May 22, 2011
Introduction: According to a Blue Springs, Montana radio-host named Harold Camping, a five month period of destruction began yesterday, May 21, in inauguration of the world's end. Camping explicitly voiced and publicized God's intent to consume the earth in His righteous wrath, devouring all things and delivering only His few elect.
Now, what Camping so loudly suggested is not what surprises me as there are, have been, and will continue to be people who publically announce the end of the world, the beginning of the "Tribulation," or the coming of the Antichrist; rather, what does trouble me are the unfaithful and unbiblical series of men who through internet, television, and books have been recently discussing the wrath and anger of God.
Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Michigan, recently published a book called Love Wins wherein he literally says, two pages into the last chapter, that despite what the Bible says, all people will be saved (ref. Deut. 7:6-10, 15, 9:5, 29:4; Psalm 65:4; Isaiah 45:4; Mark 13:20; John 1:13, 6:44, 65, 15:16, 17:2; Acts 2:39, 9:1-18, 11:17, 16:14, 18:27; Romans 8:28-30, 9:10-26, 10:20, 11:5; etc). In addition, Bell suggests that hell is not, as the Bible claims, the eternal experience of God's wrath for sin (ref. Deut. 32:22; 2 Sam. 22:6; Job 26:6; Prov. 15:11; 2 Peter 2:17; Matt. 8:11-13; Rev. 19:20, 20:9-10, 20:13-15, etc).
The book also references a series of lectures Bell gave entitled, "The Gods Aren't Angry" wherein he makes the point that God is more angry about poverty, disunity, corruption, famine, and social justice issues than sin, depravity, and the rejection of His one and only begotten Son. Is this a faithful understanding of God's anger?
Well, today I want to engage these views (along with any other comparing views) of God's anger and what it looks like for (1) the regenerate and (2) the reprobate. Or, in other words, whether you believe you are a sure-fire born-again Christian or you believe you are the furthest from being a Christian, today's Word from Nahum and the exposition of God's anger is for you.
Review: There are three lessons to be learned today about the Lord and His anger:
- The Lord's anger is destructive
- The Lord's anger is subversive
- The Lord's anger is redemptive
This suggests two key points about this book: This is unlike the introductions of any other minor prophet since no other prophet introduces his prophecy in such a way (another way to say this would be to say that the book of Nahum is particularly special and deserves a little more study). But this also means that what is to be read in this entire book can be burdensome and disastrous for some, yet promising and visionary for others. Or, in other words, there are two ways to receive this Word: trembling or rejoicing; fearfully or joyfully.
Lesson 1: Why is this the case? Because, as our first lesson for the day says, the Lord's anger is destructive. Verses 4-6, 8, and 15 introduce a pattern that continues throughout the prophecy as they illustrate God's destructive wrath against a city called Nineveh (read).
Now this is an amazing prophecy because sometime during 664 to 663 B.C. the Assyrian king Ashur-bani-pal sacked Thebes, a pivotal city in Egypt, and made his way to conquer the entire surrounding region including Ararat, Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and most importantly, Judah which was home to Jerusalem, the capitol city of the Israelites. And during Ashur-bani-pal's reign, the region was filled with rape, plundering, slavery, pillaging, and exile.
At the peak of the Assyrian's campaign, king Ashur-bani-pal ordained Nineveh to be the empire's capitol and his successors built the city essentially into one immense palace with waterfalls, flowing aqueducts, and beautiful palaces everywhere, making Nineveh the epitome of Assyria's reign, power, and destruction over its neighboring countries. And here Nahum appears in the midst of all this turmoil, suffering, agony, and death and prophecies that Nineveh (and not just the city itself but all that the city epitomizes) will be utterly destroyed and vanquished. He prophecies that nothing of the city will remain and, just as he prophesied, some 50 years after the Assyrians took over the region, Medes and Babylonians united and overtook the Assyrian empire, destroyed its armies and obliterated the city of Nineveh, which was never, ever rebuilt from its ashes and dust (which is why Jonah is laughing in Heaven at this point).
