Sermon: Justice and Judgement

Justice and Judgement
Nahum 2-3
March 3, 2019
Pastor Nathan Currey

Nahum 2:1 The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength. [2] For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches. [3] The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished. [4] The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning. [5] He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up. [6] The river gates are opened; the palace melts away; [7] its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. [8] Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!" they cry, but none turns back. [9] Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things. [10] Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale! [11] Where is the lions' den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? [12] The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh. [13] Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. [3:1] Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! [2] The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! [3] Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies! [4] And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms. [5] Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. [6] I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. [7] And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, "Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?" Where shall I seek comforters for you? [8] Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? [9] Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. [10] Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. [11] You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. [12] All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. [13] Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. [14] Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! [15] There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! [16] You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. [17] Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are. [18] Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. [19] There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

• Injustice Brings God's Certain Judgment
• God's Judgment is Evidence of His Grace
• God's Final Judgment is Coming