If you would, open your Bibles
back to Nathan chapter 1. The title of the message tonight
is The Fury and Goodness of God. And I believe if we're going
to preach the gospel, we have to tell men and women three truths
about God. There's three essential truths
that we must tell them. We have to tell them, first of
all, who God is. We have to tell them about the
holiness of God, the majesty of who God is. We have to tell
them about His sovereignty and His power. He is God. This is
the God that Scripture declares and this is the God with whom
we have to do, every one of us. This is the God with whom we
have to do. Second, we must tell them the terror of God. We must
tell people, if we're going to preach a gospel that will do
them any good whatsoever, we have to tell people about the
justice that men and women, every one of us, deserve outside of
Christ. There is no doubt God must punish
sin. He will punish every single sin
that's ever been committed on the face of this planet. He'll
either punish you or He'll punish your substitute. But one way
or the other, He will punish sin. He's a holy God. And that
causes the sinner to meet Him in terror, the terror of God.
And third, we must tell people about the love of God, the grace
and mercy of God that's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
all three of these truths are in Nahum chapter one that Dan
just read for us. I don't believe I've ever heard
a message preached from this book, and I'm not trying to be
cute and be the first. I just happened to be reading
it. I don't even remember what caused me to be reading it. I
just saw these three truths about God very clearly in this chapter.
Now, Nahum's name means consolation or comfort, which seems a strange
name for the man whose ministry, his prophecy, is the utter destruction
of Nineveh. There is no consolation or comfort
given to the citizens of Nineveh. His prophecy and ministry is
to tell them of the utter destruction that is to come. But in the midst
of all that destruction, There's a promise to Israel of comfort
and consolation and peace. Nahum's message to Nineveh is
destruction, but to Israel it's consolation and comfort. So that's
what we'll look at here in this chapter this evening, Lord willing.
Verse 1, the burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum
the Elkoshite. Now there is a burden in preaching
the Word. When we stand to preach, to open
God's Word, we're speaking for God. My daughter, Savannah, on
Sunday mornings before my Sunday school class, if she can get
a hold of me, she likes to feel my hands. She's amazed how cold
my fingers are. And she told me Sunday, she said,
you do this every week. And I say, the day I don't have
that physical reaction is the day I've heard, get out. Just
the burden. And maybe it was burden. is to
tell Nineveh the burden that God's put on them. His ministry is to tell Nineveh
the burden that God's put on them because of their sin. The
burden of judgment that's coming to them. They may not even recognize
the burden they're under, but they're under a great burden,
and God had Nathan prophesied to tell them that. And that's
a picture of sin. Sin puts a burden on all of us,
on every son of Adam, that we cannot carry. We can't bear it.
It will ultimately destroy every one of us, the burden of sin.
Now, his prophecy here is to Nineveh. Now, all most of us
know about Nineveh, really all I ever knew about Nineveh, was
the story of Jonah that we read to open the surface. God sent
Jonah to Nineveh to preach the gospel, to declare to them that
judgment is coming. In forty days, God is going to
destroy this city. And the Lord had mercy. Nineveh
repented and the Lord had mercy and spared that city. Now this
is 150 years later. Nathan comes along and the dogs
return to his vomit. The city, according to the writers
I read, is more wicked in this day than when Jonah first came
to it. It had been worse than ever.
And Nineveh was a great city. It was the largest city in the
Syrian empire. It rivaled Babylon for its riches
and its beauty, its architecture, the wealth of the city. Its circumference
was 60 miles. It had walls 100 feet high. Those walls were wide enough
that three or four chariots could ride side by side on top of that
wall. It had a population by a million people. Huge city.
But none of that, first of all, none of that was impressive to
God. Second of all, none of that brought them any protection against
God's wrath. You might go there and find a
good job. They had a thriving economy, but you could not find
a person there who knew God. And that's why, that's Nahum's
job, is to tell them who God is. And he begins that in chapter,
in verse 2, he starts to tell them who God is. He says, first
of all, God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth
and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies." Now,
based on a history lesson that they could read in a book, the
people of Nineveh probably had some idea that God's merciful.