What does it mean to say that the Lord's anger is destructive? For the Assyrians, it meant utter physical destruction but it also means to say that here today, if like the Assyrians, you have not received Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior, from the inside out and not the outside in, Nahum's prophecy is nothing to be joyful about because it is a minute preview of what will happen to you when you die and when God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son leave you to suffer eternally in hell.
It means to say that if you are not a born again Christian, saved by grace and now living by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the wrath God poured out onto Nineveh is sadly yours for all eternity. Therefore, because the Lord's anger is not merely physically or politically destructive but eternally destructive, believe onto the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (ref. John 3:36). And when you do so, you will realize that you are not saved because of your choice to become saved but you are saved graciously out of God's loving and caring will -- the same will that sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross to become utterly destroyed on your behalf. And for this reason alone, you ought to receive Him into your life as your Lord and King as well as your Savior and Friend.
Lesson 2: But God's anger is not merely destructive; God's love is also subversive (for those of us who may be unfamiliar with the term, subversive means "to overthrow" and "take over" like a government being overthrown and taken over by its people)… And God's anger is subversive which is to say that God's anger not merely destroys and takes away and gets rid of; more importantly, God's anger replaces and adds its own.
This may not be clearly seen in our passage from the book here today, but as a whole, Nahum's prophecy, as previously mentioned, is particular and quite special because it is organized as a rare form of archaic poetry called war-poetry as it illustrates a battle scene: Chapter 1 is a war-calling where God is said to use many phrases used in pre-battle taunting and edification for the troops.
Chapter 2 and the first portions of 3 are illustrations of God's violent combat and Nineveh's actual fall and destruction. While the ends of chapter 3 illustrate the ruins of the city in the aftermath of the battle. In other words, the imagery is of God being ultimately victorious and, considering how Nineveh is never rebuilt, God is furthermore eternally victorious.
Which means He has not simply won the battle but He has taken over the city and the empire and the region now belongs to Him so He can replace what was once there with Himself … which you can see when the Babylonians take over the region in replacement of the Assyrians, Judah and Israel are given religious freedom under King Nebuchadnezzar who actually, because of the Shadrack, Meeshak, and Abendigo's glorious survival, convert Nebuchadnezzar and the region to a Jewish nation.
What this means is this: If you genuinely believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Nahum's prophecy is utterly comforting, especially when he details the destruction of the city because that means you are currently in the battle, right now, and God is in the process of destroying the wicked, enslaving, pillaging, painful, and sinful world around you. And best of all, you know the outcome of this battle: through Jesus Christ, God wins. You're life, therefore, is designed to be lived subversively -- you are not to live in the predicament of the here-and-now but in the Lord's subversion of the future, wherein, as John's Revelation promises, the pain and suffering of this world ends for all eternity.
If you live temporally, all you will see is tension, conflict, and destruction -- you will see Nahum's prophecy in its most horrifying sense because living in the moment and in the predicament only reveals what God is doing in this moment. And God is in the process of destroying it. But when you look forward and understand that although God's anger is destructive and is currently destroying, God's anger is also subversive and victorious and replacing, making this moment and the moments that follow, whether they be marked with suffering or death, all part of the process to God's subversive victory in the end.
I love how Apostle Paul explains this idea to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11-16 (ESV)…
11But (A)flee from these things, you (B)man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, (C)faith, (D)love, perseverance and gentleness. 12(E)Fight the good fight of (F)faith; (G)take hold of the eternal life (H)to which you were called, and you made the good (I)confession in the presence of (J)many witnesses. 13(K)I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of (L)Christ Jesus, who testified the (M)good confession (N)before Pontius Pilate, 14that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the (O)appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which He will bring about at (P)the proper time--He who is (Q)the blessed and (R)only Sovereign, (S)the King of kings and (T)Lord of lords, 16(U)who alone possesses immortality and (V)dwells in unapproachable light, (W)whom no man has seen or can see(X)To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. What does Paul suggest motivates Timothy to fight the good fight and persevere here and now, in light of the struggles, tensions, and destruction of the fallen world? Looking forward to the victorious appearance of Jesus Christ. For the world, it is our past that affects the present but for the Christian, it is the past of Christ and the future of Christ's accomplishments that affects the present since Christ reigns in both: upon a cross in the prior and upon a heavenly throne in the latter.
