Tuesday 1st July
Read Nahum 1:3b-6
“His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet
4He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
5 The mountains quake before him
and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
the world and all who live in it.
6 Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
the rocks are shattered before him.” (NIVUK)
When we praise God as Creator and bow down at His power it is usually in the context of creation and making. There is joy and wonder and curiosity and wisdom captured in songs of praise.
Nahum’s song also wonders at His greatness but it is the awesome power of destruction and unmaking that leaves him bowed low. God is so far above creation that the dust storms He rides, the desert winds that desiccate and destroy all in their path, are merely clouds at His feet.
Bashan and Carmel were cloud forests of such majestic beauty they were written about in Mesopotamian poetry such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. They watered the plains of northern Palestine and gave life to all. When Nahum writes of them withering in Yahweh’s presence he is sending a message to the baked but fertile plains of the Tigris and Euphrates deltas about Who is really in charge…
Although Yahweh is slow to anger, falling on the wrong side of a God this powerful leaves one with only a single question – where can you hide? Nahum asks us to sit in this question and meditate. Our God is not domesticated in any way.
