Nahum & Habakkuk
Assyria & Babylon

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Psalm 113:1-9 Reversal of Fortune

The Lord Exalts the Humble

1 Praise the LORD!
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
 praise the name of the LORD!

2 Blessed be the name of the LORD
 from this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
 the name of the LORD is to be praised!

4 The LORD is high above all nations,
 and his glory above the heavens!
5 Who is like the LORD our God,
 who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
 on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust
 and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
 with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
 making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!

Application

Since we worship the high and mighty God, who helps His people, seek His help.

Prayer

Great and glorious God, I praise You for being concerned about my needs, and using Your power to solve them; thanks for changing my circumstances, and my life. Amen.

Proverbs 25:17-22 Appropriate Actions

17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house,
 lest he have his fill of you and hate you.
18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor
 is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.
19 Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble
 is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.
20 Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart
 is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day,
 and like vinegar on soda.
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
 and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
22 for you will heap burning coals on his head,
 and the LORD will reward you.

Application

Consider the consequences of your actions on others and yourself, and choose the course that will give you the results you want.

Prayer

Lord, thanks that Your word guides our actions so You can protect and bless us. Help me know and do the appropriate things. Amen.

Nahum & Habakkuk - Assyria & Babylon

We'll consider these two short books in the same post. Nahum's “Nasties to Nineveh,” relate the destruction of the capital of the Assyrian empire, which took the northern kingdom of Israel captive. Habakkuk deals with God's use of Babylon to judge Judah and teaches us how to have joy in the midst of devastation. Two great verses about trusting God:
 Nahum 1:7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He cares for those who trust in Him. 
 Habakkuk 2:4 The just will live by faith.

Nahum 1-3

Nahum's “Nasties to Nineveh,” predict the 612 BC destruction of the capital of the Assyrian empire, which took the northern kingdom of Israel captive in 722 BC. In 3:8 Nahum mentions the 663 BC fall of Thebes in Egypt. So this prophecy is placed after the fall of the northern kingdom, and before the 586 BC fall of Jerusalem (and obviously before 612 BC destruction of Nineveh by Babylon, otherwise it isn't a prediction).
The city was spectacularly fortified: surrounded by eight miles of 100 foot high walls thick enough for a three chariot highway; with 200 defense towers (100 feet high) on top of the walls; surrounded by a moat, 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep; it could withstand a siege for 20 years. After repenting at the preaching of Jonah (150 years earlier), they went back to their old ways, and God announces He will judge them for their infamous cruelty and pride. Just skim Nahum if you're short on time, and spend the majority of your time in Habakkuk.

Nahum 1 Trusting in Our Good God Results in Refuge

The Burden against Nineveh
1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

2 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.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
 and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
 and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
 he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
 the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
 the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
 the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation?
 Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
 and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The LORD is good,
 a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8  But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
 and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the LORD?
 He will make a complete end;
 trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
 like drunkards as they drink;
 they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
 who plotted evil against the LORD,
 a worthless counselor.

12 Thus says the LORD,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
 they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
 I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you
 and will burst your bonds apart.”


14 The LORD has given commandment about you:
 “No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
 the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”


15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
 who brings good news,
 who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
 fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
 he is utterly cut off.

Application

God knows if we are trusting in Him for our peace and prosperity; do you believe He is good and will give what's good to you? If so, how are you taking refuge in Him? (Hint: seek His way and wisdom, not your own, nor the world's.)

Prayer

God, may I never doubt your goodness, even in witnessing Your just judgments. Amen.

Nahum 2 Trusting in Our Own Strength Results in Ruin

The Overthrow of Nineveh

1 The scatterer has come up against you.
 Man the ramparts;
 watch the road;
dress for battle;
 collect all your strength.

2 For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob
 as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
 and ruined their branches.

3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
 his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
 on the day he musters them;
 the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
 they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
 they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
 they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
 the siege tower is set up.
6 The river gates are opened;
 the palace melts away;
7 its mistress is stripped; she is carried off,
 her slave girls lamenting,
moaning like doves
 and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
 whose waters run away.
“Halt! Halt!”

they cry,
 but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
 plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
 or of the wealth of all precious things.

10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
 Hearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
 all faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions' den,
 the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
 where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
 and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
 and his dens with torn flesh.
13 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Application

God is able to turn strength into weakness to accomplish His purposes; for the good guys, the opposite occurs.

Prayer

Mighty God, You are the one who exalts and abases; may I live in such a way that I experience Your blessings rather than Your judgment. Amen.

Nahum 3 Woe and Waste

Judgment on Nineveh

1 Woe to the bloody city,
 all full of lies and plunder—
 no end to the prey!
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
 galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
 flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
 heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
 they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,
 graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
 and peoples with her charms.

5 Behold, I am against you,
 declares the LORD of hosts,
 and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your nakedness
 and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
 and treat you with contempt
 and make you a spectacle.
7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her”?

 Where shall I seek comforters for you?

8 Are you better than Thebes
 that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
 her rampart a sea,
 and water her wall?
9 Cush was her strength;
 Egypt too, and that without limit;
 Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

10 Yet she became an exile;
 she went into captivity;
her infants were dashed in pieces
 at the head of every street;
for her honored men lots were cast,
 and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken;
 you will go into hiding;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
 with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
 into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
 are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
 are wide open to your enemies;
 fire has devoured your bars.

14 Draw water for the siege;
 strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
 tread the mortar;
 take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
 the sword will cut you off.
 It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
 multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
 more than the stars of the heavens.
 The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

17 Your princes are like grasshoppers,
 your scribes like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
 in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
 no one knows where they are.