Lesson 3: Therefore, since the Lord's anger is destructive and subversive, it is also redemptive. Why does God destroy Nineveh? To rule over it and subvert the land to Himself. Why does God subvert the land to Himself and His glorious will? To free them from the suffering and pain of the Assyrian rule and to restore His Chosen People.
Only through God's anger -- His destructive and subversive anger -- was Israel freed from reign from the Assyrians and blessed to restore their nation. Some of us may have a difficult time tracking through today's sermon so let me put it as plainly as possible, including this third lesson: It angers God when His people are not free from sin. So God destroyed the power of sin and set His people free from the guilt of sin. And God remains victorious over sin, so that the only thing that could bind His chosen people is not sin but only Himself and the gracious freedom He gives. And now, God has freed His people from the power and guilt of sin so that they can freely love Him and seek Him with all their heart, mind, strength, and soul.
And God achieves all of this because God's anger is destructive, yet subversive, and thus redemptive. On a practical level, here's what this means: This world and life in this world is often difficult… only, however, if you look at it from a momentary perspective filled with predicaments instead of promises because in actuality, despite how hard things are here, the battle is already won, God has already destroyed sin and this fallen world and therefore the Kingdom of God awaits you after your life here on this earth comes to an end -- can you see why the author of Ecclesiastes calls all things under the sun meaningless?
But this news brings comfort only to those who are saved and have a sound understanding and a genuine hunger for the Lord. For those who are unsure, this news should bring a deep sense of unease -- not just for those in this room but for those outside of this room: God's eternal destruction will come upon those who do not find joy in the news that God's anger is destructive, subversive, and redemptive.
Our family members, our closest friends, and most importantly perhaps ourselves will be at the receiving end of God's destruction -- not annihilation -- but God's eternal destruction in Hell. There needs to be, therefore, a sense of obligation and immanence when it comes to evangelism and missions -- who among you has questioned whether or not you are to sell all things and rid yourself of yourself and seek God through missions? Who among you has been called to devote your entire life to spreading the Good News of what God has done in Jesus Christ to those who are on the brink of eternal destruction?
We often stress so much about the career we want in light of how much money it will give or how good it will make us look but we never even consider giving that up for a call to ministry? Why? Is Christ not worth your career and more? But the nature of God's anger also compels us (at least, ought to) in a different way as well. As a believer, if ever you get angry at something or someone, remember: God's anger is not just destructive -- we as humans are excellent at destroying each other when we're angry. God's anger, however, is righteously destructive and simultaneously subversive and redemptive. And if you actually consider today's message a little deeper, you'll realize that God's anger is much like God's love because all that was done here in Nahum out of anger was for the sake of His love for His people. Therefore each opportunity to become angry is actually an opportunity to love, as Christ loved and loves you. It is an opportunity to righteously destroy sin in someone (not just pursue payback) in a firm and loving rebuke.
It is also an opportunity to allow Christ to replace those things which ought to be destroyed so that the work of Christ, whether through your words or actions, replace those words or actions with those of Christ's words (literally) and Christ's actions (lovingly).
Lastly, when you find yourself angered at someone, it is also an opportunity for you to build up and restore that person: more often than not, when people are upset with one another, the main core issue is pain and the deepest sense of restoration -- people just want to be restored and redeemed, not only by their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but by one another as well. You may be arguing with someone over a miscommunication or harsh words but deep down inside, there is often a desire to simply to be loved or cared for or reassured, and every opportunity God provides you with wherein you are furious with someone, consider how the situation requires and can receive redemption.
God is an angry God, do not let people tell you otherwise -- just look at the cross, where you see anger in the blood, angry nails, furious thorns, and burning scars, but you see eternal love in whose blood is spilled, whose hands are nailed, whose brow is scorned, and whose flesh is scared -- that of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, forever and ever, amen. Let's pray.