Nahum 1:11 (KJV) Moral Contradiction

Nahum 1:11 (KJV)

There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.

I recently was called ignorant because I am conservative in matters of morality. I do not believe I am ignorant. I believe rather that I find my “truth” in a different source than less conservative people.

This same contradiction of sources existed in Nahum’s time. One the one hand there was the truth of God held by Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. On the other was the “truth” held by Sennecherab and Rabshekah, his general. It appeared that the Ninevites and Assyrians were right because they held the upper hand. They had the city of Jerusalem besieged. They had already defeated many other nations and, with them, their gods. They were confident they could “preach” to the citizens of Jerusalem a new found form of peace. They were so confident that they mocked the old ways of men like Hezekiah and Isaiah, the prophet. 

They were wrong. Not only did they not take Jerusalem, but they were slain by their own people and, in the end, conquered by another nation - Babylon. 

Christians are not ignorant, unaware, of the new and popular lifestyles and the changes in moral norms they have produced. But it could be that those who have embraced these new forms of morality are ignorant of the truths God gives us in the Bible. 

#GodsTruthPrevails #BiblicalMorality #FaithOverFads #ConservativeChristian #ScripturalWisdom

Moral Contradictions: The Clash of Moral Perspectives

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Nahum 1:11 (KJV) Moral Contradiction

Nahum 2:8 (KJV) Stand!

Nahum 2:8 (KJV)
But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.

It is amazing to think that, at one time, God sent the prophet Jonah to preach and save Nineveh. Here we find a prophecy dedicated to the judgment of the very same city.

This verse is picturesque in a number of ways. I see this city filled with souls fleeing from the enemy. The prophet cries out to stand and defend but none listens. Barnes describes it, Stand, stand,” the prophet speaks in the name of the widowed city; “shut the gates, go up on the walls, resist the enemy, gather yourselves together, form a band to withstand,” “but none shalt look back” to the mother-city which calls them; all is forgotten, except their fear; parents, wives, children, the wealth which is plundered, home, worldly repute. So will men leave all things, for the life of this world.”

If we take this to be the wicked fleeing from the judgment of God, the lesson is that there is no defense against Him. 

If we take this to be a rebuke for fleeing when they ought to stand then the lesson is more relevant in our day. People of God, don’t flee the trials that come to you. Stand up for Jesus. Be a testimony and a light in a difficult and dark time. 

• Do it for your wives (or husbands)
• Do it for your children
• Do it for those who stood before you
• Do it for those who will need to stand after you
• Do it for the glory of God

Stand! Stand!

Let nothing of this world cause you to flee away from your faith. 

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 5100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

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Nahum 2:8 (KJV) Stand!

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Nahum 1:7 (KJV) God’s Attention

Nahum 1:7 (KJV)
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Whatever else was going on in the world of Abraham’s day, God knew Abraham and that he trusted in him. God knew Moses trusted in Him. God knew David trusted in Him. God knows what is happening in the world at any given time. He also knows who trusts in Him in those times. I do not mean to say that God ignores the events of history, but I do mean to say that, in them, God’s attention is on those that trust in Him. 

All that happens in this world, we are told in the Bible, is moving mankind to an eventual reconciliation with God. As this movement occurs, it seems like terrible things happen. The concern of the Christian is to trust the Lord through those events. The confidence of that same Christian is to rest in the promise, “He knoweth them that trust in Him.”

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 5100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
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Nahum 1:7 (KJV) God’s Attention

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Nahum 1:1-2 (KJV) God Deals With Sin

Nahum 1:1-2 (KJV)
The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

Schofield’s Study Bible provides the following introduction to the book of Nahum,
“Nahum prophesied during the reign of Hezekiah, probably about one hundred and fifty years after Jonah. He has but one subject–the destruction of Nineveh. According to Diodorus Siculus, the city was destroyed nearly a century later, precisely as here predicted. The prophecy is one continuous strain which does not yield to analysis. The moral theme is: the holiness of Jehovah which must deal with sin in judgment.”

I read the first two chapters of Nahum in my daily visit with God today. There are very brief glimpses of mercy peppered here and there but this is undoubtedly brutal.

A thought occurred to me; could this be a prophetic description of the judgment of Christ on our behalf? Isaiah 53:5 (KJV)
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

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Nahum 1:1-2 (KJV) God Deals With Sin

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The Only Sufficient Stronghold

Nahum 3:12

All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

Nahum is preaching against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria and the very same city Jonah had been commissioned to preach to in view of their repentance.

The grace and mercy of God that is extended today is no promise of that same tomorrow. None of us can rightfully expect God's mercy. It must be sought and it must be sought by the humble and contrite. We cannot earn it, but neither can we expect it if we choose to throw God's grace in the wind.

Nahum's message takes on a taunting temper. He challenges the Assyrians to strengthen themselves and to fortify their strongholds. Nahum says that, be they ever so strong, if they are shaken they will yield up their fruit like a fig tree yielding its fruit into the mouths of the shaker. This is, of course, exactly what happened in Assyria. As formidable a Kingdom as they were. As great a threat as they presented in the days of Isaiah, yet in just a few years they were completely obliterated by the Babylonians.

