When Mountains Bow: Power, Justice, and Refuge in the God of Nahum (Chapter 1)

You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone

podcast, Ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone Church

in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan Merrick,

and it's our prayer that this message strengthens

your faith and draws you closer to Christ. Let's

dive in. All right. So we've wrapped up the Book

of Jonah last week, and now we are diving into

the Book of Nahum. We're going to go Nahum chapter

one. This is going to be talking about and unpacking

God's character, but the portions of God's character

that we tend to not not like and So the title

of my sermon is in the shadow of his power understanding

God's character and so Nahum I've never preached

this this book before and so this is gonna be

new for everybody If you aren't aware so Nahum

is like think of it like the sequel to Jonah

because what we see, the Ninevites, we see a,

in Jonah we saw a prophet who was reluctant to

go, they were his enemies, he finally gets there,

he gets upset because God is patient and merciful

towards the Ninevites, and then God spares them

because they repent, right? So now, we've got

a century later, a century has now gone by, and

The Ninevites have gone back to their wicked

ways. Now, something that I want to point out

before we dive in, because this doesn't have

much to do with my sermon, but it does. It is

important that you understand. Discipleship is

crucial to passing down the faith from generation

to generation. If you are apathetic, if you look

for your pastor, your youth pastor, your kid's

pastor, whatever. to be the one who passes down

your faith to your kids and your grandkids, you're

going to lose a generation. And the Ninevites

are a perfect example of this. They've gone a

century now and they are right back to where

they were. And so we now see Nahum is then, God

sends Nahum who is a prophet. The only thing

we know about Nahum is what we read in the book

that is written. And so he, God tells him to

go and to speak and to prophesy against the Ninevites

just like Jonah. But unlike Jonah, Nahum goes,

Roger that, sir. And he's there. So the big idea,

my big idea of what we're gonna unpack today

is understanding God's character as both just

and merciful and how it motivates us to live

faithfully and seek refuge in Him, especially

in challenging times. I don't know if I have

this back there or not, but I have a quote from

J .I. Packer, who if you've never read his book,

Knowing God, I highly, highly recommend the book,

Knowing God. It's really good for growing and

learning about the doctrine of the faith in a

deeper way. And so he has this quote because

he unpacks a lot of the character of God and

knowing God. The character of God is today and

always will be exactly what it was in Bible times.

Why do I share that? Because what we're going

to unpack today is going to be one of those passages

in the Old Testament that we butt up against

and we try to ignore it. And then you have progressive

pastors, progressive Christians who want to say,

well, that's why. We can't trust the Bible. It's

not the same God, yada, yada, yada. They, you

know, all the different things. But you have

to see that the same God who rescued and redeemed

the Ninevites in Jonah is the same God who brings

ultimately the damnation of the Ninevites. And

so with that being said, we're going to unpack

all of chapter one today. So let me grab a chair

because it's... 17 or so verses, 15 verses, something

like that. So here we go, if you got your Bible,

it is basically, you go to Jonah, go right past

Micah, and then you've got Nahum. If you don't

have a Bible to be right up here, we also have

one in the back, or have some in the back. Verse

one, an oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of

the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. Real fast, some

translations say burden, which would be the more

proper translation. And so Nahum is essentially,

God has brought a burden to him for the Ninevites

to repent. I'll talk more about that in just

a second. Verse two, the Lord is a jealous and

avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and

keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow

to anger and great in power, and the Lord will

by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind

and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his

feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He

dries up all the rivers. and Carmel wither. The

bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake

before him. The hills melt. The earth heaves

before him and the world and all who dwell in

it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who

can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is

poured out like fire and the rocks are broken

into pieces by him. The Lord is good. a stronghold

in the day of trouble. He knows those who take

refuge in him, but with an overflowing flood,

he will make a complete end of the adversaries

and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What

do you plot against the Lord? He will make a

complete end. Trouble will not rise up a second

time, for they are like entangled thorns, like

drunkards as they drink. They are consumed like

stubble, fully dried. From you came one who plotted

evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor.

