The Good News of Judgment
Nahum
Main Idea: God's judgment is Good News for those in Jesus Christ
I. God's Judgment Provides our Refuge (1:2-8)
In order to know how we can find refuge in God's judgment, we must know God's character.
Psalm 9:9-10: The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
The justice of God must be satisfied; and this will be either in the sinner's person or in the person of Christ, the surety.
~ Jonathan Edwards
II. God's Judgment Plows our Enemies (1:9-14)
God's judgment puts to death external forces that oppress us and the sin that oppresses us from within.
Romans 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Much like Nahum exposed the self-serving and self-destructive nature of Nineveh’s idolatrous imperialism, Christians should critique the many forms in which individuals, groups, and whole cultures usurp God’s prerogative in defining the human being as self-governing, without an innate knowledge of God, and fully capable of achieving perfect happiness by oneself.
~ Daniel Timmer
III. God's Judgment Paves the Way for our Pilgrimage Home (1:15)
God's judgment in Christ gives us certainty that we will make it through the perils of this life to our heavenly home.
Revelation 19:6-9: Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up, heart; let’s neither faint nor fear.~ John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress
