BLOG

Nahum, Prophet of Comfort and Justice, part 3, Good News

Nahum makes it clear that the judgment of God is unstoppable, regardless of man’s defenses and plans to fight Him. In Nahum 1:9-11 God says to Assyria,

⁹ Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will make a complete end of it. Distress will not rise up twice. ¹⁰ Like tangled thorns, and like those who are drunken with their drink, they are consumed as stubble completely withered. ¹¹ From you has gone forth one who plotted evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor.

God Himself raised up Assyria to bring judgment upon Israel, but this did not mean that Assyria was a righteous nation. God uses unrighteous people and nations to judge others who are also unrighteous. In the end, God also judged Assyria for its own unrighteousness, which, from God’s point of view, manifested its hostility toward God.

All human schemes directed against God will fail and come to a complete end after God has employed them as vessels of dishonor (Romans 9:21 KJV). Assyria was to fall, never to arise again as an empire. Hence, “distress” (affliction, tribulation) will not be repeated. Assyria was as helpless before God as tangled thorns, having no more control than a drunkard, and as flammable as dry stubble.

Assyria’s Wicked Counselor

The “wicked counselor” in verse 11, as some believe, was Rabshakeh, the Assyrian who counseled Jerusalem to capitulate in 2 Kings 18:19-25. Instead, King Hezekiah sent for Isaiah and asked him what God would counsel. The Hebrew phrase for “wicked counselor” is יוֹעֵץ בְּלִיַּעַל,yo’etz beliya’al.

yo‘etz = counselor, advisor.

beliya‘al (or Belial) = literally “worthlessness,” often translated wicked or lawless.

The word beliya‘al (בְּלִיַּעַל) appears about 27 times in the Hebrew Bible. In Deuteronomy 13:13 “sons of Belial” were worthless men (morally) who lead others to idolatry. In Judges 19:22, “sons of Belial” were the wicked men of Gibeah who abused the Levite’s concubine. In 1 Samuel 2:12, Eli’s rebellious sons are called “sons of Belial.”

So Belial became a label for those utterly corrupt, lawless, opposed to God.

In later history the term came to be applied more specifically. In the century before the birth of Christ, the War Scroll (1QM), one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, depicts Belial as the leader of the demonic rebellion against God. In the New Testament, Paul refers to Satan as Belial in 2 Corinthians 6:15.

Limited Judgment

Nahum 1:12, 13 says,

¹² Thus says the Lord, “Though they are at full strength and likewise many, even so, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer. ¹³ So now, I will break his yoke bar from upon you, and I will tear off your shackles.”

It is unclear who God was addressing here. Most assume it was Judah, because Judah was named two verses later in Nahum 1:15. However, Israel had already been conquered and deported to Assyria, so (in my view) this promise was probably directed more toward Israel than Judah. Though Judah was also afflicted by the Assyrians, Jerusalem was not conquered, so the capital city was not placed under “his yoke bar.” The same cannot be said of Israel’s capital, Samaria.

Nonetheless, these verses show the mercy of God and the limits of divine judgment. All of the examples of previous captivities in the book of Judges show how the people were delivered after they repented. Though Nahum does not mention repentance, there is no doubt that the “shackles” would be torn off after the people repent. This requires a move of the Holy Spirit (Comforter), which changes the conditions and fulfills the purpose of judgment.

The prophet then turns to address the Assyrians in Nahum 1:14,

¹⁴ The Lord has issued a command concerning you [Assyria]: “Your name will no longer be perpetuated. I will cut off idol and image from the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.”

Each conquering nation gave credit to their gods for victory. When Assyria conquered Israel, they believed that this proved that their gods were more powerful than Israel’s gods (the golden calves). In a sense, perhaps they were right, but they did not realize that the Israelites were being judged by the God of heaven. The true God was using the Assyrians to destroy the reputation of the golden calves which the Israelites had been worshiping.

The Good News

Nahum 1:15 concludes,

¹⁵ Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news [basar, “gospel”], who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; pay your vows. For never again will the wicked one pass through you; he is cut off completely.

This is quoted from Isaiah 52:7,

⁷ How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news [basar], who announces peace and brings good news [basar] of happiness, who announces salvation [Yeshua, or Jesus], and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

If verses 12 and 13 were addressed to Israel, and verse 14 is addressed to Assyria, then verse 15 suggests that Judah ought to learn the lesson shown them by Israel’s captivity. In other words, it is an appeal to Judah to repent and “pay your vows.” No doubt this refers to the vow that their fathers made with God at Mount Sinai to be obedient to the commands of God (Exodus 19:8).

Likewise, they were to keep their feasts by appearing before God three times each year (Deuteronomy 16:16) in the place where God has placed His name (Deuteronomy 16:2, 6, 11). In earlier times, God had placed His name first at Shiloh, then Jerusalem (Jeremiah 7:12). When the New Covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ, He built a new temple described in Ephesians 2:20-22, made of living stones, and placed His name on our foreheads (Revelation 22:4). Hence, the only lawful place that one can keep the feasts is in the New Covenant temple, which is our body (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Nahum looked forward to the day that the “good news” (gospel of Christ) would be preached, not only to Judah and Israel but to the whole world. The Hebrew word is basar, which has a double meaning: flesh and gospel. The gospel of Christ is the revelation that one must eat His flesh, so to speak, in order to have life. Jesus explained this in John 6:53, 54,

⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Just as Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ’s coming to earth (John 8:56), so also did the prophet Nahum rejoice to hear His gospel, the good news of deliverance from sin’s bondage. Those who ate the Passover lamb were prophesying unknowingly of a future day when men would eat the flesh of the true Lamb of God (John 1:29).