Your Enemies Are Not As Strong You Think They Are

Nahum 3:1-19

Transcript

We pray for that now in Jesus name, Amen. If you look back in your life, you
probably can remember a bully or an opponent that you faced that seemed
unstoppable. I grew up playing a lot of baseball and when I was 11, about 11
years old, I ran into a 12 year old who seemed unstoppable. He had a perfect
villain name like something out of a Hollywood movie. His name was Jimmy Wolf.
And Jimmy was so good that he was playing varsity baseball at Williamsville East
when we were all in Little League. He threw so hard that when I played against
him, I didn't really try to hit the ball so much as I just tried to see it. And
even as I got older, he became kind of this mythical figure in my mind because
to me he was so much better than everyone I played against, any of the other
kids. I actually rarely got to see him play because he was always playing at
more advanced levels than me. But as I got older, there actually became a time
where we became teammates when he was 15 and I was 14. We were on a team going
to the district tournament and at the first game of the tournament, everyone was
sure, everyone on our team was sure that we would win because we had Jimmy Wolf
on our team and he was our pitcher. The first day of the tournament came and we
went out there and we got destroyed. It turned out that the other team that we
played had a pitcher who was much bigger, much taller, and threw much harder
than Jimmy Wolf. We lost like 8 to nothing or 10 to nothing and Jimmy complained
that his arm was sore. And I remember looking out from my spot, which was on the
bench, and recognizing for the first time, Jimmy is like 5'7". He's just not
that good. The reason that I'm bringing up my youth baseball career is that I
want to encourage you from a simple point, with a simple point from Nahum
chapter 3. This is coming from our text and it's really this. Our enemies are
not as strong as they seem. They are not as strong as we think they are. We're
in the Old Testament book of Nahum, wrapping up a three week series. And the
entire book is about coming judgment on the nation of Assyria and the capital
city of Nineveh, even as God's people in Judah get to listen in on it. For
background, the Assyrians have already invaded Israel and carried off the
northern portion of the nation into exile. And when Nahum prophesied in the 7th
century BC, Assyria is the strongest nation in the world. God's people are being
told through prophecy that God is going to avenge them, even though they are not
going to be able to do that. They are told they have foes that seem
insurmountable, that they would never be able to conquer on their own. They're
being told of this future day that seems hard to even conceptualize, hard to
even imagine. A complete and total victory for them and complete devastation to
their enemies. And it begins with this pronunciation of woe upon the city of
Nineveh. Then Nahum begins to taunt Nineveh. And there are two portions of this.
The first is kind of a historical taunt, a historical look back in comparison.
And then Nahum concludes with a taunting song about Nineveh's destruction. So if
you want to divide this up, the proclamation of woe is in verses one through
seven. The historical comparison is in verses eight through eleven. And the
taunting song concludes with verses 12 through 19. And all this helps the
Israelites see your enemies are not as strong as they seem. So we'll work
through this text and then we'll conclude by trying to see what the application
is to us as Christians today. Let's look at this woe in verses one through
seven. Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder, no end to the prey,
the crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding
chariot, horseman charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end, they tumble over the bodies and all
for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who
betrays nations with their whorings and peoples with their charms. 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.
I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle
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? So we read this
proclamation of woe and it's obviously very graphic language. Nahum describes
Nineveh as a bloody or bloodthirsty city. It's characterized by lying, by
violence, by plundering. So we think, why are they being judged? Why is God
against them? It's because of their sin. And more specifically, what's being
mentioned here is their lying, their violence and their greed. And if you read,
like if you're wondering where is this all coming from, if you read 2 Kings 18,
you'll read about a time when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, comes to attack
Judah. And at that time, the king of Judah was Hezekiah, one of the few kings
who did fear the Lord and did what was right in God's eyes. And while Assyria is
laying siege to the city, the Assyrians send out a negotiator on behalf of
Sennacherib. And the man speaks in Hebrew, in the language of the Israelites,
and he speaks to the people of Judah and he says, do not listen to Hezekiah when
he misleads you by saying the Lord will deliver us. That's characteristic of the
psychological warfare that the Assyrians would wage on their enemies. They were
a deceitful nation. They've broken the sixth commandment, thou shall not kill.
