Glory to God! Hallelujah! The Lord has been faithful to us during the past week as He had been faithful to us all the days of our life till now. It doesn’t matter what life-situations we go through, what matters the most is that the Lord is always on our side as a refuge and shelter in times of trouble. For instance, the sons of Korah who experienced God’s faithfulness in their life testified that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). King David the servant of the Lord stated: The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me (2 Samuel 22:3; also refer to Psalm 18:2). David continued saying: Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me (Psalm 144:1-2). Yes, from the personal testimonies of the saints mentioned above, we can understand the fact that the Lord God on whom we place our trust is a trustworthy and faithful God who cares for everyone who calls upon His name. Therefore, let us continue to wait upon Him and call out His name for help as He is just a call away from us: The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth (Psalm 145:18) and seek Him with all our heart, as prophet Jeremiah quoted God, saying: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

The Lord has blessed us with an amazing Scripture passage for our SftW meditation this week that is taken from Nahum 1:7. This prophetical book is written by prophet Nahum the Elkoshite and his prophecies are concerning Nineveh, the capitol city of Assyria (Nahum 1:1). The Lord God unveils Nineveh’s wickedness and pride and their oppression upon the people of Judah to prophet Nahum. Also, God unveils His plan of bringing judgement upon Nineveh and deliverance for Judah from the oppression of the Assyrian regime. Prophet Nahum proclaims Nineveh’s fall (Nahum 1:2) and Judah’s restoration (Nahum 1:12b-13) as well as trouble for the Assyrians (Nahum 1:14) and peace for the people of Judah (Nahum 1:15). The Lord’s face is against the inhabitants of Nineveh/Assyria because they plotted against the Lord God Almighty and rebelled against Him (Nahum 1:9-11). The Lord’s favor is upon the people of Jerusalem and Judah because they repented and returned to Him and pleaded for His mercy, which unveils the fact that if anyone calls upon the name of the Lord and seeks His mercy, He will be good to them and a refuge in times of trouble because He cares for those who trust in Him (Nahum 1:7). Prophet Nahum also declares that God is a God of justice and He will not leave the guilty unpunished (Nahum 1:3) as He will judge the world in righteousness and truth and bring ultimate victory for the upright and righteous people (Psalm 9:8; 96:13; 98:9).

When we read the book of Jonah, we learn about the city of Nineveh, the ministry of the Israelite prophet Jonah, God’s plan of sending calamity upon the people of Nineveh for their wickedness, the display of God’s compassion upon them as they repented of the wicked ways, and so on (Jonah 1:1-4:11). We can see that the wickedness of Nineveh has reached before God and God sent prophet Jonah to Nineveh to preach against it in order to warn them about their ever increasing injustice and wickedness (Jonah 1:1-2). In fact, in response to Jonah’s God-given message to the people of Nineveh that Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown (Jonah 3:4), they had turned from their sinful ways and pleaded with the Lord God Almighty for His mercy upon them. When the Lord God saw how the people of Nineveh turned from their evil ways and trusted Him, He relented and did not send on them the destruction he had threatened (Jonah 3:10). Prophet Isaiah quoted God, saying: Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:22; also refer to Psalm 22:27; 145:18; Joel 2:32a). Apostle Paul stated: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13; also refer to Acts 2:21). However, the Lord is a jealous God and He will not leave the guilty unpunished, as the Lord specifically spoke trough prophet Nahum (1:2-6) …

• • The Lord is a jealous God (1:2a)
  • The Lord is an avenging God (1:2b)
  • The Lord takes vengeance on those who do evil (1:2c)
  • The Lord’s vengeance is filled with wrath (1:2d)
  • The Lord takes vengeance on His foes (1:2e)
  • The Lord releases His wrath against His enemies (1:2f)
  • The Lord is slow to anger (1:3a)
  • The Lord is great in power (1:3b)
  • The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished (1:3c)
  • The Lord’s way is in the whirlwind and the storm (1:3d)
  • The clouds are the dust of His feet (1:3e)
  • The Lord rebukes the sea and dries it up (1:4a)
  • The Lord makes all the rivers run dry (1:4b)
  • The Lord makes Bashan and Carmel wither (1:4c)
  • The Lord causes the blossoms of Lebanon fade (1:4d)
  • The Mountains quake before Him (1:5a)
  • The hills melt away in His presence (1:5b)
  • The earth trembles at His presence (1:5c)
  • The world and all who live in it trembles before the Lord (1:5d)
  • No one can withstand the Lord’s indignation (1:6a)
  • No one can endure the Lord’s fierce anger (1:6b)
  • The Lord’s wrath is poured out like fire (1:6c)
  • The rocks are shattered before the Lord (1:6d).

