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INTRODUCTION
TO
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

NAHUM

Nahum prophesied during the reign of Hezekiah, probably about one hundred and fifty years after Jonah. He has but one subject — the destruction of Nineveh.

According to Diodorus Siculus, the city was destroyed nearly a century later, precisely as here predicted.

The prophecy is one continuous strain which does not yield to analysis.

The moral theme is:

the holiness of Jehovah which must deal with sin in judgment.

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952_1; Nahum 1:1, The burden of Nineveh

The burden of Nineveh.

The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

Nineveh stands in Scripture as the representative of apostate religious Gentiledom, as Babylon represents the confusion into which the Gentile political world- system has fallen (Daniel. 2:41-43). See Isaiah 13:1, note.

Under the preaching of Jonah, b.c. 862, the city and king had turned to God (Elohim), Jonah 3:3-10.

But in the time of Nahum, more than a century later, the city had wholly apostatized from God. It is this which distinguishes Nineveh from all the other ancient Gentile cities, and which makes her the suited symbol of the present religious Gentile world-system in the last days. Morally, Nineveh is described in Romans 1:21-23. The chief deity of apostate Nineveh was the bull-god, with the face of a man and the wings of a bird: "an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts."

The message of Nahum, uttered about one hundred years before the destruction of Nineveh, is, therefore, not a call to repentance, but an unrelieved warning of judgment: "He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time," verse 9; see, also, Nah. 3. 10.

There is no remedy for apostasy but utter judgment, and a new beginning.

• Ref. Isaiah 1:4-5,
• Isaiah 1:24-28;
• Hebrews 6:4-8;

  • Cf. Isaiah 1:4-5, 24-28;
    Hebrews 6:4-8;
    Proverbs 29:1.

It is the way of God;

• apostasy is punished by catastrophic destruction. Of this the flood and the destruction of Nineveh are witnesses.
• The coming destruction of apostate Christendom is foreshadowed by these.

  • Ref. Daniel 2:34-35;
  • Luke 17:26-27;
  • Revelation 19:17-21;

    • Cf. Daniel 2:34-35;
      Luke 17:26-27;
      Rev. 19:17-21.

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952_2; Nahum 1:2, God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth

The great ethical lesson of Nahum is that the character of God makes Him not only "slow to anger," and "a stronghold to them that trust Him," but also one who "will not at all acquit the wicked." He can be "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26), but only because His holy law has been vindicated in the cross.

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952_a; Nahum 1:1, The burden of Nineveh

Isaiah 13:1; Ref. Note Page 724_1.

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952_b; Nahum 1:3, The LORD is slow to anger

Exodus 34:6, 7; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8; Jonah 4:2.

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952_c; Nahum 1:3b, the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind

Psalm 18:7; 97:2; Habakkuk 3:5; 3:11, 12.

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952_d; Nahum 1:6, Who can stand before his indignation

Malachi 3:2.

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952_e; Nahum 1:7, The LORD is good, a stong hold

Psalm 25:8; 37:39, 40; 100:5; Jeremiah 33:11; Lamentations 3:25.

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952_f; Nahum 1:7b, and he knoweth them that trust in him

Psalm 1:6; 2 Timothy 2:19; Psalm 2:12; Ref. Note Page 600_2.

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953_a; Nahum 1:15, Behold upon the mountains the feet of him

Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15.

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