Thus says the Lord, though they are at full strength

and many, they will be cut down and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you

no more. And now I will break his yoke from off

you and will burst your bonds apart. The Lord

has given commandment about you. No more shall

your name be perpetuated. From the house of your

gods will be cut off, and the carved image and

the metal image will make your grave, for you

are vile. Behold, upon the mountains, the feet

of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.

Keep your feast, O Judah, fulfill your vows,

and never again shall the worthless pass through

you. He is utterly cut off. All right, so reading

that, what immediately goes through your mind?

How you feeling? Vicki said, not good. What else?

Like what emotions does it draw up when you're

reading and hearing these words? What is it that

the emotions that you feel inside? Yeah? Does

it terrify you? Terrifies me. It terrifies me.

And that's the point of this chapter in this

book. It's to do two things. We're going to see

how beautifully the terror of God is also our

hope. That's why we had the verse of the week

that we had. So with that being said, if you're

taking notes, my first point is magnificence

of God's might. So when we look at one through

five, we see his might, Nahum is unpacking. And

so if we're honest, most of us are far more comfortable

talking about the gentleness of God than the

greatness of God. We love the verses that talk

about his love, his tender kindness, his patience,

right? Those are great passages. Those are the

ones that bring us comfort. But what should also

bring you comfort and scare you at the same time

are these passages like this. But scripture does

not allow us to reduce God to only the traits

that we find comforting. Nahum opens his prophecy,

not with a soft whisper, but with a thunderclap,

that is to get your attention. And so when we

see the oracle, or as I said, some translations

say the burden, which means a heaviness concerning

Nineveh. And so he has this vision, Nahum does.

And so here's the thing, when you are called

to minister to a people group or give a word

or go to and speak to, You should have a burden

about it. There should be a heaviness about it.

It should be consuming. You can't sleep. There's

this sense of these people are lost and they

need the gospel. And so there's this heaviness

to the call that Nahum has. He sees the vision.

He knows what is going to become of Nineveh.

And so he's pleading. with them to once again

understand that you may mock the God of Israel,

but he will have the last laugh. Here's the other

part. The Assyrians, Nineveh, the Assyrians at

this point have been murdering the Israelites.

They have taken them captive. They've taken the

northern part of Israel and they've taken them

captive and they're murdering them. They're also,

this is awful, but they're, One of the things

that when I was reading, they were burning children

alive in order to just cause mass hysteria of

the Israelites. That's awful. And so God is not

one to sit by and just allow these things to

happen, as we're going to talk about in just

a few minutes. And so the very first line, we're

reminded that his message is not human opinion.

It's not the things that make us feel comfortable.

It's divine revelation. What follows is not a

political analysis of a serious downfall, but

a revelation of who God is. So we have God's

power is revealed in his authority. So when you

look at verse two, it says, the Lord is a jealous.

and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and

keeps wrath for his enemies. Do you see repeating

words there? Avenge. And so when I said what

I said about what they do to children, God is

like, oh, there's going to be vengeance. And

so when you see, by the way, when there's three

words that repeat, that become three, this is

a poetic way in the Hebrew text, in all Hebrew

text, that is driving home the point. And it's

poetic. And so these are not verses we're going

to put on coffee mugs, right? You're not gonna

have a coffee mug that you whip out unless you

just want to... you've got some progressive Christian

friends that you want to just make angry, but

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries.

Actually, that would actually be kind of cool.

Noted. But these are verses that we typically

see on t -shirts, right? We don't see the people

putting them in their Instagram bios and their

Facebook bios. We don't see... Football players

and baseball players putting them on their eye

black. We don't see people Tattooing it on their

arms. Why because it's a part of God that is

terrifying And so We are to we are to read these

verses and be reminded that God is not weak He

is not indifferent and he is not passive in the

face of evil. His jealousy is not insecurity

It is a holy ownership His vengeance is not rage,

it is righteous justice. And so here's something

I pulled from this commentary I was reading,

and it says this about the jealousy of God. It

says, unlike jealousy on the human plane, which

unfortunately involves all the wrong attitudes,

suspicion, distrust, and rivalry. Actually, I

think I have it up here if you guys want to write

it down, because we get God's jealousy wrong.

by the way, pause while he pulls that up and

you guys start writing this down. I remember

seeing a clip, this pretty famous clip of Oprah

with her pastor, and they were talking about

how the Christian God they don't like, though

she claims to be a Christian, because it says

that God is jealous. And she's like, I don't

want a God who's jealous. And it's like, you

don't understand God's jealousy. And so God's

jealousy shows itself as an eager zealousness

to maintain the integrity of his own character

and truth. It has nothing to do with us in the

sense of he has this thing that he desires and

wants. The thing he desires and wants is holiness.

