"It doesn’t matter.
Sure it happened, but it wasn’t that bad.
Nobody will notice. Nothing will change."
        That’s what was told to the young boy who accidentally stepped on the neighbour’s lawn with the "please don’t walk on grass" sign posted.
        And it didn’t matter.
        The act was insignificant, and no need to consider the matter further.

"It doesn’t matter.
Sure it happened, but it wasn’t that bad.
Nobody will notice. Nothing will change."
        That’s what was told to the young man who had just disclosed to someone that he had been sexually abused as a child. And this individual, for some reason, wanted to wipe it away, sweep it under the carpet, pretend it didn’t matter or, if it did, that it could be quickly and quietly taken care of, written off into past memory as an unfortunate affair..... but nothing more.
        But in this case it DID matter.
        The act was NOT insignificant.
        There WAS need to consider the matter further. The one who had been assaulted needed to enter a program of treatment and recovery in order to find healing for the deep wounds in his spirit, his memory, his emotions - his life. The perpetrator needed to be confronted & convicted for his crimes. A real evil had been committed and needed to be rooted out – fully.
        It could not be minimized.
        It could not be casually disregarded or overlooked.
                Not even years later.

When significant actions happen, there will be significant repercussions, be they positive or negative. Newton first told us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When there is cause, there will be effect. Not only is that true of physics. It is equally true socially, morally, and spiritually.

The only way that someone would want to say, "It doesn’t matter" is if the action is totally insignificant in the first place.

Which is exactly what makes things tick in the bible book of Nahum.

Before we read it, and focus on it’s message, however, let’s do what we’ve done in previous weeks and recite the list of the group of bible books that include Nahum, the Minor Prophets, the last 12 books of the Old Testament:
 
 

Significant action will lead to significant response – no getting around it.
That’s the basic theme of Nahum.

Here’s the context -
Last week we studied Jonah, and saw the prophet go into the Assyrian city of Nineveh announcing that if they didn’t repent of their absolutely brutal practices, witchcraft and oppression of surrounding nations God would crush them.

They repented. Changed their minds about what they were doing.... and.... changed what they were doing.
Time passed. Some 100 to 150 years. Children and grandchildren were born. New kings ascended the Assyrian empire’s throne. You can pretty much guess what happened.
        That repentance? They repented of it. Turned around on their turn around. The time of sorrow for evil became just a hiccup in the legacy of oppression and brutality.

Assyria attacked and destroyed Israel.
They invaded Judah and overran all the outlying towns. Seiged up Jerusalem.
Isaiah 36 & 37 give us a peek at that horrible time.

It was in those days of trouble that Nahum, whose name means "comfort", is sent by God with a divine message of comfort for Judah and ultimatum for Nineveh.

Let us hear the prophetic Word of God -

Nineveh was no small village. Excavations show that it was a city about 8 miles in circumference. It had a remarkable canal and river system. The people were powerful. The army was unstoppable.

But God, in no uncertain terms, declares the end of this whole people.
 

"This is what the Lord says: Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be cut off and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, O Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will beak their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away." (V.12-13)

"The Lord has given a command concerning you, Nineveh.... I will prepare your grave, for you are vile." (V.14)

The Assyrian people had decided that they preferred to march to their own drumbeat rather than God’s. God’s attitude towards them is shown clearly in the opening 6 verses where all the Hebrew words for wrath or anger are brought together - jealous, vengeance, wrath, anger, indignation, fierceness, fury.
        All of them describe the anger of God.
        There is nothing held back. No tempering of emotions.

The most chilling words come from chapter 2, verse 13:
        "I am against you" declares the Lord Almighty.

Some of the most comforting words for Christians in times of trouble come from Romans 8:
        "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (V.31)

Here now is the flip side of that.
If God is against us, what does it matter who is for us?
If God be against us.......
        ......What a chilling prospect! Not merely left to wander around on our own resources, but actively opposed by the Divine Creator!

Isaiah 36 & 37, as we said, record the story of how the Lord’s angel went through the Assyrian camp in the night and killed 185,000 soldiers. They were forced to retreat. And soon after, when King Sennachareb was praying in the temple of his idol god, he was assassinated by his own sons.

Not long after that Nineveh was overwhelmed and destroyed by the Babylonian army. 2.6 provides a peek at how it would be defeated:
        "The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses."

According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Babylon laid seige to Nineveh. In the third year of the siege there was extrodinarily heavy rain. The river overflowed, flooded the city, and collapsed a large section of the wall. The king of Nineveh figured that all was lost and built a large funeral pile in the palace. Collecting together all his wealth and his concubines and his eunuch, he burnt himself and the palace with them all. The enemy entered at the breach that the waters had made and took the city. In other words, they came in through the river gates.
All of this is prophecied beforehand by Nahum.
And it serves as comfort to Judah.

