Slices
Prepare
Do you ever want to fly away from your troubles? Praise God that however disastrous our outer circumstances may appear, inside we can be rooted in him: ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).
Bible passage
Woe to Nineveh
3 Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!
2 The crack of whips,
the clatter of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry,
flashing swords
and glittering spears!
Many casualties,
piles of dead,
bodies without number,
people stumbling over the corpses –
4 all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute,
alluring, the mistress of sorceries,
who enslaved nations by her prostitution
and peoples by her witchcraft.
5 ‘I am against you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
‘I will lift your skirts over your face.
I will show the nations your nakedness
and the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will pelt you with filth,
I will treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 All who see you will flee from you and say,
‘‘Nineveh is in ruins – who will mourn for her?”
Where can I find anyone to comfort you?’
8 Are you better than Thebes,
situated on the Nile,
with water around her?
The river was her defence,
the waters her wall.
9 Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength;
Put and Libya were among her allies.
10 Yet she was taken captive
and went into exile.
Her infants were dashed to pieces
at every street corner.
Lots were cast for her nobles,
and all her great men were put in chains.
11 You too will become drunk;
you will go into hiding
and seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig-trees
with their first ripe fruit;
when they are shaken,
the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look at your troops –
they are all weaklings.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has consumed the bars of your gates.
14 Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your defences!
Work the clay,
tread the mortar,
repair the brickwork!
15 There the fire will consume you;
the sword will cut you down –
and it will devour you like a swarm of locusts.
Multiply like grasshoppers,
multiply like locusts!
16 You have increased the number of your merchants
till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky,
but like locusts they strip the land
and then fly away.
17 Your guards are like locusts,
your officials like swarms of locusts
that settle in the walls on a cold day –
but when the sun appears they fly away,
and no one knows where.
18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;
your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
19 Nothing can heal you;
your wound is fatal.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?
Explore
The grassy slope was wet and muddy. Being a sturdy lass, I took control of the dog to negotiate the descent. There was no way I would be pulled over. Well… you can guess the rest! Thankfully, only my pride was hurt.
It is so easy to slide down a slippery slope! And once started, it’s hard to stop. It’s virtually impossible not to involve other people in the descent too. In this passage we see the far-reaching effects of the descent away from God that Nineveh experienced under the powerful, false-god-worshipping Assyrians. They’d had a giddy rise to prosperity, but now the merchants have upped and gone, taking their assets with them (vs 16,17). They aren’t going to hang around when it has all gone pear-shaped. Lethargy descends on the city (v 18).
Sometimes it might be the right thing to make a new start, but we have to be very careful that we are not running away from our problems. Are you a fighter? Do you get tough with your problems, or just inelegantly slide into the mud?
Respond
‘Lord God, may I begin each new day in hope and thanksgiving, and end it with a sense of your overcoming love and power in my life. May I never shirk what you would have me do. Amen.’
Deeper Bible study
‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’1 Reflect gratefully on Jesus’ promise of for-ever faithfulness.
God warns the people of Nineveh, ‘I am against you’ (v 5).2 God is ‘against’ them, however, only because they had first ranged themselves firmly and stubbornly against God. The Assyrian Empire was guilty of extreme and excessive violence, deception, an insatiable lust for wealth and power, even occult practices (vs 1–4). The gravity of their wrongdoing provokes the pronouncement of a divine ‘woe’ (see v 1). Nahum 3 is God’s funeral dirge over a city destined for destruction.
Paul comforts the Christians in Rome with powerful words of encouragement: ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’3 Now consider the reverse: if God is against us, then from what or whom can we draw strength? With a series of graphic word-pictures, the ‘woe’ prophecy spells out the calamities Nineveh will endure because God is ‘against’ them: they will face terrible disgrace (vs 5,6), realise the futility of their defences (vs 11–14) and suffer a fatal defeat (vs 15–18), leading to their demise (v 19). ‘No war correspondent ever reported more graphically than Nahum does by prophetic foresight.’4
‘Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.’5 The mighty Assyrian Empire will fall, never to rise again. Not only will there be no mourners at this funeral (v 7), all who read Assyria’s obituary will ‘clap their hands’ (v 19)! The bad news that Nineveh’s ‘wound is fatal’ (v 19) is good news for the nations it oppressed, for it means that Assyria’s ‘endless cruelty’ will finally be brought to an end. When wrong is exalted as right, when wrong lasts so long, when wrong seems so strong, God’s people must cling trustingly to God’s promise: ‘A little while, and the wicked will be no more … But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.’6
‘God is for us.’ Have I ranged myself on God’s side?
1 Matt 28:20 2 See also Nah 2:13 3 Rom 8:31 4 LaSor, OT Survey, p320 5 Prov 16:18 6 Ps 37:10,11
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 2 Samuel 1,2; Psalm 50
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Sports Mission Pioneer Holly Phipps and her volunteer team in Sheffield as they set up an afterschool sports club for girls in Fir Vale. Pray that they would have opportunities to encourage these girls to worship God through their sport as they share the good news with them.
A prayer for King Charles on his coronation
This Church of England 'collect' (prayer) has been written for the coronation:
Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour:
look with favour upon thy servant Charles our King,
and bestow upon him such gifts of wisdom and love
that we and all thy people
may live in peace and prosperity
and in loving service one to another;
to thine eternal glory,
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
reigns supreme over all things,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
