Project 119: Nahum 2-3
| Project 119
This week's devotions are written by MBBC Student Ministry Intern Allison McSwain.
Nahum 2-3 are not exactly what I would call “feel good” texts. In fact, they make us pretty uncomfortable. We see the destruction of Nineveh: desolation, trembling knees and plundered treasure, lamenting moans, and like a lion’s den. The Assyrian capital is called a prostitute and a bloody city with princes like grasshoppers. This horrendous judgment on Nineveh does not come about for no reason, however. It is all for “restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel,” a people who had themselves been plundered and subjected to all sorts of evil.
To me, the most chilling line of these two chapters comes in verses 2:13 and 3:5—“Behold I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts…” (Nahum 2:13 and 3:5, ESV) Wow! There is no worse place to be than on the team opposing God. Those words are something I never ever want to hear, and I’m thankful that because of Christ’s blood I’ll never have to hear them. What is it the Lord is against, exactly? We see that the Lord is against the “bloody city” because of its lying and betrayal, its murderousness, and its general wickedness. These two chapters are a reminder that the Lord despises evil in all its forms. Wickedness is not God’s invention nor His intention, and He will ultimately rid the earth of it.
“Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria,” the prophet announces (Nahum 3:18, ESV). I am immediately reminded of Psalm 23, the beautiful poem about our Shepherd—the Lord Almighty. Unlike Assyria’s shepherds, our Shepherd never sleeps. The Shepherd of God’s people provides all our needs so that we are without want. He leads us, comforts us even in the valley of the shadow of death, and makes it so that evil is nothing to fear. Psalm 23 states that the Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies, something He did for Israel in Nineveh and continues to do for His people today. Take time this day to read Psalm 23 and reflect on what it means to have the Lord as your shepherd. Ask Him to help you fear no evil, as He has already triumphed over it.
Nahum 2-3 (ESV):
2:1 The Destruction of Nineveh
1 The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;
collect all your strength.
2 For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower[fn] is set up.
6 The river gates are opened;
the palace melts away;
7 its mistress[fn] is stripped;[fn] she is carried off,
her slave girls lamenting,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.[fn]
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
Hearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
all faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
3:1
Woe to Nineveh
1 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,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 Behold, I am against you,
declares the LORD of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your nakedness
and kingdoms at your shame.
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?
8 Are you better than Thebes
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 Cush was her strength;
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10 Yet she became an exile;
she went into captivity;
her infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men lots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?