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The
one who has the last word wins the argument. That is not to say that the one
who believes that they have the last word, but the one who actually has the
last word. The one who has the final word is the one who has authority to end
the argument. A disagreement between
friends is much different than a disagreement between the state and one of its
citizens. A citizen may believe that they are not guilty, but their belief does
not determine reality. The reality is,
in situations of law, it is the judge and jury that have the final word
regarding one’s innocence. The final
reality is determined by the one who has the last word.
This
is important for us because we live in an age that teaches us that we have the
final word on what is good and what is bad for our own lives. Our post-modern
society teaches us that truth is relative and therefore we can do whatever
makes us happy. Whether we chose to marry
someone of the same-sex or whether we decide to take the life of our unborn
child, truth in America is relative. And
truth is not only relative in America, but throughout the West. When the
Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton gave birth to her and Prince William’s
first child, they announced to the world, “It’s a boy!” A large number of
people responded in protest to this announcement in saying, “Let the baby
decide.”
There
is a growing movement that has started to question the very fabric of common
sense in saying that it is the right of a person to decide whether they should
be a male or a female. The social media
giant, Facebook, allows new users to choose from up to 50 different gender
options. The world we now live in does
not believe in the simple option of either male or female, but rather believes
it is an individual right to have the last word on their gender. Is it possible for a human being to have the
last word on their gender? What about
other things? Can a person have the last
word regarding who they should and shouldn’t marry? Does a person have the last
word on whether they are a good person?
And if people do not have the last word, who does?
The
small prophecy of Nahum helps us answer this eternal question of, “who will
have the last word?” It appears that
Nahum was written as a prophecy rather than announced and then written
later. We have almost no biographical
information about Nahum. All that we know of him is where he is from, Elkosh,
but then we do not know where Elkosh is located. We do know that Nahum spoke against
Nineveh. Like Jonah before him, Nahum
went to Nineveh to prophesy, yet experienced very different results. Nahum announces emphatically who will have
the last and final word.
The Lord Will Have
the Last Word Over His Enemies
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Nineveh
was known for its cruelty and vicious treatment of God’s people. The Assyrian King Ashurbanipal once wrote how
to deal with those who opposed him in saying,
As for those
common men who had spoken derogatory things against my god Asher and had
plotted against me, the prince who reveres him, I tore their tongues and abased
them. As a posthumous offering I smashed
the rest of the people alive by the very figures of protective deities between
which they had smashed Sennacherib my grandfather. Their cut-up flesh, I fed to
the dogs, swine, jackals, birds, vultures, to the birds of the sky, and to the
fishes of the deep pool.[1]
The Assyrians were brutal and
harsh. Their brutality allowed them to gain strength and success. Much like the
ISIS and HAMAS today, whose brutality has struck fear in their hearts of their
adversaries.
It was easy for Assyria to believe that they
were always going to rule. They were powerful and strong. They had the last word in many battles
showing their military might and powerful prowess. They believed that they were safe in their
strength, but did not realize that there was a far greater strength coming: the
strength of Almighty God. Nahum1:2,
The LORD is a
jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes
vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. (Nahum 1:2)
The Lord saw their brutality and He
was coming to bring vengeance in His wrath.
It
is a fool’s errand to think that one can stand against the world. People may
have the illusion of victory, but it is just that, an illusion. Nahum makes this clear in saying,
Who can stand
before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is
poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. (Nahum 1:6) But
with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and
will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against the LORD? He
will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. For they are
like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like
stubble fully dried. From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a
worthless counselor. Thus says the LORD, “Though they are at full strength and
many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will
afflict you no more. (Nahum 1:8-12) The
LORD has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal
image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.” (Nahum 1:14)
Nahum promises the Lord’s vengeance
to be meted out on Nineveh. No one can
stand against the Lord.
Nahum continues to unfold this terrible
destruction against Nineveh in Chapter 2 and 3.
A key verse is Nahum 3:5,
Behold, I am
against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your
face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your
shame.
The Lord says, “I am against
you.” The proud nation will be put to
shame. Think on the power in those four
words, “I am against you.” The Lord, the one who has the last and final word,
is against you. There is no worse fate and no worse fear. All illusions are over, reality has set in.