It's glory. And so his jealousness is about his

people and himself. Nahum is speaking to a people

who have lived under the shadow of a serious

cruelty. Nineveh was a global superpower built

on violence, intimidation, and bloodshed, and

God is declaring, I see it, I have not forgotten,

and I am not powerless to stop it. Then comes

a tension that defines God's character. The Lord

is slow to anger and great in power. That's what

it says in verse three. and the Lord will by

no means clear the guilty. And so notice how

Nahum puts these two truths together. It says

that he is slow to anger and great in power.

God is patient, but he's never impotent. His

restraint is not weakness. His delay is not absence.

Judgment delayed is not judgment denied. Remember,

this has been an entire century that has passed.

And so here's what Tony Evans said about this

portion of scripture. He says, God is like a

husband seeing some chump brazenly hitting on

his wife and wants to protect her. As Israel's

husband, the Lord would tolerate no rival gods

or nations that abused his people. And though

he is slow to anger, he is furious with his enemies

and will make them pay the tax of a chump trying

to mess with his bride. I love that. I love that,

because I got to thinking about when I read that,

I'm like, yeah, man, if I saw someone trying

to harm my wife or hit on my wife, it's going

down. No matter men in the room. no matter your

age, if you see another man trying to hit on

your wife, is it not going down? Yeah. And so

now you see the Lord is jealous for his bride

in the sense of, no, no, no, no, you do not get

to mistreat my bride. And I want you to remind

yourself of that when you think about how the

church is constantly being bombarded. In other

countries, you're seeing martyrs like you've

never seen them before. And now we are starting

to really see it. If you have not seen, there's

a podcast that's going viral where this woman

said, a white woman, she said, the biggest danger

and the ones who actually need to be, this is

what she said, need to be done away with are

white evangelicals because we are the problem.

So, brothers and sisters, just prepare yourself.

It could get worse before it gets better. But

as we're about to see, it gets better. So God's

power displayed over creation. That's what we

see next in verse three. Nahum now shifts our

gaze from nations to nature. He does this because

the pagans worship nature. So his way is in...

The whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the

dust of His feet. What we call chaos, God calls

a pathway. The storm is not something He reacts

to, it is something He walks through. The clouds

aren't obstacles, they are the dust kicked up

beneath His feet. How do we know that this is

true? How do we know that He is one who can walk

through a storm? We saw it displayed, did we

not? You see it in the New Testament. Jesus is

walking on the water in the midst of a storm

to his disciples. He also rebukes storms, does

he not? Verse four, he rebukes the sea and makes

it dry. He dries up all the rivers, the Bashan,

the Carmel wither and the bloom of Lebanon withers.

These are all symbols of fertility, of strength

and abundance. Nahum is saying, if God speaks,

oceans retreat, rivers disappear, and the most

lush regions collapse. Creation itself responds

to his command. Verse five, the mountains quake

before him, the hills melt, the earth heaves

before him, and the world and all who dwell in

it. Mountains are symbols of what? What are mountains

symbols of? Let me ask you like this. Is it just

easy to just move a mountain? No. So mountains

are symbols of permanence. And to know that these

symbols of permanence shake and hills are symbols

of stability, they melt, the earth itself trembles

because nothing created is stronger than its

creator. My buddy Mike who the one I've told

you guys about who owns Chick -fil -a We meet

every week and we do a Bible study together and

his this week he was like, hey, man, let me ask

you something What do you think about when the

when the scriptures talk about? Mountains being

thrown into the sea and bowing down. Like do

you think that's just like allegory and I said

yes and no Because what do you mean? I said,

well, I don't think they're Jesus is physically

saying that in the moment, but do I think he

can do it? Yeah. He can literally look at him

out and go, yeah, actually, I think I'm gonna

have you over there. And it just go, yes, sir,

right? That's the God that we serve. And when

you think about a God like that, a God who has

the ability to move permanent structures with

just his voice, That's terrifying. And it also

is comforting. So what does this mean for us?

