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Nahum 1 verses 12-15
Have you ever been in a situation when the odds against you seemed overwhelming? Maybe there is a situation right at this moment in your life that you think there is no way out of this. Some dark shadow looms large over you or your family and you are unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am sure all of us can identify with such sentiments and situations. Some of you can identify with them more readily than others because that is where you find yourself this morning. Well this sermon this morning is for you. Turn with me to Nahum chapter 1 and verses 12-15. Four short verses which are packed with hope for the people of God who find themselves in helpless before a mighty enemy and without hope of redemption from the situation.
In verses 12-14 God pronounces sentence on Nineveh. In these three verses the political and military might of Assyria is shattered and the religious idolatry of the nation is destroyed.
Verse 12. Nineveh, and hence the Assyrians, had promised themselves peace because of their military might and their fortified city. Nineveh rested secure in itself when it looked on the walls it had built and on the numbers within its armed forces. Assyria had many soldiers and its military strength was unequalled by the nations around it. Yet God tells His people that such strength and such perceived security would be no impediment to His coming judgment. Even though Assyria could call on numerous allies they would count for nothing before the power of God's coming judgment. Nahum tells the people that God will 'cut off' the Assyrians and they will 'pass away.' Literally to be 'cut off' is to be shorn like a sheep of its wool. The sheep has no choice as to when it is shorn, the shepherd decides. It is powerless to prevent its wool from being removed. In fact sheep are described as being dumb before the shearer. What an imagery of powerlessness is painted here of this powerful military nation. To 'pass away' is to be taken away and destroyed. It is as if you never existed. Again we have the imagery of powerlessness before the coming judgment of almighty God.
When I read those first lines in verse 12 my mind immediately went forward to the parable of the rich fool. The rich fool said in his heart that he had enough stored away in his big barns for years to come and so he could settle down to a life of luxurious living and enjoyment. Do you remember what Christ said was God's response? "You fool, this very night your soul will be required of you." The Assyrians thought they had safety and security in their political and military might. Are you putting your safety and security in someone or something that will prove to be powerless when the judgment of God comes into your life or at the end of time?
The second part of the verse concerns the people of God and not Assyria. Their exile and captivity under the Assyrians was a punishment from God for their unfaithfulness to the covenant. The people of God knew it was God's hand that had brought them into captivity but here they have a promise that their affliction is at and end and will be no more under the hands of the Assyrians. God had been angry with His people but no more - Isaiah 54 verse 8. God's affliction of His people is at an end and it will be 'no more.' 'No more' is a very powerful expression of the grace of God. Take a moment and think about these people of God. There had not been wholesale repentance and returning to God. No doubt some of them still had their idols and still lived immoral lives and yet God in His grace and mercy lifts the burden of affliction from them. Please hear that this morning - it was God who brought the affliction (or punishment) and it was God who lifted the affliction (or punishment) off them.
I want to ask you something this morning: What affliction do you need God to lift from you today? You see it is easy and in many ways safe for us to look on these verses purely in their historical context, and it is important to do that because we need to know what they said to the people of God under Assyrian domination before we bring it to Carrickfergus in 2009. Yet it is the eternal Word of God and it has power and authority to speak into our lives by His Holy Spirit today. So what affliction do you need God to lift from your life today? Let me ask you a question which should precede that question: What affliction has God brought into your life because of your unfaithfulness? Now please hear me clearly at this point - all afflictions etc are not a punishment for our sins but some are. There are some burdens of captivity which are a direct result of disobedience, sin and unfaithfulness. The truth is that we know the difference but we often choose to ignore the truth. Some of you are choosing to ignore the truth this morning and the captivity remains in your life.
Yet here is the Word of God - He will lift the affliction. He will break the yoke of slavery and captivity in your life and it will be no more.
Verse 13 God tells His people that this will happen today. Right at this moment the people of Israel are still in their affliction, Assyria is still in power but 'Now' God is going to act and they will know that it is God acting. God will break the yoke that is around their necks and tear off the shackles that bind their legs. Isn't this the promise of Isaiah concerning the one who will release the captive and set the prisoner free? The people of God had lived under and oppressive regime as slaves which in some cases quite literally put yokes and shackles on them. They had been treated no better than beasts of burden but 'Now' God was going to intervene and break these chains that had bound them in captivity for more years than they cared to remember.
