THE CASTING DOWN OF PRIDE – Nahum 3:14-19

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 19, 2012 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group; December 19, 2012

Nahum 3:14-19

Theme: God humbles the material pride of Nineveh in judgment.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Chapter three of the prophecy of Nahum deals with the justness of God’s judgment upon the city of Nineveh. And the latter half of that chapter deals specifically with the justness of God’s judgment upon its pride. Nineveh—the capital city of the ancient Assyrian empire—was as prideful as it was wicked. It had at one point been humbled and repentant before God (see Jonah 3). But those days were forgotten; and God’s judgment for having abandoned the grace of God, and for having returned to its former wickedness, was doubly just.

In verses 8-13, we considered specifically the justness of God’s judgment upon its military pride—a pride through which the Assyrian empire made itself an oppressor of the world. And now, in verses 14-19, we consider God’s judgment upon its material pride—a pride through which the Assyrian empire comforted itself in its worldliness.

Notice . . .

I. THE MEANS OF ITS HUMBLING (v. 14-15).

A. Before we consider the specifics of its material humbling, we need to note how it was humbled. The means was by something that was a fitting judgment upon its wicked prosperity—that is, by siege. In a siege, a city is locked in upon itself by a surrounding enemy. It is cut off. Nothing can go out or come in. It eventually consumes itself and wastes away. And so, God—in a spirit of irony—urges the city to prepare itself. He tells the city, “Draw your water for the siege!” (v. 14). In the days of King Sennacherib (around the time that Nahum wrote), a great system of aqueducts was built to supply the city with water. But it was about to be cut off by the enemy. “Fortify your strongholds!”, God tells them; because the enemy was about to take them. “Go into the clay and tread the mortar!”—that is to close the breaches in the city wall. “Make strong the brick kiln!”; that is, in order to patch up its holes and to strengthen it.

B. But this was pure irony. The preparations against the siege would be of no use. “There,” Got tells them, “the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off; it will eat you up like a locust” (v. 15). In examining the ruins of ancient Nineveh, archaeologists report the clear evidence that the city was destroyed by fire. The walls were made weak were and easily overcome. The enemy came in with drawn swords and ate the city like locusts—overwhelming in number and impossible to resist. With further irony, God uses the same metaphor He uses to describe the invasion of the enemy to ‘exhort’ the city to prepare itself: “Make yourself many—like the locust! Make yourself many— like the swarming locusts!” Again, this was irony. Try as they may to fortify themselves through numbers, the “swarm” of the enemy upon them was greater.

II. THE OBJECTS OF ITS HUMBLING (v. 16-18).

A. Having established the means of its humbling, God—through the prophet Nahum—now describes the specific objects of “boast” that will cease to be a source of pride. First, Nineveh had boasted in a multitude of merchants—often the nations and people groups it conquered and forced into service—through which it had spread its commerce around the world and fattened its purse. God says, “You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven” (v. 16). But God would answer “multitude” for “multitude” in judgment. “The locust”—that is, the vast numbers of invading enemies—”plunders and flies away”. As God says in 2:9, to the locust-like invading Medes and the Babylonians who later conquered them, “Take the spoil of silver! Take the spoil of gold! There is no end of treasure, or wealth of every desirable prize.”

B. It had also boasted in its strong military leaders. We’ve seen some of them in action in the story of King Hezekiah (see Isaiah 36). What a terror they were! How much people feared them! But they would be objects of humbling too. “Your commanders are like swarming locusts, and your generals like great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges on a cold day; when the sun rises they flee away, and the place where they are is not known” (v. 17). They were like locusts that sat tepid and sleepy and immobile on a brick wall on a cold morning. As soon as the heat of threat from the enemy came upon them, they were gone.

C. It had boasted in its “shepherds”—that is, its social a political leaders. Assyria was a vast world empire—and Nineveh was its capital. But God says, “Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles rest in the dust” (v. 18a). The meaning, of course, is that they are sleeping the sleep of death, and that they are resting in the dust in a grave, and could do nothing to protect their people. God, in 1:14 had told the city, “I will dig your grave, for you are vile”; and now, its leaders—the pride of the city— were in it!

D. Its vast population had also been a source of pride. As we noted before, the city of Nineveh itself was vast. Its outer-reaches were far; and it was the center of a vast and powerful world empire. But in judgment, the empire would lose its center. “Your people are scattered on the mountains,” God tells them, “and no one gathers them” (v. 18b). What was left of the vast population of the great city became mountain people who were scattered from their city; and who hid in the caves and in the camps in fear, and without leadership.

III. THE CONSEQUENCE OF ITS HUMBLING (v. 19).

A. The humbling suffered by the once proud city would result in permanent loss. Some ancient cities and people groups were restored—perhaps in a different and weakened form, but restored at least. But not so Nineveh—the pride and jewel of the Assyrian empire. “Your injury has no healing, your wound is severe” (v. 19a). There would be no recovery. Interestingly, before its ruins were rediscovered and unearthed, many archaeologists thought that its remains were simply natural “hills” on the earth (see Walter Maier’s commentary, p. 362).

B. What’s more, its victims would rejoice in its humbling. There would be no love lost— no pity for the formerly-great city. The Assyrians had been brutal to the many people groups around it. It even threatened Israel—God’s covenant people. But God says this of its destroyed capital: “All who hear news of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?” (v. 19b).

* * * * * * * * * *

What a contrast this is to the pity that God had called Jonah to feel for it some decades before (Jonah 4:10-11). But it had repented then. Judgment is God’s strange work. He prefers to show mercy. But former righteousness will not save the unfaithful in the day of judgment—just as former wickedness will not prevent God’s blessing in the day of repentance (see Ezekiel 33:12-16).

May we, as redeemed people, live faithfully in and unfaithful culture; and may we be instruments God uses to declare His grace and turn people from the wrath to come.