We all need to keep in mind that the Judgment Day of God is approaching sooner than anyone can think and no one will escape from His hand if they do not repent and return to Him ahead of that time. During prophet Jonah’s time, the people of Nineveh took the Lord’s warning seriously and escaped from God’s wrath and judgement. However, their repentance did not last for a long time. As time passed, they forgot about God’s warning and their repentance and continued to live in their wickedness. During the days of prophet Nahum, it worsened more than ever and God decreed disaster upon Nineveh and upon all Assyria, for they brought disaster upon others (Nahum 3:19), including His chosen people Israel (2 Kings 17:1-24) and Judah (2 Kings 18:17-19:37). Although, earlier they took God’s warning seriously and were relieved from the disaster God intended to bring upon them because they repented and pleaded for His mercy upon them (Jonah 3:5-10), this time they are not taking God’s warning seriously and, at the same time, God is not holding back His fierce anger against them.  Rather, He is determined to unleash His fierce anger on them in order to confuse and utterly destroy them, as God spoke through prophet Nahum: I am against you, declares the Lord Almighty. I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard (Nahum 2:13; also refer to 3:5-7). If the Lord God has determined to destroy the wicked (in this case, the Ninevites), then no one can stop Him or oppose Him but He will execute His plans without any resistance. However, God never unleashes His wrath upon someone who is at fault and punishes them without giving them another chance to stop what they are doing and save their life, which means, God does not punish anyone without giving them another chance to repent and return to Him or warning them in advance. This time, God let the Ninevites know in advance about His plans of punishing them through His prophet Nahum [previously, God warned them through prophet Jonah) that An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength (Nahum 2:1; also refer to 3:14).

According to Nahum 1:8-14, the Lord will punish Nineveh for their sin and wickedness:

• • The Lord will judge Nineveh with an overwhelming flood (1:8a)
  • The Lord will make an end of Nineveh (1:8b)
  • The Lord will pursue His foes into the realm of darkness (1:8c)
  • Nineveh plotted against the Lord (1:9a)
  • The Lord will bring to an end to all that Nineveh plotted against the Lord (1:9b)
  • The Lord will bring to an end trouble will not come a second time (1:9c)
  • The enemy (Nineveh) will be entangled among thorns (1:10a)
  • The enemy (Nineveh) will be drunk from their wine (1:10b)
  • The enemy (Nineveh) will be consumed like dry stubble (1:10c)
  • The one who comes from within Nineveh is the one who plots evil against the Lord (1:11a)
  • The one who comes from within Nineveh is the one who devises wicked plans (1:11b)
  • The Lord has decreed His vengeance on Nineveh (1:12a)
  • The Lord will overthrow Nineveh with their allies who are numerous (1:12b)
  • Nineveh will be destroyed and pass away (1:12c)
  • The Lord afflicted Judah for their sin and rebellion against the Lord (1:12d)
  • The Lord will stop punishing Judah and will care for them (1:12e)
  • The Lord will remove the yoke the Assyrians kept on Judah’s neck (1:13a)
  • The Lord will tear Judah’s shackles of oppression away (1:13b)
  • The Lord has given a command concerning Nineveh (1:14a)
  • The Lord is determined to leave no descendants to bear Nineveh’s name (1:14b)
  • The Lord is determined to destroy the images and idols in Nineveh (1:14c)
  • The Lord will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of their gods (1:14d)
  • The Lord will prepare Nineveh’s grave because they are vile (1:14e).

However, the Ninevites neither listened to Him nor took His warning seriously.  Rather, they continued to live in their wickedness as the way of their life (Nahum 3:1-4). As a result, the Lord utterly destroyed Nineveh: King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty (Nahum 3:18-19).

