Most people think of history as boring, though each day of our lives is history! So if you want to call your life boring, that’s fine, but history is filled with exciting events, fascinating people, and important lessons.
Understanding history is essential to understanding the Bible, as it contains both past and future events. The prophetic books feel harsh for revealing God’s judgment of sin and sinner. It reminds us that God is in control and holds us accountable for our actions, thoughts, words, and motives. Despite our preference for a more accepting view of sin, God’s love and judgment go hand in hand.
The three-chapters of Nahum begin declaring God’s character and works. Human are the same, acting because of who we are, and we are sinners at our core. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).
God is very different from us. Nahum shows that He is both just and merciful. He punished the wicked people of Nineveh because they sinned against Him, but He also shows mercy to those who love Him.
The second chapter of Nahum describes with amazing detail God’s destruction of Assyria before it happened, exactly as God willed it.
Nahum’s final chapter is God’s indictment of Nineveh’s sin and His ridicule of those who believed they could avoid His judgment. But God provided only one shelter from His judgment, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him (Nahum 1:7). He is the sinner’s only refuge.
Nahum is dark because our sin is dark. Yet Nahum provides glimpses of hope and light because God is merciful to those whom He loves. Romans 9:13-18 declares, As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” … “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
God is merciful and compassionate toward those whom He chooses to love. His chosen have nothing to do with the individual’s will, activities, efforts, or works. God says His His mercy, compassion, and love are according to His will and work.
Where Living Begins 