Church, this confronts us in two ways. First,

it reminds us that no nation, no ruler, no system

is beyond God's authority. You have to remind

yourself of that when you see the world in utter

chaos, you have to remember that nothing is outside

the realm of His sovereignty. When the world

feels like it's unraveling and wars and justice

and moral confusion are rampant, Nahum reminds

us that God is not wringing his hands in heaven.

The same God who brought Nineveh low still remains

today. Second, it forces us to ask, do we truly

trust God's power or do we only trust our perception

of control? By the way, that's what causes anxiety.

Pastor Logan, what are you talking about? When

you're no longer trusting in God's power, but

your own. When you're no longer in control of

a situation or the thought of not being in control,

it causes anxiety. It's easy to trust God when

life is calm. It's much harder when the ground

shakes. But Nahum says, even then, especially

then, God is sovereign. So where is Christ in

the text? Because we want to find Christ in the

text. So for us reading this on the other side

of the cross, we cannot miss the connection to

Christ because John tells us all things were

made through him. And what does it say? And without

him was not anything made. And so if you want

to write this down, I have this right up here.

The same power that shakes mountains took on

flesh. When Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves,

the disciples asked, who is this? And Nahum answers

the question. This is the Lord of the storm.

The one who commands creation is also the one

who stepped into it to save, to redeem, and to

rule it. Point number two. Majesty of God's justice.

We look at verses six through eight right here.

After showing us the sheer magnitude of his power,

Nahum now presses the question that naturally

follows. If God is this powerful, what happens

when that power is directed towards justice?

At least that should be the natural question

that follows. Because you want to know, let me

back up. What scares you more? A bad dude with

a lot of power or a good dude with power? a bad

dude with power, right? But a good dude with

power and a lot of power does what? It makes

you find comfort, right? That's why we love superheroes,

right? The city's metropolis with Superman can

rest easy because no matter the strong enemy

that comes along, They know Superman is good

and can fight and take on any superpower, right?

So the thought of knowing that an all good God

who is all powerful, him being good again brings

comfort. And so who can stand before his indignation

and who can endure the heat of his anger? Remember,

when we think about the heat of his anger, this

is the same God who literally breathed out the

sun. His wrath is poured out like fire and the

rocks are broken into pieces by him. These are

not hypothetical questions. These are meant to

humble us. Nahum is not asking who might survive

God's anger. He's asking who could possibly endure

it. And the answer, no one. Not the angels, not

us. When God's justice is unleashed, it is not

negotiable. Not even rocks, symbols of strength

and permanence remain intact. You can put this

right up here for me, Dustin. This reminds us

of something we often forget. Sin is not small

just because it's common. We love to make our

sin seem small because it's like, oh well, you

know, everyone does it. Or how many, I actually

saw this. I saw this as a meme, it was a charismatic

Facebook group that for some reason came up on

my feed and they were making fun of Baptist and

it was actually truth and pretty funny, but I

don't think it's just too Baptist. And it says,

how many times do you have to go to a Baptist

revival and hear an evangelist there scream about

sin all the while the buttons on his shirt are

screaming for mercy, meaning he's fat. And it

says the hypocrisy, and there's truth to that.

There's truth to overeating, gossip, things that

we tend to minimize and put up with in the church,

God does not see as minimal. And so when you

read passages like this and you see that those

sins are not small, it should terrify you to

wake you up. We live in a culture that minimizes

wrongdoing. It reframes evil as mistakes and

treats accountability as oppression. What's wrong

with our culture? Nobody wants to take accountability.

But scripture tells us that God's wrath is not

emotional volatility. This is settled, holy opposition

to all that destroys his creation. and so justice

that does not compromise. God does not just ignore

injustice. He does not excuse wickedness and

he does not move on from evil. Nineveh's cruelty

had a due date and so does all unrepentant sin.