The reason their city's still there is God's merciful. He spared
them. But what they didn't know about God is He's a jealous God. He's jealous of His name. He's
jealous of His glory. He's jealous of His reputation.
of the worship that's deserved him, and he will not share his
glory with another. He's a jealous God. Look back
in Exodus chapter 34. Let's look at two scriptures
on this. Exodus 34. Verse 14, for thou shalt worship
no other God, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a Jealous
God. His very name is Jealous. That
tells you how Jealous He is of His glory. Now look in Deuteronomy
chapter 6. Deuteronomy 6 verse 13. Thou
shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and shall swear by
his name. He shall not go after other gods,
or the gods of the people which are around you. For the Lord
thy God is a jealous God among you. Lest the anger of the Lord
thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from the face
of the earth. Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as he tempted
him at Massa." Well, he's talking here about tempting the Lord,
and what will bring the wrath of this jealous God is idolatry.
Going after these other idols and undoubtedly part of the wickedness
of Nineveh is idolatry. At one time apparently they feared
God, but now they've wholly turned to idolatry. They're going to
be destroyed for it because God's a jealous God. The next name
tells them that the Lord is a God of vengeance. He will revenge. He'll bring vengeance on sin. And that vengeance will come
with a consuming fury. and fury are attributes of God
just as much as holiness and love are attributes of God. Everybody,
none of them, may have known God's love, but did they know
the fury of God? Did they know the vengeance of
the God that He will bring vengeance on His enemies? He will bring
vengeance on sin. He will destroy His enemies. He has wrath reserved for them,
waiting for them until His time. But just because He's not unleashing
that fury now doesn't mean it's not there. holding it back for
a time. It's reserved for a time. And
we need to hear this. Our world needs to hear this.
We need to hear this. You and me need to hear this.
This is a description now of God Almighty. This is who He
is. Sinners need to hear this and
tremble. And God's people need to hear and rejoice. This is
our God. But this is who He is. In verse
3, Nahum goes on. He says, The Lord is slow to
anger and great in power. and will not at all acquit the
wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet." Now, God is slow to
anger. That's a truth we read throughout
Scripture. We read often of the forbearance
of God, the longsuffering of God. And that's very true. God's longsuffering. He's more
longsuffering in this world than I'd be. He's more longsuffering
in me than I'd be. But He does move towards judgment.
He moves slowly, but He does move towards judgment. This prophecy
of the destruction of Nineveh took 115 years to be fulfilled. 115 years! Nobody in Nineveh
can blame God for them being destroyed in this destruction
and judgment that's coming upon them. He gave them plenty of
opportunity, didn't He? Just like no one, when God sends
a man to hell, can never blame God for God sending him to hell.
God's slow to anger. He always gives plenty of opportunity
for repentance. Plenty. But they ignore it in
their wickedness. God's slow to anger and He's
great in power. He has all power. He's omnipotent. Anytime I hear this word omnipotent,
I think of this illustration. When I was in high school, I
was in the chorus. When I was in high school at
that time, we had over 200 members in our chorus. And I sang bass. I don't sing very good, but I
can sing loud. And I sang bass. Because you
know, the thing about basses is they never get to sing the
lead. You know, they're just kind of part of the background.
Well, at Christmas time, every year, our chorus would get together. We'd sing the Hallelujah Chorus.
We'd sing it in our Christmas program. We'd go down to the
radio station and sing it on the radio. And there's a line
in there where the basses get to, I don't know if it's the
lead or not, but nobody else is singing but the basses. And
we liked it, because it's the only time we got to sing where
everybody's hearing us. And the line was, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. And we sang that song through,
and it wasn't like it ought to be. And the teacher stopped.
