"When God's Patience Runs Out" Nahum 2-3 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Good morning, Emmanuel.

Would you open your Bibles with me to Nahum chapter 2?

Nahum 2 · chapter mention

Nahum chapter 2, you can find the Minor Prophets just before the beginning of the New Testament, two books to the right of the book of Jonah.

Nahum 2 · chapter mention

This morning we'll finish the book of Nahum together as we've studied it the last two weeks.

As Jesse continues to minister in Rwanda, I would ask that you'd continue to pray for our pastor and the work that he's doing on our behalf in Rwanda.

Nahum chapter 2 and 3 will be the text for this morning.

Nahum 2 · chapter mention

Well, this morning we have approached the Lord God and worship.

We have prayed to him, we have sung to him, and now we will hear from him in his word.

This is what corporate worship is.

Every Sunday, the Lord has ordained that we would set aside time in our lives to fix our eyes upon him.

This is the chief end of man.

The scripture tells us the greatest thing that a man or woman can do is to know the God who made them.

Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 23 says, Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.

Jeremiah 9:23

And I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, declares the Lord.

This is the highest end of man, is to know this God, this living, holy, and glorious God, and to boast in him, to delight in him, to glorify him, to enjoy him.

This is what we were made for.

To love him for his mercy, for his holiness, for his purity, for his grace.

But if you're thinking along these lines, you might ask the question Am I supposed to love God for things that I wouldn't naturally want to love him for, like his wrath?

Nahum, as we have been studying in the last couple weeks, is certainly a book that reveals something of the holy justice and wrath of God.

And you might ask the question, if I'm supposed to boast in the Lord, am I supposed to boast in his wrath?

To boast in his judgment?

Am I supposed to do that as a Christian?

And the question is actually answered in Scripture itself.

The book of Revelation gives us a number of scenes in which the hosts in heaven worship God for his holy judgment upon sin.

For example, Revelation chapter 19, towards the end of the book, you'll see this on the screen, reads like this.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

After God had exercised judgment on Babylon, we read, After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, Hallelujah! 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.

According to Scripture, there is a way in which we as human beings created in God's image can love God for all that he is, even his holy judgment.

And in fact, there's coming a day in which we will do just that if we do indeed know the real living God.

So I think it's worth asking the question, as we look at a book like Nahum, which is a book of God's judgment, how is it that a Christian can rejoice in God's judgment even in this life?

How is it that we could boast in who God is, including his holy judgment, and do so in such a way that is not vengeful, in such a way that is not spiteful towards others, and in a way that is not prideful about ourselves?

How is it that we can in holiness, humility, in honesty and sincerity boast in God's judgment?

Well, actually, I think the book of Nahum will help us to do just that.

Nahum is a book that, as we mentioned last week, is an oracle of judgment against Nineveh, a wicked city.

It comes a hundred years after the prophet Jonah had gone to Nineveh and God had restrained his anger against them because of their repentance.

But a hundred years have passed, Nahum is now given an oracle from the Lord declaring their judgment.

This is an oracle of divine judgment.

And as we look at this text, it will help us to wrestle with the reality that the God we worship is a holy judge.

And if we know and love God for all that he is, then there is a way in which we can trust and worship him because of his holy judgments.

So Psalm ch rather, Nahim chapter 1 is a song about God's character, revealing his avenging nature and his saving nature.

And chapter 2 and 3, which we'll look at this morning, are a detailed oracle of divine judgment against Nineveh.

What I want to do in order to wrestle with chapters two and three of the book of Nahum is to this morning begin by walking through the text and setting it in its historical context and trying to wrap our minds around what the text says, and then we will circle back and draw out three principles, three theological principles from this text that enable us to worship God for his holy judgment.

So, let's begin by walking through Nahim, chapters two and three, that reveal God's divine judgment against Nineveh.

It begins in chapter two and verse one.

Look at the text, and we'll walk through and make some comments on it.

Chapter 2, verse 1 reads, The scatterer has come upon you, man the ramperts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength.

God is here announcing that an enemy is going to come against Nineveh that she cannot resist.

God is going to judge Nineveh.

And verse 2 intervenes with the word of comfort.