This should sober us all. Not because God is

cruel, but because he is just. A God who never

judges evil is not loving. He is indifferent.

I'm going to say that again so you hear it. A

God who never judges evil is not loving. He is

indifferent. And indifference is not goodness.

Yet right in the middle of this terrifying display,

Nahum does something unexpected. He moves to

verse seven where it says, the Lord is good,

a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows

He knows those who take refuge in Him. So right

there, in the middle of the wrath and fire and

shattered stone, the same God whose justice cannot

be endured is also a refuge to those who are

trusting. This is why it's good news. This is

why it's the gospel. Nahum says that, notice

what Nahum says. He says, not God is useful,

not God is tolerant, but the Lord is good. and

not a distant good, but a stronghold, a place

you run when danger is real, a shelter you cling

to when judgment is coming. When I was putting

this together, I had in my mind, I had, you remember

the old, not the remake, but the old movie Twister

from the 90s? Do you remember at the beginning

when the Twister's coming and they all run down

to, to the storm shelter, which by the way, they

live in Oklahoma, like has more tornadoes than

anybody. And the dude didn't decide to make sure

that the latch actually worked that year. So

he's sitting there fighting against it, right?

And then he gets taken off. But that's what I

thought of was that scene when God's justice

is moving through, the people get into the storm

shelter to hide. And he protects them as his

justice rips through. So. A place you run when

danger is real, a shelter you cling to when judgment

is coming. And then there's this quiet, comforting

line. He knows those who take refuge in him.

God's justice is not blind. His mercy is not

generic. He knows his people. He recognizes those

who run to him instead of away from him. And

so justice confronts evil. God's goodness does

not cancel his judgment. It goes on in verse

eight and it says, but with an overflowing flood,

he will make a complete end of adversaries and

will pursue his enemies into darkness. Here's

the thing. Did you know that What happened to

Nineveh? Do you guys know what wiped Nineveh

off the map, literally? You do? Oh, you three

do? Oh, yeah. What is it? But how? How? How did

they do that? That's right. Babylon did ultimately

destroy them. But what did they do? You know?

No? It did. That's why it uses the word flood.

If you don't know, Babylon, ultimately the Persians

reconstructed the way their waters moved into

Nineveh. And so one, they begin to like dehydrate

them all, but they moved all the water where

it created a massive flood. They created a dam

and then released it and it just washed them

all away in a gigantic flood. And here's what's

interesting. It says, It says in the text that

the Ninevites would ultimately be forgotten.

They would be trampled on. They were so trampled

on that even within 50 years, literally where

they had been, where Nineveh was, where Assyria

was, had been completely washed over, where people

didn't even know where it was anymore. It wasn't

until recently that we even know where Nineveh

was. And so the prophecy is true. And so there

is a loophole, no escape route for persistent

rebellion. Evil will not simply fade away, it

will be dealt with completely and finally. And

this is uncomfortable, but it's necessary because

if God does not ultimately confront evil, then

injustice wins and the victims of oppression,

violence and cruelty are left without hope. Sometimes

war is just, brothers and sisters. When the evil

is bad and you want to go, we should all just

put our guns down. Well, guess what? Evil does

not rest. And so where is Christ in this passage

part? This is where we must look to Christ because

every question raised in Nahum finds its answer

at the cross. Who can stand before God's indignation?

It's the Sunday School answer. Jesus. He has

to be the one. God knew that, right? God knew

that no one could stand in his indignation, and

so he had to stand in our place. Who can endure

the heat of his anger? Only the Son of God. bearing

it for us. I've got this right up here, if you

would, Dustin, you can write this down. On the

cross, God did not suspend his justice. He satisfied

it. The wrath that Nahum describes was not ignored.

It was poured out on Christ. Justice fell fully

and mercy flowed freely. So when we run to God

as a refuge, we are not escaping justice. we

are hiding in the one who already endured it.

Amen. And so church, this calls us to two responses.

