A MESSAGE TO THE CITY OF BLOOD
Twelve Voices #7, The Book of Nahum
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Over a hundred years have after Jonah’s ministry, Nineveh has returned to its violence and wickedness.
1. Nineveh’s destruction is declared.
2. Nineveh’s destruction is described.
3. Nineveh’s destruction is deserved.
(Nahum 1:1–3, NLT) “This message concerning Nineveh came as a vision to Nahum, who lived in Elkosh. The Lord is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and rage. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and continues to rage against his enemies! The Lord is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.”
(Nahum 1:7–9, NLT) “The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. But he will sweep away his enemies in an overwhelming flood. He will pursue his foes into the darkness of night. Why are you scheming against the Lord? He will destroy you with one blow; he won’t need to strike twice!”
(Nahum 1:13, NLT) “Now I will break the yoke of bondage from your neck and tear off the chains of Assyrian oppression.”
1. God is jealous for our good
2. God’s patience should not be mistaken for condoning evil
3. Daily confessing God’s goodness strengthens my faith
(Psalm 73:1, NIV) “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”
“We must relate and apply it not merely to that trial of Judah but to absolutely every day of our trials and adversities, so that we may learn to flee for refuge in any trial at all to this sweetness of the Lord as if to a holy anchorage. Many psalms are filled with statements of this sort. Thus Psalm 9:9 has ‘a stronghold in times of trouble.’ The Lord is a sweet stronghold at the very time when we are greatly afflicted, when we hunger, when we suffer adversity, when our consciences trouble us, as he says elsewhere in the psalm (Ps. 50:15): ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.’ He commands us to flee to him for refuge, to call upon him. Yet such is the weakness of the human heart that even if it is ordered to seek out and escape to this sweetness, it fears and loses faith in temptation. In this way, clearly the Lord comforts in tribulation. That is, even when temptation presses us hard, yet he will not allow us to succumb. Paul says the same thing in every detail (1 Cor. 10:13): ‘God is faithful, and he will not let us be tempted … but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape.’” – Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol 18, Lectures on the Minor Prophets
4. Be faithful in worship and witness during seasons of trials
(Nahum 1:15, NLT) “Look! A messenger is coming over the mountains with good news! He is bringing a message of peace. Celebrate your festivals, O people of Judah, and fulfill all your vows, for your wicked enemies will never invade your land again. They will be completely destroyed!”
(Psalm 73:15–17, NIV) “If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.”
5. When my heart and knees are shaken, I will kneel and worship the Lord
(Nahum 2:10, NLT) “Hearts melt and knees shake.”
(Psalm 95:6, NLT) “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,”
“To wish that someone be turned into nothing is the worst of all curses, and t is this that sinners wish of God.” – Martin Luther
(Galatians 3:13, NIV) “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”