My spouse and I decided to start reading the Bible together again. It is interesting because like the Jedi Council, our marriage is a mix of personalities. We bring different strengths to the table, and we see things often from very different perspectives. Although now that we've been married a while, we're starting to see them from the same critical perspective. So I'm looking forward to this mini-Bible study, because I value seeing the Bible differently.
So as I prayed last night, I asked God briefly what part of the Bible we should study. It is a book teeming with truth (though I often have trouble seeing this truth until it's pointed out to me; see previous post). Old Testament or New Testament? The Old Testament deals mainly with God's relationship with His people. After Genesis, it pretty much repeats the same story over and over: God gives the people good things. After some time, the people (or their descendants) start focusing on the things instead of God, and decide they don't need God. God gets mad and starts sending bad things. The people suffer, and repent of their sin, and God being merciful relents and gives them good things again. I'm not being facetious when I say God is being merciful. It's kind of like giving a teenager your car, and they promise to be responsible, and then they go out, get drunk, and smash the car. Then you bail them out of their mess, and they ask for your other car, and promise to do better this time. Again. Eventually, we as human parents get tired and say no! Luckily, God is more merciful.
Back to the Bible. The Old Testament I read in large chunks, except for books like Proverbs or Psalms which are meant to be savored in little bits of wisdom. Similarly, the New Testament is nearly impossible to read in large chunks - Paul's letters and the Gospels are full of Wisdom sayings, which need to be digested slowly line by line in some cases. Only Acts acts as a history and can be read in large chunks. So I debated which book to do.
I got the feeling, first for Ezekiel, which I decided to stay away from because it parallels Revelation and I don't want to get into an End Times discussion, and then for Nahum. My first thought was, "Is that even a book of the Bible? Huh. I guess it is." I've read through the whole Bible once before (and read the common parts hundreds of times), so I've read through it but I don't remember it.
So, for this Bible study, we decided to do Nahum, paired with a New Testament book yet to be determined. If you're reading along, we welcome you to join us for this Bible study.
Bible Study
On first reading, it read like a typical history. God is going to punish Nineveh.
Background:
Nahum is a prophet from the city Elkosh. This is the only time he's mentioned in the Bible.
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrians, a powerful nation that often conquered the peoples around them.
Personal Relevence
-Now, while this book might seem boring (and it does get kind of repetitive in Nahum 2 and 3, which is why I'm lumping them together), this is actually pretty applicable to my spouse and I. You see, Nineveh was the capital of the enemy nation (the Assyrians). According to this website, the Jews were oppressed by this great power for many generations. God had sent Jonah to the Ninevites years earlier, and they had repented and accepted God. So they were supposedly God-followers. However, they turned away from God and continued to oppress the Jews.
I've been praying for my spouse, because they (yes I realize this is the plural form, but it protects their identity) have been in a similar situation. They currently work at a "Christian" institution, yet the people making the decisions have brutally crushed opposition with very anti-Christian actions and tactics while continuing to proclaim a "Christian" worldview. My spouse and their co-workers are very much oppressed, and it has led my spouse to question "Where's God in all of this?" It has seriously shaken their own faith. After all, how can they share a faith with people who are content to trod mercilessly on others just to get their own way?
So, over the past few years, while they originally rejoiced at the opportunity to work for a Christian institution, a place where they could supposedly live out their faith with like-minded people, instead they have been oppressed. So perhaps this is the book for them - a promise that God does see what's happening, and will eventually bring justice.
What does it Say?
Nahum 1:
God avenges. (rights wrongs, in angry/wrathful way). BUT, after stressing the Lord is angry, the writer says it actually takes a long time/many offences for the Lord to get angry (the Lord is actually slow to anger.) So we can assume Nineveh did many wrongs against the Lord before He got angry.
The Lord is powerful, meaning He has the capacity to punish. He is not a weak king, who may desire to curb evil but doesn't have the military or physical power to do so. God has plenty of power in abundance to punish, more than is needed.
