BEMA 53: Nahum — Diyn

Transcription Status

25 Nov 22 — Initial public release

6 Sep 22 — Transcript approved for release

Nahum — Diyn

Brent Billings: This is the BEMA Podcast with Marty Solomon. I’m his co-host, Brent Billings. Today we juxtapose the Book of Jonah against the other Assyrian prophet to Israel, the Book of Nahum. We’ll take a look at the other side of the equation of how God deals with evil.

Let’s think about this — God dealing with evil. This book is maybe a slightly different perspective of how God deals with evil. It’s not a simple formula for what happens, you know?

Marty Solomon: Right.

Brent: A lot of the times in the Bible, you see people crying out like, “God, why are you letting this happen? What about all this?” [God responds,] “The sin of the Amorites hasn’t reached its full potential.” It’s like, “What are you talking about? Look at what they’re doing!” The perspective they need to have to deal with evil in the way that He does, is very difficult to wrap our minds around.

Marty: Right. It’s definitely true that God is slow to anger. I think the part of His nature that maybe we wrestle with — I don’t know if we wrestle with it more often or not — but the part of His nature we might wrestle with more often is why He doesn’t deal with injustice. Why doesn’t He do something?

That was what the Book of Jonah was about. The Book of Jonah reminded us that God doesn’t do stuff because of the potential of people. God is not quick to judge, he’s not quick to condemn. He is slow to anger because if we will turn around, if we’ll repent, we’ll do the right things, we’re just loaded with potential and we can do so much.

God understands that.

To say that God never does anything about evil, would definitely miss the point. Nahum’s going to be, on one hand, a refreshing reminder of that; but it’s also going to — like you said, this isn’t something that’s easily formulated, or easily resolved. What this is going to create maybe even some more questions when it comes to that stuff.

We’ve been talking about the prophets. We talked about four pre-Assyrian prophets, all of which were bringing warnings. Two prophets to Israel, two prophets to Judah; they were all bringing warning. Warning to God’s people because they didn’t care about those on the margins. They didn’t care about the poor, they didn’t care about justice. Amos and Hosea came to Israel and said, “You got to change your ways.” Micah and first Isaiah came to Judah and said, “You’ve got to change your ways.” Did any of them listen, Brent?

Brent: The people of Judah did listen.

Marty: People of Judah did, not perfectly, they weren’t perfect, but they listened. They repented and God rescued them. The people of Israel didn’t seem to do that. In the Assyrian prophets, you have two prophets that come to them trying to help Israel wrestle with the fact that they’ve now been conquered by the Assyrians. What do you do with this injustice?

You have Jonah and Nahum end up being your two prophets. They really end up being in the two sides to the coin, two sides of the mishpat coin, if you will. We talked about mishpat. What’s mishpat mean for us in English?

Brent: Retributive justice.

Marty: Mishpat.

Brent: Oh, sorry, distributive justice.

Marty: Distributive justice. We got two different sides to this coin. You know where we’re headed, so that’s why you were a little tongue-tied right there. That’s what Nahum’s going to deal with is—it’s going to deal with the other side of that coin. Before we even do that, Nahum is three chapters long, Brent. I feel we can read it, spend some time with the text.

Brent: Let’s do it.

Marty: All right. Here we go. I was even told you might even have some questions for me as I read through this.

Brent: We’ll see what comes up.

Marty: All right, I like this. Nahum, Chapter 1: The prophecy concerning Nineveh. The same Nineveh that Jonah went to, that repented in sackcloth and ashes, even their animals that God was so concerned about. Same Nineveh. Here’s a prophecy concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

[chuckling] We’re off to a much different tone here than the Book of Jonah. The Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and vents His wrath against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power. The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, His clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up. He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. The mountains quake before Him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at His presence, the world, and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure His fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire. The rocks are shattered before Him.

This is a pretty alarming picture of God, but keep in mind that for the people hearing this—we said this was written to whom?

Brent: To Israel.

Marty: To Israel. This is actually a message of hope because you’re wanting to know, especially after a book like Jonah, does God care? Assyria’s just destroyed our home, it hurt my family members, brutally taking advantage of our people. Does God care? This book says, “Yes. Yes, God does care, and yes, God’s going to do something.”

Brent: The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.

Marty: That’s right. If we just read it for, like, me—if I read it with that typical, “What does the Bible say for me?”—this can be a really alarming book. Like, “Oh my goodness!” I can read this and be quite afraid, but to remember its context is to hear a message of hope.

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him, but with an overwhelming flood, He will make an end of Nineveh. He will pursue His foes into the realm of darkness. Whatever they plot against the Lord, He will bring to an end, trouble will not come a second time. They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine. They will be consumed like dry stubble. From you, Nineveh has one come forth who plots evil against the Lord and devises wicked plans.

This is what the Lord says, “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away. The Lord has given a command concerning you, Nineveh. “You will have no descendants to bury your name. I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temples of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile.” Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace. Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you, they will be completely destroyed.” You got Chapter 2 there, right?

Brent: Yes, so before we go on, though, we’ve got a little bit of talk of images and idols.

