Meditations On The Book Of Nahum

Feature 3 – July/August 2025 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Meditations On The Book Of Nahum

The burden against Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. —Nahum 1:1 NKJV

Indictment!
The prophet Nahum was given a vision of what the L ORD would do with Nineveh, a city built by Nimrod. This man was “a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the L ORD … and built Nineveh” (Gen. 10:8-9,11). The city became the capital of Assyria.

In the days of Jonah, it was a “great city,” and the LORD said, “Their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jon. 1:2). Therefore, the Lord sent Jonah to the people of Nineveh with a message from God. He was told to “preach to it the message that I tell you” (3:2). The message was: “Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (v.4). “So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them … God saw their works that they had turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it” (vv.5,10).

Many years later the city returned to its evil. It was like “the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’” (2 Pet. 2:22). Again, they were guilty of wickedness (Nah. 1:3,11,15, 3:19). There was idolatry too (1:14), and they became enemies of God. He said to them, “Behold, I am against you” (2:13). So serious was this that God repeated Himself, “Behold, I am against you” (3:5). “The face of the LORD is against those who do evil” (1 Pet. 3:12). Is the Lord on your side or is He against you? The psalmist said, “The LORD is on my side, I will not fear” (Ps. 118:6). If you are not on the Lord’s side you have every right to be fearful, for “the LORD is a God of justice” (Isa. 30:18). “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7).

Judgment
The people of Nineveh had become His enemies, and Nahum declared, “The LORD … will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies” (Nah. 1:2). “Darkness will pursue His enemies” (v.8). God then gave Nahum a vision of His mighty power which, in judgment, was to be poured upon the city.

Nahum 2 indicates that He would use water in His judgment on Nineveh. “The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved, it is decreed … Nineveh of old was like a pool of water” (vv.6-8).

Then, Nahum 3 says, “Fire shall devour the bars of your gates … the fire will devour you” (vv.13,15). No one is able to stand when “His fury is poured out like fire” (1:6). “The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence” (v.5). “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of His anger?” (v.6).

Because God is holy and righteous, He must judge sin. Judgment, however, is “His strange work” (Isa. 28:21 JND). God has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways” (Ezek. 33:11 NKJV). God is not willing that any should perish. He has provided a way for all to be saved in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life … for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already” (Jn. 3:15,17-18).

Repent!
The name “Nahum” means “comforted.” The vision he received, God pouring out His judgment on Nineveh, would cause him to be concerned and fearful. No doubt he was comforted knowing that “the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him” (Nah. 1:7). “The LORD will restore the excellence of Jacob like the excellence of Israel” (2:2). “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet. 2:9). “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19).

God says what He means and means what He says. Every word spoken by God must and will be fulfilled. Before the flood, in the days of Noah, “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). The Lord Jesus said, “As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Mt. 24:37). Nineveh continued with its wickedness and evil; God came in with judgment.

“He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). But before the judgment, He “commands all men everywhere to repent” (v.30). Have you repented of your sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ?

“Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (Jude 14-15). Will you be coming with Him, or will you be the subject of His judgment? Have you been delivered from the wrath to come? First Thessalonians 1:10 points to the One who can save us: “Jesus … delivers us from the wrath to come.”

By Paul Palmer, Sr.

Hearing that a certain woman was very troubled I stopped at her home to see her. We went over some Bible passages together and knelt in prayer before God, but still the darkness remained. I did not seem able to help her. I rose and opened a door in order to go; but I found that the door I had opened led into the pantry instead of the garden. “That’s the wrong door,” she said, as she threw open the right one. There are a great many people who want to get out of misery into peace, out of danger into salvation, but they are going through the wrong door. They are seeking it by works and prayers and the like, but Jesus said, “I am the door” (Jn. 10:9 KJV). This woman then found the Door, the way of blessing; that door is Jesus, our Lord and Savior. —J. T. Mawson, “The Wrong Door” (adapted).