That is, look at verse 2, for the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel.

For plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.

Verse 2 is a word of comfort, revealing that the purpose of God's judgment is to restore his people and vindicate his promises.

God, because of his faithful character, will restore his oppressed people, oppressed by the wicked Assyrians, and he will vindicate them and save them.

Judgment is meant to bring comfort to his oppressed people who cannot defend themselves.

But that's the last word of comfort in the book of Nahum.

Verses 3, to the end of the book, our judgment against Nineveh, and we ought to wrestle with hard texts like this.

So let's do just that.

Look at verse 3.

Verse 3 through 5 announce the terror that God is going to bring upon Nineveh for her sin.

Verse 3 reads, The shield of his mighty men is red.

This is speaking of the army God is going to bring against Assyria.

His soldiers are clothed in scarlet, the chariots come with flashing metal.

On the day he musters them, the cypress spears are brandished.

Chariots race madly through the streets.

They rush to and fro through the squares.

They gleam like torches.

They dart like lightning.

He remembers his officers.

They stumble as they go.

They hasten up the wall.

The siege tower is set up.

Literary play on words there, the staccato, boom, boom, boom, boom, image, image, image, chariots and brandishing spears is meant to summon up something in our minds of the chaos and the confusion and the terror of the judgment God is bringing upon Nineveh.

And in fact, history tells us that this prophecy was, in fact, fulfilled just a few years after Nahum spoke it.

In the year 612 BC, an army of Babylonians and Medes, led by Nabal Pelasar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Assyria and absolutely demolished it.

We get something of the manner of that devastation in verse 6.

Verse 6 reads, The river gates are opened, the palace melts away, its mistress is stripped, and she's carried off her slave girls, lamenting, moaning like doves, and beating their breasts.

Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.

Halt, halt, they cry, but none turns back.

And Nineveh, of course, was a fortified city built upon the Tigris River, and a number of the tributaries of that river actually ran through the city.

It was called the city of many pools or lakes, because it was so surrounded by water, which it thought would be a good thing, but in the process of sieging the city, the Babylonians and Medes actually diverted the Tigris River so that it burst through the city gates and breached the walls so that the invading army could enter, destroy, and pillage.

You get something of that in verse 9.

Verse 9 reads, Plunder the silver, plunder the gold, there's no end of the treasure, or out of the wealth of all precious things.

Desolate, desolation and ruin, hearts melt and knees tremble.

Anguish is in all loins, all faces grow pale.

And just as the text says, plunder, plunder, there's no end of the treasure.

Historical records tell us that the Medes had absolutely no interest in occupying the city, and so upon breaching the walls, they destroyed, they murdered, they killed, and they plundered.

They plundered as much treasure and jewels and valuables as they could, carried them away, and Nineveh was done.

Verse 11 and 12 then taunt the once haughty rulers of Nineveh by saying, Verse 11, where is the lion's den, the feeding place of the young lions where the lion and lioness sweat, where her cubs were, with none to disturb.

The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lioness.

He filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

For years Assyria was famous for the kings comparing themselves to a lion which could devour its prey easily.

And they ravished the surrounding cities and empires, creating a, at the time, seemingly invincible empire of violence, making those around them prey.

And here God is saying, In your pride, I will turn the tables on you, and your once full den will be empty.

Why is it?

Why is it that such a thorough judgment has come upon Nineveh?

Well, the rest of the text, the end of verse chapter two through chapter three, tell us the reason is for her sins.

And what we get is something of a catalogue of some of Nineveh's sins at the end of chapter 2 and through chapter 3.

It begins in chapter 2, verse 13.

The text reads, Behold, I'm against you, declares the Lord of hosts.

You know that's the worst word you could possibly hear.

For the God of the universe to say, I am against you.

That's exactly what God declares against Nineveh.

I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions, I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.

And for three more verses, we get that against staccato images of the chaos and the terror of war.

Chapter 3, verse 1, 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, horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end, they stumble over the bodies.

Why such terrible judgment?

Verse 4 tells us.

Verse 4 through 7 tell us that one of the great sins of Nineveh is her rejection of God and replacement of God with idols.