The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
He is so powerful, He does many (seemingly impossible) things on this earth, and no mere man is powerful enough to oppose Him.
BUT, in contrast to this angry picture of God, it is stressed again - the Lord is good. He protects people, and he recognizes/intimately knows (or counts as his own) those who take refuge, or take advantage of that protection.
As I'm reading this, I make a note to look up the Hebrew word translated as "know" in verse 7. Does it mean recognize? Does it mean the intimately know/care for, as the same word "know" which translates for husband and wife (it's a very intimate, complete familiarity with something)? Or is it a different word?
Again, God angry after his enemies, and no man can come up with plans that God does not know (so again, no man can oppose Him).
Question upon reading, to return to in the next section: who are God's enemies? Just Nineveh? All of us, or at least all the unsaved who do not put their faith in Jesus (as it says elsewhere in the Bible)?
v. 11 - from "you" - I assume Nahum is talking to the town of Nineveh here - Nineveh has birthed a person who plotted against the Lord and is a "wicked counselor". Not sure exactly what this means. Was this someone who led many astray, in contrast to the Good Counselor (the Holy Spirit that the Lord sends)?
Nineveh's full strength doesn't matter, and because the Lord is now mad at Nineveh, He'll stop using them to punish the Jews (lift the Jews' punishment/current affliction) and instead punish the Ninevites. Even the Ninevites (false) "gods" will be destroyed.
THEN, in a seeming break from the passage, someone on the mountain comes bringing good news - peace! Is this peace to the afflicted Israelites (since God is going to turn His wrath away from them towards Nineveh)? So Israel can celebrate again, and give vows to God again, because wickedness is banished from her forever.
Nahum 2 and 3
The Lord tells Nineveh to summon all their strength, because they're going to need it against Him! (and still it won't be enough).
The Lord is restoring Israel from their lowly position.
Basically, the rest of Nahum 2 and 3 are all poetic descriptions of how the Lord will destroy Nineveh.
What does it mean?
I'm not sure. If I had to glean some meaning out of it, for say a class discussion, I'd do the following:
Look at the key players. In this book, we have God, the Ninevites, the Jews, and the prophet Nahum. Unlike some of the other prophetic books, Nahum does not interact with people here. We don't know how his message was received. I'm guessing that it was met with rejoicing by Israel, who was hearing that their oppressors were going to be destroyed. Hallelujah! Not only was their suffering going to stop, but God was going to put an end to the ones doing the suffering!
Now let's go on a little deeper level:
The Ninevites had been preached to by Jonah, and repented. They were supposed to be on the same side as the Jews! They were supposed to be following God, but they'd strayed. In other words, they were God-followers only in name, but far from God in their actions.
The Jews: in this passage, it mentions that the Jews are under oppression. Presumably, (usually when this happens in the Old Testament), it is God punishing the Jews for disobeying Him. So the Jews are seeing and judging the Ninevites as evil, but they haven't repented for their own sin (because when they do, God stops punishing them...and the prophet mentions they're being punished still, so they haven't repented).
From above, looking up the word "know" in v. 7 (it is indeed the Hebrew intimate knowing). Here is a good website which explains it much better than I can: http://skipmoen.com/2010/09/21/yada-yada-yada-2/
It seems as though the Wicked Counselor referred to in Verse 11 is generally thought to be Sennacherib, or possibly the Assyrians as a whole.
Acccording to the Benson Commentary on BibleHub, this passage is taking place while Sennacherib is warring against the Israelites and has already taken 10 tribes captive. Hezekiah is king. So this puts it at a very definitive time in history, when we can look up and see exactly how sinful the Israelites have been (see 2 Kings 18)
In 2 Kings 18, it says that the Jews would neither listen to the word of God, nor obey it. So they were doing wrong, and they didn't care, and didn't want to hear otherwise.
