The God Who Judges and Who Saves

Before describing the siege of Nineveh, Nahum devotes his first chapter to saying who God is. The prophet draws the portrait of the one who will judge the city: dreadful in his power, patient in his justice, good to those who trust in him.

The manifestation of God

The poem opens on an appearance of God in all his power. Before him, the whole creation trembles: he threatens the sea and dries it up, makes the rivers run dry, the mountains shake and the hills melt away. His anger breaks out against evil like a fire that consumes everything: “Who can stand before the face of his indignation? and who shall resist in the fierceness of his anger? his indignation is poured out like fire: and the rocks are melted by him.” Nahum 1:6. No power on earth stands before him.

The patience of God

This power goes with a long patience. God is patient: “The Lord is patient, and great in power, and will not cleanse and acquit the guilty.” Nahum 1:3. He long bears with evil and grants time for conversion. Nineveh had already known this: long ago, in the time of the prophet Jonah, the city repented at his call and God spared it. Having fallen back into violence, it now sees the judgment coming. God’s patience has a limit, and the day comes when he calls to account.

A refuge in the day of trouble

In the midst of these images of judgment, the prophet sets a word of gentleness. The same God who shatters the rocks is a shelter for those who seek their support in him: “The Lord is good, and giveth strength in the day of trouble: and knoweth them that hope in him.” Nahum 1:7. The power that terrifies the oppressor protects the oppressed. God’s judgment has two faces: it strikes down evil and shelters those who hold fast to him.

The judgment of Nineveh and the deliverance of Judah

The prophet then announces the fate of Nineveh: an overflowing flood will sweep the city away, and its enemies will be pursued into the darkness. For Judah, this judgment is a liberation. Assyria had laid a heavy yoke on it: Judah had to pay heavy tributes, sums demanded each year as a sign of submission, under the constant threat of reprisals. God promises to break this yoke: “And now I will break in pieces his rod with which he struck thy back, and I will burst thy bonds asunder.” Nahum 1:13. The fall of the oppressor is the deliverance of the oppressed.

The messenger of peace

The chapter ends on a luminous image. Upon the mountains appears a messenger running to announce the good news of the deliverance: “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: O Juda, keep thy festivals, and pay thy vows.” Nahum 1:15. The fall of Nineveh opens for Judah a time of peace and feasting. The same announcement is found elsewhere in Scripture. Isaiah uses it in almost the same words (Isaiah 52:7), and it is this passage of Isaiah that the apostle Paul cites, applying it to those who carry the Gospel: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things?” Romans 10:15. The feet of the messenger who brought Judah the news of deliverance now figure those who carry to the world the good news of Christ.