Nahum 3:1-7 - Homiletics

Woe to Nineveh.

I. THREATENED . ( Nahum 3:1 .)

1. By the prophet. Jonah ( Jonah 3:4 ) had once before announced the destruction of the Assyrian capital, which threatening, however, was averted by the repentance of its inhabitants; Nahum's prediction was literally fulfilled, because Nineveh in due time filled up the measure of its iniquities.

2 . In the name of God. Had Nineveh's doom been pronounced only by Nahum's lips, it had been harmless; but Nahum was the mouthpiece of Jehovah, who already had declared himself against the great and wicked city ( Nahum 2:13 ), and a second time repeats the fact, "Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts" (verse 5). There is a wide difference between God's threatenings and man's.

II. DEPICTED . (Verses 2, 3.)

1 . The advance of a hostile force. "The noise of the whip [of charioteers urging on their steeds], and the noise of the rattling of wheels [of war chariots in motion], and prancing horses [ i.e. horses leaping up and starting forward as they feel the spurs dug into their sides], and jumping chariots [ i.e. springing up as they dash along the rugged ground]."

2 . The attack upon the city. "The horseman mounting [or, 'charging,' i.e. causing his steed to leap up and advance against the city]; and the flashing sword and the glittering spear; "rather than" the horseman lifteth up the bright sword and the glittering spear" (Authorized Version).

3 . The appearance after battle. "A multitude of slain, and a great heap of carcases." So numerous, indeed, are the fallen, that "there is none end of the corpses, and they," the Medo-Babylonian invaders, "stumble upon their corpses," i.e. the dead bodies of the Assyrians.

III. JUSTIFIED . (Verses 1, 4.) By the character of Nineveh.

1 . A city of blood; literally," of bloods," i.e. of bloodshed or murder, alluding to the barbarous and inhuman character of her warfare.

2 . A city of deceit. Referring to the vain promises of protection with which she beguiled the nations to put their trust in her—promises which she never kept any more than did Egypt.

3 . A city of oppression. "The prey departeth not." She is never done rending in pieces and tearing some nation or people.

4 . A city of seductions. A city of witchcrafts, the prophet comparing her brilliance and prosperity by which she fascinated surrounding powers and secretly drew them to seek her favour, to the grace and beauty with which a harlot attracts and bewitches passers by.

IV. EMPHASIZED . (Verses 5, 6.) By Jehovah, who declares that her doom will be:

1 . Certain; since he, Jehovah, is against her: "Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts."

2 . Shameful; since he will treat her, not as a chaste matron, but as a polluted harlot, whose skirts are thrown above her head, that her person may be exposed ( Isaiah 47:3 ; Jeremiah 13:22 ; Ezekiel 16:37-41 ; Hosea 2:3 ).

3 . Visible; since he will cause the nations to see her nakedness, and the kingdoms to behold her shame.

V. ATTESTED . (Verse 7.) By two things.

1 . The horror of the nations. "It shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee." Not so much in disgust (KeiI) as in terror ( Ezekiel 31:16 ); of. the effect produced by the fall of Tyre ( Ezekiel 26:21 ; Ezekiel 27:35 ), and of the mystical Babylon ( Revelation 18:10 ).

2 . The absence of helpers. Her fate was so richly deserved that no one interposed to ward off the stroke. In her hour of sorrow no one bewailed her; in her moment of weakness no one assisted her ( Isaiah 51:19 ).

Learn:

1 . That greater woes have been pronounced against sinners in general than were uttered against Nineveh—read the woes of Christ in the Gospels ( Matthew 23:13 , Matthew 23:14 , Matthew 23:15 , etc.; Matthew 26:24 ; Luke 6:24 , Luke 6:25 , Luke 6:26 ; Luke 11:42 , Luke 11:46 ).

2 . That these woes will no more fail in their fulfilment than did those directed against Nineveh. God's word never returns to him void ( Isaiah 55:11 ).

3 . That God's judgments upon the wicked will eventually vindicate themselves in all men's eyes as just. "Salvation and honour and power," etc. ( Revelation 19:1 , Revelation 19:2 ).