God:
The last person/character in this passage is God. In fact, the passage mainly centers around God, mostly detailing his wrath but also taking time to contrast that with His personality - slow to anger, protecting, caring, intimately knowing. This passage juxtaposes the two images, intermixing them frequently so we can see the contrast side by side. Why does the speaker do this? Because with all these descriptions of God's anger, we might become afraid of God, or think that somehow it's unjustified! Instead, the speaker reminds us God is first and foremost sheltering, caring, and it's only when we refuse to take refuge in Him, and refuse to do His works, and then on top of that refuse to even listen to admonishment about our mistakes (in other words, be headstrong and/or so enjoying of evil things that we don't want to turn away or be told they're wrong), that God gets mad.
This passage details the end of God's wrath for Israel, and a restoration to the right order of things - Israel once again making vows to God, and her main enemy subdued. At the end of the world, God will also restore things (comparison to the other major restoration in the Bible).
How else does this fit as a whole into the Bible?
Well, as stated, it comes during the period of Jews abandoning and then repenting/recommitting to God. This is the relief part of the cycle, for one of the cycles. In 2 Kings, it said Hezekiah was a good king, and had broken the bronze serpent Moses had created (cf. Numbers, and Jesus quotes it as well) to save people from the snakes many years before, because people had begun to worship the statue. Which means that the people now had no token to remember what God had done for them, to remember God...Jesus wasn't yet around as their savior.
Why was this passage written, and to whom?
This passage was written to the Jews. I believe it was written to reassure them, reassure them that they are once more right with God (their punishment is ceasing), and to comfort that their physical troubles will end soon.
How does this relate to modern life? To my life?
1. God punishing the punishers:
School - I remember being in school and being bullied. I definitely would have rejoiced to hear that the bullies were going to get "payback"! Sometimes, after suffering a lot, we rejoice to think that they'll experience exactly what they gave out - that they'll get payback. However, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. In Return of the Jedi, Luke was totally within his rights to go after Darth Vader full force. After all, Darth Vader had previously cut off his hand, and if Luke hadn't joined with him and hadn't escaped, Darth Vader would probably have killed him. Darth Vader had tortured his friends. In other words, Darth Vader did the same things that a lot of bullies do - he hurt Luke, and he hurt his friends. But instead of hurting him, Luke believed there was good in his father, and was determined to bring that out.
In the same way, even bullies at school are people too. We all do hurtful things to people, and we all have our good parts. Be determined not to stoop to their level - not to wish for their pain, even if it is justified - and instead recognize our own mix of good and evil, and try to bring out the good in them.
Similarly, if you're out of school, sometimes an employer or coworker can be difficult to deal with. God will bring about justice eventually, but often He chooses to heal situations through a restoration to peace, rather than through vengeance. Look for the good, choose to walk with God daily, and be ready to be an agent to bring that good about.
2. God Followers who Aren't Acting Godly: (the Ninevites)
Like the Ninevites, there are some Christians, or people of other religions, who supposedly follow God but commit horrible atrocities. In fact, the meanest people I've known in my own life have professed to be Christians. Now, churches aren't perfect, and people aren't perfect, but in a lot of churches I've gone to, there've been people left out, people who are perhaps awkward or introverted. That could be the subject of another whole blog post as to how the church can better cater to introverts. But the point is, awkward people make other people uncomfortable, and some people are content to leave those people out.
There are also Christians (I will focus on Christians here) who, while they don't commit atrocities are busy pursuing the American Dream of wealth rather than pursuing God.In other words, they still aren't acting godly. Maybe they're not spending time with their family in order to pursue their career.
If this is you, be forewarned! I don't like doomsday gloom and doom, but our hearts should be on God. If you've found you've turned away recently, choose today to turn back to God.
For non-Christians, this is also applicable, because every person that does not put God first is an enemy of God. This passage explains that God will punish the guilty eventually, and without Christ, we are all guilty.
