Night Falls on the Day of Grace: Nahum

If you remember last week, we started a mini series called The Extents of God's Grace. So last week, we started a mini series called The Extents of God's Grace. If you weren't here last week, we had the opportunity to sort of delve into the prophecy of Jonah and actually see just how amazing God's grace actually is. Do you remember that? First seeing it displayed in the life of Jonah, but then going on to see its fullness displayed far more so in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

So last week we were able to see just how amazing God's grace is through the prophecy of Jonah, but this week, we're moving to the prophecy of Nahum. And in Nahum, we'll see that God's grace, though it's so amazing as we saw last week, it does actually have limits. We don't often think about this but God's grace does have limits to it. So if you open your Bibles or your apps to the prophecy of Nahum and just keep them on your lap, we'll jump straight into it this morning. So a little fun fact I suppose the Hebrew word Nahum means comfort and it's actually a shortened version of the name Nehemiah which means comfort of Yahweh.

So there you go, stick that one in your memory bank. I don't know if you know Jonathan Edwards or not, just a raise of hands maybe? Anyone? A few hands. My head was in a lot of this guy's books during my time at Bible College but he's thought of by a lot of people as the greatest theologian that ever came out of America, which is a pretty big statement when you think about it.

I mean he studied Latin when he was six. He went to Yale University when he was 13 and can you believe it, he graduated when he was 15. He then became a full time minister when he was 19, went back to Yale to teach when he was about 20, and then he later on became the president of Princeton University. So there's no doubt he has a lot of very impressive accomplishments to say the least, but he's probably more well known for what he did on one single Sunday morning on 07/08/1741. He stood up in front of a church just like this in Enfield, opened his Bible to the book of Deuteronomy 32:35 and preached a very famous sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Has anyone heard of this sermon this morning? Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. You should look it up. It's probably not a podcast but you should look it up. And it was in this sermon that Edwards gave a warning to all the unconverted people sitting in front of him that they were very very close to experiencing God's judgment and wrath.

One part of the message and I'm sure he yelled it. He said to his congregation, the bow of God's wrath is bent and the arrow made ready on the string and justice bends the arrow at your heart and strains the bow. And then there's nothing but the mere pleasure of God and that of an angry God without any promise or obligation at all that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Do you like to be there that Sunday morning? His point, judgment is coming.

That God's grace does actually have limits to it, that there's not a lot of time left and that night is about to fall on this day of grace. See, we're currently living in a period of grace but judgment is in fact coming. As we're well into winter now and it sort of gets a bit darker a little earlier, want this to remind you guys that judgment is coming, that God's grace does actually have limits to it and that night is about to fall on this day of grace. And what I'm telling you now, the prophet Nahum, if you have a look, came with a very similar message for the people of Nineveh. Nahum reminds us that the time of God's grace is in fact limited but at the same time that this message of judgment brings a lot of comfort for God's people as well.

So I suppose the first question naturally comes, are you truly a part of God's people? Just to give you a bit of context, Nahum prophesied during the mid to late seventh century BC and at that time Assyria was the world's superpower and its prideful stronghold was the city of Nineveh. Nineveh should still be fairly fresh in our minds this morning after my message on Jonah last week. We're talking about the same Nineveh that repented and God forgave about a hundred to a hundred and fifty years earlier at the time of God's reluctant prophet, Jonah. So to set the scene a bit more, Syria of which Nineveh was the capital had conquered the northern 10 tribes of Israel in the eighth century BC and deported the people.

So as Nahum started his ministry, 10 out of the 12 tribes were gone and Judah was under constant threat from Assyria. So it was into this setting that God sent Nahum. And Nahum's message is really about the approaching judgment against Assyria and more specifically against its prideful stronghold as I mentioned before, Nineveh. You might be thinking well hang on I thought Jonah preached to Nineveh and they all repented if you remember last week. So why are they under God's judgment now?

That's true. They did repent as we saw last week, but the descendants of that generation were once again unfaithful to God. They made their choice. Instead of continuing to honour God in their lives, they chose to invade and conquer Israel during the later part of that very same century. In fact, by the time Nahum showed up, Nineveh's wickedness was so bad that Nahum describes them like this.

In Nahum 3:1 it says, Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder. No end to the prey. So I suppose you could see the prophecy of Nahum is almost a sequel, you could say, to Jonah's prophecy.

Jonah preached God's grace but God's grace does have limits to it and Nahum explains what happens when God's grace reaches those limits. Essentially in Nahum it's twilight for the Assyrians and night is falling on the day of grace as Edwards puts it, the bow of God's wrath is drawn and ready. Coming as a judge, He's coming as a warrior and He's coming as a deliverer and these would be my three main points this morning: Jesus the Judge, Jesus the Warrior and Jesus the Deliverer. Before I get into these three points, just want to continue setting up a little bit this morning. If you have a look, you can see in the opening verses of the prophecy, Nahum doesn't beat around the bush.