They've broken the eighth commandment, thou shall not steal. They've broken the
ninth commandment, thou shall not bear false witness. And now in this prophecy,
they're paying the price for their evil deeds. Nahum is describing the
devastation that's going to come. Horses and chariots are flying around. The
sword is flashing. The steel is glittering. There are dead bodies everywhere.
It's graphic. It's kind of chaotic. It's fast paced. There's kind of like a
staccato tempo to what's being described. But Nahum's not being just like
descriptive for the sake of poetry. The scene of destruction is actually meant
to encourage these faithful Israelites because it would be very hard for them to
ever imagine their enemies falling. That would seem beyond what could be
possible. And when he commented on this passage, John Calvin, the reformer,
wrote, All these things were intended for the purpose of fully convincing the
Israelites that Nineveh, however much it was supplied with wealth and power, was
yet approaching its ruin, for its enemies would prevail against it. And then as
if the description of all the dead bodies, the corpses were not enough, Nahum
says in verse four, The reason for the coming judgment that's on Nineveh, it's
on Nineveh, and he compares the city to a prostitute. Verse four, all for the
countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays
nations with their whorings and people with their charms. So beyond being
shocking or graphic language, we probably read and think, how does that even
make sense for a nation? What is he even trying to say? If you look through the
Proverbs, which is where we see the classic portrayal of the adulterous woman,
we see this portrayal of a woman who allures and entraps. So, for example, if
you look at Proverbs seven, you'll see a woman who allures and ensnares a very
gullible young man with this promise of sex and pleasure and no consequence. At
the end of the chapter, we see that what has happened has destroyed the young
man's life. Later on in the Proverbs, it says, This is the way of an adulterous.
She eats and wipes her mouth and says, I have done no wrong. That's kind of
what's happening on a macro level in the city. The city has been offering
pleasure without consequence. If you wanted a more modern example, think of
cities like, this could happen in really any urban center, but think of cities
like Miami or Las Vegas or Amsterdam and the way that they promote themselves as
places where you can go and do whatever you want and return home with nobody
knowing and no real consequences. That's the imagery here of graceful and deadly
charms that ultimately betray the people who are ensnared. Verse five through
seven tells us this is not just like Nahum's wishful imagination. The Lord
himself speaks in power and says, Behold, I am against you, which was also said
in chapter two. I am against you. What Nahum is describing is complete exposure.
In other words, everything that was hidden, that was unknown is now being
revealed. Think about when a politician or celebrity or an abuser is found out
and in a matter of moments, their entire public perception crumbles. Everything
that is secret comes pouring out in the open. It's shameful because who they are
truly is being revealed. And that's what's going on as a nation. And while
people will be appalled and disgusted, Nahum also says no one is going to be
there to comfort. No one's going to be sorry. Of course, if you heard the
prophecy in the seventh century BC, it would be hard to believe. Nineveh
wouldn't believe because they were the strongest nation on earth and the
Israelites would have a hard time believing because they had been oppressed by
these people for so long. But in the second portion of the whoa, Nahum looks
back into the very recent past and he makes kind of a historical comparison in
verses eight through 11. Nahum says, are you better than Thebes that sat by the
Nile with water around her, her rampart to sea and water her wall? Kush was her
strength, Egypt too, and that without limit. Put, and the Libyans were her
helpers. 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. You also will be drunken. You
will go into hiding. You will seek a refuge from the enemy. So Nahum's now
starting to taunt Nineveh by looking back into history. He says, are you better
than Thebes? Now most of us, we read and think, what is Thebes? What is that
even referring to? Thebes was the capital city of Egypt. It was a mighty city.