3. The Mote in your brother's eye: (the Jews)
At the same time, when we've seen other people who label themselves Christian act ungodly, it's tempting to think "they're not really Christians". In other words, we distance ourselves from them. Yet at the same time, we excuse our own wrongdoing as "whoops, made a mistake there. I know better now."
So instead of judging other people, give them grace and be merciful, because we all make mistakes. Put your energy into being the best Christian you can be, and if their behavior helps solidify that image (even if it's knowing more of what you don't want to be like, that's a good thing).
So if I were writing a short report on this, what would I write?
- I would note that one of the major themes is contrast of God's anger with God's good side, and the Ninevites' apparent strength with their coming downfall. God brings down the strong but lifts up the weak, evidenced in mentioning again that He is a stronghold for those who take refuge in Him (in other words, for weak people looking for a place to protect them - not warriors).
- I would draw inferences between the relationship of the Jews and the Ninevites about 1) making sure godly actions align with a profession of following God, both as shown by the Ninevites and implied by the Jews' punishment that they had forgone those godly actions, and 2) being quick to rejoice in peace but slow to rejoice in our enemies' demise, if we are to bring Christ's words into the picture, and 3) applying this to my own life, perhaps my spouse's restoration of justice is coming soon.
- I would end with the stressed importance of keeping an open mind to correction in life. We're all doing some things wrong, and we need to be able to hear that, however hard it is to take criticism. When we stop listening to God, that's when bad things happen. The Ninevites listened to Jonah the first time, and God decided not to punish them (Jonah, however, was pissed). It was their failure to listen, and the Jews' failure to listen to God, that brought punishment down on themselves.
- I would conclude with restoration (because that's the best thing to conclude with, right?) - God restores that which we think can't be restored. The tribes were in captivity of one of the strongest nations, yet God promised to bring down their captors...there is nothing God can't do. God restores all, in the end. The guilty won't go unpunished, the bad will be brought low, but the good will be lifted high. The world will become right again. I personally believe at the end of our lives, when we rejoin with God, we will be restored (not just in body but seeing everywhere we made mistakes, and what God was seeing...I think that will be very powerful).
- I've already forgiven the bullies in my life
- Right now, I'm struggling most with keeping God in mind throughout the day, and not just when I pray at meals/bedtime and church. To really live as if God is my guide in everything, because that's what I need in order to talk about Him more. How does this apply here? See below - maybe this realization that God does care for/ is concerned for me on a daily scale will seep into my consciousness and then come out through my words. Maybe every time I'm upset, I need to retreat to God as a stronghold, not just in prayer but taking refuge in His character and how He would act? or is prayer better (but that hasn't worked emotionally for me).
- Where do I need to be reminded about God's character? I think just in general, that God is good, and does pity us/is concerned for us, and is a shelter for us, even when He's angry. It's that level of care, that God is caring about what goes on in my life, and does emotionally feel for me/sympathize with my day to day life, and is trying to care for me for my physical and emotional needs. Personally, I think of God more as a king or a parent more than a friend, and authority figure who comforts but not so much on the daily scale.
- I certainly need to keep an open mind about correction. This could come into mind when my spouse and I have an argument, for example. I need to internalize that I'm not always right, and there is no shame in admitting I'm wrong. It doesn't say anything about my character to admit I was wrong, and character is most important.
- Restoration - possibly about my anxiety (that all things will be restored, though like Mary with the raising of Lazarus I say "I know it will in the end" but don't have faith it can be done now).
- Nineveh - is the United States like Nineveh? People in the U.S. often claim the U.S.'s infallibility, especially in having God's blessing in everything...Probably not true. God doesn't support one nation, people are expected to serve Him, not the other way around. How much are we like Nineveh?
- God's wrath - evangelicals/some Protestants tend to underestimate, with the emphasis of a personal relationship with God.
- God wiped memory of Nineveh - how cool is that! they didn't even remember it existed for a long time.
- if not with God, there's no hope. We must act in accordance with God's will to get anywhere in life!
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