Reading from Friday, December 17

Hey ho. Hey ha. Fifteen posts to go.


Reading for December 17
Nahum 1:1-3:19
This entire book is dedicated to the condemnation of Ninevah. Ninevah is the city that Jonah went and preached against and on this city God had mercy. Now we see an entire book whose sole purpose is to describe how God will destroy it. The question is - when was this book written and by whom? If it was written by Jonah, we may have a different opinion, or if it was written before the events of Jonah supposedly took place it would also shed a different light on the text. However if it was written after the events of Jonah, it would make the mercy and grace afforded to Ninevah in that book meaningless - the whole story trivial.

Well, I did a little research and here's what I found. This book was written after the events of Jonah, and was written by a prophet named Nahum (funnily enough). Within my study Bible it has an explanation of this very topic of Jonah and the mercy that now seems to have expired for Ninevah. Here's what it says:

God's anger against Ninevah had not appeared overnight. Assyria had been the dominant world power for at least 300 years. Once before, Jonah had carried a message of condemnation to its chief city, Ninevah. As was always true with God's prophets, Jonah's condemnation sounded absolute. Actually, it included an escape clause. In Jeremiah 18:7-10, God spelled it out: "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent." Hearing Jonah, the Ninevites had repented, and God spared their city.

The repentance had not lasted, however. By Nahum's time, Ninevah had returned to her evil ways. God's anger, while slow to develop, was sure. 

So it's not a total reversal of his word, but its a bit disappointing that A) Ninevah couldn't hold it together and B) God's mercy ran out in a time that seemed so much like he was turning all of his other cheeks.

If anything though, reading Nahum has made me realize that Ninevah was actually a ruthless, awful nation. It wasn't just that they didn't like Jews. By the way, the city was completely destroyed shortly after this book was written, never to be fully rebuilt.

Revelation 8:1-13
Oh sh**. This is the scary stuff I was talking about. So the seventh seal was opened on this scroll thing and all sorts of terrifying stuff starts happening. A mountain and a meteor crash into the earth, the sea turns to blood and everything in the sea dies. The sun moon and stars all lose a third of their light so a third of the day and a third of the night are total blackness.

Eh...scary...

Psalm 136:1-26
 ²³ He remembered us in our low estate
            His love endures forever.
²⁴ and freed us from our enemies.
            His love endures forever.
²⁵ He gives food to every creature.
            His love endures forever.
 ²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven.
            His love endures forever.


Proverbs 30:7-9
What a brilliantly wise prayer

 ⁷ “Two things I ask of you, LORD;
   do not refuse me before I die:
⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
   give me neither poverty nor riches,
   but give me only my daily bread.
⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
   and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
   and so dishonor the name of my God.