Nahum

Continuing my reading of the minor prophets, I came across Nahum, which announces God's judgment against the city of Nineveh, a major city in the Assyrian Empire, which flourished between 875 BC and 627 BC, if the Bible maps I'm using are accurate.  Nahum was writing between 658 and 615 BC, according to those same Bible maps, so it was written around the time that the Babylonian Empire conquered or absorbed the Assyrian area that includes Nineveh, I think.  Apparently, God is against Nineveh.  He pronounced through Nahum a judgment that does not change over time -- in the NIV, he says directly "I am against you" twice, and in one passage he makes clear his intentions toward Nineveh:

You will have no descendants to bear your name.  I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods.  I will prepare your grave, for you are vile. (1:14) 

Nahum does not contain as much of the prophetic turn toward God as the other minor prophets I have read.  It does promise "good news" to the people of Judah -- this was written during the time of the divided kingdom in Israel -- but not to the Ninevites.  When Jonah visited Nineveh in 781 BC, he brought a warning from God to the city, and the city repented.  However, this time God has apparently had enough of Nineveh.  The verse that struck me most is this one (1:7-8):

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.  He cares for those who trust in him, but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into darkness.

In one breath the prophet takes us from God's goodness to his wrath against Nineveh, and uses contrasting imagery to the light imagery used of God in the Psalms -- in Nahum, he pursues his foes into darkness.

It's interesting that I made the first part of this verse my verse for the year in January, but didn't really put the verse into context with the judgment against Nineveh.  The entire book of Nahum is filled with descriptions of God's wrath.  In verse 3:1, Nineveh is particularly singled out as:

the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!

and then in verse 3:4 as:

a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft

There is plenty of relevance for this Bible verse today, but I guess it depends on whether you think Nineveh represents all places that are not godly, or whether it is strictly a judgment against that particular place.  We, like Nineveh, tend to be proud of our status as a world leader here in the U.S.  Nineveh was not unlike some cities in the U.S. today, I imagine -- wealthy, ignorant of God's leading, sexually transgressive, and poised for a fall.  However, the actual city of Nineveh is near modern-day Mosul in Iraq.  The Babylonians superceded the Assyrians shortly after this prophecy was written, I believe, so many of Nahum's prophecies of judgment may have come true then.  One can't help but wonder, though, if God's judgment against Nineveh is an everlasting judgment that carries over to today, literally, in Iraq.  I don't think Nineveh has been rebuilt as a great city since the time of the Babylonians, and it doesn't appear likely that it will rise from the ashes any time soon.

I hope that my loyal readers and I will be the recipients of good news, not the bad news that awaits God's enemies, and that we can claim the promises made to Judah in Nahum for our own.  We shouldn't confuse the nation with God's people, though.  God's people are defined by faith in God, not by the nation-state in which they reside.  The U.S. can be represented by Nineveh just as much as Iraq, if we are arrogant and disregard God's call.  The warning in Zephaniah was against the "city of oppressors"; the warning in Nahum is against the "city of blood."  There is something to be said for not putting too much faith in military might -- even the strongest armies can be defeated by God.  That's a pretty political interpretation of the text, but it is implied in the literal reading.