Gaining Perspective
August 3, 2008
Nahum, Jonah
David Livingstone, the great missionary who served in Africa from 1840 until his death in 1873, was eager to travel into the uncharted lands of Central Africa to preach the gospel. One day he arrived at the edge of a large territory that was ruled by a tribal chieftain. Livingstone knew the local custom required him to wait for the chief to come out to meet him; Livingstone could only enter his territory after an exchange was made. The chief could choose any item of Livingstone's personal property that caught his fancy and keep it for himself, while giving the missionary something of his own in return.
Livingstone had few possessions with him, but at their encounter he obediently spread them all out on the ground—his clothes, his books, his watch, and even the goat that provided him with milk (since chronic stomach problems kept him from drinking the local water). To his dismay, the chief took this goat. In return, the chief gave him a carved stick, shaped like a walking stick.
Livingstone was most disappointed. He began to gripe to God about what he viewed as a stupid walking cane. What could it do for him compared to the goat that kept him well? Then one of the local villagers explained, "That's not a walking cane. It's the king's very own scepter, and with it you will find entrance to every village in our country. The king has honored you greatly."
The man was right. God opened Central Africa to Livingstone, and as successive evangelists followed him, wave after wave of conversions occurred. (http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/weekly/07-10-15
/5101507.html).
Sometimes, in our disappointment over what we don't have or in our confusion over what is happening in our lives or in the bigger world around, we fail to appreciate the significance of what God has given us. Sometimes we even accuse God of various things. Lacking proper historical perspective and being unable to see life and our world from God’s perspective, we often misjudge other people and especially God.
Many times the Old Testament provides us insights into how God works over long periods of time as different writers writing many years apart tell us the beginning and the end of stories. Since we do not live 100’s of years or find waiting difficult, these stories are priceless. Two such books are Jonah and Nahum.
The book of Jonah tells the story of a reluctant Jewish prophet God sent to warn Nineveh that God was about to bring judgment upon them for their sinful pride and idolatry. Jonah’s message was simple: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned" (Jonah 3:4). When the Ninevites believed God and asked Him to “relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish" Jonah records, “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” (3:9-10).
Hating the Assyrians for what they had already done to Israel and extrapolating what they would still do, Jonah became angry and challenged God: "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." (4:2-3). God then chastised Jonah telling him, “Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (4:11).
Even though the Assyrians would the instrument by which the Northern Kingdom of Israel would fall, Jonah shows us God still cared about “that great city” and her people. Before He brought destruction on them, He offered a reprieve because of His great compassion and abounding love.
The book of Nahum is the book Jonah wanted to write. Written somewhere between 120 and 150 years later, Nahum tells us the national act of repentance and the following great revival did not really change the moral character of Nineveh and the Assyrian people. Therefore, Nahum predicts the destruction of Nineveh and how God would do it.
Nahum begins with the principle we are to live under: “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” (Nahum 1:2-3). Peter would later say it this way: “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (1 Peter 4:17-18).
Since Israel, and today, the Christian Church, has the Holy Scriptures and the revealed truth of Christ, God holds us to a higher standard. When we sin, we are judged more quickly. Sin separates us from God and He knows we cannot long endure in that separated condition. Hoping to catch us immediately and save us from the consequences of a prolonged separation, God acts quickly to discipline and correct us. In the Old Testament, when God worked corporately with nations, he would allow Assyria (Nineveh) to be used to bring His warning to the Northern and Southern Kingdoms and later Babylon to Judah alone. Still, God held both Nineveh and Babylon accountable for their actions against His chosen people. Today, God works with individuals who and churches which have His truths regardless of the nation in which they live. God disciplines each of us as sons (see Hebrews 12:4f) till we learn to look only to Him. God also judges churches and even nations, though to a lesser degree than in the Old Testament, for allowing anything to come between us and God. He is at work purifying the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7f).
Nahum tells us what will become of the ungodly and the sinner, the one who rejects God’s love and compassion. Using such imagery as: “His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet” (Nahum 1:3); “The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away” (1:5); “His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him” (1:6); and “an overwhelming flood” (1:8), Nahum describes how God as the Divine Warrior turns the table on the mighty yet godless oppressor and rescues His beloved Israel.
Please listen carefully. Jonah and Nahum give us an incredibly important insight. In Jonah 4:11, God described Nineveh as “a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.” In Nahum, Nineveh now knows God and yet has chosen to worship Baal. Baal worship taught the Assyrians to “pursue darkness” (1:8) and to “plot evil against the LORD and counsel wickedness” (1:11). The books of 1 &2 Kings show us how they corrupted Israel and Judah.
Peter puts the historical perspective we have to understand in principle form: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). In this case this means that God gave Nineveh a very real chance to understand His nature and to experience His love and compassion. When they subsequently chose to forget God and follow Baal, when they chose to pursue darkness, when they chose to plot evil against the Lord and counsel others in their wicked ways, He acted to completely destroy the Assyrian empire. He gave Nineveh well over 100 years to make their choice and to repent of their sins. Then He acted swiftly and permanently.
We have to understand that God hates sinners and sin. Tremper Longman III summarizes what I have been saying this way: That “God hates sinners as well as sin fits with the overall Biblical understanding of the nature of God. That God is wrathful is a consequence of his jealousy. God demands exclusive loyalty. The Bible draws a close parallel between the believer’s relationship with God and marriage. These are the only relationships in which the partners are bound by an exclusive tie. Thus, they are the only relationships in which jealousy is not tolerated, but deemed right.” (An Exegetical & Expository Commentary on “The Minor Prophets,” Vol. 2, Baker Academic, 1993, p.788).
Despite what you might believe, once we are saved, we are not sinners. We may commit sins, but remember how Paul addresses so many of his epistles: “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:7); “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy” (1 Corinthians 1:2); “To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:1); etc…
The act of our salvation not only transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, God’s character and Spirit come to indwell us. At least positionally, we are one with Christ, we have passed from death to life. God now expects more of us and treats us differently. The forbearance and patience He exhibited in bringing us to Him passes and the fruit of the Spirit needs to begin to dominate all we do. He corrects and rebukes us to purify us from all our sins (1 John 1:9). He demands that we be exclusively His.
Our lives are to be marked by a driving passion to do everything for and with Christ. Satan uses life’s demands to distract us from the closeness God intends for us to experience. God demands we continue to invite Him into each and every situation. He demands to solve our problems for us because He alone knows everything that is going on not only in our lives but in the lives of those around us.
Larry McMurtry, known for his book, Lonesome Dove, wrote another book about roads—the many roads he had driven on and the hundreds of miles he had explored across America. At last, returning in memory to the place where he grew up in east Texas, he recalls that his father had seldom gone much farther than the dusty roads near his dirt farm. Comparing his own travels to his father's localized life, McMurtry admits, "I have looked at many places quickly. My father looked at one place deeply."
Life wants to carry us everywhere so that we get lost in its “new and improved” excitement. Life’s trick is that too many roads and too many new things soon lead to indifference, laziness, and deception. The more we try to know everything about everything, the less we able to experience the newness in the same old thing. The everyday relationship with our spouse looses the excitement of meeting someone new. The false passion of forbidden fruit seems real instead of our allowing life to teach us to search out the deep intimate secrets of the ones with whom we should experience every day. I hope you understand I am talking about your spouse, your children, your friends, the people with whom you serve God, and most importantly God Himself.
Passion and excitement doesn’t require “new and improved;” it only requires a willingness to look deeper and understand more. Take the time God gives you to learn all that He wants to teach you.