18 Your shepherds are asleep,
 O king of Assyria;
 your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
 with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
 your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
 clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
 your unceasing evil?

Application

If we fail to walk in the righteousness after experiencing God's grace, we will experience His judgment.

Prayer

God, may I never take Your grace for granted, but may I live in fear of You all my days. Amen.

Habakkuk 1 How Long Oh Lord?

How can a good God use evil? Very well according to Habakkuk. Lamenting the evil of Judah, sometime around or after the fall of Nineveh (612 BC), he asks “how long” will God let the unrighteousness of Judah prevail. God's answer, “Just chill Habby, I am raising up Babylon to pummel them” causes him even more problems. How could God use a more wicked nation than Judah to judge them, His people? God not only looks upon evil, He exalts it to punish sin, and gets glory in the process. How does that work? Read on to find out (as well as how to have joy when there is nothing to be joyful about).

Habakkuk 1-3

Habakkuk’s First Complaint
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
 and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”

 and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
 and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
 strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
 and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
 so justice goes forth perverted.
The LORD’s Answer

5 “Look among the nations, and see;
 wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
 that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
 that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
 to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
 their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
 more fierce than the evening wolves;
 their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
 they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
 all their faces forward.
 They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
 and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
 for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
 guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Are you not from everlasting,
 O LORD my God, my Holy One?
 We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
 and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
 and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
 and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
 the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
 like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 He brings all of them up with a hook;
 he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
 so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
 and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
 and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
 and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Application

Look to discern God's purposes to discipline or develop discipline and dependence in your life, when He allows evil into your life, and draw upon His grace for growing in the situation.

Prayer

God, I know You are infinitely holy and good, so I totally trust You to know what's best and bring it about for me in Your perfect timing. Thanks. Amen.

Habakkuk 2 Watching and Waiting (by Faith) Woes

The LORD Answers Again

1 I will take my stand at my watchpost
 and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
 and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2 And the LORD answered me:

 “Write the vision;
 make it plain on tablets,
 so he may run who reads it.
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
 it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
 it will surely come; it will not delay.

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
 but the righteous shall live by his faith.

5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor,
 an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
 like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
 and collects as his own all peoples.”

Woe to the Chaldeans
6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

 “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
 for how long?—
 and loads himself with pledges!”

7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
 and those awake who will make you tremble?
 Then you will be spoil for them.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
 all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
 to cities and all who dwell in them.

9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
 to set his nest on high,
 to be safe from the reach of harm!
10 You have devised shame for your house
 by cutting off many peoples;
 you have forfeited your life.
11 For the stone will cry out from the wall,
 and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood
 and founds a city on iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts
 that peoples labor merely for fire,
 and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled
 with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
 as the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—
 you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
 in order to gaze at their nakedness!
16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
 Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the LORD's right hand
 will come around to you,
 and utter shame will come upon your glory!
17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
 as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
 to cities and all who dwell in them.

18 “What profit is an idol
 when its maker has shaped it,
 a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
 when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
 to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
 and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple;
 let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Application

God knows what He is doing, we just need to remind ourselves of that, by faith if necessary, when we can't see it (if you can see it, it's not faith).

Prayer

Holy God, help me live in faithful dependence upon You and how You've promised to act; it's obvious You know what You're doing in overseeing nations, I can surely trust You with the concerns of my life. Amen.

Habakkuk 3 Rejoicing in God Alone

Habakkuk’s Prayer
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
 and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
 in the midst of the years make it known;
 in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
 and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
 and the earth was full of his praise.
4 His brightness was like the light;
 rays flashed from his hand;
 and there he veiled his power.
5 Before him went pestilence,
 and plague followed at his heels.
6 He stood and measured the earth;
 he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
 the everlasting hills sank low.
 His were the everlasting ways.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
 the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
 Was your anger against the rivers,
 or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
 on your chariot of salvation?
9 You stripped the sheath from your bow,
 calling for many arrows. Selah
 You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you and writhed;
 the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
 it lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their place
 at the light of your arrows as they sped,
 at the flash of your glittering spear.
12 You marched through the earth in fury;
 you threshed the nations in anger.
13 You went out for the salvation of your people,
 for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
 laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
 who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
 rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
 the surging of mighty waters.

16 I hear, and my body trembles;
 my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
 my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
 to come upon people who invade us.
Habakkuk Rejoices

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
 nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
 and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
 and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
 I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
 he makes my feet like the deer's;
 he makes me tread on my high places.

 To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Application

As our world crumbles due to sin, the righteous will find continual and eternal joy and strength in God, and God alone.

Prayer

God, I praise You for being all sufficient for every need, and my ever present source of joy; may I daily rejoice in You, the God of my salvation, and heaven and earth. Praise You! Amen.

Digging Deeper

God in a nutshell: God raises up the mightiest of nations to accomplish His purposes of judging sin and glorifying Himself. He uses evil to judge His people when they become unrighteous, and then will judge the evil doers. He expects His people to be loyal to Him, and trust Him in all circumstances, since He is really all they need. He reveals the near term future so we will have confidence to trust Him for the long term. One day all (from one perspective or another) will know and experience His glory as He judges and rules the entire earth.

Us in a nutshell: We can be dismayed by God's doings and plans, and perplexed by evil until we see His perspective on things, which He has imparted in His word. We can rejoice in the worst of circumstances if we are rightly related to the God of our salvation. We must live by faith in what He has revealed to experience His goodness and protection.

Where to go for more

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