So it is with the unrighteous. They may

·       Build up their popularity

·       Save up their resources

·       Gather together their following

·       Stockpile their armories

But when God comes to shake them they will come apart like ripe figs off the tree.

There is only one stronghold sufficient for the security of men. He is Jesus Christ. Come to Him by faith.

Infinite

Nahum 3:8-10 KJV

Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.

Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

I find this passage to be typical of the human perception; they viewed the strength of No, because of her supporters, to be infinite, having no end. And yet it did end. It was thought to be infinite but it was far from it.

Only God is truly infinite.

And so is the corrupted view of men. Having received the forbidden fruit we are forever seeing ourselves with godlike qualities.

• We know good and evil
• We measure ourselves among ourselves
• We expect others to subordinate themselves below us
• We create our own moral expectations and

• We always come short of the glory of God.

When reaching out for infinity, when assigning to something unending strength, we would always do right to give that to God alone. 

Good Tidings

Nahum 1:15 KJV

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

 In this confused day of syncretism and tolerance, God's message of good tidings is often misunderstood and rejected as hateful rather than loving. Today's world wants to view love as something that always feels good from the perspective of the individual. In order to accomplish that we have to tolerate everything.

• We have to tolerate homosexual marriage
• We have to tolerate abortion of babies
• We have to tolerate aggression of Islam
• We have to tolerate the taking of our liberty by the government

In order to make every individual feel good about themselves modern thinking says we must never find anything to be negative.

• Even the criminal must be understood and tolerated and we must be very careful not to make the punishment seem too severe for the crime

God has a very different view of good tidings. It is couched in the backdrop of judgment. This chapter is almost entirely occupied with negativity. What a solemn thought that "no more of thy name be sown." This is a harsh, terrible judgment.

And it is only after realizing the severity of judgment does God offer good tidings. They come as a follow through of the judgment. They can only be received by those who recognize how severe their state is before God.

• There is no such thing as the universal fatherhood of God
• There is no such doctrine as the salvation of all sinners
• There is no good news that death ends the suffering of this life

• The truth is that men have sinned against God
• The truth is that God will judge that sin
• The truth is that this judgment is eternal torment in hell

The “good tidings” is that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.“

Glorious Salvation

Nahum 1:2 KJV
God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

Scofield's Notes says,
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." He can be "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom 3:26) but only because His holy law has been vindicated in the cross.

This passage in no way minimizes
Micah 7:18 KJV
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
God's character is to delight in mercy, and as wonderful a character as that is, what makes it even more wonderful is that He accomplishes this mercy by vindicating holiness. He does not merely sweep sin under the carpet. He doesn't just ignore our sin nature. God looks full face into our sin and pours His fury, vengeance and wrath out upon it.

But not upon us; that would have spelled our eternal doom. God became one of us, a man. He identified Himself with fallen humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ and then, once fulfilling the righteousness of the Law, God poured the wrath He had reserved for His enemies upon Christ.

What a glorious salvation!

The Lord Is Good

Nahum 1:7 KJV
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
This little book is addressed to the Gentile city of Nineveh about 150 years after Jonah preached there and the city repented and turned to the Lord. Here, 150 years later, the city has apostatized and God is again pronouncing judgment, but this time, there is no call for repentance, only a warning that the judgment is coming. The book could be considered one of the most direct applications in the Old Testament to the Gentile world in which we live. The Word of God has had a huge influence on the Gentile world, especially those of us with European ties. The Bible has done with us exactly as Paul had said. The Gospel came to us and we have received it.

However, that same gospel does not have the impact in our lives as it once did. Christianity in Europe and the Americas has, without question, become apostatized. We have everything from the corruptions of liberalism, Pentecostalism, pragmatism, and modernism all eating away at the purity of the Gospel and it has created in the average lost man a distrust in the faith. The Word of God has been discredited by the charlatans of the faith and, by in large, even those people who do attend worship services put little stock in what is being delivered from the pulpits. We are apostate!

But in the middle of such a stern message as Nahum, there is this good news; "...He knoweth them that trust in Him."

We do not need to be disheartened. There is no reason to be disconcerted about the state of our world.
God is still on His throne.
His plan is still being worked out. and
He still knows those that trust in Him.

Don't Misunderstand

Nahum 1:7 KJV
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
People can so easily misunderstand God.

This text is found right in the middle of a pronouncement of judgment. Who can read verses 2-6 without sensing the anger of the Lord against a people? The Lord is good, but He is not indolent. God is kind, but He is not ignorant of the sin in this world.

This text does not mean that God will not fulfill the judgments He pronounces earlier.
This is an oasis
This is a shelter
This is a safe haven from the judgment about to come.

In the midst of the judgment that will most surely proceed, God is good and will be a stronghold; God knows and will protect all that trust in Him.