OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
LECTURE 45
NAHUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH
NAHUM
The name Nahum means "consolation," or "consoler," and is therefore, in a sense, symbolical of the message of the book, which is intended to comfort the oppressed and afflicted people of Judah. The utterances of Nahum center around a single theme, the destruction of Nineveh. His purpose is to point out the hand of God in the impending fall of the city, and the significance of this catastrophe for the oppressed Hebrews. (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia)
Apparently, Ninevah was located on the east bank of the TigrisRiver in Iraq near the modern-day city of Mosul.
Nahum joins Jonah in being concerned primarily with the city of Nineveh. Where Jonah prophesied around 760 B.C. that Nineveh would be destroyed, only to see it marvelously converted, Nahum prophesied 100 years later of its destruction in some detail.At the time of Nahum's prophecy, Nineveh ruled the world, from Lybia and Ethiopia to Babylon and beyond. Nineveh was a huge place. Eight miles of walls enclosed the city, with 15 gates. A thirty-mile long aqueduct watered the city. Ashurbanipal built a huge northern palace, with a library of more than 20,000 tablets. There were parks, a botanical garden and a zoo. It was well fortified. The inner wall was 100 feet tall and 50 feet thick. The towers on the wall were 200 feet tall. It had a 150 foot wide moat. On its most vulnerable side, an enemy would face first a huge wall strengthened by detached forts, then two deep ditches and two more walls. The distance from the inside of the inner wall to the inside of the outer wall was 2,007 feet. For all purposes, it was impenetrable.
Within 50 years of Nahum's prophecy, it was all fulfilled. The city fell to the Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians in August 612 B.C. This was less than three years after the siege of Nineveh began, an incredibly short time for the siege of such a major city. In the third year, heavy rains brought a flood which broke down part of the walls. This allowed the Babylonians to enter the city and destroy it. According to some reports, the king of Nineveh, in seeing that walls were breached, ordered the city burned. (
Nah 1:1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.2 God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.3 The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
How would you like to have the Lord God Almighty ‘furious’ with you?... There were nations then, and even today, that He is furious with. All those today that are out to destroy Israel you can be sure that He is furious with, and will take vengeance on. It is good to know, though, that He is ‘slow to anger’. You will fully witness the fierceness of His anger during the Tribulation (Christians will be observing from heaven). Look at the emotions that God can (and does) display: jealousy, revenge, fury, vengeance, wrath, anger, indignation. He can do all these without sinning, we most likely cannot.
Nah 2:3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. 4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.
This is a prophecy of the Tribulation time period, I believe. It may be speaking of the Chineese here (or Russia) (red and scarlet). The ‘chariots’ are probably referring to cars and trucks: flaming torches (exhaust pipes); rage in the streets (make noise); justle (change lanes back and forth…just look at L.A. or NYC); lightnings (fast). This is how someone might describe a car 2500 years ago.
Nah 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; 4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. 5 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. 6 And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. 7 And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
Nineveh sounds a lot like the city of Babylon here. Does America have any cities that sound like Nineveh? How about L.A., New York, SanFrancisco, New Orleans?...
HABAKKUK
Habakkuk, Obadiah and Malachi are the only three of the Minor Prophets of which we know nothing else but their names. Habakkuk together with Zechariah and Haggai however belong to the only prophets of Scripture who name themselves “prophet” (Hab. 1:1).
The New-Babylonian Empire had been expanding constantly since 625 BC under Nabopolassar (625-605 BC). Nineveh the capital of the already weakening Assyrian Empire was conquered in 612 BC and in 605 BC the battle of Carchemish took place in which the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians. With this the whole East was opened up to the Babylonians. Shortly after this, Nebuchadnezzar attacked the kingdom of Judah (605 BC). [This was the first ‘deportation’ of Jews to Babylon (2 Kings 20:18; 24). Then there followed] two more attacks in 597 and 586 BC, which lead to Jerusalem’s destruction and to the Babylonian captivity of Judah. All this however had not yet taken place when the book of Habakkuk was written. Although we have no dates mentioned the time of writing could be pretty fixed between the time of Nineveh’s destruction and the first attack on Judah, which would be between 612 and 605 BC. [Thus, we believe that Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah.] (Arrend Remmers)
We might call Habakkuk the questioning prophet. He posed two questions, one in 1:2-4 and one in 1:12-17. The answer of the LORD came in 1:5-11 and in 2:2-20. The book ends with a magnificent prayer/song of Habakkuk in chapter 3.
