(REFLECTIONS ON Nahum 2:1-13)

Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the great city of a great nation. The same Nineveh that God sent the reluctant Jonah to, to proclaim a message of repentance. 

Repent they did, but apparently this repentant heart did not last. Nahum’s prophecy against Nineveh was directly aligned with God’s heart and plan to restore the splendor of Jacob, Israel, His people. 

Nineveh was so proud of itself because it had previously conquered Israel. However, they did not realize that it was the Lord that allowed them to scatter Israel as part of God’s discipline of His people. That is why when it was time for the Lord to gather His people again, Nahum writes, “The one who scatters has come up against you.” 

Yes, it is the Lord that scatters, and also the Lord that gathers. When the Lord comes to gather Israel, it results in judgment on Nineveh. Chaos ensues and the Lord says that their chariots will race madly in the streets, they will rush wildly in the squares, and they will be like torches dashing to and fro like lightning flashes. 

When the Lord that scatters, comes to gather, the world will know that He is God, and this will drive the world into madness trying to defend the judgment that is coming. 

10 She is emptied! 
Yes, she is desolate and waste! 
Hearts are melting and knees knocking! 
Also anguish is in the whole body 
And all their faces are grown pale! 

This is Nineveh in the face of the Lord, when the Lord declares, “Behold, I am against you.”

Let us then as the people of God, those in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, not be discouraged, hopeless, or fearful of a world that seems to have so much power and might over us. 

Yes, life often times highlights our weaknesses, but the Lord in Christ by the Holy Spirit is for us, and not against us! “Behold, I am against you,” the Lord says to the world, but to His own He says, 

9 ‘For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown.” (Ezekiel 36) 

And again He says, 

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? (Romans 8) 

May this be our strength and comfort today when all seems to be against us, that He is for us, and against all that are in opposition to Him.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Nahum 2