When I was a kid, I learned pretty quickly never to tell my mom that I was bored. “You’re bored? Oh, great! Go ahead and clean your room, fold the laundry, and dust all the shelves when you’re done with that. That should keep you busy!” Obviously, that was not the answer I wanted.

My mom giving me chores when I’m bored makes far too silly of an illustration for what Habakkuk experienced, but you get the idea—God’s response was not what he was looking for, which the prophet makes clear in his second prayer. Hearing that God is raising up the Babylonians, the prophet responds, “LORD, are you not from everlasting?...Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (vv. 12–13). Habakkuk’s primary complaint now was that the Babylonians were even more wicked than God’s people. Surely God shouldn’t use evil to punish evil!

The prophet goes on to describe the Babylonians’ idolatry: “He sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food” (v. 16). The prophet here refers to the Babylonians’ insatiable appetite for conquering others. The net and dragnet refer to the military might by which Babylon funded its luxurious living.

Habakkuk concludes his prayer with another question: “Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?” (v. 17). You can hear the pain and longing in Habakkuk’s voice as He wrestles with God’s wisdom and sovereignty. Surely, the Lord would not, should not, cannot empower the Babylonians to continue wrecking nations and destroying lives! But it’s exactly what God has told Habakkuk He would do.

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Have you heard the saying that God always answers our prayers, but it’s not always the answer we want? Today’s passage offers a master class in exactly that principle.

In verses 2–4 Habakkuk questioned whether God would allow evil and injustice to rule the land of Israel. In verses 5–11 the Lord answers, but it’s not quite the answer the prophet had in mind. Verse 5 is one of the more well known verses in Habakkuk; it’s often cited as a promise that God will do something big and amazing—and it is! “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (v. 5). But we must be mindful of the context. What is this amazing thing the Lord would do? “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people” (v. 6).

The Babylonians! Isn’t this the people who would later sack Jerusalem, destroy the Temple, and take Daniel and his three friends—along with many thousands more— into captivity? Yes, those Babylonians. The Lord describes them more fully in the remaining verses of today’s passage. They “seize dwellings not their own” (v. 6) and “are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor” (v. 7). These people are “intent on violence” (v. 9), they “mock kings and scoff at rulers” (v. 10), and they are a “guilty people, whose own strength is their god” (v. 11).

In other words, the Lord responds to Habakkuk’s complaints about wickedness in Israel by saying that He is raising up a mighty and incredibly powerful nation—a nation that worships only itself. The implication is clear: God will use Babylon to discipline His people.

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Have you ever cried out to the Lord because of the evil you have experienced or seen around you? Have you wondered why God is silent and whether He’ll stay that way forever? If yes, then the book of Habakkuk is for you.

This short book gives us insight into a series of conversations between the prophet Habakkuk and the God of the universe. It offers hope to readers struggling to understand God’s long- suffering with evil and encouragement to trust the Lord at all times and wait patiently for Him.

Habakkuk opens, like many prophetic books, by introducing the prophet and describing the book: “The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received” (v. 1). Rather than a message from the Lord, though, the next verse is a question to the Lord: “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” (v. 2). He asks two more questions in the next verse: “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” (v. 3). You can hear Habakkuk’s longing and his broken heart as he turns to the Lord, the only One who can help.

In the rest of verse 3 and verse 4 the prophet explains more fully what is causing him such angst. He expects righteousness and justice to characterize God’s people. But that is not his experience. “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds” (v. 3). He expected Israel to walk faithfully with the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and gave them His Law at Mount Sinai. Instead, “the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted” (v. 4). Tomorrow we will learn God’s response to the prophet’s cries.

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Ecclesiastes tells us that “the end of a matter is better than its beginning” (Eccl. 7:8). Today we come to the end of the book of Nahum. It opened by quoting God’s self-revelation from the book of Exodus: “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nah. 1:3; see Ex. 34:6–7). And now in chapter 3, we witness the end of Assyria, that mighty nation that ruled the ancient world with cruelty.

These final verses use arresting imagery to describe the downfall of the once-great city of Nineveh and the once-great nation of Assyria. “All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit,” Nahum declares (v. 12). They will drop their fruit with only a shake of the tree. The “troops…are all weaklings,” and “the gates of your land are wide open to your enemies” (v. 13). Even though the Assyrian economy appeared strong, its “merchants” were “like locusts” who “strip the land and then fly away” (v. 16). Assyria’s “guards” and “officials” are described as “swarms of locusts” that “when the sun appears they fly away” (v. 17). “Your shepherds slumber,” the prophet says, “your nobles lie down to rest” (v. 18). Clearly, the might of Assyrian is over: “Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal” (v. 19). Many would rejoice at the news of Assyria’s demise, “for who has not felt your endless cruelty” (v. 19)?

