Friday 4th July
Read Nahum 1:11
“From you, Nineveh, has one come forth
who plots evil against the Lord
and devises wicked plans.” (NIVUK)
We now prepare for Yahweh to speak. The enemy is Nineveh, personified in an unidentified foe. Though that has not discouraged commentators from identifying the enemy as Sennacherib, the ruler of Nineveh who laid siege to Jerusalem but was called away before completing the conquest.
The lack of name has the effect of generalising the foe to all those who ‘plot evil and devise wickedness’. The Hebrew encourages us to read it this way also. The text speaks of one who is ‘poel beliyyaal’, ‘one who advises villainy’. It is a biblically rich description often translated to a personal name ‘Belial’. In later tradition Belial referred to Satan; one who counselled villainy from the very beginning.
In the phrase we see the real enemy, the One against whom God’s vengeance is directed. The opposed one. Equally we hear the warning to not listen to the lies.
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15) (NIVUK)
How goes the resistance?