He gets straight to it. He lets Nineveh know that God is angry with them and that He's coming to judge. He's coming to set things right. If you have a look at the second verse of his prophecy, Nahum says that the Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful.

The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and keeps wrath for His enemies. Once upon a time He came to Nineveh full of grace but now He's coming to accomplish justice. God won't leave the guilty unpunished. Nahum's basically telling Nineveh that it stays a number. God's coming as a judge and He's not only coming as a judge but He's actually going to come and make war on them.

They're going to feel the full weight of God's hand. In Nahum 1:3, if you have a look there, God is described as a storm and as a great cloud rider. It says, His way is in whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of His feet and He's coming to make war wielding the power of an awesome storm. And what will result from this war? Nahum 1:4-5 tells us, He rebukes the sea and makes it dry.

He dries up all the rivers, Bashan and Carmel wither, the bloom of Lebanon withers, the mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, the earth heaves before Him, the world and all who dwell in it. And then after Nahum finishes describing this terrifying war-making power of God he asks two questions in verse 6 if you have a look there. Who can stand before His indignation and who can endure the heat of His anger? And the answer is no one. It's plain and simple that the Ninevites won't survive the coming judgment of God.

It's not even worth the struggle for them. When God comes, when night finally falls on that day of grace, God's victory will be a certainty. There's no doubt about it. At this point, you might be thinking, I thought Nahum means comfort, but I don't see an inch of it anywhere. Nahum did say to Nineveh that God's judgment was imminent and powerful but in verse 7, if you have a look there, Nahum turns away from Nineveh for a moment and speaks words of comfort to God's people.

In verse 7, we can see Nahum remind God's people that the Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in Him. What's He saying? The wrath of God isn't for those who put their trust in Him.

According to verse 7, those who trust in God will see that He's good. He'll be a refuge, a rock, a place of safety for them. Nahum's basically telling Judah that God's judgment on Nineveh will result in their deliverance. So just sit tight for now Israel. There's refuge in the coming storm.

God promised that He'd come as a judge, a warrior and a deliverer. He'd destroy Nineveh but redeem Judah and the rest is history. Nineveh was literally wiped off the face of the earth in June. You can read it in any book. The Babylonians besieged Nineveh for two months and the only reason they eventually breached the four metre thick walls and destroyed the city was because God came in judgment as a storm breaking the walls with the overflowing waters of the Tigris River which ran straight through the middle of the city creating a sort of entry point for the Babylonians to attack.

This is world history. But this is also a fulfilment of prophecy. Nahum 1:8 prophesies, but with an overflowing flood, He will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue His enemies into darkness. And chapter 2 verse 6 says, the river gates are open, the palace melts away. Nineveh was brought to a sudden end and this is prophecy fulfilled.

It's pretty awesome stuff. I suppose the question remains, what are we supposed to do with all this today? Epic story, be good in a movie but what does it mean for us? I've spoken to a lot of people, I know a lot of people out there and they say the prophecy of Nahum's it's just not really relevant for Christians today but I don't believe that for a second. Some people say that what we read in Nahum it's just it's just an Old Testament ethic.

They say it's an Old Testament story about an Old Testament God. They ask, well, you know, isn't Jesus about love and peace instead of judgment and wrath? These are some other questions we're left with, aren't we? But I'll put to you that God is still a judge, a warrior and a deliverer as we've seen in the Book of Nahum. And I'll also put to you that there are also still limits to His grace.

We just need to turn our eyes to Jesus to see the broader picture. So let's do that together shall we? This brings me to my first point: Jesus the Judge. When Nahum prophesied to Nineveh that God was coming to judge them, looking back from our New Testament perspective, we can also learn from this judgment of Assyria that it also foreshadows the final judgment, the great day of the Lord which God will bring upon this world today that we live in. And when that day comes and no one knows the exact day or the exact hour, who's going to execute that judgment?

Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus will judge the nations. John 5:22 says, for the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son. That's very clear, isn't it? Another good point to make about this is that Jesus, He's not only a judge. That's not the only parallel between the judgment put out in Nahum and Jesus' coming judgment, but we can see that Jesus also follows the same pattern described in the prophecy of Nahum.

The prophet Nahum lets the Ninevites know in chapter 1 verse 3 that the Lord is slow to anger. It says that God isn't somehow thoughtless in His judgment and wrath. God is a God that is just and merciful and gives plenty of time for people to repent. But he also tells Nineveh that just because God's judgment is delayed, delayed doesn't mean it's not coming. I'm saying that there is a day of grace but there's also a day of judgment.

