Can You Picture It?

Nahum 2:1-13

The destruction of Nineveh.

God wants you and I to foresee the destruction of our enemies.

Transcript

and ruin their branches. The shield of his mighty men is red. His soldiers are
clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he monsters
them. The cypress spears are brandish. The chariots race madly through the
streets. They rush to and fro through the square. They gleam like torches. They
dart like lightning. He remembers his officers. They stumble as they go. They
hasten to the wall. The siege tower is set up. The river gates are opened. The
palace melts away. Its mistress is stripped. She is carried off, her slave girls
lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool
whose water runs away. Halt, halt, they cry, but none turn back. Plunder the
silver, plunder the gold. There is no end to the treasure or of the wealth of
all precious things. Desolate, desolation, and ruin. Hearts melt and knees
tremble. Anguish is in all loins. All faces grow pale. Where is the lion's den,
the feeding place of the young lions? Where the lion and lioness went, where his
cubs were, with none to disturb. 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. Behold, I'm against you, declares the Lord of hosts. 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 messenger shall no longer be
heard. Let's take a moment to pray as we open up this text. Father, what a gift
it is from you that we are able to look at your word together. And as we do it,
Lord, we request that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts and
imaginations, helping us to understand, and as we look at these words, also
helping us to apply. Lord, we pray for your illumination, and we pray that
together in this moment, we would come under the authority of your word and
receive it with hearts of faith. In Jesus' name, amen. Have you ever explained
something to someone in very plain English, but after you finished your
explanation, you felt like they really weren't grasping the importance of what
you were saying? You told them in very simple terms, but you felt like it really
wasn't clicking for them. They didn't get it. We've all had that experience, and
sometimes when that happens, you change your approach and you start using a
different method of communication. You change your language. You might say
something like, let me paint a picture for you to help them more clearly
visualize what is about to happen. And you start using your words very
descriptively to help your listener understand what you're trying to say. We're
in the middle of a short sermon series through the Old Testament book of Nahum,
and that's kind of what's happening today. Nahum's prophecy is helping his
listeners envision the future. Nahum is a Hebrew prophet. He's pronouncing a
message of God's coming judgment on Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. This is
around 640 BC. It is after the northern kingdom of Israel has already been
invaded and fallen to Assyria. Then chapter one, which we've got through last
week, we hear a clear message of judgment against Nineveh. We hear the judgment
of Nineveh and its destruction predicted. Nineveh has been rebelling against the
Lord for a long time, and now God is coming to bring judgment on the land, and
he's announcing it through the prophet Nahum. So chapter one tells us things
like, he will make a complete end of the adversaries. He will pursue his enemies
into darkness. He will make a complete end. Trouble will not rise up for a
second time. Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down
and pass away. The announcement is very clear. God's wrath is coming upon
Nineveh. It's a message of judgment, but Nahum's name means comfort. It's a
message of comfort for Judah, the southern kingdom, the Israelites in the
southern kingdom, who have been suffering for a long time at the hands of
Assyria. So now in chapter two, we see a visual picture of this judgment on
wickedness. So the future gets told in this very poetic, visual language. It is
almost like chapter one is the book and chapter two is the movie. It's a
prophecy about a future event that was indeed fulfilled close to 30 years later
when Babylon invaded Assyria and Nineveh crumbled. But for the original readers,
this is an eyewitness account of an event that has not yet happened. And what
Nahum is saying to Judah is, this is what it's going to look like when your
enemies are overthrown. This is what it's going to look like. Have you ever
anticipated a great moment in the future? You don't know exactly how it will
happen or what it will look like, but you know it's going to be legendary. And
then that picture starts to develop in your mind of that anticipated future. So
the challenge for us though is, as we work through Nahum, is not just
understanding what it meant for them at that time, but what it means for us as
listeners today as Christian scripture about 2,600, 2,700 years later. So when
you read Nahum two, you're seeing it's very descriptive, there's a lot of visual
imagery. It's poetry and poetry helps our imagination. It moves past the
declarative language of fact, and it helps us to see, it helps us to visualize.
And here's our big idea, what I want to communicate to you this morning from the
text is that God wants you and I to foresee the destruction of our enemies. God
wants you and I to foresee the destruction of our enemies. I'll explain what I
mean as I go, but the passage is broken up into four parts. In verses one and
two, we see preparation for the battle. In verses three through five, you see
the early scenes of the battle. In verses six through 10, you see the collapse
of the city. And in verses 11 through 13, you see taunting and judgment. So
let's begin with the preparation for the battle in verses one through two.
Chapter two, one through two says, "'The scatterer has come up against you.
