Nahum 2 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

           Even though Nahum’s prophecy is against the city of Nineveh, it is actually written for the comfort of God’s people in Judah who have been harassed by the Assyrians for quite some time.  The Assyrians have plundered them on a number of occasions and have begun to see them as their next prey, adding them to a long list of captured nations.  But the Lord is the defender of his people.  For a time, he has allowed the Assyrians to come and do their worst in order to bring the Jews to their senses, but he will not allow them to be wipe out as a people for the sake of his holy name.  In v.2, Nahum assures the Jews that the Lord “is restoring the majesty of Jacob,” by bringing his judgment against the city of Nineveh. 

           In the first eight verses, Nahum describes the attack of the city itself by the Babylonians who have come to plunder the plunderers and scatter the scatterers.  These invading soldiers are covered in the blood of their victims as their chariots race madly through the streets slaughtering men, women and children.  When the walls of the city are breached, Nahum speaks of the melting heart of the lioness who has fed on the blood of the innocent.  This evil mistress is stripped of her royal robes and carried off as a slave, and so too are her attendants as they are beating their breasts and moaning like doves.  In order to defend the honor of the Lord’s holy Bride, he must take out the adulteress, the harlot and the woman Folly with whom the unbelieving men of the earth have schemed. 

Sadly, though, in this case, one seductive scheme is merely replaced by another, for the harlot of Babylon is even more cruel and wicked than the harlot of Assyria, but this prophecy concerning Assyria is merely a foretaste of the prophecy that the apostle John will receive in Revelation 17.  In his vision, John sees the mistress of Babylon “arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.  And on her forehead was written: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”  And John saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.  But in the end, he sees her stripped of her clothing, her flesh devoured and her body burned in the fire.  Finally in Revelation 18 the saints of God are singing together, rejoicing over the fall of Babylon.  For it is only then that the bridegroom comes for his bride who has made herself ready.

We must remember, that in every generation the seed of the serpent is at enmity with the seed of the woman, and that the wayward prostitute is at odds with the bride of Christ.  Although at times it may seem that the loud and boisterous mistress of this world will never be silenced, her days are numbered and her doom is sure.