Nahum 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?“

The book of Nahum was penned sometime before the fall of the Assyrian city of Nineveh.  This city is well known to those familiar with the account of Jonah. Previously the Lord had given these people an opportunity to turn from their evil ways.  In the previous account, these people responded correctly, humbled themselves, and the judgment God had Jonah announce was averted for a time.  Later on however judgment would come when they again turned back to evil.  This comes as no surprise, because man without God is doomed to fail.

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Jonah 1:6 – “…The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!  Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.“

Jonah was a prophet of the Lord in ancient Israel.  The Lord assigned him an unpleasant task: to go preach judgment on the great city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyria Empire.  At this time, the Assyrians (based in Nineveh) posed the single greatest threat to Israel’s national security and survival as a nation.  They were Israel’s enemies, and the people of Israel feared them.  Indeed, some years after this, the Assyrians invaded and destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, carrying the people into exile, and leaving only the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the Promised Land.  Before this attack, however, God sent Jonah to preach to them.  Jonah was afraid and resisted this assignment – not only because Israelites naturally felt intimidated by Nineveh, but also because he did not want the people to have a chance to repent. (see Jonah 4:2).  He wanted God to judge them, and giving them a chance to repent could leave the opportunity for them to receive grace and forgiveness, at least for a season (this is, of course, exactly what happens at the end of the book of Jonah).

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