And she told us what it means for the Lord God to be omnipotent. And she told us, you belt that
out. The Lord God Omnipotent, He reigneth. He has all power. And we did. I mean, we sang it for all we're
worth. And I always thought the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. That's the God Nahum's talking
about. He has all power. And He's holy. God's chief attribute
is His holiness. And He will not overlook sin
forever. He's slow to anger. He'll forbear
for a while, but not forever. The time's coming, He will punish
sin. He must punish sin because He's
holy. And when judgment finally does
come, it will be complete, complete destruction because the Lord's
great in power. There's none that are going to
be able to avoid Him. None will be able to overcome
Him. He's great in power. And He will unleash that omnipotence
in judgment and wrath on sin, on His enemies. And Nahum says, the Lord has
his way in the whirlwind. I don't know if this word whirlwind
means tornado, but that's what I think of when I hear the word
whirlwind. When a tornado comes out of the
sky and touches down, it looks like it has a very haphazard
path. It'll bounce here and there,
and it never goes in a straight line. It's just a crooked line,
you know. When I was in grade school, we'd have these tornado
drills. And the teacher one time was
telling us by a tornado, how very seriously you must take
this tornado drill. He said, we do everything just
right. And he'd use me as an example. He said, me and Frank
could be here with our hands over our head and doing what
we're supposed to do. And that tornado would come through and
kill me and leave him untouched. It seems very haphazard that
you don't know what way the tornado is going to go. That thing's
not skipping here and there and yonder. God has his way in the
whirlwind. That thing's going the precise
path that our God's ordained that thing to go to. It's not
going by chance. He has His way in that thing. And a tornado does seem so powerful,
and rightfully so afraid of it. That thing's just a small token,
just a very small demonstration of the power of God. He's got
His way in that thing. It's sent for His purpose. God
took Elijah home in a whirlwind. God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind.
That just shows us the power and terror of God. To speak to
God is not just like you and me talking to one another. God
spoke to him out of a whirlwind. I bet he never forgot that. And
the clouds that kick up, the storm clouds, that's just the
dust that kicks off the feet of God as he walks across the
sky. And that's just a metaphor, but that tells us something about
who God is. His majesty. His enormity. Who He is. And this is the one
that's promising judgment to Nebuchadnezzar. This is the one
that promises judgment to men's sin outside of Christ. This is
the one who will judge sin. Well, Nebuchadnezzar goes on
in verse 4. He says, He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry. He
drieth up all the rivers, basin languisheth. Carmel and the flower
of Lebanon languishes. This is more the power of God.
The sea is dried up when God speaks. He doesn't have to come
down and do something, build a dam, or you know, it takes
years to do. He speaks and the sea is dry. The Word of God parted
that Red Sea. That seabed that had been forever,
I reckon, underwater, was suddenly dry and hard as the desert and
the floor, and the children of Israel walked across that thing
to safety, because God parted the sea. The wind and the sea
obeyed the voice of God. They're His creation. You remember
the story when our Lord was asleep in the boat, and they were out
there in the sea, and the storm was so bad, the disciples thought
they were going down. And they wake up, the Lord said,
don't you care, we perish? He comes and stands up on a boat
and looks out and says, peace be still. No wind, no waves,
they're gone. And those men said, what manner
of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey his voice? Well, I'll tell you who he is.
He's God. The wind and the sea obey him.
He rebukes the river and it dries up. Jordan was parted so the
children of Israel could stroll through. into Canaan, into the
Promised Land. Now Nineveh knew something about
a river. That city was built, that great
city was built on the banks of a great river. It was either
the Tigris or Euphrates, depends who you read. Different people
have different opinions. But it was built on the banks
of a great river. And the residents of Nineveh
believed they were always safe from any invader because they
were always protected on this side by this great river. They
knew nobody could come at them from this side. Well, now don't
be too sure. The Lord just might rebuke that
thing and dry it up and leave you without any defense whatsoever.
You just don't know. That thing's in God's hands.
It may seem out of your control, but He can just rebuke it. And
it dried up. And we'll see more on that here
in a minute on this river. But He speaks here about Bation
being suddenly just dried up. Well, Bation was famous for its
lush pastures. Just wonderful green, thick pastures
would grow there. Carmel is famous for its rich
cornfields that just grow corn. Lebanon is known for the great
cedar trees that grew there. Rich, fertile places on earth
would all in a moment become dry and barren at the Word of
God. Just in His Word. You see, God
is the one who gives life and He's the one that takes life.
