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 am Brian. It is wonderful to be here around the Global Campfire where we’re coming in out of, maybe the cold, maybe just the mayhem that the season can become. And this is a place that’s just special for us, a place we can set that aside. It’ll be there. It’ll wait. And we just allow God’s word to come into our lives, still hearts and speak to us and give us direction. And, so, we read…we concluded the book of Micah yesterday with a strong reminder to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. And, so that brings us today to…to another book of minor prophecy, the book of Nahum. And we’ll read Nahum in its entirety today. So, let’s just kind of get our bearings.
Introduction to the book of Nahum:
I mean, Nahum is a mystery. Just about nothing is known about his life personally other than that his name means comfort and that he was from Elkosh but where Elkosh is and whether it was, you know, a walled city or a town like or a village, like, we don’t know where Elkosh is. Dating the time of Nahum might be a little easier because in the prophecy there are references to historical events. Like, Nahum mentions the Assyrian conquest of Thebes, which is a historical event in…in Egypt. This happened in 663 B.C. So, we know that…well…Nahum references it. So, Nahum was written after that happened, and he also foretold the fall of Nineveh, which happened in 612 B.C. So, Nahum was probably prophesying and writing these things down within the years between those events. The purpose of Nahum’s writing was a prophetic utterance to foretell the destruction of Nineveh that we just talked about. It was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire at that time. So, a couple days ago we read the book of Jonah. And, so…and it’s a famous story. We remember that he was swallowed by a great fish and he had been sent by God to this city, Nineveh, to deliver this message of judgment and the Ninevites repented for a while. These prophecies of Nahum against Nineveh, these are like a century and a half later than Jonah and the Assyrians, whatever repentance they had and however long it lasted, it didn’t last a century and a half and they were more brutal and evil than they had ever been and their…their mistreatment of the people that they conquered, their brutality was legendary. So, by the time of Nahum’s prophecy they had already destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and carried away all of those 10 tribes into exile where…well…they were never cohesive tribes again. So, this mistreatment and this brutality had visited Israel. Now Jonah, the prophet was sent to Nineveh to…to give a prophecy. Nahum was prophesying against Nineveh, but he wasn’t sent to the city of Nineveh. And many…many scholars believe that Nahum gave this prophecy from Jerusalem and that it was intended to be read by the inhabitants of Judah, possibly to be words of encouragement. I mean, a prophecy of the destruction of your enemies, especially after what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel, that would…that would have been received as comforting. And Nahum certainly reveals that God is merciful and comforting and patient, but He’s not a pushover, He’s not going to stand for a nation’s sin forever as we will see as we read forward the book of Nahum. We’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. And as we continue these days and a couple weeks in front of us to finish this year, it is becoming our daily prayer that we acknowledge that there’s a lot going on and it’s easily…it’s easy to get disrupted, it’s easy to get distracted. And yet we need You now more than ever as we navigate to a strong completion of the year. And, so we invite You Holy Spirit as we continue our journey forward, that You would speak to us, that You would guide and direct us, that we would participate by being aware of Your presence and listening for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit before we react to things. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, as I say most every day and it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And we’ve also been talking about the fact that it’s Christmas time around here because it’s Christmas time all over the world. And, so, we have the Daily Audio Bible annual family Christmas Box available, but, yeah, like today and tomorrow. So, like tomorrow is the final shipping cutoff date for Christmas arrival here with in the United States. So, grab them while you can. We packed this…actually this has been the most popular Christmas Box ever. So, we packed it full of…of desirable resources, the God of Your story, which is the new book resource that…it’s been I guess out for a couple months now. This is the dated, one year, 365-day devotional through the Bible, basically a written version of the things that we talk about each day as we go through the Bible. So, it’s a hardback, beautiful, hardbound edition with a nice ribbon to keep your place. And this is a signed first edition copy. So, that’s in the Christmas Box. Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 is in there. Global Campfire candle, Global Campfire stickers, Global Campfire postcards. The Daily Audio Bible ornament for this year with our word for the year “Maintain” is…is in there. Your choice of coffee or tea, fresh roasted coffee or our boutique tea sent to you. A pack of the Christmas cards, 20 Christmas cards and envelopes. And the Global Campfire pop socket for your mobile device, phone, or tablet or whatever. So, it’s a great box. Get em’ while you can. Tomorrow is the cut off for shipping. And, so, indeed, check it out at the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Christmas section.
If you are partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we move through these final weeks of this year, final weeks of this decade, then thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.