Verse 4, for all the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and deadly charms, who betray nations with their whorings and people with her charms, behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts.

I lift up your skirts over your face, and make the 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.

The language in this passage describes the promiscuity of spiritual unfaithfulness.

In other words, it describes idolatrous worship.

And in fact, we'll come back and revisit some of the language in this text in a moment.

But for now, what God is announcing is judgment upon Nineveh for her idolatry.

What goes along with idolatry is a list of practices against the living God.

And what follows in verses eight through 14 are some of those sins.

First, we could go through verses 8 and 11 and find that God is visiting violence upon Nineveh precisely because of her violence against those around her.

Look at verse 8.

Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile?

Thebes is at this time the capital of Egypt.

It is a grand and magnificent city.

It has a number of alliances with all of Egypt, with the capital of Ethiopia, with Libya to its west.

It is a powerful city.

But God asked rhetorically in verse 8, are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile with water around her, her rampart to sea, and water her wall?

Cush was her strength, Egypt too, and that without limit put, and the Libyans were her helpers.

But what happened to this great and mighty city?

Verse 10.

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.

What happened is that she was destroyed and her people were exiled.

You might ask the question, how did that happen?

Well, the Assyrians would not be confused about this.

Neither would the Jews who received this oracle.

It was the Assyrians themselves who committed these atrocities described in verse 10.

Assyria in 661 had marched her army south into Egypt, had decimated the capital of Thebes, this at the time seemingly invincible city, had perpetrated great and exceeding violence upon it, and in this text, God is saying, Do you think you are better than they?

No, verse 11.

You also will be drunken, you will go into hiding, and you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

The violence that you made, you brought about on others will be brought on you.

Verse 12.

This great, mighty military, fresh off the heels of a massive victory, in which you place all of your confidence, will fail you.

We could add that to the list of sins.

There's idolatry, there is bloodshed and violence, and there's pride.

Look at verse 14.

God at verses 14 through verse 16 are mocking the Assyrians' pride in her strength.

She thinks that her strength and her army and her wisdom and her battle tactics will protect her forever.

And God mocks her for the folly of trusting in horses and spears.

Verse 14.

There will the fire devour you.

The sword will cut you off, it will devour you like locusts.

Multiply yourselves like the locusts, multiply like the grasshopper.

You increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven.

The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

What's happening there as he's saying, like a field, like a swarm of locusts that devours a field, so you have multiplied your army and your merchants and your weapon makers.

But they will fail you.

Verse 17, your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes are like clouds of locusts.

They settle on fences in a cold day, but when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.

In the day you need them, they'll be gone.

Incidentally, do you know that the largest swarm of locusts ever recorded in modern history was actually recorded in the United States.

In 1875, there was a swarm of locusts that devoured the crops of the Midwest.

The square mileage that this swarm of locusts covered was approximately the size of the state of California.

Historical records at the time describe that this cloud that made the daytime seem like night would suddenly approach a field, descend upon the entire earth, and devour everything in its wake.

It was disruptive, it was ruinous.

Likewise was a serious army for a time.

The same historical records that record this swarm of locusts in the Midwest also record that it was just a few years later that that particular species of locust with the capacity to create these enormous swarms went completely extinct.

Scientists have been able, unable to identify it for over a hundred years.

It's just gone.

And I promise you that when the news that this locust swarm was extinct reached the farmers whose land it had devoured, there were no tears shed for it.

Likewise with Assyria, this loud and violent announcement of God's judgment on a wicked city finishes with a quiet and somber reminder that when you set yourself against God, you will fail.

Verse 18.

Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria, your nobles slumber.

Incidentally, that same language is used of God in Psalm 121.

Israel's keeper will neither slumber nor sleep.

But the keepers of Assyria are asleep and they slumber.

They have put their faith in their the wrong object.

They have put their faith in man in strength, and it has failed them.

So verse 19 there is 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.

So is the end of all who set themselves against God.

God announces complete destruction on a seemingly invincible city, and that's exactly what happened.

When the army in 612 invaded the city and destroyed it, they leveled it, they desecrated, they annihilated the city such that it was not inhabited again for centuries.