It had advantages that Nahum notes here that Nineveh didn't even have. It was
surrounded and protected by the Nile River. That's what this reference, water
around her, her rampart to sea, water her wall. And what's more, it had powerful
allies. Allies, Kush, the whole nation of Egypt, Libya, Put, all available to
come to its defense if there were attackers. And yet, in 663 BC, so very shortly
before this prophecy, at the height of its power, Assyria went into Egypt and
launched a military campaign on Thebes. Thebes was overthrown, plundered,
destroyed by the Assyrians. And you see what happened. Her infants were dashed
in pieces. Her honored men, for her honored men were lots cast. And Nahum is
making a historical reference to an event that only happened 20 years earlier.
That the Nittorites would have understood very well. And he says, are you better
than them? What makes you think you're different than them? They seem so strong.
They had resources and allies that you don't even have. So what makes you think
it couldn't happen to you? It's how Nahum is taunting them. Nineveh is operating
under this illusion of invincibility. And Nahum makes them look backwards into
their history. And he says, are you better than Thebes? Now this is a very, for
us, as moderns, a very obscure historical example. But most of us have this kind
of better than average illusion, don't we? Not just as nations, but as
individuals. If people are surveyed to rate their own personal attractiveness,
the most common answer is seven. 69% of people think they are better looking
than average. Doesn't make a lot of sense, right? Obviously it cannot be true.
What if you asked most men, were they better drivers than average? But that
extends much farther to silly examples like that. We tend to think that, well
that happens to them but not to me. We tend to think other people are aging but
not me. Other people have health issues but that's not going to happen to me.
Other people get caught in their secrets or in their sin but I'll be able to
keep it hidden. We can start, even as individuals, to operate with that same
illusion of invincibility that the Assyrians had. Or, on the flip side, we can
look at enemies that we have that we're up against, both spiritually and in our
culture, and think it's a helpless situation, much like the Israelites would
have thought. Nahum is helping God's people by looking back and saying, this
nation is not as strong as you think it is. And the chapter concludes with a
taunting song. All of Nahum is about Nineveh's destruction, but the book
concludes with singing. I know we don't know Hebrew, it's not maybe self-evident
to us, but this is a song here at the end, verses 12 through 19. All your
fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs. If shaken, they fall into
the mouth of the eater. Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates
of your land are wide open to your enemies. Fire has destroyed your bars. Draw
water for the siege. Strengthen your forts. Go into the clay. Tread the mortar.
Take hold of the brick mold. 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. You increase your strength. Multiply
yourselves like the locust. Multiply like the grasshopper. You increase your
merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and
flies away. Your princes are like grasshoppers. Your scribes like clouds of
locust. Settling on the fences in a day of cold. When the sun rises, they fly
away. No one knows where they are. Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria.
Your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to
gather them. Your your wounds are grievous. All who hear the news about you clap
their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil. This is a
taunting song. You know when you're at an arena and the crowd sings, you've got
blood on your face, you're a big disgrace. We will, we will rock you. The origin
of the taunting song is not Freddie Mercury or Queen. It's Nahum, right? Nahum
compares their seemingly invulnerable fortresses to fig trees. Nineveh thought
their fortresses, their walls were so strong. But from God's perspective,
they're tottering. They're right on the brink, ready to fall like ripe fruit.
