THE BOOK OF NAHUM
OUTLINE
THEME: The destruction of Nineveh.
MESSAGE: "The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries" 1.2. "He will make all" 1.9. "There is no remedy for your wound, your wound is incurable" 3.19.
ANALYSIS:
1. God the Avenger - Chapter 1.
-
The attributes of Jehovah as "Destructive Fire" (Hebrews 12:29);
-
His majestic power seen in nature (3.5);
-
Nineveh shall be destroyed once and for all (8-10; 12; 14-15).
2. The Taking of Nineveh - Chapter 2.
- A vivid description of the siege (1-5) and fall of the city(6-13).
3. Their Complete Desolation - Chapter 3.
-
The sins of the Assyrian people: false, rapacious, cruel wars.
-
Nineveh will be destroyed completely, never to be raised again or known.
COMMENTS
The prophet Nahum was from Elkosh, an unknown place today, and he prophesied in the beginning of Josiah's reign, after the capture of No-Amon (Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt) by the Assyrians in 663 BC and before the fall of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria in 612 BC See chapter 3.8.
The name "Nahum" means "consolation," and his message would be enough to comfort the little kingdom of Judah, always threatened by the powerful empire of the Assyrians. Note chapter 1.7; 12,13,15 and 2.2.
Nineveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah, and was forgiven. Later, they rejected God and turned to idolatry, violence and cruelty. Nahum repeated the complaints of Jonah, and predicted the sudden and irrevocable destruction of the apostate city.
Everything happened as he said, the Medo-Babylonian army besieged and destroyed Nineveh, which remained in ruins until they were covered by desert sand - and forgotten by the world. They were rediscovered in 1845 AD.
See 2 Peter 3:9-11.