In fact, it wasn't even known where the site of Assyria, where its capital Nineveh was, for thousands of years.

It was not until 1842 that archaeologists stumbled upon its remains and recovered its location.

Austin Henry Laird was one of those excavators, and he wrote in a memoir, following the excavation, that we might have doubted that the great Nineveh ever existed so completely has she become a desolation and a waste.

In other words, just as Joshua spoke in Joshua 21, 45, not one word of all of God's promises failed.

All was fulfilled.

So it is with Nineveh, so it will be with us.

God's word will come to pass.

His good promises and his severe judgments.

Nahum 2 and 3 teaches us something about the holy judgment of God.

And what I want to do for our remaining time is walk through three theological lessons, three truths about God that we see in this text that will help us to see his holy judgment rightly so that we can worship him for it.

We want to be people like those described in Scripture who worship God for all that he is, just as the prophet Jeremiah said, who boast in that they know the Lord who exercises steadfast love, righteousness, and justice in the earth, for in these things he delights.

Likewise, we want to delight in all that God is.

So let's look now at three truths in this text that teach us how to worship God for all that he is.

First truth in this text, if you're going to worship God for his holy judgment, is that you have to recognize the horror behind sin's allure.

The horror behind sin's allure.

And that's in chapter 3, verses 4 through 7.

I said this text is about Assyria's idolatry, and I want to revisit it and draw out a couple lessons for us.

You'll notice in verse 4, the language that is used to describe this city, Nineveh, is shocking language.

Describes promiscuity in a bare way, but I want you to see that the language here is not necessarily about sexual promiscuity, it is particularly about idolatry.

Verse 4.

For the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful of deadly charms, who betrays nations with their whorings and people with her charms.

These precise words that are used to describe Nineveh are used in only one other place in Scripture.

This kind of language is found in one other verse in Scripture.

2 Kings 9 22, of course, which describes Jezebel, the queen of the northern kingdom of Assyria, or rather, of Israel, who's described in exactly this language.

Now let me ask you a question.

Jezebel is a famous name for the wrong reasons.

Even in our society, people who are unfamiliar with the Bible have at least heard the name and know there are some negative connotations associated with it.

Now, Jezebel is described in stark terms in the Bible, but it's not because of her sexual infidelities, though they may have been real.

She is described in stark terms precisely because she introduced idolatrous worship into the worship of Israel and corrupted the nation.

She brought with her, she was a Canaanite princess and brought with her the pantheon of Baal into the house of God and introduced Baal worship to Israel.

She is described as a prostitute or as a as promiscuous precisely because of her idolatrous practices wherein she led Israel away from loyalty to Yahweh.

Likewise, Nineveh in this text is described in such language, because not only was Nineveh guilty of rapacious violence, but of spiritual idolatry.

She allured the surrounding Surrounding nations to adopt her pantheon of false gods.

Worship these gods.

Look at the success and luxury they have brought us.

She allured the surrounding nations to adopt her pantheon and all of its accompanying practices of violence and infidelity and bloodshed and envy and greed.

And what God does in verse 4 is announces that this is the reality of the city Nineveh, is that she is an idolater.

And verse 5, he promises that in his judgment he will unveil the horror behind her alluring sin.

Verse 5, look at verse 5.

Behold, I'm against you, declares the Lord of hosts.

I'll lift up your skirts over your face, and I'll make the nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.

What God is doing here is saying, there's this alluring city who says, Come, adopt my pantheon.

There's pleasure, there's luxury, there's a reward to be had, and God is lifting up the skirt, so to speak, to reveal there's shame underneath it.

Sin allures, but behind the allure is appalling moral filth and shame.

And that's what God describes in verse 6.

Verse 6 says, I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

And I don't know if that shocks your ears, it shocks mine.

Throw filth at you?

What is that?

What?

In fact, the Hebrew word that stands behind this rendering, filth, shikutsim, is a word that occurs 28 times in the Hebrew Bible.

Every single time it occurs in the Hebrew Bible, it speaks of idolatry.

In other words, this is not talking about filth of various varieties.

This is specifically talking about the moral filth of idolatrous worship and lifestyle.

