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61.
Nahum 2: “Who Are You Dealing With?”
South
Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, NJ –Men’s Evening Chapel on 4/17/2016
(edited
December 2020)
(Note: It had
been almost two years since I had the privilege of preaching to the
incarcerated. A new Chaplain had arrived on the scene at the Salem County Jail back
in 2014 and “cleaned house” as far as our local Aldine United Methodist Church
Jail Ministry was concerned. It was discouraging for me to see our ministry at
the Jail come to an abrupt end, especially since it had been my idea originally
for our church to send a team into the Jail many years before.
Even more than myself,
it seemed to really bother Pastor Don Polk, at Aldine Church. Don had called me
on the phone back in the Fall of 2015 when I was preparing for my knee replacement
surgery and unable to attend church. Besides concern for my physical and
spiritual health, he was adamant that it was time we start looking for another
jail or prison and re-start our church’s ministry to the incarcerated.
South Woods State
Prison in Bridgeton, NJ is the largest prison in New Jersey and is a medium
security facility with thousands of residents. I called their chaplain soon
after speaking with Pastor Don but was unable to get through to anyone. In
fact, I couldn’t get through to anyone at any other correctional facility in
our area. But later in 2016, Pastor Don called South Woods again and a very
helpful and wonderful woman named Carol Malone answered the phone. Carol was
not the chaplain, but filling in for him at the time as Volunteers Coordinator
for the prison. The next thing I knew, after some fast-track training, I was
standing before a large group of men and sharing this message. The facility
looked to me like a large college or a small city except, of course, for the
massive razor wire on the walls and all the security.)
Men, it’s a great privilege for myself
and our team to be here with you tonight. Before I start, I want emphasize that
I am not a trained clergyman and the opinions I express tonight about the
Scriptures are strictly my own. Also, tonight’s little message was not
something I “cooked up” just for you all. As is always my practice, everywhere
I go, I am simply sharing with you my personal Bible study chapter for this
week.
In Nahum chapter 2, the Old Testament
prophet, Nahum, is writing about the city of Nineveh which was coming under
God’s judgment at that time. Nineveh was the ancient capital of Assyria. It’s
in modern day Turkey near Iraq and Syria on our today’s maps. The Ancient
Assyrians had actually been used by God as a tool of judgement against His Old
Covenant People in Israel. Several years earlier the Assyrians had attacked,
conquered, and carried away treasures and many captives from the Northern
Kingdom of Israel. How God’s People went from being conquerors of the Promised
Land to being conquered in the Promised Land is a long, sad, story. But the one
we are telling tonight occurs after that has already taken place.
By the time of the Prophet Nahum’s
writings, God is saying that it is now Assyria’s turn to be judged and
conquered. History tells us that Nahum’s prophesy was, in fact, fulfilled when
Nineveh was overrun by Ancient Persia and Babylon some time
later.
Verse 1: “He
that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face:
keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power
mightily.”
Get ready, Nahum tells the Ninevites.
Look out, now your judgement is at hand!
Verse 2: “For
the Lord hath
turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine
branches.
Ancient Assyria had been used to victory,
not defeat. God had let them defeat His own People, Israel, and have rule over
them. But after winning, the Assyrians took everything of value out of Israel,
and just squandered it.
Verses 3-4: “The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in
scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his
preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The
chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle
one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall
run like the lightnings.”
The violence they had dealt
out to others is about to come back on them, and soon.
Verses 5-6: “He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk;
they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence
shall be prepared. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace
shall be dissolved.”
Assyria never fully
acknowledged that their strength and victories had come by God’s permission as
He allowed them to become a curse against Israel. And their strength, on its
own, would soon fail against the forces of Babylon and Persia.
Verse 7: “And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up,
and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering
upon their breasts.”
They had been dragging captives around
through victory parades for years. But now, they will become the victims and
the ones to lose their rights and freedoms:
Verses 8-12: “But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee
away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. Take ye the spoil
of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory
out of all the pleasant furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the
heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much
pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. Where is the
dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the
young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp,
and none made them afraid? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps,
and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens
with ravin.”
We need to remember, that the guy
saying all this about Nineveh is Nahum, a Jew. The Assyrians had overrun his
country. As a Prophet of the Lord, Nahum was led by the Spirit of God, but I
wonder if he, on some level, didn’t take a certain pleasure in predicting the downfall
of the enemy of his people? Of the ones who had killed and enslaved so many
of them. Could he have enjoyed sharing their bad news? Was he tempted to lay it on
too thick about their troubles to come?
In the end, I don’t think he did that.
Nahum was just repeating what God told him to say. That’s what true Prophets
did! You know, Nahum wasn’t the Assyrians problem. This was their problem:
Verse 13: “Behold, I am against
thee, saith the Lord of
hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour
thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of
thy messengers shall no more be heard.”
Nahum was no threat to them. In fact,
it took a lot of courage for him to speak out and predict all this stuff. It
couldn’t have been easy for him. His nation, Ancient Israel, was in disarray all
around him. They had no organized army left to seek revenge on Assyria. Like
Assyria, they were being judged by God for their own sins against Him, which had
been many.
The point I’m trying to make tonight,
and I know we are constrained by time, is that ALL of us, back then and today, need
only submit to being judged by God and by Him alone! Not by the Church, not by
religion, not by religious people. Not by any man, but ultimately only by our
Creator.
Is it fair that God judge us? Well, one
thing about God’s judgement, it’s not a sneak attack. It’s not like being
judged by mankind. There always a fairness in God’s Judgement. The Assyrians
had already been warned by God 150 years before Nahum ever came along. You can
read about it in the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament. After Jonah was puked
up by that whale on the beach and preached at Nineveh, they actually repented
at that time, but it didn’t stick. Ancient Israel had been warned by God too,
over and over again, since the days of Moses. But they mostly didn’t listen. What’s
all that got to do with us? Well, what about us? We’ve been warned too, haven’t
we, by Christ? Look at what Jesus says to you and me, in the New Testament:
Matthew 12:35-42
A good man out of the good
treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the
evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Then
certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would
see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An
evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;
and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For
as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son
of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it:
because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than
Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the
judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the
uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a
greater than Solomon is here.”
Who is
qualified to judge people? I don’t mean making observations about someone’s
behavior. Sometimes, that’s just using our God-given common sense. But to
condemn a person to Hell or to save a Soul: that is a judgement that only the
Lord Himself can make.
Are you
seeking His mercy today? Have you been searching for Him? Have you become
frustrated in that search? I know I often have been. But did you know that He gets
frustrated too? Afterall, He’s already sent us Solomon, Jonah, and Nahum. And finally,
He has sent us His Only Begotten Son. Have you heard The Son of God call you?
If you can’t find Him today, I can understand that. It’s not always easy to do.
But don’t forget that He’s seeking after you, too!
And there
isn’t going to be another Savior. The One to listen to is Jesus and the time to
respond to Him, and avoid God’s eternal judgement, is now. Amen?
Thank you
so much for your attention tonight and for your patience with me. Brother Gary
is gonna come up and close us out in prayer.
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