It's in His hands to sustain it or take it, give it or keep
it. All life is in His hands. This
is the one with whom we have to do. Well, verse 5, he goes
on. He says, The mountains quake
at him. The hills melt and the earth is burned at his presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein. God is so great that
the mountains quake and tremble at his presence. That's what
Sinai did in the wilderness when the children of Israel were there
and the presence of God came down that mountain. It shook.
And the people that saw it shook and feared. This is how great
God is. Those mountains that seem so
awesome, huge, immovable to us, are an anthill to God. Now these
mountains could also represent great people. Kings and princes
and rulers who seem great and powerful and immovable like a
mountain. And they do have power. God gave
it to them. But they're like Pilate. They
only have the power that God gave to them, and they only have
it as long as God gives it to them. They'll melt and tremble
at the presence of God. He gives them power for a time.
Sometimes he gives a wicked man power over his people. But God's
coming. That man will melt at the presence
of God when he calls him to account for his rule. And Nineveh, this
great city, could be considered a mountain. It's the greatest
city in that empire, but one day, Nahum says soon, it'll be
flattened. And the writers tell me that
today, no one even knows for sure where Nineveh was. This
great city was destroyed so completely, the archaeologists can't find
it. Because God's judgment came to it, just like he said it would.
And the earth is burned up, Nahum says, at the presence of the
Lord. All the Lord has to do is withhold a little rain. and
it becomes just barren and burned up. Or it could rain fire and
brimstone and the place would be burned up. Either way, that's
the same. And one day the Lord will burn
up this entire world. He'll burn it all up because
of sin. That'll be His judgment against
sin. He'll burn it all up. The same way He's promising to
destroy Nineveh. One day He'll destroy this world
and He'll create a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells
righteousness. But till then, This whole earth
is just waiting for the moment that God unleashes His fury and
His wrath against sin. Now verse 6, given all these
truths about who God is, who thinks they can stand before
His indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire
and the rocks are thrown down by Him. It would be utter foolishness
for a man to think he'd stand before God. The greatest of men,
they think they're invisible, invincible. I listen to ESPN
radio a lot as I'm driving around, you know, former athletes on
there talking. And they talk about, you know,
when you're a professional athlete, everything goes your way and
you think you're invincible. You think nothing can hurt you.
You think the rules don't apply to you, the laws of the land.
Or the physical laws, they, you know, I'll never get old, this
will never hurt my body because they think they're invincible. The Lord can throw them down
so easily, just in a moment, just a germ will just wipe them
out. Now this is God. To God's people,
this is our God. But this is God. And this is
why we approach Him. Now because He's our God, we
approach Him in prayer and we come to Him. But we do so reverently. But this is who He is, God. And
in the midst of the prophecy of this judgment and destruction
that's coming, the power of God and who He is, we see mercy shining
through. Verse 7. The Lord is good, a
stronghold in the day of trouble. And He knoweth them that trust
in Him. John Gill says, one of the old ancient translations
says, The Lord is good to Israel. And that's probably the way this
should have been translated. The Lord is good to Israel. He
is always good to Israel. He is good to spiritual Israel.
