“This is the message for the city of Nineveh. This is the book of the vision of Nahum, who was from the town of Elkosh. The Lord is a jealous God who punishes; the Lord punishes and is filled with anger. The Lord punishes those who are against him, and he stays angry with his enemies. The Lord does not become angry quickly, and his power is great. The Lord will not let the guilty go unpunished” (Nahum 1:1-3a ncv).
The historians did not give the exact location where Nahum came from, but it was most likely that Nahum was a prophet in Judah. Between 663-612 B.C., Nahum predicts the downfall of Assyria’s capital city, Nineveh. Nineveh had repented under the preaching of Jonah more than one hundreds years ago, but the people had returned to their idolatry, cruelty, and oppression. The Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and were planning to destroy Jerusalem and Judah, but God would not allow their plans to be successful. Nahum comforted God’s people by telling them that God would destroy the Assyrians. Ninevah’s fall happened in 612 B.C. when it was conquered by coalition of the Babylonians. (Coalition means Babylonians had help with other nations).
Note: You might want to look into II Chronicles Greater Power 1 & 2 (August 6-7, 2009) because it fitted the story of King of Judah, Hezekiah who were challenged by Sennacherib, king of Assyria during 701 B.C. and how the angel of the Lord went out and killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. The king of Assyria went back to Nineveh and he was killed.
What can we learn from this?
God is a jealous God and He is very protective of His people. He makes sure that the people of Israel would not be completely destroyed by any nations even though God had to punish His people for breaking His laws. Jeremiah, the prophet prophesied 70 years of Babylonians’ captivity of people from Judah, and God made sure that there would always be remnant of Judah who come in the line of the future Messiah. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel (descendants of David) and others came back and rebuilt the Altar, the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem between 538-516 B.C.
See Nahum 2 The Lord is good.
