Nahum 1:2-6 - Homiletics

The wrath of God-a warning.

I. NECESSARY AS TO ITS EXISTENCE Based upon the character of God as a jealous God. Jealous:

1 . For his own glory, and therefore admitting of no rival claimant to man's worship and homage ( Exodus 34:14 ; Deuteronomy 4:24 ).

2 . For his holy Law, and therefore shut up to punish iniquity ( Exodus 20:5 ; Deuteronomy 5:9 ; Deuteronomy 29:20 ; Joshua 24:19 ).

3 . For his own people , and therefore impelled to take vengeance on their adversaries.

II. RIGHTEOUS AS TO ITS CHARACTER . Directed only and always:

1 . Against his adversaries; i.e. against those who decline to do him homage, and show this by worshipping idols.

2 . Against those who dishonour his holy Law by their disobedience and unrighteousness.

3 . Against those who oppress and tyrannize over his people, as the Assyrians had done and were doing.

III. FURIOUS AS TO OPERATION . The wrath of Jehovah is not a trifle. Nahum speaks of it as something that has fury in it (verses 2, 6). The prophets generally represented it as terrible in its forth flashing against sin and sinners ( Deuteronomy 29:28 ; 2 Chronicles 28:13 ; Isaiah 13:9 ; Jeremiah 21:5 ; Zephaniah 1:18 ; Zechariah 7:12 ). Christ did not view it as of small moment ( Luke 21:23 ; Luke 22:22 ). Reason does not warrant the idea that it will be slight and easy to bear, it being the anger of a great and holy God.

IV. SLOW AS TO MANIFESTATION . It does not spring forth readily. Scripture distinctly testifies that God is slow to anger (verse 3).

1 . Jehovah himself claimed that such was his character,

2 . The Bible throughout concedes to him this character. Moses ( Numbers 14:18 ), David ( Psalms 86:15 ), Jonah ( Jonah 4:2 ), Micah ( Micah 7:18 ), Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 9:17 ), alike proclaim it. In the New Testament, Paul ( Romans 9:22 ) and Peter ( 2 Peter 3:9 , 2 Peter 3:15 ) entertain the same idea.

3 . Experience sufficiently confirms the Divine claim and the Scripture representation. The providential treatment of the world, of the antediluvian race, of Israel and Judah, of Nineveh and Babylon, of unbelievers in Christendom and of idolaters in heathendom,—the best evidence that God is not willing that any should perish.

V. CERTAIN AS TO INCIDENCE .

1 . His character such as to demand this. "He will by no means clear the guilty." If he did he would contradict the representations of his character, falsify his word, and endanger his government. Hence his long suffering cannot arise from any secret sympathy which he has with sin, but must spring solely from his own inherent mercifulness.

2 . His power sufficient to secure this. If Jehovah is slow to anger, this proceeds not from any defect in his ability to execute wrath upon his adversaries. He is of great power—a truth explicitly set forth in Scripture ( Genesis 18:14 ; Exodus 15:11 ; Deuteronomy 7:21 ; Job 9:4 ; Psalms 89:8 , etc.), and amplified and illustrated by Nahum, who depicts that power in a threefold way.

APPLICATION . "Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?" (verse 6).