I try to spend some time thinking, how good has God been? How good
has He been? Well, when God created the earth,
everything He created, He looked down and saw it was good. Everything
he did was good. We just studied here in Sunday
school, all things work together for good to them who love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. David said in
Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 27, David said, I would have fainted. I just would have
quit unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living. Psalm 107, four times, the psalmist
writes, Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and
His wonderful works to the children of men. The Lord's good. And even when we don't see it,
and we may not always perceive it, we think, well, this isn't
good. Here's what I can promise you. God's good. He is good to
Israel. God has infinite power, infinite
holiness and infinite wrath against sin. but that at the same time,
He has infinite goodness, infinite mercy reserved for His people
too. The same infinite power that God is going to use to destroy
His enemies is the same infinite power that He uses to protect
and provide for His people. That hand of fury is not going
to be unleashed on you. That power is going to be used
to protect you so that your life is secure in His hand. God will
completely destroy every enemy, and he will save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him, by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has all power. He's good. And he is a stronghold
in the day of trouble. He's a strong, safe hiding place
in the day of trouble. Look back at 2 Samuel 22. He's
our hiding place, our shield, our defense. 2 Samuel 22. Verse 2, And David said, The
Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, the God of my rock,
in Him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn,
the power of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my Savior. Sounds to me like Christ is all
in all to David, doesn't it to you? Thou savest me from violence
because you're my hiding place. You're my stronghold. Look over
Psalm 32. Psalm 32, verse 6, For this shall
every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou
mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him, because thou art my
hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. In one
other scripture, Isaiah 32, God is a stronghold, a hiding
place for His people. Isaiah 32, verse 1. Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Who is this man that is
going to be a hiding place from the storm? It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I wish I could impress on
the hearts of everyone that ever hears me preach, run to Christ. Flee to Him. Run to Christ. Because I'm telling you, there
will be a day of trouble. The day of judgment will be a
day of trouble. A stormy time. You run to Christ. You'll be found in Him. And you'll
be secure. There'll be a safety from the
high and clay, from the storm. He'll be the only stronghold
that'll stand. And in this life, run to Christ. Run to Him. Because in this day, in this
life, there will be a day of trouble. You can just bank on
it. But it'll only be a day. One of the writers said this,
it'll only be a day for God's people. It has a beginning and
it has an ending. It might seem like a long day.
Some days I'm at work and it seems like a day is taking 50
hours. It might seem like a long day,
but there's an end coming. God's going to have the sun set
and that day will be over. And at the end of the day, everyone
found in Christ will be safe and secure. He's our stronghold.
He's our protection. He's the place we run to for
safety. And He knoweth them that trust Him. He knoweth them. That word means He loves them.
He owns them. He knows them like a husband
knows his wife. He knows her in a special, intimate,
loving relationship. He knows His people. He knows
what's best for us. And He gives us what's best for
us. A lot of times I know what's best for my girl, but I can't
give it to them. I can't make it happen. He knows what's best. And He gives what's best to His
people. Because He's good. The Lord is
good. And He makes Himself known to them that He knows. He doesn't
just keep that to Himself. He makes you know Him. And you
love Him. Because He loved you first. And
He knew you first. And you know what will be the
horror of the Day of Judgment? The horror of that day will be
this. To hear God say, depart from Me. I never knew you. You can't even bear to think
about it. But that won't happen to God's
people. He's known His people from eternity. Now, verse 8,
He goes back to judgment. He says, with an overrunning
flood, He will make an utter end to the place thereof, and
darkness shall pursue His enemies. Judgment in Scripture is often
referred to as an overflowing scourge, just the floodwaters
gushing through and washing away everything in its path. Now remember
I told you about that river that Nineveh thought was protecting
it from its enemies. One day there came a siege. Some
king from somewhere came and put a siege on that place and
they thought they weren't worried. It lasted a long time. Couldn't
get in the place. And one day God sent a rain.
He didn't dry up the river. He sent a rain and made that
river flood. And that river flooded up to the wall of that city and
washed away the foundation of that wall. And it came crumbling
down. And the enemy came in, and that's
when the city was destroyed, because he used the flood to
wash away what they thought was their protection. And like I said a minute ago,
it was destroyed so completely you can't even find it today.
And the enemies of the Lord ended up in utter darkness. And what
happened to Nineveh is just a picture of what's going to happen in
the Day of Judgment. All those strongholds that men think they
have will be washed away by the overflowing scourge of God's
wrath. and they'll end up in utter darkness. Now verse 9,
Nahum says, What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make
an utter end. Affliction shall not rise up
the second time. For while they be folded together
as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall
be devoured as stubble, fully dry. This is the result of a
dead nature. Men think that somehow they can
outsmart wisdom personified. They think somehow they can overpower
omnipotence. That they can somehow resist
the eternal will of God. And the Lord's going to make
a short work of people like that. He's just going to fold them
up like He would when you cut down a thorn bush or something. And when you've got it all cut
up and bundled up, what do you do with it? You burn it. It's
useless. That's all it's good for. And
that's what He's going to do to His enemies. He'll overcome them
just as easily as a drunk man is overtaken. When he's drunk,
he's lost his strength, he's lost his coordination, he's lost
his mental ability to react quickly. My cousin married a police officer
and we were at a family function somewhere in town, I don't remember
where it was, and this fellow was drunk and he's disorderly
and he kind of started causing trouble around some of the children.