Exodus 34:6-7 says, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. And we can see the same in the New Testament in the work of Jesus. Jesus is slow to anger as well, but He won't leave the guilty unpunished. Jesus gives plenty of time for people to repent and if you're not a true Christian here this morning, He gives plenty of time for you to repent but He's also set a day of judgment. Acts 17:30-31 says it really makes His point clear.

It says, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him, that's Jesus, from the dead. The clock is ticking. We've just read that the time has been set. So is there limits to God's grace? Absolutely there is.

Jesus won't leave the guilty unpunished. He's the man that's been appointed as the judge of the world and He's coming to judge. The time for repentance is growing shorter and shorter and shorter by the second. Nineveh, they obviously didn't care too much about God's warning and their time ran out because God delayed His judgment. The Ninevites thought He wouldn't come in judgment at all and I know today that many people are making the exact same mistake.

They're living lives they know are wrong. They know it, but they continue to indulge. They continue to have that attitude approaching God's slowness to anger way way too casually. Slow to anger doesn't mean without anger. I suppose the question comes, are you acting like the Ninevites?

Are you currently living in sin and don't think God's judgment will come? I just want to reason with you this morning openly. If you're playing this game with God, just stop it. Don't disrespect God's grace because there are limits to it as we've seen. Nahum reminds us that night will soon fall on this day of grace.

So make sure you're right with Him. So this brings me to my second point. Nahum also talks about God like He's a warrior, a warrior that comes in power to conquer His enemies. In Nahum, God's described as a cloud rider who comes like a storm and completely crushes His enemies. According to Nahum, when God comes in judgment, the mountains will melt. Can you imagine it?

And the earth will tremble. And do these descriptions of God in the prophecy of Nahum have any connection to the work of Jesus? Yes. Absolutely. Again.

As we've already seen in Nahum 1:3, the prophet describes God coming to make war on Nineveh by riding on the clouds and it's the same with Jesus. In Matthew 24:30, Jesus describes Himself at His second coming by saying, then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on what? On the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. When Jesus returns in the same way, He'll be riding the clouds. Another way the warrior theme in Nahum sort of parallels Jesus is when Nahum tells us that God's war-making power will impact the entire earth, not just some of it, all of it.

Nahum 1:4-5 says, He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers, Bashan and Carmel wither. The bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before Him. The hills melt.

The earth, the earth heaves before Him, the world and all who dwell in it. The same way in 2 Peter 3:10, Peter describes the return of Jesus when he says, that the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. The New Testament shows us that Jesus is the great cloud rider and the great warrior who will shake the earth. Revelation 19:11 tells us that He's coming to make war. It says, then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

Now it's very easy to think that Jesus will only really come as a warrior at His second coming. But this isn't really true either. He's a warrior right now as we speak in this present age. I think when we think of Jesus we can often see Him as an innocent baby in a manger, can't we? Or as a softly spoken teacher on the shores of Galilee.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:25 that Jesus is presently waging war against His enemies. It says, for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. Jesus is currently a warrior who is war-making. I mean, how else do you think His kingdom is victoriously expanding throughout the world today? Every time a sinner comes to repentance and faith, we can see Jesus, the warrior, making war.

Jesus is our divine warrior. Now that we know this, who here wants to be His enemy? Sometimes we think that people who aren't presently serving Jesus and submitting their lives to Him are somehow in like a neutral category of their own. The truth is the Bible only has two categories: those who belong to Jesus and those who are enemies of Jesus. There's no middle.

And the only way we can cross the divide from being enemies of God to children of God is by being reconciled to Him through His death, by believing in Him. And when you really reflect on your own heart here this morning, which category are you in? Are you wholeheartedly serving Jesus? Have you given every area of your life to Him or are you holding on to death and destruction? Are you nurturing sin in your life, grooming it and taking care of it?

There are many people who attend church their whole lives but are not God's children. Hebrews 10:26-27 says, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming to make war on His enemies so I just want you to make certain that you're His faithful child and not His enemy because there's only two categories. This brings me to my third and final point: Jesus the Deliverer. As I said earlier, Nahum tells Judah to be happy because God's judgment on Nineveh, if you remember, will result in their deliverance.

Basically, God's judgment over Nineveh liberated Judah. Nahum says to Judah in chapter 1 verse 15, behold upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, publishes peace. Keep your feasts, oh Judah, fulfil your vows for never again shall the worthless pass through you. He is utterly cut off. Nahum's basically telling God's people that the destruction of the Ninevites will allow them to experience peace.

The people will be able to worship God without fear of invasion from the wicked Ninevites. I think this would have felt pretty good for them. The question once again remains, are there any sort of parallels to this freedom we can see in Nahum in the work of Jesus? Well, for starters and just quickly, who are our enemies today? Are our enemies the Ninevites?