God is saying, I will bring upon you all of the moral filth that you have reveled in.

I will unveil the horror of your sin.

So that verse 7 results in all people seeing it.

Verse 7, and all who look at you will shrink away or flee away from you and say, Wasted is Nineveh, who will grieve for her?

Where shall I seek comforters for you?

All who see the judgment that God visits upon Nineveh will not just see God's judgment, but they will also see the reality of how horrible and shameful Nineveh's sin really was.

This is the nature of sin.

Sin is, like Nineveh's idolatry, a replacement of God.

Fundamentally, at its core, all sin is a replacement of the living God.

The living God who is of infinite glory and beauty.

The living God who the angels in heaven have been ravished in the joys of his glory forever.

The living God who created human beings to know him, to boast in him, and be satisfied in him.

For in his presence there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Sin is the replacement of him with created stuff.

And what God is doing in the course of his judgment is revealing the folly, the horror, the shame of replacing God with anything in creation.

And maybe it would help to just park the car and think for a moment.

The Bible describes sin in stark and horrifying terms.

Maybe you'd think for yourself, what are the kinds of things, the kind of actions that humans would make that would really shock and horrify you?

There's probably a whole list because there's many of us in this room.

There's a whole list of things that would shock and horrify us.

Think of some of the things that have been in the news recently that I have heard rumblings and outrage and horror at.

There have been stories recently of men in combat who have abandoned their comrades.

And that reality that someone would abandon those to whom he owes the greatest loyalty in the world shocks us.

How could you possibly abandon someone who you are sworn to protect?

How could you abandon?

How could you betray?

How could you show such disloyalty to people to whom you have the highest obligation to protect and to love and to serve?

You know, all that is, that shock that we see when someone betrays someone to whom they have an obligation to serve, all that is, is that's just reflecting the image of God in us.

God created us in his image, and God is a loyal, God is a faithful, God is a loving God.

For eternity, within the persons of the Trinity, there has been infinite love and service and union, and God created us in his image so that we would express loyalty to those to whom it is owed.

But do you know to whom we owe chief loyalty?

It is to God, this infinitely glorious God who made us and created us in his image to know him and enjoy him.

He is the one to whom we owe the chief loyalty of our lives.

And when we violate that loyalty, it is the most heinous form of sin.

And all sin fundamentally is a violation of the loyalty that we owe to God.

What God is doing in his action against Nineveh is he is unveiling the horror that stands behind all sin.

Sin allures us because it offers temporary pleasures and promises satisfaction.

But do you know that behind every sin, every treasured sin, not just the vile sins that we see in the world, but the treasured sins that naturally creep into our hearts, behind every sin is a rejection of the God to whom we owe the highest loyalty, the greatest allegiance, the deepest love.

In judging sin, God is not just breaking the yoke of Assyria's military power, he is removing its erotic lie and revealing the horror of spiritual promiscuity that replacing God with her pantheon would bring, so that his people would no longer desire her sins, but would worship God for his holy judgment.

To worship God for his holy judgment, you must see the horror behind sin's allure.

But you must not only see that, you must also see the holiness of God's judgment.

And we've begun speaking of this for a moment.

That God's judgment is holy in that it reveals the horror of sin.

But there's also another element of God's holy judgment in this text.

If you look back to chapter 2, and I said there is a word of comfort in chapter 2.

It comes in chapter 2 and verse 2.

Look at verse 2 in your Bibles.

Nahim 2.2 reads, For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunders have plundered them and ruined their branches.

You see what that text is saying is that God's judgment is going to restore.

God's judgment will rid his kingdom of the sin that keeps his people from their greatest treasure, God Himself.

God will rid his kingdom of the very thing that suppresses us and binds us to the judgment we deserve.

Chapter 2, verse 2 is a window into the purpose for which God judges.

God does not judge because he is unable to restrain himself.

God does not judge because he is petty and vindictive.

God judges because he is holy and good, and he desires the good of his people, and his justice will bring that about.

God's justice is restorative, it will restore a kingdom of perfect righteousness.

And you know, we see this everywhere in the Bible.

