12/17/2018 DAB Transcript

Nahum 1:1-3:19, Revelation 8:1-13, Psalms 136:1-26, Proverbs 30:7-9

Today is the 17th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here with you today as we launch into our work week and march our way toward Christmas week, which is next week. So, today in the Old Testament, we are going to read, in its entirety, another book of prophecy, the book of Nahum, which is the seventh book in the minor prophets. And you’ll see a pattern emerging. We’re kind of moving through a book a day very often as we move through this part of the year and this part of the Scriptures.

Introduction to the book of Nahum:

Nahum, I mean just about nothing is known about Nahum’s life historically other than that his name means comfort and that he was from Elkosh, but whether that was a town or whether that was a village, like, where Elkosh actually is is unknown. Now, dating when Nahum might’ve lived or when he might’ve prophesied, this is a little bit easier because of the references within the prophetic book to specific historical events. So, for example, Nahum mentioned the Assyrian conquest of Thebes, which is in Egypt. Well this is historically known. So, this happened in 663 B.C. So, we know that Nahum was written after this date. And he also foretold the fall of Nineveh, which also is historically known and happened in 612 B.C. So, Nahum was likely fulfilling his prophetic calling within the years between those two events, right, between 663 B.C. and 612 B.C. And the reason for this prophecy was to foretell what we just talked about, the destruction of Nineveh, which was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire at that time. And if we’ll remember just a couple days ago we read the book of Jonah. And we have to remember like that harrowing journey to Ninevah to deliver a message of judgment and the Ninevites repented when Jonah prophesied. They repented for a time. Nahum’s prophecies against Nineveh happened almost a century and half after Jonah. And this Assyrian repentance didn’t last. And they were more brutal and evil than ever. And I mean, they're…just…contempt and mistreatment of people they had conquered was legendary, just their brutality. And by the time of Nahum’s prophecy they had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and carried those 10 tribes of people into exile where they disappeared from history as like cohesive tribes. So, Nahum’s prophesying against the Ninevites the Assyrians and the city of Nineveh, but he wasn’t sent to the city as Jonah had been. Actually, many scholars believe Nahum prophesied from Jerusalem and that his prophetic work was actually intended for the inhabitants of Judah because a prophecy of the destruction of her enemies, especially after what Judah, which would been in the southern kingdom, especially after what they had just seen happen to their brothers and sisters in the northern kingdom. But then they would’ve received this prophecy as an encouragement and as words of comfort. So, Nahum reveals, and we’ll see this because we’ll read the whole thing here in a second, reveals that God is very merciful and patient but He is not a pushover any won’t stand for a nations sin forever. And, so, we begin and will read in its entirety Nahum. Chapter 1 verse 1 through 3:19 and we’re reading for the New Living Translation.

Prayer:

Thank You Father for Your word. Thank You for all that it brings into our lives and the way that it touches and move’s us forward. And we take to heart what was told to us over and over and over repeatedly in this ancient liturgical prayer in the Psalms, “Your faithful love endures forever”. 26 times in that Psalm alone, we were told this pounding and pounding and pounding into our hearts and against our doubts and against all the upheaval and chaos that the world can throw at us -  “Your faithful love endures forever.” There’s nothing we can do about that. We can stop it, we can’t increase it. It’s perfect, “Your faithful love endures forever.” So, yes, we indeed can ignore that fact, but it doesn’t change it. And, so, we don’t ignore it anymore, we embrace it fully, “Your faithful love endures forever”, and that means that Your faithful love for us endures forever, and that means that You love us each. That means that You love us each forever because Your faithful love will endure and it will endure whatever it has to endure so that it can love us forever. And, so, we see Father that not only are we being taught to endure in the Scriptures, but You are willing to endure with us. So, come Holy Spirit’s because we can endure anything if we’re inside Your faithful love. Come Jesus we pray. In Your precious name we ask. Amen.

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And that’s it for today I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.