"'Man the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, "'collect all your
strength. "'For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob "'as the majesty of
Israel, "'for plunderers have plundered them "'and ruined their branches.'"
Nineveh was a very powerful and well-protected city in the ancient world. In
chapter two, we're reading this description of how it was destroyed very, very
quickly. So we think, how would that have happened? For the Ninevites, seeing
their capital city destroyed would have been as unthinkable to them as the
sinking of the Titanic. How would that have happened? How would that have
happened? Well, look at the beginning of verse one. It says, "'The scatterer has
come up against you.'" And by using that word, Nahum is taking us back to the
origins of Nineveh as a city. If you go all the way back to Genesis nine, God
saves Noah and his family through the flood. They're commissioned by the Lord,
be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. So
these are God's people saved through the waters of judgment and they're to
spread out across the earth as God's image bearers, representing him wherever
they go. Then in Genesis 10, there's a genealogy. You start reading about the
family lines that developed from Noah's descendants, his sons and then
ultimately the nations that developed from those family lines. One of the
prominent figures in that genealogy in Genesis 10 is this man named Nimrod. He's
a mighty man, he's a mighty hunter, and he's linked to the founding of both
Babel and Nineveh. Genesis 10 says, "'At the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was
Babel "'and then he eventually went to Assyria and built Nineveh.' Nimrod is set
in contrast to the way that God has commissioned his people to represent him on
the earth. He's known for his power and his violence. So then in Genesis 11, we
start reading about the Tower of Babel. The whole Babel experiment is this anti-
God effort by humanity. It's this attempt to reject the mandate that God's given
people to be fruitful and multiply and bear his image and represent him and
reflect him on the earth. The people instead say, "'Come, let us build for
ourselves a city and a tower "'with its top in the heavens "'and let us make a
name for ourselves.'" So the point is that Nineveh, all the way back from its
inception, has been about human power, violence, autonomy, apart from God, self-
exaltation, without any acknowledgement of God. So in Genesis 11, God comes down
and sees all their pride and he says, "'Come, let us go down there and confuse
their language "'so that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the
Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth and they left off the
building of the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel because there the
Lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the Lord dispersed
them over the face of the earth." The reason I'm giving you this kind of
background from Genesis is that word dispersed that gets used in Genesis 11 is
the same as the Hebrew root for the word scatterer. The Lord's coming down
again. Nineveh was founded in this pride and violence and autonomy from God and
that still describes the city when we get up to Nahum 2. So once again, God has
come down to disperse or to scatter them. He's once again responding to their
pride and the rejection of his word and his authority by scattering the nation
and he's doing it now through the means of the invading Babylonians. And the
Ninevites are told to prepare for battle in the form of a taunt. Almost like one
rival team would speak to another, you might remember this from your high school
days. They say, man the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all
your strength. Dress for battle means literally gird up your loins. In other
words, Nahum is saying to the Ninevites, buckle up boys, the invaders are
coming. In verses three through five, now they start to give us the scenes of
the beginning of the battle. Verses three through five say, the shield of his
mighty men is red, his soldiers are clothed in scarlet, the chariots come with
flashing metal, on the day musters them, the cypress spears are brandished. The
chariots rush madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the
squares, they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning. He remembers his
officers, they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall, the siege tower is
set up. Nineveh is supposed to be this impregnable city. It has high walls, it
has moats surrounding it, their army is strong, they have slaves, they have
money, they have possessions, they have provisions. It should be impossible to
attack. It should be invulnerable, that's what they thought. But in verses three
through four now, we see the perspective of the Ninevites inside the walled
city, and from their vantage point looking out, they're starting to see what
sounds like a very quick and coordinated attack. Here come the Babylonians.
Their soldiers are clothed in scarlet, their shields are flashing red, whether
that's blood or there's some other reason. The chariots symbolize the strength
and speed that the invaders are coming. There's this idea of a very fast, well-
coordinated attack where they are completely securing the perimeter of the city,
catching the Ninevites completely flat-footed. Text says they rush madly through
the streets, they rush to and fro among the squares. Then verse five kind of
gives a frame of reference of the Assyrian king within the walls. He remembers
his officers, they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall, the siege tower
is set up. It's as though the king is looking out and seeing things so quickly
fall into place from the invaders, it's as though in shock or in slow motion. He
remembers, oh right, I've got this mighty army, we're supposed to be unbeatable.