There's a text in Isaiah chapter 11 closely connected to this, in which God describes the day when he's going to restore the same thing that he says in verse 2, Jacob and Israel.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

And that text is this famous poetic text in Isaiah that describes a lion lying down with the lamb.

God's going to judge the world in order to bring about a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy and prosperity.

That's the good end and purpose of his judgment.

Now, I want you to just consider for a moment the alternative.

We talked for a moment last week about the way in which we naturally, especially because many of us have been born and bred with Western cultural values, and so we naturally kick against the goads when the Bible tells us that God is holy and will judge sin.

And that sounds distasteful.

But I want you to consider what if there was a God who did not judge sin?

What if there were no judgment?

Do you realize that if there is no judgment, then in the final analysis, nothing in this life matters?

I've used this illustration many times, and and I have yet to I have yet to come up with another one, so I'm gonna use it again.

Would you imagine in order to try to grasp this reality?

Imagine for a moment that you're falling from an airplane.

This is why I can't come up with a better one, because it sounds very youth pastory falling from an airplane, but we're gonna go with it for this morning.

You're falling from an airplane, and you're parachuting with a buddy, and you pull your chute, and your chute doesn't go off.

And so you pull your backup and your backup doesn't go off.

And so you look to your friend, and your friend has the same problem.

What has happened?

Someone has really screwed you over.

You're falling towards the ground faster than you can imagine, and you're going to die in a moment.

Now imagine that your friend turns to you and says, Give me your wallet.

And somehow he has a knife and he pulls it out and he threatens you.

Give me your wallet.

What would you do in that moment?

Well, I every person that I've asked this to has always said the same thing.

I'd throw my wallet at his face.

I'm going to be dead in five seconds.

It doesn't matter.

Do you realize that if there is no judgment, then all of life is like that?

It doesn't matter in the end whether you do good or you do ill, because we're all going to the same place to the ground.

If there is no judgment, it does not matter whether you follow the principles of MLK or the KKK, because we will all be level in the ground in the end.

It doesn't matter if you're the gunman or if you are guns down.

In the end, we're all going to the same place.

If there is no judgment, nothing really matters.

The only way that you can live in a world where you believe there's no judgment is if you ignore this reality.

But there are moments in your life in which this reality bursts forth and your heart tells you, no, there has to be more than this.

I know that there is more to life than just whatever.

Perhaps we're speaking of a grave subject.

I could use perhaps a little bit of a humorous example.

In a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut titled Cat's Cradle, there is a little story in which he, the main character describes a night in which he rejected nihilism.

The night before he had loaned out his apartment to a friend, and the friend had trashed the place and had killed his cat.

Killed his cat.

And the character says that he came to reject nihilism in this moment by writing these words.

Quote, I might have been inclined to embrace the meaninglessness of it all, but after I saw what my friend Krebs had done, in particular what he had done to my sweet cat, nihilism was not for me.

It was Krebs' mission, whether he knew it or not, to disenchant me with that philosophy.

Well done, Mr.

Krebs, well done.

We all have our Mr.

Krebs moments.

Moments in life in which something bursts forth and you say, no, there has to be more than this.

The Bible announces that the reason that happens, the reason that there are these moments in life when we say, no, there has to be a sorting out, there has to be a reckoning, is because Ecclesiastes 3.10 says, God's placed eternity in your heart.

You know there has to be a reckoning.

And that is what God's judgment is.

It is a holy, pure, judicious, evenly handed reckoning in which God will right every wrong and restore his created world, ridding it of the horrors of sin and bringing in an era of righteousness and peace.

God's judgment gives meaning to life.

And without it, nothing matters.

Only in a world in which there is a holy God who will bring us to account does life have a fundamental and ultimate end.

God's judgment is a holy judgment and it gives meaning to your life.

Well, in order to worship God for his judgment, you have to see the horror behind sin's allure.

You have to see the holiness in his judgment.

But third and finally, you have to see the justice and mercy of the cross.

The justice and mercy of the cross.

Nahum is driving us forward into the new covenant, into Jesus, and I think that we can see that if we consider an attachment in this book to the book of Nonah, Jonah, rather, that we skipped over last week.