Cousin's husband is a police officer, and I didn't see this,
my brother Jonathan told me about it. Just real smooth, just went
up and started talking to the guy, and in an instant, had the
guy on the ground with his hand behind his back, and just telling
him, no, we're going to calm down, and you know, you're not
going to cause any more trouble. And Jonathan said, you didn't
even work to do, I couldn't believe how easily you did that. And
he said, well, it's not always that easy, and the guy's drunk. He's
just easily overtaken. This is not going to be hard
when the Lord comes to judge his enemies. They'll be overtaken
easily, and they'll be destroyed so completely they're not going
to be able to afflict again. They're not going to rise up
and afflict God's people again. They'll be put away. Now, verse
11, there is one come out of thee that imagines evil against
the Lord, a wicked counselor. Now, the man who put this burden
on Nineveh was their king, King Sennacherib, and his counselor
was Rabshaker. And these wicked men plotted
against Israel when Hezekiah was the king. And that's who
this prophecy is about, speaking here of Sennacherib. Now look
over in 2 Kings 18, and we'll see what it is that Sennacherib
did that was going to bring the fury of God on him. 2 Kings 18, verse 28. Then Rabshakeh, this counselor
of Sennacherib, stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews'
language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king
of Assyria, thus saith the king. Let not Hezekiah deceive you,
for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand, neither
let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will
surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the
hand of the king of Assyria. Now hearken not to Hezekiah,
for thus saith the king of Assyria, make an agreement with me by
a present. You bring me out a gift and a present, and we'll make
a treaty. And come out to me, and then eat ye every man of
his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and drink ye
every one of the waters of his cistern, until I come and take
you away to a land like unto your own land, a better land.
I'll take you away to a better land, a land of corn and wine,
a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey.
that ye may live and not die, and hearken not unto Hezekiah,
when he persuaded you, saying, The Lord will not deliver us.
Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out
of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath,
and the gods of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sephardim,
Hena, and Iva? Have they delivered Samaria out
of my hand? Who are they among the gods of the countries that
have delivered their country out of mine that the Lord should
deliver Jerusalem out of my hand. He's trying to tell them, the
Lord, Jehovah, is just like all these other idols. He doesn't
have the power to deliver you out of my hands. You better come
bow to me. And that's what he did to draw the wrath of God
upon him. Well, verse 12 back in our text,
Thus saith the Lord, Though they be quiet, and likewise many,
yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. Now,
Sennacherib and Rabshakeh are so confident because they have
such a large army. They have an army of at least
185,000 men. That's a large army for that
time. And they're quiet and they're
at peace because they think they have strength in numbers. They
don't think they can be threatened. And they even prophesied, the
Lord's going to cut you down like grass. I'm not a big fan
of cutting my grass. I cut my grass earlier this week.
And when I came in, I told Jan, I said, I'm glad that's done.
I said, do you miss that grass I just cut? And she said, no.
You don't miss it. You don't mourn over it. You're
glad it's gone. The place looks better once you've
done it. And that's what's going to happen
to the enemies of the Lord. Nobody's going to miss them.