We know almost nothing about Habakkuk. According to Jewish tradition, he was a priest of the tribe of Levi.
Judah, at the time of the prophecy, had only recently lost good king Josiah and was then ruled by Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim did evil in the sight of the LORD (2 Kings 23:37; 2 Chronicles 36:8). Habakkuk looked around and saw the violence, the iniquity, the plundering, the strife, the lack of justice, the wicked surrounding the righteous, and it troubled him. The book begins with a question of ongoing wickedness and ends with one of the most admirable works of praise in Scripture. (
The prophet was crying out to God for revenge upon the nations that were destroying the people of Israel.
1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
12 Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. 13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
Hab 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
The famous portion of scripture that revolutionized Luther’s belief system. Paul mentions this several times in his epistles. The O.T. supports salvation by faith, and not by works. Faith is the key to a man being ‘just’, or ‘justified’.
Hab 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
This will be the case during the Millenial reign of Jesus Christ. Right now, most nations do not know of the glory of the Lord; they may know of Buddha, Krishna, Muhommed, Mary, etc., but not the glory of the Lord. How sad…
Hab 2:15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
One of the worse sins that there is is purposely getting someone drunk so that sexual immoral acts can be done on them. But who would do such a thing?!... The average young man who invites girls to his party or buys them drinks at a bar! Oh the woes of such behavior!
Hab 2:20 But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Just think if the Lord God spoke from His holy temple in the 3rd Heaven… I believe that the whole earth would suddenly be silent before Him… they would be dumbfounded and intensely fearful.
Hab 3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.2 O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mountParan. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. 5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are
everlasting. Amen!
Despite the lack of God answering the prophet’s prayer for Israel’s salvation, he still would rejoice -
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.19 The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
ZEPHANIAH
The name of Zephaniah means “treasured (protected, hidden) of Jehovah”. Zephaniah is the only prophet to mention four generations of his ancestors. Many scientists think that his forefather Hizkiah is identical with king Hezekiah of Judah of the same name (716 – 687 BC). Zephaniah ministered in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah (640 – 609 BC). The time in between seems rather short for four generations but on the other hand his special royal descent could be a reason for this genealogy. This is also confirmed by Jewish tradition.
Zephaniah lived in the capital of Jerusalem. The prophets Nahum, Habakkuk and Jeremiah were his contemporaries. (Arend Remmers)
Zephaniah was the first of the writing prophets to prophesy against Judah since the time of Isaiah and Micah. Isaiah prophesied from around 740 B.C. to 686 B.C., Micah from 735-700 B.C. Thereafter, we have no other writing prophet until we come to Nahum, who prophesied against Nineveh around 654 B.C.
Zephaniah prophesied somewhere between 630 and 621 B.C.
We know Zephaniah as the Prophet of the Day of the LORD. While hope is contained for the righteous, judgment and wrath are the wellspring of the book. (
The whole book makes it clear that Zephaniah looks far ahead of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem on to that dreadful day of Jehovah, the day of His anger and judgment, upon which however will follow the blessing of the millennial reign of peace. (Arend Remmers)
Zeph 1:1 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. 3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord. 4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; 5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham; 6 And them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him.
This is prophesying, at least in part, of the Tribulation; it may also be speaking of the Babylonian captivity of 586 B.C..
Zeph 1:14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. 17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
Zeph 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; 2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. 3 Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.
Zeph 3:14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. 15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. 17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. 20 At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.
Oh what a glorious ‘day’ it will be when Israel, The Lord’s people, is saved both nationally and spiritually at the end of the Tribulation! And forever will rest in His love and joy and will be the favorite nation of the whole earth!
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