Marty: Yes. We’re going back to your agendas. Glad you pulled us back to that. We had two different agendas: source A agenda, source B agenda. As we walk through the prophets. Jonah was a weird one to look for it, but as you walk through the prophet you’re looking for, is this about justice, or is this about idolatry? Is this about empire or is this about immorality? What’s the problem?

Here, you’ve pointed out a reference to idols and idolatry. Not a whole lot in the midst of God just saying “You’re just going to get judged” but if there’s been a mention in Chapter 1 as to why? There’s allusion here to idolatry. Interesting.

Brent: Not really definitive, but it’s there.

Marty: Not really definitive.

Brent: It’s the only thing we got.

Marty: We’re not done yet, but we definitely wanted to notice that and not be unfair to our assessment of Nahum.

Brent: All right, Chapter 2. An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength. The Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines. The shields of the soldiers are red, the warriors are clad in scarlet. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day they are made ready, the spears of juniper are brandished. The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches. They dart about like lightning.

Nineveh summons her picked troops, yet they stumble on their way. They dash to the city wall, the protective shield is put in place. The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses. It is decreed that Nineveh be exiled and carried away. Her female slaves moan like doves and beat on their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool whose water is draining away. “Stop, stop,” they cry, but no one turns back. Plunder the silver. Plunder the gold. The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures. She is pillaged, plundered, stripped. Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale.

Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young, where the lion and lioness went and the cubs with nothing to fear? The lion killed enough for his cubs and strangled the prey for his mate, filling his lairs with the kill and his dens with the prey.

“I’m against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

Marty: The message continues here really clearly. God is going to deal with the injustice of Nineveh. Now if we have Chapter 2 here if there’s been any mention — no mention of idols but there has been some mention here of injustice.

God says you know there is this great lion’s den and the way that it killed its prey and stockpiled it for itself? In light of that, God says “I am against you because of how you’ve treated those that you’ve conquered.” We might have a one-to-one here on our agenda count, so I’ll have to have a tiebreaker.

Brent: All right.

Marty: Chapter 3.

Brent: In Chapter 3, we’ll do a tiebreaker.

Marty: All right. It’s not going to take long. Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims. The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses, jolting chariots, charging cavalry, flashing swords, glittering spears. Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses, all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. I think we may have had a tiebreaker.

Brent: Ding, ding, ding.

[chuckling]

Marty: “I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.”

I don’t want to go past some of the stuff without pointing it out, we really soften this in the English, I think because the hyperbole makes us so nervous. This is prophetic hyperbole and it’s prophetic exaggeration. It’s making its point by stating it with veracity and clarity. There’s no wishy-washiness in the things that are being said here.

“I will pelt you with filth.” Could be other ways of translating that, that might not be quite as G-rated but, appreciate what they’re trying to do. “I will lift your skirts over your face and show the nations your nakedness.” In Hebrew, this is loaded electric speech.

“I will treat you with contempt, I will make you a spectacle. All who will see you will flee from you and say, Nineveh is in ruins, who will mourn for her? Where can I find anyone to comfort you? Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall, Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were among her allies. Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles and all her great men were put in chains. You, too, will become drunk. You will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit. When they are shaken the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your troops, they are all weaklings.

“The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies. Fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses. Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork. There the fire will consume me, the sword will cut you down. They will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts. You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous in the stars in the sky, but like locusts, they will strip the land and then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.

“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber, your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you, your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty”

Again, it ends with a little statement about justice and how we treat people. This is quite a bit different than Jonah. Jonah was all about “Hey, Nineveh is great, a great city, full of potential. No judgment is going to come on them. In fact, woe to you, God’s people, who want me to judge Nineveh!”

Nahum is the other side of the coin. It’s like, “Yes, but don’t think that God’s going to do nothing about injustice.” I’ll close with some notes that I have here. Jonah is held in juxtaposition with another prophet that gets categorized in the Assyrian time period. The Prophet Nahum is the other side of the tension, the other side of God’s nature and the cosmic equation of evil.

As I have stated before, I adamantly believe that this tension between God’s love and God’s justice is not a matter of equal and opposing forces. God’s love far outweighs — what was our ratio, Brent?

Brent: 1000 to 3.

Marty: 1000 to 3. God’s love far outweighs His desire to bring vengeance and wrath. I believe that Tanakh is incredibly clear on this point and it is our western mindset that struggles with this way of thinking.

For us, we either run one way or the other, or a complete balance, yet the message of Nahum stands as a testimony to the way life really is. We have talked about mishpat, which you said was what, Brent?

Brent: Distributive justice.

Marty: Yes. Restorative, or putting things back in their proper place, the idea of eastern patriarchal justice. We have repeatedly made the point that biblical justice is the idea of putting things in their proper place. Mishpat has very little to do with retribution. Mishpat is the rampant idea that runs throughout Tanakh, much more than any other expression of justice, and yet, 1000 to 3.

There is another Hebrew expression of justice, even when it’s used far less often. What’s the word, Brent?

Brent: Diyn.

Marty: Diyn, that will be our word for Nahum. Jonah, our word was “potential.” Let’s review our words. Amos, what was Amos?