If you allow me to go backtrack to chapter 1 and look in your Bibles and Nahum chapter 1 and verse 3, a verse that I intentionally glossed over so we could conclude the book of Nahum by looking at it again.

Nahum 1 · chapter mention

Nahum chapter 1 and verse 3 reads, The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

Nahum 1 · chapter mention

The Lord is slow to anger.

That should sound familiar.

For two reasons, at least.

One is because we heard it in Jonah chapter 4, verse 2, the Lord is slow to anger.

Jonah 4:2

But more than that, this is a quotation from Exodus chapter 34, this great scene in Scripture in which God reveals himself to Moses and tells Moses what his nature and character is like.

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

And it's worth revisiting that text.

You'll find it on the screen.

Exodus chapter 34 and verse 5 reads: The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

This is the living God, a God who is both holy and just, and is patient and merciful.

And you cannot separate these two realities of God.

What we get in these two prophets is we get exactly that.

Nahum chapter 1 and verse 3 is a quotation of Exodus chapter 34, but so is Jonah chapter 4.

Nahum 1 · chapter mention Exodus 34 · chapter mention Jonah 4 · chapter mention

Just listen to the words that Jonah spoke in Jonah 4.

He says to God at the end of the story, this is why I ran to Tarshus when you gave me this word.

I ran because, quote, I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Jonah just quotes the merciful part of God's character.

And he's bugged.

He's saying, God, these people are wicked.

They're going to destroy my people.

They're going to murder my own people.

Are you not just?

And I think when you read the book of Nahum and you read verse 3, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

And then what follows is relentless judgment.

I think in these two books you get a glimpse of if you read these two in isolation, you would rightly be mad at God.

A God who never judges sin, or a God who only ever judges sin is terrifying either way.

Only a God who is both is a God we can worship.

But that's exactly what we have in the cross.

What we have in the cross is a God who both punishes sin and forgives sinners.

So that in the cross, the God man Jesus Christ is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him is the punishment that brings us peace, and by his stripes we are healed.

So God's justice and judgment comes full force upon sin.

All his holy character is vindicated.

He sees evil, he reviles it because of his purity, and he will consequently punish it, and he does that in the cross.

And at the same time, he is gracious and forgives wickedness, transgression, and sin, so that all of our sins are separated as the East is from the West, and we are brought into God's presence with gladness and purity, arrayed in bloodwashed linen.

In the cross, both of God's just both God's justice and his mercy meet, and it's only this God who can be worshipped.

Maybe one way you could say it is just by looking at Nahum chapter 1, verse 7.

Nahum 1:7

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.

Only in Christ can we worship God for all that He is.

Only in Christ.

Or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30, because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that it is written, in Christ we can do this.

1 Corinthians 1:30

Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Only in Christ can you boast in all that God is.

Only in Christ can you boast in his judgment, not pridefully, because you can say, I deserve that.

Mine, mine was the transgression, his, his was the painful death.

Only in Christ can you not be callous towards other people, but you can, like Paul, plead with others to be reconciled to God.

Only in Christ can you not shamefully look at the judgment of God, but you can humbly worship Him, that He is a holy and righteous judge, and in Christ, He has reconciled you to Himself.

In Christ, you can boast in the judgment of God.

And you know there is coming a day in which we will do just that.

I read at the beginning of this morning from the first verses of Revelation chapter 19, but I think we should conclude with just a few verses later.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

That scene concludes with the saints in heaven worshiping God at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Notice this is your future song.

You will worship God for his mercy and his justice, and only Christ enables you to do this.

Revelation 19, 6.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his bride has made herself ready.

It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.

That's our future song.

In Christ we can boast in the Lord.

Father, we're thankful that you have given yourself to us in the person of Jesus, and you have sealed us to him by the person of your Spirit.

And now, God, we ask, as we have looked into your word, that you would open the eyes of our hearts to behold your glory in your word, that you would seal us to yourself and that you would cause us to walk in holiness and to delight in you.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for being with us today.

And now a parting word from Pastor Jesse.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, emmanuelbible.church.

If you're not a member of the local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship with us here today.

I'd love to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week if you speak to constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel faithfully.