        A few years back, when Romania was still under communist rule, a Christian pastor there commented on the favorite book of the Bible for his people. It was Revelation. They loved the book of Revelation because, he said, it was written by John, pastor of the church in Ephesus, when he was exiled. Romanian christians know what it is to be exiled and imprisoned. They suffer as the early Christians suffer. Desperately abused and subjected to cruelty. They read Revelation and hear the clear message – God is God, and He is committed to seeing that good is ultimately rewarded. He is committed personally to seeing that evil will not finally triumph.
        This, said the Romanian pastor, is very different from how you North American christians look at Revelation. You’re fascinated with historical details and trying to work out precise future plans and speculations. You wonder about rapture, and hope you will never suffer. We, he said, suffer and in that suffering hear God speak to us through the prophet.
[adapted from Stuart Briscoe, Hearing God’s Voice p.107]

The way the Romanians today look at Revelation is how the Jews heard Nahum. It was a message of comfort in the midst of their suffering. A word of hope in a dark time of evil — a word that all is not lost. God still holds final control.

Nahum - the prophet of comfort.

And ---- for those who continue to resist, warning and doom.
Now, I’m fully aware that this is not a terribly nice, nor politically correct
Yet - it couldn’t be otherwise. Not if God really cared.

Someone once said,
If you cannot get angry when you hear or see injury and injustice, it is proof that you are not capable of love, for the one who cannot be angry is the one who cannot love. If you can read stories of atrocities and oppression and the awful traffic in body_destroying and soul_destroying drugs and narcotics among young people and never be moved to burning anger, then I tell you there is something wrong with you.

You love your children.
If someone were to move towards treating them in an inappropriate or hurtful manner would anger bubble up? Of course it would.

Our God has created the universe, the world with it’s ecosystem, vast array of plants and animals – and the crown piece of the Cosmos, humanity. He loves us and has a passion to be in relationship with us.
        We’re made to be in relationship with Him,
                a Father-child relationship.

When that relationship goes sour, God takes notice.
When some of His creation begin to rebel openly against Him; when they begin to arrogantly misuse the Creation, He sits up.
When they refuse to let go of their evil, and when they live with injustice and oppression against other human beings, God becomes very angry.
        He takes action.

It is not that God is petty.
He’s not greedy or selfish.
The action He takes, and the anger He displays, is one driven by care and love for the pure Creation He made and is working to restore.
        The actions that we take matter.
        They matter because in God’s eyes WE matter!
        And God will respond.

If we try to say that our wrong choices in life really aren’t much, that God shouldn’t get so upset about them, that things should just sort of carry on the same......
        ..... well, what we’re really saying is that WE aren’t much; that we are insignificant creatures of little worth or value.
        Which is NOT how God views us.
        He made us.
        He values every one of us.
                GREAT value.

        What we do matters to Him.
        And He will respond!
But never out of the blue. And never without a chance to change.
        1.3 says, "The Lord is slow to anger...."
Which is true. God is the Master of the second chance...... and third.
He sends prophets and other spokespersons.
He provides circumstances in our lives that give a way out.
His Spirit will nudge and shake our conscience.
        But eventually........ if people stubbornly insist......

The story is told of a man who was convicted of stealing. He argued before
the judge that the sentence was unjust. H said it was not he who stole, it was
his arm, and so it was unfair for the judge to sentence him to the penitentiary,
he could only sentence his arm.
Actually, he thought the judge should let him
off because his arm had done the stealing and not him. The judge resolved the
issue by sentencing the arm to thirty years in jail saying if the man wanted to
accompany it, that was up to him.
        If you want to stick with it, you’ll have to go where it goes.

God is pure and perfect and righteous.
He has no stomach or place for rebellion, or imperfection or evil.
If anyone can’t let it go, if they insist on clinging to it, then they will have to go where it goes – into the eternal punishment reserved for evil and the Prince of Evil.
        It can be no other way.

Let Nahum serve as a warning.

A warning that drives us, who each carry our own freight load of sin, rebellion and wrong – to the cross.
        For there we see the ultimate combination of God’s love and anger.
        His anger against sin in the judgement that poured out on Jesus.
        His love in the fact that His Son freely came, and willingly hung on that cross, receiving that punishment so that we could be set free.

Jesus was punished that we would be set free.
He died that we would live.

All we need to do is let go and surrender to Him.
Not for a moment or a season, as did those Assyrians.
But fully, forever.

Finding, as we do, that the one who lays down his or her life will find it.
Now.
And forever.