Nahum: The Minor Prophets
I made extensive use of an excellent video by Ollie Bye – Ancient Middle Eastern Empires, year by year (From 2500-525 BCE – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TXzW4nF7fU) – in the first part of this talk.
Nahum means “comfort”, related to the name, Nehemiah [“The Lord comforts”].
- A proclamation of judgement against Nineveh, and at the same time one of hope for Judah
- Like Jonah, addressed to Nineveh. But no way out this time, destruction is inevitable.
3 chapters long
Dated to within 50 years, with reference to the fall of two cities:
- Nineveh, 612 BCE.
- THEBES, Egypt, 663 BCE (see Nahum 3:8)
“Are you better than No Amon That was situated by the River, That had the waters around her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall was the sea?” (Nahum 3:8)
Nahum is not widely quoted, however there are some similarities with other books:
“Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!
O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,
Perform your vows.
For the wicked one shall no more pass through you;
He is utterly cut off.” (Nahum 1:15)
“How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7)
Other verses of note:
2:11-13 – compared to the “dwelling of lions”
3:1-3 – the machinery of war
3:4-7 – the harlot
3:15-17 – Compared to locusts – Matt 3:4, Mark 1:6, Revelation 9:1-12
Doubled edged – almost contradictory – descriptions of the Lord in verses 2-8:
“God is jealous, and the Lord avenges; The Lord avenges and is furious.” (verse 2)
“The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.” (verse 7)
WHAT DO I LEARN FROM NAHUM?
- On a simple level, Lex Talionis [Law of retaliation]
- Nahum 3:11 – [referring to the sack of Thebes, No Amon] “You also will be drunk; You will be hidden; You also will seek refuge from the enemy.”
- Obadiah 1:15 – “For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.
“… good done with all one’s heart carries its own reward together with it, and evil done with all one’s heart carries its own punishment together with it. So it is that heaven is the reward for good people, and hell the punishment for evil ones.” (Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia, paragraph 9049)
- Deeper, Assyria the rational, both heavenly and corrupt.
These great empires represent aspects of our spiritual development. Spiritually, the various tribes, nations, and empires who attacked Israel and Judah, represented the evils which people themselves had already fallen foul of. By entertaining certain evils, those same evils manifested in worldly attacks and warfare.
THE USE of the rational – subject to the spiritual, it can become a means of enlightenment and discovery:
“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:23-25)
“This is referring to the spiritual Church, of which Israel is the spiritual element, Asshur [Assyria] the rational, and Egypt the factual. These three constitute all the intellectual powers of that Church, which come in that order one after another.” (Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia, paragraph 2588.13)
But Isaiah’s blessing never happens in world history. Instead, Assyria, and the rest of the world, is overrun by the Babylonians.
We like to think of ourselves as rational beings but we are not. We are willful, emotional beings first, and rational only to the extent that the will allows us to be. Where our love is centred upon the Lord – standards of good and truth higher than our own – we are truly rational, able to gather the natural facts (represented by Egypt) to support spiritual ideas and real truth.
What we see played out here is the rational being overruled by the love of dominion, which is to put selfhood in charge.
The Word is BOTH the story of our spiritual regeneration AND our degeneration – why BOTH of these? What makes the difference? It’s whether we recognize that potential:
- Do I recognise that truth is not found in self-intelligence, nor in worldly “facts”? And that we depend upon this source of truth – outside of ourselves and outside of this world – to see.
- Do I recognise the power and influence of my proprium, my own self-identity, my own tendency to be in charge, in control, and turn away from it?
- If I cannot recognise this, I become trapped in that cycle of destruction, until such time as I do come to see. And what follows self-intelligence is every bit as destructive, and more destructive again.
- If I can recognise this about myself, I can see through to a greater reality. I receive the “comfort” of Nahum.