Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Nahum prophesied during the reign of Hezekiah, probably about 150 years after the Jewish Prophet Jonah. According to historians, the city of Nineveh was destroyed about a century later precisely as Nahum predicted. In fact, the book of Nahum has but one subject - the destruction of Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, the peoples who captured the ten tribes of Israel, which had separated from Judah and Benjamin at the end of the reign of King Solomon, I Kings 11. The Assyrians, in essence the people of Nineveh, were a fierce fighting machine and killed and destroyed many warriors and their sponsoring states.
The great ethical lesson of Nahum is that the character of God makes Him not only "slow to anger", and "a stronghold to them that trust Him", but also one who "will not at all acquit the wicked".
As you will notice when you read the extended portion of our devotional today, it is a prophecy that is one continuous story, which does not yield to analysis. I therefore will not analyze the reading for today but will only mention that as you read Nahum you will see the holiness of God, which must deal with "sin in judgment".
As an aside, I mention to you that Biblical Nineveh is located in Iraq in the north. What Nineveh was in yesteryear is modern-day Mosul, one of the key players in the ongoing drama in war-torn Iraq. This is the area of the Kurds, a people that want their own nation.
Someone has said, "what goes around, comes around". These Bible lands of yesterday are the battlefields of today and the future. As I mentioned, the Kurds, one of the three groups in Iraq that will form a national government, are a people who would rather break off from Iraq and become their own nation.
This area is an "oil-rich" section of Iraq which is one of the reasons that the late Saddam Hussein gave the orders to have so many of them killed during his reign as leader of Iraq. In fact, there were thousands of them that were "gassed" to death under Saddam's leadership.
This political scenario that I have been discussing in this devotional helps us to see how the stage is being set for the prophetic scenario found in Revelation 18 and 16:17-21, along with Isaiah 13-14 and Jeremiah 50-51, to be fulfilled.
The only thing that must happen before all of the above prophecies are fulfilled is that the Rapture must happen. All that has been, and is going on in Iraq is strong evidence that the Rapture may be very close to being fulfilled.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me to learn that you're holiness, Lord, must deal with sin in judgment and also that events of today seem to be setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
Join Dr. Jimmy DeYoung as he explores the Rose Red city of Petra, Jordan, shares insights on the history of the Palestinian people, and traces their roots back to Esau, the twin brother of Jacob.
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