Nahum 2:1-3:19 He that dashes in pieces is come up before your face: keep the fortification, watch the way, make your loins strong… He that dasheth in pieces, etc. "The Scripture," says Sherlock," takes notice of a certain measure of iniquity, which is filling up from one generation to another, till at last it makes a nation or family ripe for destruction. And although these persons on whom this vengeance falls suffer no more than their own personal sin deserved, yet, because the sins of former generations, which they equal or outdo, make it time for God utterly to destroy them, the punishment due to the sins of many generations is said to fall upon them" (Genesis 15:16; 2 Kings 24:3, 4; Matthew 23:32-36). So thorough was the destruction of Nineveh, that its very site for ages was a matter of conjecture. The wonderful discoveries of Botta in 1842, followed up by Layard in 1845, not only determined its site, but disclosed the dwellings, ornaments, history, manners, of the inhabitants of the old Assyrian metropolis. Now, in the prophecy which Nahum gives, we learn that its destruction reveals several things. I. THE FRUITLESSNESS OF THE MOST STRENUOUS EFFORTS OF RESISTANCE. "Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily" (Nahum 2:1). This is supposed by some to be ironical, and to mean - Do your utmost to resist, concentrate all your forces, bring them into vigorous play, it will be utterly worthless. No doubt Nineveh, in her extremities, strove to the utmost to crush the invader and to preserve her own existence. But all efforts failed; its doom was sealed, its time had come, it had filled up the measure of its iniquity. There is no resisting God's judgment when it comes. "There is no discharge in that warfare." We learn from this prophecy that its destruction reveals - II. THAT THE SAME VIOLENCE WITH WHICH IT DESTROYED OTHERS WAS NOW EMPLOYED FOR ITS OWN DESTRUCTION. Nineveh was a city of blood, full of lies and violence, the dwelling place of ravenous lions, which had preyed upon other nations and ruined them. Now this violence is brought to bear upon them. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." See the description given of its conquerors (Nahum 2:3; Nahum 3:2, 3), "The shield of his mighty men is made red," the emblem of slaughter. "The chariots shall be with flaming torches," their wheels rolling with such velocity that they flash lightning from the stones. They "rage in the streets," jostle against each other, and "run like the lightnings," and there are the "noise of the whips," the "rattling of the wheels," the "prancing of the horses," the flashing of the swords and the glittering spears. Crowds are struck down, "a great number of carcases," there is "none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses," etc. The Bible is full of the doctrine of retributive justice; it abounds with examples of sinners receiving back in punishment the very same evils that they have inflicted on others. "Every man shall be rewarded according to his works." How often it happens in the government of the world, that the deceiver is punished by deceit, the ambitious by ambition, the avaricious by avarice, the violent by violence "His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." III. THE WORTHLESSNESS OF ITS CHIEF METHOD OF DEFENCE. "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved" (Nahum 2:6). "The river wall on the Tigris (the west defence of Nineveh) was 4530 yards long. On the north, south, and east sides there were large moats, capable of being easily filled with water from the Khosru. Traces of dams, gates, or sluices, for regulating the supply, are still visible, so that the whole city could be surrounded with a water barrier. Besides, on the east, the weakest side, it was further protected by a lofty double rampart, with a moat two hundred feet wide between its two parts, cut in the rocky ground. The moats, or canals, flooded by the Ninevites before the siege to repel the foe, were made a dry bed to march into the city, by the foe turning the water into a different channel, as Cyrus did in the siege of Babylon" (Maurer). This, however, is not substantiated. "In the earlier capture of Nineveh by Arbaces the Mode and Belsis the Babylonian, Diodorus Siculus states that there was an old prophecy, that it should not be taken till the river became its enemy; so, in the third year of the siege, the river, by a flood, broke down the walls twenty furlongs, and the king thereupon burnt himself and his palace and all his concubines and wealth together; and the enemy entered by the breach in the wall" (Fausset). It is often thus with the sinner, that the very things on which he relies contribute to his ruin. It may be wealth, physical strength, genius, morality, etc.; but when judgment comes, these, like the Tigris, "flee away." IV. THE INEVITABLENESS OF ITS UTTER RUIN. The reason of it was, "I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts" (Nahum 3:5). "Art thou better than populous No?" (Nahum 3:8-10) - the Egyptian name for Thebes, the possession of Ammon. The populousness of Thebes and its wonderful natural productions did not save it from ruin. Her "strength" was "infinite," yet she was "carried away into captivity;" if she could not resist, neither canst thou. "How vain," says a modern expositor, "are all the defences of sinners when the Lord is against them! No-Ammon, or Thebes, was one of the grandest and most magnificent cities of the earliest ages. Yet her rampart and seawall, with her seemingly infinite strength, were of no avail to save her young children from being dashed in pieces and all her great men from being bound in chains. Such was to be the doom of Nineveh likewise. God acts on the same unchanging principle in all ages, and in the case of all nations. Unrighteousness towards man and impiety and idolatry towards God bear the same bitter fruits everywhere, however for a time transgressors may seem to prosper. Let us as a nation remember that our safety consists, not in our fleets and armies, nor even in the 'multiplication of our merchants above the stars of heaven' (Nahum 3:16). Riches, like the cankerworm or the grasshopper (ver. 17), certainly make themselves wings, they fly away (Proverbs 23:5). The strongholds (ver. 12) on which we rely would fall before the invader as easily as the ripe fruit into the mouth of the eater, if God were against us. The nobles and captains who are the glory of England would soon be abased in the dust (vers. 17, 18). Our security therefore depends on our godliness. Wickedness persevered in continually (ver. 19) would bring on us a grievous wound, not to be healed, and the very nations now in alliance with us would clap their hands over us, exulting in the tidings of our fall Let us therefore repent of our sins as a nation, as families, and as individuals, and 'bring forth worthy fruits of repentance.'" - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. |
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