh sat along the Tigress which served as a wall of protection. And just as Thebes thought itself impregnable, so Nineveh thought itself impregnable.19

Listen to Nahum 3:8-9 from the Message paraphrase

Do you(Nineveh) think you’re superior to Egyptian Thebes, proudly invincible on the River Nile, Protected by the great River, walled in by the River, secure? Ethiopia stood guard to the south, Egypt to the north. Put and Libya, strong friends, were ready to step in and help. The point of verse 9 is that Thebes had allies.20 So the city was considered impregnable because of the Nile and it had many military alliances. 21

But verse 10, from the Message paraphrase tells us it was to no avail… But you know what happened to her: The whole city was marched off to a refugee camp, Her babies smashed to death

15 Richard Belcher, Gospel Coalition Web-site16 Handbook17 Boice, page 38318 The Nile was ½ mile wide at that point so that it was like a ‘sea’19 Layman’s Bible Book Commentary, page 6420 Boice, page 383; Cush (which is present day Ethiopia and Sudan), Egypt (that would be Lower Egypt, the country farther down (north) the Nile from Thebes), Put (modern day Libya) and Libya (the region of North Africa west of Egypt). 21 Boice, page 384

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in public view on the streets, Her prize leaders auctioned off, her celebrities put in chain gangs.

Anyone know who captured Thebes? The Assyrians

So personalizing the taunt…

Oh Nineveh, are you better than Thebes? with your Tigress river fortifications?Who do you think you are? Prepare to be taken into exile, you Ninevites!!!!Na, Na, Na, Na, Na.

Well from verse 11 to the end of the book, Nahum pictures the inevitableness of Nineveh’s defeat. And there’s one more taunt in verses 15-17…

Verse 11…11 You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding;

you will seek a refuge from the enemy…defeat is inevitable, Nineveh!

Verse 12 gives us an interesting image….the Assyrian fortresses, their walled cities will be like fig trees with ripe fruit….the enemy will just be able to shake the trees and the figs will fall in their mouths. In other words taking Nineveh will be a cake walk!

Verse 13 the Ninevite troops will acquit themselves like women. And that was a terrible insult back then.22 And Nineveh’s situation was so bad it was as if the gates were wide open and fire had destroyed the wooden beams that kept the gates closed.

Verse 14 Nahum ironically challenges them to prepare for the siege-- Draw water! Make bricks! But all their effort will be wasted. Because verse 15… The fire will devour them, the sword will cut them off….it will devour …like the locust.

From the second half of verse 15 through verse 17 are what some call the “Locust Taunt.” In verses 15-17, five different words for locusts are found.23 And the imagery shifts from the destructiveness of locusts to their ability and tendency to multiply.24 Nineveh’s merchants and scribes (which is probably their civil servants), and their princes ….Nineveh’s merchants and scribes and civil servants will be like gathered locusts when it gets warm--they will spread their wings and fly away25 and no one knows where they are.

22 Layman’s bible book commentary, page 65 Compare Is. 19:16; Jer. 50:37; 51:3023 Handbook24 Handbook25 But the merchants werent’ the only ones who left. The princes--and the word here is probably an Assyrian word that Nahum borrowed (Handbook); the leaders were like grasshoppers and the scribes--probably civil servants (Handbook)

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So personalizing taunt…

O Nineveh, you who think you’re secureWhen God’s armies approach your cityWatch your merchants, scribes and princesfly away like locusts.Na Na Na Na Na!

Well in verses 18-19 the king of Assyria is addressed (rather than the city of Nineveh) and all are rejoicing over the defeat of the city and its king.26

Here’s Verses 18-19 from the Message

King of Assyria! Your shepherd-leaders, in charge of caring for your people, Are busy doing everything else but. They’re not doing their job, And your people are scattered and lost. There’s no one to look after them. You’re past the point of no return. Your wound is fatal. When the story of your fate gets out, the whole world will applaud and cry “Encore!” Your cruel evil has seeped into every nook and cranny of the world. Everyone has felt it and suffered.

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Well what happened to Nineveh?

The fall of the great city of Nineveh, as predicted by the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah, occurred in August 612 BC. The Babylonian Chronicle tells how a combined force of Medes, Babylonians and Scythians laid siege to the city, which fell as a result of the breaches made in the defences by the flooding rivers (Na. 2:6–8). The city was plundered by the Medes, and the king Sin-shar-ishkun perished in the flames, though his family escaped. The city was left to fall into the heap of desolate ruin which it is today (Na. 2:10; 3:7), a pasturing-place for the flocks (Zp. 2:13–15), which gives the citadel mound its modern name of Tell Kuyunjik (‘mound of many sheep’). When Xenophon and the retreating Gk. army passed in 401 BC, it was already an unrecognizable mass of debris.27

26 Nahum27 Wiseman, D. J. (1996). Nineveh. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, & J. I. Packer (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 826). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

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___________

Much of our time this morning has been spent contemplating the wrath of God. We used this slide a couple of times.

