Early this year, my church finished our 3-year Bible-reading plan. One book in particular that struck me was Nahum, who was a prophet in Old Testament Israel. The entire book is focused on Nineveh. If you’re familiar with the Bible, you probably remember that there is another book focused on Nineveh: Jonah. Over the years, I’ve heard many sermons based on the book of Jonah, but I’ve never heard one based on Nahum.

A little historical background: Nineveh was the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire.  It existed about 750 years; its most powerful time was from about 900-612 B.C., when it suddenly came to an end.  The Assyrians were enemies of God’s people, and in 722 B.C., the Assyrians took the northern ten tribes of Israel into captivity.

Here’s a quick review of the book of Jonah.  Sometime around 760 B.C., the Lord commanded His prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the people there that their great city was going to be overthrown. Jonah hates the Assyrians, so instead of obeying, he runs away and is swallowed by a “great fish” (probably a whale). Then Jonah obeys the Lord; he goes to Nineveh and tells the people that the city will be overthrown in 40 days. Much to Jonah’s chagrin, the Ninevites repent, and Chapter 3:10 says, “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”

Approximately 150 years later (depending on your sources), the prophet Nahum preaches a message of God’s judgment and the destruction that was soon going to come against the Assyrian empire.  There are no verses in Nahum that exhort the Ninevites to repent; instead, the Lord’s judgment will surely come on them, and soon.  Here is what Chapter 1 verse 2 and the first part of verse 3 say:  “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.  The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.  The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.”  Notice that “the Lord is slow to anger.”  (!)  He had been patient with Nineveh, and 150 years earlier, when the Ninevites repented, He had compassion and forgave them.  However, the Lord’s patience has come to an end, as we read in the final verse of the book, Chapter 3:19:  “Nothing can heal your wound; your injury is fatal.  Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”  This is the kind of message that Jonah had wanted to preach, but Nineveh’s time of judgment had not yet come.  Now, 150 years later, it has. The Assyrian empire came to an end at the hands of the Babylonian empire and its allies in 612 B.C.  Depending on how you define the word “generation,” that’s 8-10 generations!  A lot can change in a country in 150 years.  In fact, in our fast-changing contemporary world, a lot can change in even a single generation, including morally and spiritually.

As I studied the history of Nineveh, specifically as revealed in the books of Jonah and Nahum, I couldn’t help thinking about the United States of the present compared with 150 years ago.  Actually, if you go back 161 years ago, to 1863, that is the year Abraham Lincoln declared freedom for slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation.  Two years after that, in 1865, the American civil war ended, which also effectively ended the scourge of slavery in our country.  It took time, of course, for it to be completely eradicated, but that was a watershed moment in American history.  That strikes me as a profound example of our repentance as a nation. 

Jumping ahead into the 1870s, we have a time when the American West was still being settled; this was a time of cowboys, gunslingers, outlaws, and Indians (Native Americans).  If you have ever watched old western movies, or TV series like Gunsmoke, you probably have some idea of what that era was like.  On the one hand, it was a time when violence and death could come very suddenly; on the other hand, even outlaws would sometimes make references to the “Good Book”—meaning the Bible—and to specific verses in it, showing that they had at least some knowledge, if not understanding, of Scripture.  One characteristic of that time was that girls and women on the Western frontier were generally much fewer than men.  This is understandable because of the violence as well as the living conditions compared with the East.  As such, women were generally to be respected and protected, although less so if they worked in a saloon. 

Jumping way ahead 100 years, we come to 1970, when Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock; his thesis was that when there is too much change in too short a period of time, it has negative psychological and societal effects. And since then, the pace of change has accelerated. One obvious example is the iPhone; there have been 24 “generations” of it since the first one in 2007; that’s more than one a year!

Regarding the Old West 150 years ago, even outlaws back then had some basic knowledge, if not understanding, of the Bible.  These days, even some American churchgoers don’t read the Bible, and when Christians make references to Scripture, non-Christians often have no idea what we’re talking about.  I also mentioned earlier the general treatment of women in the Old West, which was they were to be respected and protected.  In contemporary American society, there are so many men who just want to take advantage of women.  Speaking of women:  some of our political leaders can’t even define the word “woman.”  People in the Old West had no trouble with that!  We also find more and more confusion in contemporary society about sexuality; there are an increasing number of people, including children, who think they might be the opposite gender.  What does the Bible say about this?  If we go back to the very first chapter of the Bible, we read in Genesis 1:27:  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created him.”  And in Psalm 139:13, we read, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  When people think they might “be” the opposite sex and even have surgery to try to make it so, whether they realize it or not, they are saying to God, “You made a mistake when you made me.”  The truth is that God never makes a mistake.  While we who are Christians want to be understanding and compassionate to those who are confused about their sexual identity, we also need to communicate the truth of God’s Word about it. 

Earlier, we looked at Nineveh and how even though there was a time when the Ninevites repented and the Lord spared them, there came a time when He said, “Enough!”  Their violence was a prime reason; another reason was their idol worship.  In the second part of Nahum 1:14, we read, “I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods.  I will prepare your grave, for you are vile.”  In contemporary America, most people don’t have physical idols like that, but most have other idols; celebrities, position/status, and money come to mind.  How about violence?  You have probably seen videos of random attacks on people in our society over the past several years; and in the past four months, two assassination attempts have been made on a former president who is also running for president!  Many historians have said that the Roman empire’s downfall came at least partly from within because of its wanton lust for violence and deviant sexuality.

Some Christian leaders have said that the U.S. is living under God’s judgment.  This is based on Romans 1, where the Lord tells us that He sometimes just lets people go the destructive way they want to go.  This may be, but when the Israelites were in Egyptian captivity during the ten plagues, from Exodus Chapters 7-12 we know that in the case of at least half of the plagues (flies, livestock, hail, darkness, and the firstborn), the Lord brought them only on the Egyptians, not on the Israelites. Regardless of what happens, the Lord will never abandon His people.  God will always be with His people, who are distinct from the country as a whole. 

All is not doom and gloom!  I’ll just focus here on my city. I was encouraged recently to hear that six out of our seven high schools have groups of students who regularly get together for prayer; this is an organic movement organized and led by the students.  At my church, we have gone from a monthly prayer meeting to weekly.  2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Notice especially the word “humble” and the phrase “turn from their wicked ways.” In other words, the key is repentance.

More than one Christian song says, “I may not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.”  I don’t know what God’s plans are for the U.S., but I know what His ultimate plans are for His people everywhere:  one day, we will be with Him forever in heaven.  If you do not yet know the Lord, I hope to see you there!