Brent: Amos was plumb line or ripe fruit.

Marty: Plumb line, ripe fruit. Hosea?

Brent: Prostitute.

Marty: Okay. Micah?

Brent: Judge.

Marty: Judge. First Isaiah?

Brent: Vineyard.

Marty: Vineyard, then we have Jonah.

Brent: Potential.

Marty: Potential. Now, Nahum.

Brent: Diyn.

Marty: Diyn. Diyn is this Hebrew word.

Brent: D-I-Y-N.

Marty: D-I-Y-N.

Brent: It’s part of the title of this episode if you want to see it.

Marty: Absolutely. Little transliteration there. It’s also used to communicate judgment. While this word doesn’t carry the idea of retribution, it does have an air of what I might call finality.

Diyn is a necessary part of mishpat. There are times and places where, in order to restore humanity, in order to be restorative, distributive justice. In order to get to that point, in order to pursue mishpat to its natural end, a judgment has to be pronounced, and a decision must be made. There comes a time when the discussion is over, and we need to get on with restoring the world.

This is the message of Nahum. The problem with the book of Jonah is that while the book explains God’s apparent inaction and unbelievable patience, it still doesn’t deal with the problem of evil that continues to exist. While God’s incredible patience is the very thing that gives us so much hope, and while His patience is a very catalyst for mishpat in most situations, our souls still look at injustice, and cry out for deliverance.

God is patient and patient, and patient and forgiving, and patient and mournful, and patient and pleading, and patient and grieving, and patient — and then God finally acts. Like we said, 1000 to 3. Slow to anger, but it doesn’t say “Never to anger.” It says “Slow to anger.” This is the book of Nahum.

Brent: That was Chapter 1, right there.

Marty: Yes.

Brent: “The Lord is…” Let me find it.

Marty: Yes, great point.

Brent: “The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.”

Marty: Right. Eventually, people of God, who are waiting for God’s deliverance, God deals with stuff. If they don’t live up to their potential, if they don’t repent, if it continues in chaos, God eventually does something. This is the book of Nahum.

As the people of Israel looked at the brutality of the Assyrian warfare and the terrible rule of the empire, they cried out for justice. As one more daughter gets raped and one more child is impaled on a pole, and one more elderly couple is burned in their home, the people cry out for God’s rescue. While God sees the incredible potential of each and every Assyrian, and patiently waits for them to come to repentance, there comes a time when God announces the coming destruction. God sends His message to the Prophet Nahum. “Enough is enough.”

This message to Nineveh will be God’s message of hope to His people, who have now become the oppressed. God, through the voice of Nahum, will poetically announce that he has heard the cry of his people and will bring mishpat. Nahum is here as a proclaimer of God’s diyn.

I have the same problem with Nahum that I had with Joshua, if you remember, I talked about the conquest. Yet I’m left here as a reminder of how glad I am, just like I said with Joshua. I’m so glad I don’t have God’s job because I would not do a very good job of deciding when to show patience, and when to bring diyn. I would make a very lousy God.

This is the last few verses, this is what God says, “King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber, your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.” Look at what God — He cares about people. “Nothing can heal you, your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall for who has not felt your endless cruelty.”

We have to hold Jonah in one hand and Nahum in the other. We have to hear that God hears the cry of the hurting and promises that it’s His business, that He’s in the business of mishpat. He invites us to trust in His goodness and His perspective. He invites us to trust in His wisdom and His timing, as we’ve always said, “He invites us to trust the story.”

I’m always left here with this: I love and I have this love-hate relationship with Israel and the Assyrian prophet period because I hate the tension and I love the tension. You hold Jonah in one hand and Nahum in the other, and you realize it’s not a balance, it’s not equal in opposing forces, it’s 1000 to 3, but you hold onto these two truths and these two prophets.

As you trust in God and you turn it over to Him, remember in the book of Deuteronomy, “Vengeance is mine,” declares the Lord. “Just turn it over to me and let me figure out the whole Jonah-Nahum debate.” We do get to have these two prophets and we do get to put them in each pocket because they’re both true, and we get to trust in God’s overall eternal wisdom, I guess, we might say.

Brent: As you were saying earlier, we know Assyria’s historically a brutal nation like God is probably eventually going to do something when you’re acting like that. [chuckles]

Marty: Right. Absolutely. Hey, we got an Israel trip coming up. We should talk about that.

Brent: Yes.

[The conversation about trips has been truncated due to irrelevance. The latest information on Israel trips can be found at https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/news and by signing up for the BEMA Messenger on that same page.]

Marty: If any of our listeners want to come to Israel with me… Love to have you come with us. It’s a great time. Brent will tell you.

Brent: Absolutely. Full endorsement.

Marty: I like it.

Brent: All right. Well, if you live on the Palouse, join us for discussion groups in Moscow on Tuesday or in Pullman on Wednesday. If you want to get a hold of Marty, you can find him on Twitter at @martysolomon, of course. You can find me on Twitter at @eibcb and you can find more details about the show bemadiscipleship.com.

Thanks for joining us on the BEMA Podcast and we’ll talk to you again soon.