But a contemplation of the wrath of God would be incomplete without a focus on the cross. And since this is our Sunday to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, I’d like to do just that. Let me update the slide we’ve been using…

So we’ve been trying to get our arms around the idea that God would set his heart to destroy the city of Nineveh. When we bring in the cross and God’s wrath poured out on his son, the conversation turns a corner. Let me illustrate with an imaginary dialogue with God:

God you’re really going to destroy a city in your wrath?A city that has women and children in it? Really?A city in which 120,000 can’t tell their right from their left? Do you really know what you’re doing God? Let’s talk through the facts againIt doesn’t seem right… cause it make sense to me God!

We’ve kind of got God on trial don’t we? And then we bring in the idea that God destroyed his son on behalf of sinners…

You’re going to pour out your wrath on your son?

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What?You’re going to cause your son to pay the penalty for the sins of sinners so that they can live in your presence? Really? Let’s talk through the facts againIt doesn’t seem right… cause it to make sense to me God!

Do you see how the contemplation about God’s wrath changes when we bring in the cross? Our objections seem to drop away.We really are left without words.

What kind of God is our God?

Before we take the Lord’s supper together, let’s remind ourselves of the events leading up to that special day we call Good Friday when God poured out his wrath on his Son.

In the weeks leading up to Jesus’s death, Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that he would have to suffer many things and be rejected by the religious leaders and be killed and on the third day be raised.28 But Jesus never shared the ‘why’ behind his death. Well, the final week of his life quickly came.

On the night before Jesus died, he and his disciples went out to the Mount of Olives and spent time in the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed, Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.29

What was the cup Jesus referred to? The cup was a metaphor for Jesus’s future suffering. (And) It’s clear from at least 11 scriptures in the OT that ‘taking…the cup denote(d) that Jesus took upon himself the wrath of God (cf Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 25:15, 17, 28; Jer. 49:12; Lam 4:21; Ezek. 23:31-33; Hab. 2:16; Zech. 12:2

For example, listen to Is. 51:17 : Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath…

So it’s clear that Jesus died for the sake of his people and instead of his people (cf. notes on Mark 14:36, John 18:11; Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2)30

1 John 2:2 He is the propitiation for our sins….What does propitiation mean? Propitiation means ‘a sacrifice that bears God’s wrath and turns it to favor’31

Well we know that Jesus was arrested and tried by the religious leaders and found to be completely innocent but then he was given over to be killed….

If you have your bibles, open to Mark 15, I want to show you something… We’ll pick up the story in Mark 15:16… 28 Luke 9:22;Matt. 16:21; Mark 8:3129 Luke 22:4330 ESV Study note31 ESV Study note, page 2431

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16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

Isn’t that taunting? Listen to Mark 15:18 from the NLT translation: 18 Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”

Hail king of the Jews!Look at you in your purple cloak and crown of thorns!What kind of king are you! Na Na Na Na Na!

So Pilate’s soldiers taunted Jesus.

19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. Isn’t that taunting? 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

21 And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22 And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). 23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him. (that would be 9:00 am) 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!”

Isn’t that taunting? So the passersby taunted Jesus.

31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

Mark 15:32 (NRSV) 32 Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

Hail Messiah! King of Israel!What kind of Savior are you!

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You’re a bloody mess! Save yourself Savior!Na Na Na Na Na!

So the religious leaders taunted Jesus

33 And when the sixth hour had come (12:00pm) there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (3:00pm )

Why the three hours of darkness? In the scriptures darkness represents lament (Amos 8:9-10) and divine judgment (Exodus 10:21-23)

We believe that during those three hours Jesus became sin for us--all of our greed, all of our impurity, all of our selfishness, all of our self-righteousness--and God’s wrath, God’s righteous anger was poured out on him.

34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Would the men come forward?

22 As they were eating, He took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.”

HYMN 196 - THERE IS A FOUNTAIN--Need words on slides

23 Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He gave it to them, and so they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many. 25 I assure you: I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it in a new way in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing psalms, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:22-26; HCSB)

HYMN 185 - WHEN I SURVEY --Need words on slides

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