In the similar way that the Assyrians assaulted God’s chosen people Israel/Judah spiritually, religiously, politically, socially, culturally, and every other way possible; the enemies of the gospel also wage war against the righteous people [which includes you and I] in order to shake and shatter the foundations of Christian values and principles they learned from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the case of Israel and Judah, the enemies attacked them because God allowed the enemies to attack them in order to punish them (Judges 2:14; 2 Kings 17:20; 23:27; Isaiah 63:10) as many of them rebelled against the Lord their God who (i) delivered them from the oppression of their enemies and (ii) saved their life from perishing and (iii) provided them with the best of the land and (iv) blessed them more than any other nation of earth (Deuteronomy 7:6), so that they can be a blessing to the rest of the nations on earth. Similar kind of things can happen in the case of the righteous people of our days also, if they (a) forsake the Lord God and (b) rebel against Him and (c) follow the worldly passions and (d) live a life trying to satisfy their fleshy desires, and so on. There are also incidents that even if the righteous and godly people do not make any mistake or walk in the wrong path, the enemy will try to tempt and drag them into problems and wage war against them and give them lots of trouble and cause them go through pain and suffering and cause them to doubt God’s help and leading in their lives. In such situations, the Lord Himself will deliver them from all their troubles, as it is mentioned in the Scripture: Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all (Psalm 34:19). Apostle Paul testified that …

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body (2 Corinthians 4:8-11).

In fact, every child of God is engaged in spiritual warfare as the enemy has declared war against them for no specific reasons. They (the enemies/thieves) come to steal and kill and destroy the righteous people (John 10:10a) because the righteous people do not act in accordance with wicked plans or do the wicked things (refer: Proverbs 1:10-19). From the enemy’s perspective the mistakes the righteous people are doing is that they are not following cunning ideas to arouse the wrath of God against us, rather the righteous lead a pious life as a child of God and do good to one and all who are in real need. As righteous people, we cannot continue to live to satisfy our sinful natures but we are called to carry out the righteous deeds whenever or wherever possible. This was the reason, Apostle Paul urged the believers in Rome that Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires (Romans 6:11-12). If we have wronged God in any way, it is time to ask His pardon and follow His commands. Remember, for better or worse, it is always good to cling unto the Lord God Almighty who alone is able to deliver us from our enemies however strong they are. That’s what king David did when he sinned against the Lord, as he said: I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands (2 Samuel 24:14; also refer to 1 Chronicles 21:13; Psalm 103:8-14; Isaiah 55:7).

Although Jerusalem and Judah were unfaithful to the God of their fathers and rebelled against Him, they repented and returned to Him as they realized that it is impossible for them to overcome the threat of their enemies (Assyria) without His help and support. As they sought after Him earnestly and with all their heart, the Lord came down to help His people (Nahum 1:7, 15; 2:2; also refer to Exodus 3:7-10). When God begins to act in favor of His chosen ones, which includes you and I (Romans 8:31), there will be victory for sure.  In fact, even before the Lord begins to act, we will feel peace and security. For instance, as the Lord assured deliverance for Jerusalem and Judah from the oppression of the Assyrians and as His messengers proclaimed the good news of victory and peace on the mountains that surrounds Jerusalem, the people of Jerusalem and Judah also began to feel and experience peace and security in their lives (Nahum 1:15; also refer to Isaiah 40:9; 52:7; 61:1). Some of the things we learn from the victory the Lord gives us over our spiritual struggles are as follows:

• • It’s our victory over sin
  • It’s a victory over our rebelliousness against the Lord God
  • It’s our victory over the tendency towards idolatry
  • It’s our victory over numerous so-called false gods
  • It’s a victory over our enemies
  • It’s a victory over our self-pride
  • It’s victory our hatred for others
  • It’s a victory over our arrogance
  • It’s a victory over all kinds of disgrace
  • It’s a victory over our self-adoration
  • It’s a victory over our selfish ambitions
  • It’s a heaven’s victory over earth
  • It’s a victory over everything that stands against our spiritual achievements

Dear friends, in the light of our meditation this week, let us be aware of two important things in our relationship with our Creator and Lord and Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ that (i) the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, and (ii) the Lord will not ignore the cry of the righteous. As prophet Nahum testified: The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him (Nahum 1:7). May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!