First, we are to take sin seriously, not just

the big sins, not just the cultural villains,

but our own pride, our bitterness, our lust,

our self -righteousness, and the quiet rebellion

that we lead every day. God's justice is majestic

because it does not fully or does not play favorites.

And second, we must take refuge quickly. Don't

flirt with grace while ignoring repentance. Don't

admire God's mercy from a distance, but you should

run to him. Claim to Christ because the only

safe place from God's justice is inside God's

mercy. So Nahum is teaching us that God is not

divided. He is whole. His power, His justice,

and His goodness, they are not competing traits,

but they dovetail together. They compliment each

other. They are perfectly united. And that means

the God who judges evil is the same God who offers

safety to the repentant. So the question is no

longer, is God powerful or even is God just?

The question becomes, where are you standing

when justice moves? I want to put this. another

way in case you are struggling with this idea,

you feel like, yeah, these are two competing

things. They're not. And let me put it in a way

that you will understand it. I think I've used

this this allegory before. But if there was a

man looking to break into my home to do damage

to not only my home, but to my family. whether

he has ill intentions to harm them or kill them,

is it loving of me to just say, take them, but

don't hurt me? No. All the men in this room and

all the ladies in this room would be able to

rightfully so throat punch their pastor for being

a passive. The word I want to use is another

word for a hot dog, and so you would all be like

you didn't love your family well at all, right?

But if I stand between the bad guy and my family

and the bad guy gets what's coming to him because

I'm doing all I can to protect my family, you

would say that's loving, right? And justice was

also had in that moment, right? So you see how

these two things don't compete but they're one.

You can't have love without justice and you can't

have justice without love. Number three, mastery

over malevolence. I felt really good about that

word, by the way. I forgot to tell Tracy, hopefully

she's watching this. So in verses nine through

11, Nahum now turns directly to the plans of

the wicked and he does not give them much credit.

In verse nine, he says, what do you plot against

the Lord? He will make a complete end. He will

not rise up a second time. What is he saying?

There will be no round two. Once you get knocked

out, you ain't getting back up. You can scheme

all you want, but you won't get a rematch. Evil

does not get the final word. God doesn't merely

respond to wickedness, he ends it. What humanity

cannot restrain, God can shut down completely.

Verse 10, he says, for they are like entangled

thorns, like drunkards as they drink. They are

consumed like stubble fully dried. Ever lit an

old, like have you ever lit a Christmas tree,

a real Christmas tree that's like all the sap

and stuff has run out of it? You ever lit that

thing on fire before? is a big flame. That's

what goes through my mind. Christmas tree, massive

bonfire. Nahum's point is simple, what looks

dangerous and threatening is an actual fragile

thing in the hands of God. Evil often appears

powerful, but it is disordered, unstable, and

ultimately combustible. It becomes a dried up

Christmas tree. Verse 11, for you come, For you

came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a

worthless counselor. Nineveh believed its strategies,

its leaders and its power structures made it

untouchable. But God calls their mastermind worthless,

not because the harm wasn't real, but because

it was never sovereign. Rome thought it was untouchable.

Many times, I've heard people say that America

as a superpower and as the biggest and baddest

country on the planet can't be touched. It will

always remain that way specifically because the

way our economy is structured and all these other

things. And I'm like, you're not a Christian,

are you, saying this? Because I beg to differ.

God definitely does the humbling. How many of

you guys have been to the beach before? How many

of you guys have dug and made sand castles and

stuff in the beach? Just Noah and a few. You

guys are missing out. So, you know, growing up

in Florida, we go to the beach and I can remember

trying to build moats, like big moats. And because

I would create these sandcastles and then I would

hope that the moats would fill with water and

it would cause the waves and stuff. The water,

the tide that was coming in would then go around

my sandcastle. Spoiler alert, my sandcastle didn't

make it, Doug. Never did. No matter the moat,

no matter the safety mechanisms I tried to put

in place, the ocean, I could never beat it. I'm

over. And that's what this reminds me of as a

visual, like a child that's building an elaborate

sandcastle right where the tide is coming. Doesn't

matter the buckets, the walls, the towers, it

looks impressive for a moment, but the ocean

doesn't rush. It doesn't panic. It just simply

arrives. Knocks it over. And that's Nahum's point.

