Tuesday August 16, 2016

When God Is Stirred

-NAHUM 3:7-19

Key Verse:

"There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts" (Nahum 3:15).

Although the name Nahum means "full of comfort", the predictions of the prophet who bore this name had no consolation for the people of Nineveh where God sent him. This capital of the Assyrian Empire did not deserve a message of comfort by the reckoning of the Almighty Himself. It was the seat of the terror of the world as well as the shrine of rebellion against God. Nineveh followed the tradition of Babel, having been founded by Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-11). The Assyrians pursued a savage culture that went beyond description. They brutalised Israel and sought to exterminate her and thus abort God's plan to bring the Saviour into the world through the tribe of Judah in Israel. God was stirred to move and stop Assyria from co-existing with the nations of the world and corrupt them. Nahum was God's messenger to Assyria. God is patient and slow to anger in order to fulfil His eternal plan. But it is fatal to abuse His long-suffering. It is also futile for man to use the interlude to amass arsenal for war against the Almighty. Those who resist Him and refuse to settle with Him on His own terms would suffer the fate of the Assyrians and others like them.

Thought for the day: No matter the machinations of man, God will always prevail.

Bible Reading in one Year: JOB 22 - 25