But chapter one tells us that they would be slow and dim-witted like drunkards
as they respond. And it says they stumble as they get ready. They rush to the
wall, but the invaders have already set up the siege. The ladders are already up
against the city walls. Think about movies that you've seen where people try and
invade the city gates, the ladders are already set up. Part of what made Nineveh
seem safe and invincible was that it was surrounded by two rivers, the Tigris
and the Coaster. I think I'm saying that right. That made Nineveh a major center
for industry and trade and also protected the city with the water around. But
what we'll see in a moment is that the strength of the city is actually the
source of its downfall. First six through 10 says, the river gates are opened,
the palace melts away, its mistress is stripped, she's carried off, her slave
girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a
pool whose waters run away. Halt, halt, they cry, but none turn back. Plunder
the silver, plunder the gold, there's no end of the treasure or of the wealth of
all precious things. Desolate, desolation and ruin, hearts melt and knees
tremble, anguish is in all loins, all faces grow pale. So in verses three
through five, we see preparation for the battle, now we see that just collapse
in disaster. Chariots are racing through the streets in verses three through
five, soldiers are brandishing spears, the sea showers getting set up, Nineveh
is trying slowly, stumbling around as they respond. It's a very visual scene and
most battle or war movies that you might think of, the whole film tends to build
towards a climactic final battle. We see everyone set up for the conflict and
then usually that battle takes up a good chunk of the movie, it's the end. It
builds towards the battle itself. What's very interesting about Nahum too is the
whole battle is summed up in nine words. The river gates are opened and the
palace melts away. Happens in just one moment. What historians believe that this
is depicting is that the invading armies damned up those two rivers that
surrounded Nineveh, the Tigris and the coaster. The water would have been held
back by a sluice gate till it dammed up and just built and built and built in
power and then when enough water had built up, then the invaders opened those
gates and let loose the water with an overwhelming flood. For those of you who
like Lord of the Rings, picture the end of the two towers when Isengard gets
flooded. The whole palace melts away with an overwhelming flood. It's exactly
what we read in chapter one eight when it says, with an overwhelming flood, he
will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into
darkness. It's not just some kind of vague metaphor in poetry, it's a historical
event that happened in 612 BC when Nineveh was flooded. They seemed so secure,
but when judgment came, Nineveh had no refuge. It's in contrast to God's people
who read in chapter one that the Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble. So
once this city was a center of industry and commerce and power, now nothing is
left except for a handful of female servants who are weeping and lamenting and
beating their breasts. Everything is dissolving and people are saying, halt,
halt, there's nothing they can do to stop the overthrow and the collapse of the
city. The early part of the chapter gives kind of the visuals of the battle. Now
we're hearing more like what defeat sounds like. There's moaning, there's crying
out, people are being taken away, everything is being plundered. Nineveh was
famous for boasting about their military exploits and about the riches that they
gathered from nations. It's how they built their empire, defeating other nations
and taking their treasure. Now the plunderer is being plundered and the riches
and the wealth that Nineveh had built up are all being taken away. Verse nine
says, plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There's no end of the treasure or of
the wealth of all precious things. So we see the preparation for the battle, the
early scenes of the battle, then the complete collapse and desolation of the
city. In chapter two concludes with this taunt of judgment. The prophet says,
where is the lion's den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion
and lioness went, where his cubs were with none to disturb. 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. Behold, I am against you declares the Lord of
hosts and I will burn your chariots and 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. That lion imagery is used to refer to
Assyria and there's a few reasons for this. Assyria was a predatory nation that
used its power to overthrow the nations they invaded. There were in fact lions
that lived in Assyria. If Assyria was like a college, the lion would have been
their logo. They were known for their lions and the Assyrian kings were well
known for boasting about their exploits and hunting lions, about the lions they
hunted and killed. So these verses come together as kind of like a taunt after
the battle has taken place. The idea is we came together for battle, we
completely dominated you and now we're taunting you. Where are the lions now?
You know how if you were a Sabres fan who walked out of TD Garden in game six,
you'd have walked out feeling cocky with your chest puffed out and say, we
humiliated you Boston, where are the stupid yellow towels now, right? That's
what you would say. And as stern and as brutal as this picture of destruction is
Nahum is using poetic language about the future to bring comfort to Judah. He's
telling them God is not allowing his enemies to endure forever. That was stated
in chapter one and now in chapter two, we see it in full color. Judah is getting
a prophetic look into the future at what victory will look like and what it will
sound like when their enemies are destroyed. But we think, okay, what does all
of that really mean for us? Two points that I want us to get of application.
