Hope In The Darkness

I was recently challenged to study the book of Nahum with a bunch of guys and give a talk on Nahum 1:9-15. Take some time to read it before continuing!

A Dark Realization

As I began to work on my talk, I realized that my focus was mostly on the dark and negative aspects…wrath, wickedness, and judgment. I knew there was 'good' in the passage, but I just tacked some general 'hope' at the end. As I prayed through the passage, the Lord was teaching me that I am tempted to not trust God when dark days come. Well, what the passage is actually about is very different from my first thoughts.

Nahum 1:9-15 is about the Lord's faithfulness when things seem hopeless.

Intro

First let's take a look at Nahum 1:9-11. This is all about God making an end to his enemies. From just these few verses I think we learn quite a bit.

Verse 9 we start to get more specific about who this judgment and wrath is coming to. It says “What do “YOU” plot against the Lord.” This differs from Nahum 1:1-8 because we’ve moved on from the more general character statements about the Lord and his power/wrath. Now we introduce the main person who the Lord is talking about, the Ninevites.

Permanent Game Over

The rest of the verses move into some detail about how the Lord is going to deal with the Ninevites. He is going to “make a complete end” to them and “trouble will not rise up a second time”. There’s a finality here that helps us to know that this judgment that the Lord is going to dish out is it. I want to skip ahead a bit to further drive this point. Verse 14 says “No more shall your name be perpetuated” Now I’ll be honest I wasn’t entirely sure what this meant at first so I had to google it. Another translation helped me understand it, the NIV says “You will have no descendants to bear your name”. There is no 2nd chance, no redo and no respawns. The Ninevites' oppression of the people of Judah will be over and not only that but it’s also a permanent game over for the Ninevites.

In the rest of this section, we get some descriptions of the Ninevites, about how they are like drunkards and entangled thorns, about how they’ll be consumed like stubble fully dried. Verse 11 brings up plotting against the Lord again. What it seems to be saying here is that no matter what the Ninevites try to do it will be in vain. They are helpless against the Lord. That gives the people of Judah hope and helps them to keep faithful and trust God. Their enemies are utterly powerless before their God.

The Powerful Lord

Now speaking of hope, It’s in this next section that I really think the theme of hope really becomes clear. It starts off with the Lord talking about how the enemy is at full strength and many. What’s helpful to remember here is that the people of Judah are still in the middle of their dark days with Assyria. Their enemy is at their height of power and strength but the rest of verse 12 goes on to say that “they will be cut down and pass away”.

If God just left it there I think I'd be tempted to brush the verse off and continue to be worried about the whole situation - like Judah must have been. The scripture continues and goes on talking about an end to the affliction and how the people of Judah's bonds will be broken. It’s important to remember here that the Lord is the one who has power. Verses 12-14 really show that He is the one who has control over the whole situation. See this through the observation of “I” being used 5 times in those verses:

1. “Though I have afflicted you.” - v12
2. “I will afflict you no more” - v12
3. “And now I will break his yoke from off you” - v13
4. “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image.” - v14
5. “I will make your grave, for you are vile.” - v14

Something to note here again is that it’s the Lord performing all these actions… it’s not the people of Judah, it’s not Nahum. The Lord is the one who will destroy their enemies and it’s the Lord that will save them.

The Faithful Lord

Now we continue on to verse 15 where Nahum talks about good news. This good news is what we were looking at in verses 9-11 and verse 14. The good news is that there will be a complete and utter destruction of the Ninevites. This good news is also why Judah should "keep their feasts and fulfill their vows". Knowing the Lord will avenge and save them enables Judah to do more than just survive. They can hope, trust, and praise the Lord because, as verse 15 says “never again shall the worthless pass through you; for he is utterly cut off.”

Now I think the application for the People of Judah is simple, it’s the point I brought up earlier: The Lord is faithful even when things seem hopeless.

The Lord gave the good news that their enemy would be destroyed and that they would be saved. It’s not always easy, trust me when I say I know life can really suck sometimes…it can really feel hopeless. As someone who has struggled with depression, suicide, and a whole lot more, I understand the struggle…but I really appreciate this passage because the Lord has shown us through it that we can trust him even in our darkest days. We can and should go to him in prayer and praise even when we don’t want to.

The Saving Lord, Jesus

Now for us, just like how God saved his people from wickedness/oppression in Nahum, Jesus Christ has saved us from the oppression of sin and from having to face God’s wrath. Now there is a passage in 1 Corinthians that I think helps us understand this. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you're a Christian then you can have hope even though things look dark because we have a savior, Jesus, who can understand us and save us from any darkness.