In
seeing how God is against Nineveh, it should cause you to ask, “Is God against
you?” Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.” God is against all those
who oppose Him. We are born against God
because of our sin. Our sin causes
condemnation. God does not set Himself against us, but we set ourselves up
against God. (John 3:18b, “Whoever does
not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of
the only Son of God). God has to be
against sinners, because He is just. Are
you against God? Have you ever repented
of your sin and turned to God? If not, then the Bible says God is against you.
Remember verse 6, “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the
heat of his anger?” Read Nahum and see
the outcome of those who attempt to stand against God and endure this anger.
The Lord Will Have
the Last Word Over His People
We
have looked at the illusion of success of the enemies of God, but we also
should look at the illusion of failure of the people of God. God’s people were
facing the harsh brutality of the Assyrians and they were powerless to stop
it. They looked on as if there was
little hope for victory. The lie of the
world is to believe that our present circumstances equal our future reality. As Christians, we must believe in God’s word
over what we can see. This is
faith. Hebrews 11:1; 6,
Now faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And without
faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
We believe despite what we
see. We believe based on what we have
heard. I recently heard someone say that
we are not living in the age of the eye, but in the age of the ear. The
righteous will live by faith in what we have heard from God’s Word rather than
what we see.
Judah
was in dangerous and helpless circumstances.
They could do nothing, but wait on God. Have you ever been there? In a
situation where you were powerless and all you could do was wait on God? In their helpless state, the Lord brings the
last word,
Thus says the
LORD, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and
pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. And now I
will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.” (Nahum
1:12-13) Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of
him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly
cut off. (Nahum 1:15)
God’s people are not promised peace
and comfort in this life, but we are promised final peace and final comfort in
glory. He even ends the book with the
people of God clapping over the destruction of Nineveh, “All who hear the news
about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing
evil?”
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We
have to live in the promise of future grace. God will take care of us, but He
will do so in His timing according to His will. He will use every trial and all
persecution of His people to refine and purify.
Remember what God says about what trials produce,
Count it all joy,
my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the
testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its
full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James
1:2-4)
Therefore, since
we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in
which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but
we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not
put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)
The foundation of our joy in the
midst of trials stems from the hope and peace offered in Jesus Christ. Jesus bled and died to give us peace with God
and hope for eternal life. Regardless of
whatever this world tries to make us believe, we live by faith in the Son of
God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
So
when we are surrounded by pain, emotional, financial, or physical, live by the
sweet promise that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep
to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)
Do not live by sight, but by faith
in the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Lord Will Have
the Last Word On His Character
As
we read the Minor Prophets, we see things that may be difficult to
reconcile. We see the Lord bringing
utter destruction upon His enemies. We
see Him allowing wicked deeds to be done to His people. In our humanity, we read things like this and
have a hard time reconciling it with our human minds. Those outside the faith read the same things
and attempt to bring down judgments upon God.
In their lack of wisdom and understanding they try to turn the tables on
God’s revealed Word, but it is not man that judges God’s character. It is God, Himself, who has the last word on
His character.
Nahum
starts out the book declaring the facts about who God is and what God will do
to His enemies,
The LORD is a
jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes
vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow
to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
(Nahum 1:2-3)
God is jealous for His own Glory.
There is no greater aim in the entire universe than the glory of God. God’s jealousy for His own Name is foundation
of all God’s promises. He wants what is
best for us and what is best for us is what is best, which is Himself. God is slow to anger and great in power, but
He will by no means clear the guilty.
God has to punish the guilty. He
cannot look the other way, but has deal with sin. And if we are all guilty, then how can it be
that anyone could stand before his indignation or endure the heat of his anger
(1:6)?
The
answer is found only in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only way we can stand
before God because He became our sin so we might become His righteousness. Christ groaned for our guilt. He died for our
debt. He paid for our penalty. Therefore, we have been declared not guilty,
because our iniquity was placed on Him.
God crushed the Christ so we could experience His goodness. As Christ rose from the dead that first
Easter morning, He spoke over us His final word, “It is finished.”
His final word
proved that Jesus was, is and will always be good. His resurrection proved that God was pleased
with His perfect sacrifice for sinful humanity. Nahum 1:7,
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The Lord knows His people. In the final day of trouble when the Son
comes to bring vengeance upon the earth, the only ones who will stand on that
day are those who have One standing in front of them. The Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble.
The
Lord will have the last word over our life.
Will the last word you hear be “well done my good and faithful servant”
or “depart from me, I never knew you, you worker of lawlessness (Matt. 7:23; 25:23)?
[1]
Cited in Dever, Mark. The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made. Pg 919.
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