Nahum 2:1-3:19 He that dashes in pieces is come up before your face: keep the fortification, watch the way, make your loins strong… 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, etc. We take these two chapters together, (1) because they treat of one subject, viz. the destruction of Nineveh; (2) because scarcely any detached verse would supply suggestions for a practical discourse; and (3) because our purpose in these sketches is not critical, but homiletic. The critical part has been admirably done by Henderson, Keil, and others, and is found in the Exposition. We shall therefore endeavour to gather up all that is practical in these two chapters under three general headings. 1. That nations are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness. 2. That it is the decree of Heaven that, however long they exist, the time must come when they shall be utterly destroyed. 3. That Providence often employs on, wicked nation to inflict ruin upon another. We shall devote a separate sketch to each of these propositions. Our subject now is that nations are often allowed to exist on this earth until they reach a terrible degree of wickedness. Assyria, the nation referred to here, was one of the oldest kingdoms in the world; it could count its age by centuries. Generation after generation came through centuries, played their part, and passed away, whilst Assyria stood. Its beginning is so far back that it is lost in obscurity. An early reference to it in Scripture will be found in Numbers 24:22. Reference to its capital, Nineveh, and its founder, Asshur, we have also in Genesis 10:11. Our proposition suggests two questions - I. WHAT WERE ITS LEADING CRIMES? From these chapters we can infer a few. 1. Rapacity. The city is described as the dwelling place of lions. "Where is the dwelling of the lions?" etc. (Nahum 2:11, 12). "The point of comparison is," says Keil, "the predatory lust of its rulers and warriors, who crushed the nations like lions, plundering their treasures and bringing them together in Nineveh." As lions prowl about with ravenous instincts in search of their prey, and are utterly regardless of the sufferings and agonies they inflict, so long as they gain their object, so the King of Assyria and his minions went forth to rifle and to ruin distant countries, in order to augment their wealth and promote their aggrandizement. This rapacity seems to have been their habit; the city was a dwelling place of lions. What an enormity is this! - man preying upon man like predatory beasts. The spirit of this rapacity lives too strongly in modern nations. It is seen, not only in aggressive wars, but in trade and commerce - the strong everywhere preying on the weak for the sake of gain. 2. Cruelty. The lion instinct was so prevailing in the population, that the very city is called "the bloody city" (Nahum 3:1). The golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," was trampled in the dust. Instead of respect being paid to the rights of men, life itself was cheaply held; their feet were "swift to shed blood." It lived by rapine. Its cruelty is handed down in its sculptures, where we have lions of every form, winged and unwinged. Cruelty is the worst stage of depravity. When all social love in the human breast gives way to malevolence, what have you but a devil? There are men in every age and country whose chief pleasure is to inflict torture. Atrocities are being perpetrated to a greater or less extent in all ages and lands. "Beasts," says our great dramatist, "are not cruel save when urged by hunger;" but men are often so, and into a cruel nature it is impossible to work the humane and generous. "You may as well use question with the wolf, Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; You may as well forbid the mountain pines To wag their high tops, and to make no noise When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven; You may as well do anything most hard, As seek to soften that (than which what's harder?) - A cruel heart." 3. Imposture. The city is represented as "full of lies and robbery" (Nahum 3:1), or, as Keil renders it, "full of deceit and murder." Falsehood and violence were rampant. The imposture or falsehood is expressed in the fourth verse, "Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts." "The idolatrous practices of the Ninevites, and the means which they employed to seduce others to worship their gods, are here represented as the principal cause of their destruction. At the same time, the commerce, luxury, etc., which they carried to the greatest height, are not to be excluded; for in making contracts and treaties with the more powerful of their neighbours, they not only employed these as inducements, but did not scruple to deliver into their power nations and tribes that were unable to help themselves (comp. Joel 3:3, 6, 8; Amos 1:6). The metaphor of an unchaste female, and the seductive arts which she employs, is not unfrequent in the prophets" (Henderson). The cunning and deceptive policy is here called whoring or love making, because it was that selfishness which wraps itself up in the dress of love, but under the appearance of love seeks only the gratification of its own lust. It was a mistress of this art, and by it sold nations, deprived them of their independence and liberty. Such are some of the crimes here referred to, of which the Assyrians were pre-eminently guilty - rapacity, cruelty, imposture. These imply every species of moral evil, and moral evil in its most inhuman and ungodly aspects. Where these are there is no rectitude, no benevolence, no moral order, no true religion. II. WHY WAS SUCH A NATION ALLOWED TO EXIST SO LONG? It was wicked from the beginning: why did not righteous Heaven crush it at the outset? Why was such a monster of iniquity allowed to perpetrate such enormities in the world from age to age? The question is similar to that which Job asked, "Wherefore do the wicked live, Become old, yea, are mighty in power?" (Job 21:7). Without presuming to penetrate the mind of God, or give the reason, we can see some important purposes which the continuation of the existence of wicked men in this world answers. It serves to show: 1. The freedom of the human soul. The natural tendency of all the blessings and beauty of life, the spirit of grandeur and beneficence that runs through all nature, are against wickedness and in favour of virtue and holiness. Notwithstanding this, men are wicked. They have a power to resist the Divine, to pervert the good, and outrage their own natures. Here is freedom of nature. Men are not bad by necessity; they are bad by their own free determination. 2. The wonderful forbearance of God. Though wickedness is to the last degree repugnant to his holy nature, and though by a volition he could annihilate a universe of sinners, through his infinite love he forbears. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). 3. The existence of a future state of retribution. Under the righteous government of God such a state of things cannot go on forever. There must come an end, a balancing of the world's accounts, and an administration of justice to every soul. Human society is in an abnormal state; like water in a flood, it is hurrying onward to a more settled destination. "The mills of God grind slowly." - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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