No. Ephesians 6:12 answers it pretty clearly. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Our enemies are not the Ninevites. Our enemies are sin, Satan and death and Jesus came to deliver us from each of these enemies. Let's just quickly look at these.

First, Jesus came to deliver us from sin. In the New Testament, we're told that Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. We're told that through Jesus, we're no longer slaves to sin and we're told that through Jesus, we've been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. These are all truths and realities found in the Bible. We also need to know that today our victory over sin isn't 100 per cent complete, fulfilled.

Even though sin is no longer our master, we do still struggle with it. If we say we don't, we're lying. You're not on your own when it comes to this. But the good news is that when Jesus comes back, we'll enter into a glorified state and won't sin anymore. Jesus delivers us from sin.

He already has and He will fully. Secondly, Jesus also came to deliver us from Satan. You may remember the story in Mark where Jesus drives out a demon from a man and the teachers of the law accused Jesus of doing this by the power of Satan. They say in Mark 3:22, he is possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons, he casts out the demons. But look at Jesus' response to them.

He says, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he binds the strong man.

Then indeed he may plunder his house. Jesus is saying that He has bound the strong man who is Satan. Jesus in His supreme power has limited Satan's power to interfere with His good news and to destroy the spiritual lives of the believer. But again, the same as sin, Satan does still remain a real threat to us today. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So we need to be conscious of this and on our guard every day. But the good news is Jesus' promise. When He comes back, He's going to defeat Satan entirely and liberate us completely from His attacks. Jesus delivers us from Satan.

And thirdly, Jesus came to deliver us from death. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. As soon as Adam sinned, our penalty became physical death. But Jesus did come to deliver us from death by giving us eternal life. Even though the first Adam brought death through sin, the last Adam, that's Jesus, brought life.

1 Corinthians 15:21 says, for as by a man came death, that's Adam, by man, that's Jesus, has come also the resurrection of the dead. But just like Jesus' victory over sin and Satan, victory over death has still only partially come about today. We all still die physically but the good news is that the sting of death, the sting of death has been taken away and eventually death itself will be destroyed when Jesus comes back. 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 says, for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, as it is written.

The prophecy of Nahum, the good news is that God's enemies are destined for destruction and God's people are destined for deliverance. Nahum 1:7-8 draws this line when the prophet says, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue His enemies into darkness. It's important to know that when Nahum said this to God's people they still had to wait. They had to wait for it to happen.

But this promise of deliverance did give them a lot of hope and comfort in their current circumstances. And in the same way, we should find a lot of comfort today in Jesus' defeat of sin and Satan and death. Even though we still struggle in our lives against our enemies, we know the final destination of our enemies and we know our own destination as well. Our enemies will be completely crushed underfoot. Genesis 3:15, and we will be delivered.

Knowing this, we should strive to live godly lives even in the face of fierce opposition from our enemies. Paul tells the Christians in Philippi, only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and that from God. Jesus has delivered us from sin, Satan and death. This is really good news for us.

So we shouldn't disregard Nahum because we're truly able to encounter Jesus through it as our Judge and our Warrior and our Deliverer. It teaches us a lot about who God is and it also reminds us of a lot of important things. One being that the time of God's grace is limited. So the time to repent is now, today. Just a thought, if invading Israel and deporting the people of God is an injustice which God meets with the swift and powerful judgment we've read about this morning, what do you think He has in store for those who reject His only begotten Son?

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace? For we know Him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. We're currently living in the time of Jonah but the time of Nahum is coming very, very soon.

Jonathan Edwards finished up his message Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by saying, therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of the Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom. Haste and escape for your lives. Look not behind you.

Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed. End quote. So night will fall on the day of grace and there's only one way to avoid the wrath of that day and that's to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and give your lives to Him fully. Make sure you fly from sin and enter the embrace of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you do this you'll know and experience the comfort and the good news spoken about by Nahum.

Amen. Let's pray together. Father God, we thank You for revealing Your Son Jesus Christ in the prophecy of Nahum this morning. Lord, we're so thankful that You're in control of everything. That our enemies are destined for destruction and that we're destined for deliverance.

God, we thank You that You are our great Judge and Warrior and Deliverer. And Lord Jesus, we find so much comfort and strength in this. But Lord, we're also thankful that You've reminded us this morning that there are limits to Your grace. Father God, we confess our sins to You. We get on our knees before You.

Please forgive us for any sin that we're currently living in and Lord for the times when we take Your grace for granted, when we continue on in a sinful lifestyle with the belief that we're covered by Your grace and couldn't possibly fall under Your judgment. Holy Spirit come. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us fly from sin and enter into the loving embrace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus, we love You so much. We want to live for You.

We want to give our lives to You, for Your kingdom. So use our lives for Your kingdom and for Your glory as we look forward to Your return. We pray all of this in the mighty, gracious, just name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.