God doesn't scramble to stop evil. He doesn't

adjust his plans. He just simply moves forward

and evil collapses under the weight of his sovereignty.

You know, when the book of Revelation talks about

when Christ returns, there's going to be a war.

It won't be much of a war, brothers and sisters.

It'll be over pretty quick. So we have this fulfillment

in Christ. This truth reaches its climax in Christ.

The greatest act of human evil, the cross. was

meant to silence Jesus forever, but instead it

became the means of salvation for us. Sin plotted,

death conspired, and the grave prepared itself,

but God overturned it all. How does Jonah, the

last part, or in chapter three, how does Jonah

put it? You guys remember when I talked about

the grave? It says that the fish vomited up Jonah.

The grave vomited forth Jesus. The resurrection

declares once and for all, God is not reacting

to evil, he's ruling over it. And so when we

see injustice, when we see corruption or darkness

pressing in, we do not lose heart, we remain

steadfast. God sees it, God knows it, and God

acts. Evil never gets the final word because

Christ already has. And here's our final point.

the mercies of God's refuge. The final verses.

Tony Evans in his Bible commentary says this,

he says, here the Lord promises to deliver Judah

from the hand of Assyria. He had previously used

Assyrians as a tool to punish his people for

their sin, but he would punish Judah no longer

and would turn his vengeance on Assyria instead.

The divine lawn mower was ready. They would be

mowed down. The Lord's threat directed toward

the Assyrian king showed how weak he really was

in the grand scheme of things. The king would

have no offspring and the Lord himself would

prepare his grave. So after power, after justice,

after the collapse of evil, God speaks to comfort

his people. And he says this in verse 12. Thus

says the Lord. Though they are at full strength

and many, they will be cut down and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you

no more. God acknowledges their suffering, but

he also declares its end. Affliction is not permanent,

oppression is not final. God's people are not

forgotten. Then in verse 13 he says, and now

I will break his yoke from off you and will burst

your bonds apart. This is the language of liberation.

This is the language of freedom. The weight that

crushed them, the burden that enslaved them,

God doesn't lighten it. He breaks it fully off.

Have you guys ever read Pilgrim's Progress? The

burden that Christian is wearing, right? And

it's this massive, massive burden that he continues

to move towards. the city, right? And then finally

he is liberated, the burden is liberated. This

is Jesus with our sin. This is the gospel, being

liberated from the thing that enslaves you, that

burdens you. But notice that Jesus takes the

burden upon himself. Think of carrying a heavy

pack for miles. At first you adjust, then you

endure, and eventually it becomes all you can

think about. Relief doesn't come from learning

how to carry it better. It comes when someone

finally takes it off. And that's what God promises.

He says, we're not gonna have better coping mechanisms

and we're not gonna learn to endure longer. He

says, no, I'm just gonna bring deliverance. I'm

gonna take that from you. And so we get peace

after the battle. In verse 15, behold upon the

mountains, the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace. After judgment, after war,

after fear comes good news. Remember what I always

tell you guys, you cannot have good news without

the bad news. And so peace is not a wish here.

It's an announcement and God has acted. The enemy

is defeated and rest is now possible. But first,

before the good news, you had to know that you

were enslaved by a vicious and vile slave owner.

And here we see these, we hear these words echo

in the gospel. Jesus says, come to me all who

are labor and heavy, what? Layden, and I will

give you rest. The yoke is broken, the burden

is lifted, and the peace is secured, not just

from enemies outside of us, but from the sin

and bondage within us. And so church, Nahum has

shown us who God is. His might, unmatched. His

justice is righteous, his sovereignty is unchallenged,

and his mercy is always available. So the same

God who shakes mountains is a refuge for the

weary. The same God who judges evil is the one

who brings peace. And so, do you see how this

terrifying text also brings us peace and comfort?

So the question is not whether is God powerful.

The question should be, where do you stand in

relation to Him? Are you resisting His rule or

are you resting in His refuge? Because the safest

place in all of creation is not far from God,

but is in the shadow of His power. Let's pray.