First is we need to find refuge in Christ. Nineveh experiences this literal
flood of judgment. And what happens to the city should remind us of Jesus's
words in Matthew seven at the end of the sermon on the mountain. Jesus preaches
a whole sermon and says, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them
will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and
the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall
because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of
mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the
sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against
that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. I don't know if Jesus
specifically was thinking of the Ninevites or Nahum chapter two, but the
Ninevites were seemingly invincible and unshakable. They had high walls, they
had great wealth. A century earlier, they'd heard the word of God from the
prophet Jonah and repented. But now a few generations downstream, now they're
finding their security elsewhere and a literal flood came and wiped them away.
And whether we get a literal flood or metaphorical flood, the truth remains that
power and money give us a false sense of security. We tend to think that we can
control the events in our lives so long as we have enough influence or enough
money or enough connections or enough information. I recently read a book called
The Year of Magical Thinking, which is a book about grief, about a woman who
lost both her husband and her daughter in the span of three months from two
separate medical events. And the author is very well connected and very wealthy
and she would have had far more access to, she did have far more access to
doctors, to information, to favors, to treatment than most of us would have. And
yet there's a line that she repeats throughout the book. It just says this, you
sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. And the storms of life, they
come to all of us. And as Jesus tells us, Christ and his word is the only true
refuge, the only true place of security. We need to find, each one of us
personally, need to find refuge in Christ. Secondly, what I said before, God
wants you and I to be able to foresee the destruction of our enemies. That's why
this is painted so clearly. So first of all, here's what I mean by that. First
of all, that means we need to be able to actually define and understand who our
enemies are. Who are my enemies? Your enemies are not, they're not political,
they're not Democrats or Republicans, they're not your boss who mistreats you,
they're not your relatives who don't share your convictions. Your enemies are
also not somewhere in the Middle East. We're not meant to read Nahum and then
start to make connections with whatever countries are now inhabited or who now
inhabit the regions of Assyria or Babylon. The people of God are not any longer
primarily located in one nation or state. The people of God, his redeemed
people, now span the globe and they come from every tribe and tongue. So the
enemies, our enemies, are the enemies of our king, the enemies of Christ, Satan,
sin, and death. And the hope and the anticipation that we have as Christians is
that those enemies will one day be destroyed. And our grasp of those future
events very much influences our behavior today, which is why the ability to
envision the future through the word of God is so helpful to us. Sometimes our
grasp of the future is kind of vague and hazy and abstract because it all seems
a long way off, it all just seems like words on a page. For example, your doctor
might give you an exam and he or she might present you with a couple pages of
data and say something like your blood pressure seems like it's a bit above the
normal range. That will possibly lodge somewhere in your brain, but the exact
import of that may not really register. That information and what that really
means for you concretely could still continue to be kind of unclear. But if the
doctor puts the paper and the graphs down and looks you in the eye and says, if
you don't change the way that you're eating or drinking, you're not going to be
there to see your children grow old. Well, what did he just do or she just do?
The doctor painted a picture for you. Sometimes we are able to see the future
with absolute clarity, and when that happens, it gives us motivation. You've
seen this before. Someone gets in a car accident, they say something like, my
life flashed before my eyes. They start making some changes. Someone has
children or grandchildren, and all of a sudden those little people provide the
motivation to stop smoking or drinking or overeating because they have a glimpse
of the future. Seeing the truth about the future and having it become real and
concrete in our minds gives us power in the present. And the reason that Nahum
is comforting to God's people is that he is painting a picture when all of God's
enemies will be destroyed. And we need that picture painted for ourselves. God
says to Nineveh, he says, behold, I am against you. But scripture tells us as
believers, if God is for us, who can be against us? When the apostle John writes
about the ministry of Christ, he says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the works of the devil. Can you picture that? There's a future day when
all the works of the devil will be destroyed. All the things about our world
that are unnatural, that are not the way they are supposed to be, sickness,
death, rebellion against God, all will be put in the rear view mirror. There's a
future day that as we sing, all the ransom church of God will be saved to sin no
more. Death will be destroyed and he will return and we will reign with him. And
that ought to give us hope right now in our trials and in our battle against
sin. Nahum one and Nahum two, in one sense they're very similar because they
both talk about the same thing. Nineveh is going to be destroyed. But Nahum two
tells us not just that it will happen, but what it will look like. And God wants
you and I to be able to foresee the destruction of our enemies. And then we live
in light of that. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for the power, the
authority, and the helpfulness of your word. We thank you for what we can be
assured of in the future. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to see by the
authority of your word, the future destruction of all of your enemies. Thank you
for the hope that we have in Christ, that we have a refuge and we have a shelter
and we have a future day of victory. Pray that you would strengthen us through
that truth and spark our imagination by your spirit to live in light of that
day. I pray that in Jesus name, amen. After we've heard God's word, we respond
to what we have heard in song and in worship. So would you stand with me and
we'll sing together.