Based on Nahum 3 (New King James Version)
“Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs. The noise of a whip and the noise of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of clattering chariots! Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear. There is a multitude of slain, a great number of bodies, countless corpses—they stumble over the corpses—because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her harlotries, and families through her sorceries. ‘Behold, I am against you,’ says the Lord of hosts; ‘I will lift your skirts over your face, I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle. It shall come to pass that all who look upon you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her?’ Where shall I seek comforters for you?’ Are you better than No Amon that was situated by the River, that had the waters around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was boundless; Put and Lubim were your helpers. Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed to pieces at the head of every street; they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. You also will be drunk; you will be hidden; you also will seek refuge from the enemy. All your strongholds are fig trees with ripened figs: If they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Surely, your people in your midst are women! The gates of your land are wide open for your enemies; fire shall devour the bars of your gates. Draw your water for the siege! Fortify your strongholds! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Make strong the brick kiln! There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off; it will eat you up like a locust. Make yourself many—like the locust! Make yourself many—like the swarming locusts! You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The locust plunders and flies away. Your commanders are like swarming locusts, and your generals like great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges on a cold day; when the sun rises they flee away, and the place where they are is not known. Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles rest in the dust. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one gathers them. Your injury has no healing, your wound is severe. All who hear news of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?”
The city of Nineveh (of which the prophet Nahum prophesied in this passage) has great significance, because you can see how God deals with us, how He can have mercy, and also, He can come to punish and even completely destroy when His great mercy is abused. This is one of the great errors that exist within the people of God, who think that God is only love and that He endures everything, and that He will never deal with sin, especially when there is recidivism or practice of sin. God is love, but He is also a consuming fire, and He will not tolerate the abuse of His mercy. The Word says: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” Psalm 103:8. But, that does not mean that His wrath will never come, and that His mercy has no limits. There is a limit to His mercy. That is why we must not only love the Lord, but also fear him.
In order to understand this matter a little more, we can see it very clearly through the people of Nineveh. The Lord had great mercy on the people of Nineveh through the prophet Jonah. God sent Jonah to give Nineveh a chance. If you remember the story, Jonah was called by God to prophesy against Nineveh, and Jonah refused to obey the first call. And God allowed a great storm to arise when Jonah was fleeing his responsibility on a ship heading towards Tarshish, going completely the opposite way of Nineveh. And the sailors asked to know why the storm came when they saw that they were going to die, and the lot fell on Jonah. And there Jonah confessed to them that it was his fault, and asked to thrown into the sea, and he was swallowed by a large fish that the Lord had prepared for him. And after three days, when Jonah repented, the fish vomited out Jonah, and there he set out again to Nineveh where he preached to them and they repented of their sins before the Lord, and the Lord had mercy on them. The Lord allowed all of this, because even though he had prophesied destruction to them, they repented and He had mercy on them, and did not destroy them. But why did He have mercy on Nineveh, despite all the evils they had done? Thus said the Lord to Jonah: “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” Jonah 4:11. The Lord had mercy on their ignorance. They did not fully understand the evils they were doing, and even less so, how they were directly offending God.
Now, in order to understand the point more clearly, you have to understand the times. It is estimated that the prophet Jonah preached to Nineveh and they repented before the Lord during the reign of Jeroboam, between 780 and 750 BC. It is estimated that the prophet Nahum wrote his prophecy against Nineveh between 615 and 612 BC. And the Assyrian empire and its capital Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC by the Medes and the Babylonians, and never regained its significance after that. And this prophecy that the prophet Nahum wrote was fulfilled to the smallest detail. There was a period of many decades between their repentance and their relapse into sin, and the culmination of their destruction. Was God merciful? Yes. His anger was slow, and He was great in mercy. But there was a limit. The people of Nineveh did not stop their madness in time. They thought they could go on and on, repeating their sins without any consequences. But that was not so. You can never abuse God's mercy. God gives opportunities, and He gives them each morning, but He has a limit.
So, what are we to understand in all of this? The Lord has mercy when His truth is ignored, when a person does not know how they are offending God with their sins. But, when a person has been exposed to the Truth of the Lord, and relapses into their sins time after time, they can push God's mercy to its limits, and punishment can come suddenly, when one least expects it. The practice of sin will not go unpunished. Therefore, the most excellent advice that can be given is this: “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’ So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him—a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” Joel 2:12-14. And the Scriptures also say: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:8. If you know the Truth, and you are practicing sin, it is your decision to leave it behind, and end it before it is too late. It is believed that the same year that Nahum prophesied about Nineveh was when his prophecy was fulfilled, and God's punishment came. God did not wait long after giving notice. So, turn to the Lord with all your heart while there is still time. His call is for today. Why take God's mercy beyond its limits? Lord bless! John. Support Israel. Pray for Israel. God will bless those that bless Israel.