Monday 7th July
Read Nahum 2:1
“An attacker advances against you, Nineveh.
Guard the fortress,
watch the road,
brace yourselves,
marshal all your strength!” (NIVUK)
At the time of Nineveh’s downfall in 612BC it was the largest gathering of humanity on earth – the largest and greatest city of them all – surpassing Thebes in 638BC. They had conquered and scattered cities and nations for centuries. How does one destroy such a place?
The feet of one who brings good news have arrived in Jerusalem (Nahum 1:15) and the message is of the destruction of Nineveh (Nahum 2:1-10). It is somewhat chronological as we shall see but the events are all delivered in the present tense. We are gifted with the poetic equivalent of an eyewitness record.
We know it is good news of doom for Nineveh for the very language with which it begins is so very un-Assyrian. Assyria was famed for the orderly and inexorable march of its armies against city after city. Over two hundred years of tyranny and it ends with the city on the defensive, fearfully watching the approaches and marshaling the troops.
Although it is Babylon who will ultimately attack and destroy Nineveh, it is clear who is really in charge. The Hebrew rendered ‘attacker’ in our translation is better captured as ‘scatterer’. A just judgment on humanity’s greatest gathering.
One can’t help but wonder if Nahum intends to remind us of that other ancient city that lifted itself up against Yahweh… “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” (Genesis 11:8) (NIVUK).
Such powerful sovereignty is uplifting for the oppressed.