Are you any different this morning? How many of you are shackled and have heavy yoke around your necks today? How many of you have chains of the past weighing you down and tiring your spirit this day? How many of you are like Marley and the ghost of Christmas past in Dickens' Christmas Carol. You know the imagery? All the chains that bound him in life still bind him in eternity. There are so many of you here today and your yoke is heavy and the clang of your shackles is deafening. There are some of you and the saddest thing is you have become so familiar with your yoke and shackles that you think it is normal, even for a Christian to live in such a way. You long to be free but you have no idea how to get free. Let me say this, and I want to be as gentle and humble as I can be here, but some of you need to actually believe the Word of God. Some of you need to believe what the Bible says you are in Christ and to start to live accordingly. Some of you need to actually get up and shake the past off you and to stop living life looking over your shoulder. Hear me this morning when I say to you - if you have come to Christ Jesus and He has forgiven you your sins - your past is gone. The yoke has been broken and the shackles have been cast off - now it is time for you to walk in that freedom. For some of you it is time you stopped listening to the echoes of your past and started to listen to the Word of God. I want to say to you this morning - do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe that God has broken the yoke and removed the shackles of your sin? You see some of you run around with little bracelets that ask What Would Jesus Do? And you need to burn them because the right question is What Did Jesus Do? He broke the yoke of slavery and freed me from the shackles of my past. So who are you going to believe this morning?
Verse 14. Here is a verse of great assurance to the people of God. The Assyrian empire, the city of Nineveh, looked like it would last forever. It looked impossible for it to be defeated and yet God says it will be no more. It will be laid to waste and there will be no descendants. The king will have no dynasty to follow him and the gods that they worshipped will be destroyed in their very temples. For all its glory in the world and for all its power over the nations and peoples Nineveh will cease to exist. For all the majesty and splendour of its kingdoms, and the palace at Nineveh was described as none to equal it, yet before God they are vile, contemptible and an abomination. Before God the Assyrian empire is of no account and God has already dug its grave. God has planned the day that the Assyrian empire will cease to exist and when it will be laid in the dust of the earth from whence it came. Their gods that they prayed to for protection will ineffectual on that day and in fact they will be destroyed in the very temples they were worshipped.
Verse 15 in stark contrast there is good news for the people of God. One comes amongst them, in fact he stands on the mountains so that all can hear his voice, who will bring news of salvation and the restoration of the worship of the living God. The verse begins with a call: 'Behold.' God calls His people to stop what they are doing and to focus their minds on this messenger and message. They are to stop and to turn their eyes and hearts to this message.
Under the oppression of the Assyrians the people of God had ceased to celebrate the festivals of the covenant but this messenger will bring the good news that the festivals of God are to be celebrated again and the vows that they had made to God are to be fulfilled. I am going to say something to you right now which might make a few of you very uncomfortable. Have you kept your promises to God? When you committed your life to Christ, you promised to follow Him as your Lord and Saviour. Have you kept that promise? Have you kept your promise to read God's Word and to pray? Have you kept your promise to break that yoke and shackle of the sinful habit in your life? Today God calls you to fulfil your promise to Him.
Finally Nahum speaks once more of the wicked, those who oppose God. There was a time when the wicked had invaded Israel and oppressed the people of God but no more. God will completely destroy the wicked so that they are unable to oppress the people of God. God completely destroyed the Assyrian empire when Cyrus invaded. But let us bring it home to Holy Trinity in 2009. Please listen carefully to what I am about to say to you because we all need to take this on board this morning. In Christ Jesus God has destroyed the power of the wicked in the life of those who belong to Him. Why else would Paul describe Christ as leading the captors captive? Satan is a defeated foe in your life this morning if you are born again. He has no power over your life and he has no control over your life. His yoke is broken and his chains are loosed - the problem is you do not live as if that is true. Do you hear that this morning? It is time to live out the truth of God's Word and to walk in the truth of God's Word. In 2009 God calls us as a church to live out the truth of His Word - the yoke of sin is broken, the shackles of the past are cast off and the wicked one is destroyed in my life, and in the life this church, because of the blood of Christ shed on the cross. God calls us as individuals, and as the body of Christ, to walk in that freedom and to proclaim that good news to this community. Now here is the question: Are you going to actually do that? Are you going to be committed this year to believe the Word of God and to live in its truth? Here is a wake up call for us as a church. The yoke is broken and the shackles are loosed, the wicked one is defeated - now live as free men and women. Now live as men and women of God who celebrate the living God. Now live as people who have the freedom of Christ in their lives and fulfil your promise to God.
Amen.
