Nahum 2:1

Chapter one was a prelude-summary in which the overthrow of Nineveh was announced. The identity and character of the overthrower (Jehovah) were stressed, and that an "over-running flood" would contribute to the overthrow, that it would be the "final end" of the city, and that the forthcoming destruction was absolutely necessary in God's sight, "Who will by no means clear the guilty." As Fraser noted, "The overthrow of Nineveh was given in relation to the justice of God and to the oppressed people of Judah."[1] As a prelude should do, the first chapter briefly introduced a number of elements that would receive more extensive treatment later. "In the remaining two chapters, he turns to his subject in particular and in detail, setting forth its accomplishment in word-pictures of battle, unrivalled in Hebrew literature."[2]

The terrible destruction of this chapter must not be viewed as capricious or impulsive, but as the inevitable and ultimate achievement of the justice of God. "It was not Israel's pride that was at stake, but God's honor; and it was not even the redemption of his people that was primary, but the vindication of their God."[3] Assyria deserved destruction and death; and the Righteous One executed it upon them. However, there is more in Nahum than the destruction of an ancient, wicked city. It relates to a much larger and more extensive drama reaching from Eden to the Judgment.

"It is not the product of mere national hatred, or even of a desire for vengeance, but a hymn to that Nemesis (against all evil) at once ethical and divine, which inexorably realizes itself in history ... we should interpret it eschatologically."[4]

The seven great, monolithic, worldwide, persecuting powers that throughout history deployed themselves against God and which hated and oppressed his people, the same seven which appear in the prophecy of Daniel and in the Book of Revelation are: EGYPT; ASSYRIA; BABYLON; MEDO-PERSIA; GREECE; ROME; BABYLON THE GREAT (another ROME with a spiritual nature, and "diverse from the others," but also identified with the sixth), the Seven Heads of the Sea-Beast (Revelation 13:1-11). God's people had already witnessed the overthrow of the first head (EGYPT) in the Red Sea; and, in Nahum, the second head (ASSYRIA) perished in the ruin of its capitol city; and yet the Sea-Beast would not die throughout history, each mortal wound in the destruction of one head would lead only to the elevation of another. Egypt was succeeded by Assyria; and soon it would be succeeded by Babylon, etc.; but Nahum in this marvelous prophecy revealed God's unchanging hatred and opposition to human states as organized in their rebellion against God. "I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts" (Nahum 2:13; 3:5). No end of this sad succession of God-opposed "heads" of the Beast appears in prophecy until Revelation 19:19-21, where is revealed their ultimate overthrow in the "lake of fire." It is the significant relationship which Nahum has to that larger drama which endows it with an importance utterly lost to many through their failure to discern it. It is particularly in this context that "Nahum is essentially though not explicitly Messianic."[5] "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10); "Yea, all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after ... told of these days" (Acts 3:24). Thus there is definitely a witness of Christ in Nahum, indirect as it is. Nahum saw that the kingdom of darkness must fall before, "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15). "Such a message has a value for all time, as long as there remains aught in which the spirit of Nineveh survives."[6]

Nahum 2:1

"He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily."

"He that dasheth in pieces ..." is the Lord of hosts; the instrument by which his will would be executed upon Nineveh was Babylon. The fourfold warning of "keep... watch ... make strong ... fortify" is irony. Who can stand against the Almighty ? What human strength could avail against the Lord ?

"The Besieger of the world is at last besieged; every cruelty that he has inflicted upon men is now to be turned upon himself."[7] Some have labored to produce a list of the military forces arrayed against Nineveh; but, while interesting enough, those forces, composed largely of the Babylonians, were not identified as "He that dasheth in pieces." Jeremiah 51:20 identified both the Dasher and the instrument thus:

"Thou art my battle-ax (to the destroyer of Babylon) and weapons of war; and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms, and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider, etc. (Jeremiah 51:20,21)."

Although applicable to another situation, Jeremiah's understanding that God was the Executioner and that the armies of men were merely his instruments certainly sheds light upon the similar situation here. Jamieson also identified God as the Breaker, and the armies as his "battle-ax."[8]