Just one shake of the branch. Just a little bit of pressure and everything
starts to fall. Nahum compares the Assyrian army to a group of women, which
obviously is not, obviously not gender sensitive by our standards, but he's
saying you're totally unprepared for the attack that's coming. You don't have
nearly the strength to handle it. Even if the Assyrians did believe and could
get their heads around the idea that an attack might be coming, even if they
tried to get ready for it, the taunt continues in verses 14 to 16 by saying,
none of that is going to do any good. None of your preparations are going to
help. You can hear the sarcasm in verses 14 to 16. Basically, go ahead, get
ready, draw the water, strengthen your fortifications, make some bricks, doesn't
matter. The desolation is coming. The locust and the grasshopper imagery is of
complete devastation. Everything wiped out. The lost judgment is coming. You
might remember another great taunt song from Johnny Cash. That's kind of what
Nahum's taunt is like. You can run for a long time. You can run on for a long
time, but sooner or later, God's going to cut you down. And the taunt concludes
with this picture of everyone scattering and flying away. God is going to make a
complete end of this mighty nation. It's a taunt against the Assyrian king, and
it's a picture for us of how God is not going to allow evil and violence and
defiance of him to endure forever. There's 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. For this they'll be judged. And that's
true for individuals and it's true for nations. Everything, as we talked about
earlier in this series, everything that was prophesied against Assyria was
fulfilled very shortly after in the same century. By 612 BC, Assyria did not
exist. It testifies first to the inspiration of scripture, that all this came
true in real history. But because we don't face the nation of Assyria today,
because we don't exist in that geopolitical world, we can struggle with
application, which is probably why most of us had never heard much preaching or
teaching from Nahum before. But we do face real enemies. There are probably
things that you face, are looking at this week, that seem very overwhelming to
you. But even beyond that, even beyond our circumstances, we live in a world
with very real spiritual darkness and we have a real spiritual enemy. The
Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6, for we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places. So Paul says we live in a world where there are spiritual
forces of evil. And if you don't see the evidence of that, you're probably not
paying attention. And that's overwhelming to think about. As I prepared to
preach this week, I thought about the reformer Martin Luther, who wrote the
great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. And when Luther wrote A Mighty
Fortress, around 1530-31, he was at that time greatly opposed by the Catholic
Church, and the Holy Roman Empire. He was living in Wittenberg, or Wittenberg,
Germany, at a time when a deadly plague was spreading. He spoke personally of
this period being a time of testing and trial, where he experienced great
temptation. During that time period, a local man, who followed Luther's
teaching, was killed. Luther was one small monk, who must have felt opposed on
every front. And in the midst of that, he wrote this hymn of comfort from Psalm
46. And we read the lines still today, and sing them today. The prince of
darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom
is sure. One little word shall fail him. And God's people are generally out of
step in this world and the prevailing culture, wondering why are the wicked
prospering. And yet we can persevere, because Christ has defeated our enemies.
In Colossians 2, Paul says this, Colossians 2, 15, You who are dead in your
trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with
him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that
stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the
cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities, and put them to open shame, by
triumphing over them through the cross. The rulers and authorities that Christ
disarmed are the demonic powers. On the cross, Jesus defeated those powers. And
the reason that they are disarmed is that the work of Satan is described in
scripture as to lie and to accuse. But on the cross, the accusations that could
otherwise be rightly leveled against us have fallen on or were put on Christ. He
took our debts and he cancelled them because he paid the price in his own body.
And those accusations don't fall on us any longer. They've already been dealt
with. The debt has been paid, the legal demands have been dealt with, and in so
doing, he disarmed or took away all the authority, all the authority of the
spiritual rulers and authorities. The ability of demonic forces or Satan to
accuse you when Christ has paid the penalty for your sins is now gone. Christ
has triumphed in his death and in his resurrection and put the demonic powers to
open shame. And what we read in Nahum, and what we see fulfilled in the cross,
and what we anticipate in his second coming, is that God's justice will roll
down against all his enemies and against all sin and evil in the world. And we
look forward to that day when we see the victory of Jesus fully realized and we
see the destruction of his enemies fully consummated and we all rejoice
together. This is what gets described in Revelation 19. After this I heard what
seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out,
Hallelujah, for salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his
judgments are true and just, for he has judged the great prostitute who
corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his
servants. And once more they cried out, Hallelujah, the smoke from her goes up
forever and ever. On that day we'll realize even more clearly than we do now,
our enemies are not as strong as we thought that they were. Let's pray. Lord
God, we know that in our lives we see dimly and what we face moment to moment,
week to week, both spiritually and circumstantially can seem very overwhelming
and we can feel like we are opposed on every side. But Lord, we thank you that
we share in your victory and we thank you that you have vanquished our enemy and
that one day we will see that victory fully realized. So Lord, I pray for
everyone in this congregation that you would provide perseverance and hope and
endurance and faithfulness as we read about the goodness of your justice and as
we live in light of that. I pray that in your name, amen.