The Plunder of Nineveh

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

The Plunder of Nineveh

Date: Oct. 30, 2019

Passage

Nahum 2:1-13 (ESV)

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.

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 2:10

  Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
    Hearts melt and knees tremble;
  anguish is in all loins;
    all faces grow pale!

1. Nineveh is like a pool draining away (1-10)

The attacker (Babylon) advanced against Assyria, who had destroyed Israel and oppressed Judah, whom God will restore. Babylon's troops, clad in scarlet victory, march through the city. Nineveh's soldiers cannot hold them back. The city is emptied of people and plunder like a pool being emptied into the drain. Their once impenetrable power is now broken, their spirit of arrogant dominance removed.

2. "Where now is the lion's den?" (11-13)

Nineveh had been like a lion's den, brutalizing, eating and killing any they chose. Now where is their pride? Their power and cruelty drew the ire of the Almighty, and those he is against cannot stand. He is more powerful than all their military might, political skill and religious fervor. "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe." (Pr 29:25)

Prayer: Father, you are the Almighty. Take away my fear of people and my fear about the future, and help me trust in you and your justice alone.

One Word: None stand against God

Servants of God’s House

1 Chronicles 6:1-81

Key Verse: 6:32

They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.

Today's Question

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