Bible in a Year Series - This post is
part
of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the
Bible. Click here to learn more. You are most welcome to
join along at any time.
Today's
text from the ESV Study Bible: Nahum 1-3.
I found quite a bit of historical information regarding the book of Nahum that caught my attention. We are now, in our chronological reading of the Bible, in a period where there is quite a bit of archaeological evidences supporting our text.
The above panel, from the British Museum, was found in ancient Nineveh during a dig in northern Iraq.
This from the British Museum:
Ashurbanipal and his Queen enjoying a banquet
This panel was the focal point of a decorative scheme
incorporating all the triumphs in war and sport of which King
Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-631 BC) was most proud. The panel
probably decorated one of the King's private apartments, as the
carving of the scene is exceptionally fine.
The queen sits facing Ashurbanipal. Queens, like women in
general, were seldom represented in Assyrian sculpture. However,
women did sometimes hold power at the Assyrian court, though
usually behind the scenes. Documents suggest that Ashurbanipal's
grandmother, Naqia-Zakutu, was extremely influential in promoting
her son Esarhaddon and then Ashurbanipal to the throne.
The scene also shows a harpist. Images of musicians are among
the most important sources for understanding ancient musical
instruments. The details in the carving appear to be very
accurate.
On the tree in front of the harpist is a human head, that once
belonged to Teumman, king of Elam, who had fought against Assyria.
Consequently Ashurbanipal's army invaded Elam. The campaign was
illustrated as redecoration in one of the rooms of the palace of
his grandfather Sennacherib (reigned 704-681 BC).
The mutilation of the faces of the king and queen was probably
done by an enemy soldier when the Median and Babylonian armies
ransacked Nineveh in 612 BC.
To provide us with even more background for our text, here is this from the InterVarsity Press New Bible Dictionary:
Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, the most cruel and ruthless nation of the ancient world. The Assyrians terrified their intended victims because not only did they destroy and burn the cities they conquered, they also subjected the inhabitants to various kinds of suffering and humiliation.
One king, Ashurbanipal, boasted in the following terms about some plotters that he had foiled: ‘As for those common men who had spoken derogatory things against my god Asher and had plotted against me, the prince who reveres him, I tore out their tongues and abased them. As a posthumous offering I smashed the rest of the people alive by the very figures of the protective deities between which they had smashed Sennacherib my grandfather. Their cut up flesh I fed to the dogs, swine, jackals, birds, vultures, to the birds of the sky, and to the fishes of the deep pools’.
The Assyrians were the ones who had destroyed Samaria and with it the northern kingdom. In 2 Ki. 17:5 it says, ‘The king of Assyria... laid siege to it [Samaria] for three years’. We can imagine the people getting hungrier, more desperate and more hopeless, as they looked out on the Assyrian army, an invincible multitude. They also knew that these soldiers were completely ruthless. They would flay people alive—strip the skin off them and drag them off with hooks in their flesh. And if the people didn’t already know what their enemies were capable of, the Assyrians would have reminded them every day (cf. the speech of the Assyrian field commander to Hezekiah in Is. 26:4-10). In the British Museum there are stone carvings taken from Nineveh which show how the Assyrians dealt with conquered cities. One shows a great heap of heads. The picture of the siege of Lachish shows three men impaled on wooden stakes outside the city, a grisly visual aid to those who were still shut up inside
Captives were often mutilated by cutting off hands, feet, noses, ears or tongues. A relief from Khorsabad shows Assyrian chariots driving over mutilated bodies. Infants were often dashed in pieces (Na. 3:10; cf. Ps. 137:9). Women might be taken as spoil and pregnant women were usually disembowelled.
Having conquered a city, the Assyrians would take steps to see that they did not have any more trouble there in future. So, when Samaria fell in 721 BC 27,000 were exiled and a comparable number of deportees from other places was brought in. This destroyed the unity and even identity of the nation and made it very difficult to organize resistance in future.
We can see why people were (and still are) worried about the idea that God would allow Assyrians to carry out judgment on his behalf. Nevertheless, the Bible says in several places that the Assyrians were his instruments of judgment.
Nahum comes long after the fall of Samaria. The city of Nineveh fell in 612 BC, and Nahum is to be placed shortly before this. Ninety years is a long time to wait for the judgment of an evil nation. Incidentally, Jonah carried out his ministry to Nineveh quite some time before 721. He is mentioned in 2 Ki. 14:25 (which refers to the reign of Jeroboam II, 782–753) as having prophesied previously.
Though God’s judgment may be delayed, it is never forgotten; he cares passionately about right and wrong. The book of Nahum makes that abundantly clear.
Wow! Imagine this scene. Some prophet dude named Nahum confronts the king of the strongest nation in the world, whose ancestors had, as God's pawns, earlier completely destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. And now, here stands Nahum foretelling God's plan regarding the complete and utter destruction of Assyria.
A few thoughts:
- A brutal as the Assyrians were, Nahum must have experienced some fear to deliver this message.
- It is hard to wrap the mind around God using such brutal people as his pawn to also earlier utterly destroy the northern tribes of Israel. Certainly these lost 10 tribes of Israel had utterly offended God for him to destroy them in such a horrific way.
- Sometimes my worldview gets mushy and needs reminding that God is creator of all, and is sovereign of all. Evil nations may rattle the sword and speak of Jihad, but at the end of the day they will all fall in step with God's plan, and those who are not his elect will be destroyed. And, as Isaiah foretold, someday there is to come a final judgment where all will be destroyed except God's elect.
A great many post-moderns balk at the language, and the picture of God in Nahum's book. A jealous, avenging God in not instep with the hill-singing Coca-Cola "christian".
Nonetheless, here stands Nahum professing God's message, and history bears testimony to Nineveh's fall.
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