Nobody's going to mourn for them. Everybody will agree the place
looks better now that they're gone. He's going to mow them
down like grass. Here at the end of verse 12,
he says, Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no
more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will
burst thy bonds and sunder. See, the Lord has allowed this
Sennacherib to afflict his people for a while for the Lord's purpose,
whatever that might have been. He allowed him to be a blight
on God's creation for a time, but no more. He forbear for a
while, but now that long suffering has come to an end and it's time
for judgment. Wrath has come. And there is a day coming when
every enemy of God will never be heard from again. When Snacharab
is destroyed, Israel's going to go free. And that's just exactly
what happened. Look at 2 Kings 19. After all his boasting, this
is what God had to say about him. 2 Kings 19, verse 32. Thus saith the Lord concerning
the king of Assyria. He shall not come into this city,
he's not even going to shoot an arrow there, nor come before
it with a shield, neither cast a bank against it. By the way
he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into
this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city,
to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went
out and smoked the camp of A hundred, four score, and five thousand.
A hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers lay dead. And when they
arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went in return and
dwelt at Nineveh. He went back with his tail between
his legs. Not boasting anymore, is he?
But judgment's coming. And that's what you know is a
picture of Christ setting his people free. He breaks the yoke
of Satan. He takes the burden of the law
and breaks it off of us. He breaks the yoke of sin. We
take His yoke upon us and learn of Him. And the Lord won't afflict
His people anymore because the sin that made Him angry has been
put away in Christ. It's been put under the blood.
I tell you, if the Son will make you free, you're free indeed.
Those bonds have been broken asunder. Now verse 14, the Lord
hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more by name be
sung. Out of the house of thy gods
will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will
make thy grave, for thou art vile." In 2 Kings 19 at the end
of that chapter, you know what we find out about Sennacherib,
how he died? He was worshipping in the house of his idol, just
like he says here, Out of the house of thy gods will I cut
off the graven image and the molten image. He was there worshipping
his idol, that hunk of wood. And that man's two sons came
in and killed him. His two sons did that. Why'd
they do that? Because God gave commandment.
And that's what happened concerning Sennacherib. He foretold the
exact way Sennacherib would die. Judgment came to that man. But
Israel is a different story. And we'll quit here in verse
15. 15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace. O Judah, keep thy solemn
feats, perform thy vows, For the wicked shall no more pass
through thee, he is utterly cut off." You know, the people of
Jerusalem were waiting for news of a battle. They watched those
messengers come across the mountains that surrounded the city, and
they were waiting, watching for those messengers. And those messengers
were a beautiful sight when one after another come across the
mountain, bringing tidings of a victory. All's well, the armies
won the victory. God's messengers are sent to
spiritual Israel. coming across the mountain with
good news, glad tidings. The Lord Jesus Christ has utterly
defeated every enemy. There's peace. There's peace
in Israel. You rest and relax and enjoy
the peace and prosperity that the Lord gives you. And Nahum
points out, he says, now when you were in trouble, you made
a vow to the Lord. Now you're delivered from trouble.
The wicked are not going to pass through here anymore. And he
tells them, you keep your vow. I looked and looked at that.
Because you know, every person, I mean, everybody, when they
get in trouble, they say, Lord, if you'll just deliver me from
this, I'll never smoke again. I'll never cuss again. You know,
during Holly's final, I know kids are praying, Lord, if you'll
just let me pass this, I'll never do it. I'll never not study again.
That's what people do. And that's not what he's talking
about here, not at all. That's bargaining with the Lord.
We don't do that. Tell you what he's saying. You
keep your vow. You pay the vow of thanksgiving.
You pay the vow of giving God the honor and the praise for
delivering you. Now, that's true. Let me show
you that in two scriptures. First, Psalm 50. Our vow that
we pay is the vow of praise and thanksgiving. Psalm 50, verse 14. Offer unto
God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High. Those
vows there are the vows and praise of Thanksgiving. Psalm 66, and
I'll quit. Psalm 66, verse 13. I will go into thy house with
burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which
my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.
I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the
incense of rams. I'll offer bullocks with goats."
See, that vow is giving thanks and praise to God. And after
this description of our God, this is who He is. I hope we'll
stand in awe. Stand in awe of who He is and
in awe of what He's done for us. That's amazing. It's more
than human language can tell. I think a good way for us to
end the service, Mike's picked a song The Lord has been so good
to me. That'll be our vow that we'll
pay Thanksgiving and praise. The Lord's been so good to me.
Alright, Mike.