The book of Nahum forces us to wrestle with God’s righteous judgment and to face the reality of His wrath against sin. Paul, quoting the Old Testament, tells us, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10). That is, we are all Assyria. May this book lead us to the Cross, where the Son of God took upon Himself “the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).

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We’ve been on a dark journey as we’ve studied Nahum. Though his name means “comfort,” Nahum’s message has been anything but comforting for the Assyrians. For God’s people who had experienced evil and oppression at the Assyrians’ hands, though, this message of judgment brought great comfort.

Nahum 3 is the apex of the crescendo that has been building since chapter 1, and we will see the conclusion to this drama in verses 12–19. Verses 1–3 are written in quick staccato, each line no more than a few words: “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!” (vv. 1–2). If you read these words out loud, you can feel the rising heartbeat, the increased blood pressure, the dread that comes with the Lord bringing His fierce wrath against the wicked.

In verse 5 the Lord again tells the Assyrians that “I am against you” and “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.”

For a nation as proud as Assyria, such contempt and shame would be unbearable. What’s more, there would be no one to “comfort” Assyria when the Lord brought His judgment (v. 7). Despite Assyria’s great power, “she was taken captive and went into exile” (v. 10), just as she’d conquered and exiled so many peoples of the ancient Near East.

Today’s passage is terrifying. Like the original audience, we should be comforted by God’s justice. But it also causes us to soberly consider our eternal destiny. Eternal life is in Christ alone, and without Him we will one day face God’s fierce wrath.

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Do you know one of those people who can whistle loud enough to rise above the din of a crowd and command everyone’s attention? God doesn’t whistle in today’s passage, but He does command the silence of the Assyrian messengers as He demonstrates His awesome sovereignty over all.

In verse 11 the prophet asks, “Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young?” He goes on in verse 12 to help us understand the significance of his question: “The lion killed enough for his cubs and strangled the prey for his mate, filling his lairs with the kill and his dens with the prey.” This lions’ den was a place of safety and refuge for the lion, his mate, and his cubs. It’s where he would bring back the prey he’d killed so that his lion family could feast on the carcasses.

Lions in the ancient Near East, just like today, were majestic and feared predators, the “king of the jungle,” because of their might and hunting abilities. The psalmist likens his enemies to lions that would “tear me apart” (Ps. 7:2); the apostle Peter compares the devil to “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8); and John the Revelator tells of his conversation with “one of the elders,” who proclaimed that “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (Rev. 5:5).

The Lord who rules in Revelation promises here in Nahum that He will “devour your young lions”—the powerful warriors of Assyria—and states, “The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard” (v. 13). Nothing can stand against the might of the Lord—not even the strongest foes you can imagine. He alone is sovereign, He alone is God. He alone silences all His enemies. What a God!

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God’s people in the Old Testament were fickle—sometimes following the Lord faithfully and experiencing His blessing and sometimes turning from Him and experiencing His discipline. The same as us, really. But God is never fickle—He always keeps His covenant and always restores His people. In todays’ passage we read God’s promise to “restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel,” even “though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines” (v. 2).

The passage begins with a warning against the Assyrian nation, who had oppressed God’s people and conquered the nation of Israel in 722 BC. Nahum proclaims that “an attacker advances against you, Nineveh” and that they should “brace yourselves [and] marshal your strength” (v. 1). Despite the call to prepare for battle, Assyria is already as good as defeated, for even though “Nineveh summons her picked troops,” “they stumble on their way” (v. 5). The Lord promises that the capital city of Nineveh—and with it the nation of Assyria—will fall: “The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses” (v. 6). And just as the Assyrians had exiled the Israelites—and many nations throughout the ancient world—“Nineveh will be exiled and carried away” (v. 7). Once Assyria had plundered many nations, but now the Lord commands, “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” He declares: “Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale” (v. 10).

Though this passage may be difficult to read because of its depictions of God’s judgment and wrath, it clearly portrays God’s justice and righteousness. As Nahum said in chapter 1, “the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nah. 1:3). Likewise, today’s passage shows that God is faithful to His covenant and that He is sovereign over all things—even the most powerful nations in the world.

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I’ve been fascinated with World War II history since I was around thirteen years old. In that great conflict there was a clear villain, and, in the end, the good guys won. The Nazis were defeated, and many were brought to justice for the unspeakable evil they perpetrated upon the Jewish people.

Today’s passage in Nahum is easier to understand when we compare it to our satisfaction and joy at the Nazi defeat in World War II. Speaking of Assyria, a ruthless empire that conquered much of the ancient Near East, the Lord says, “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away” (vv. 12–13).

God would judge the nation that brought destruction, death, and pain to His people, and He would free His own people from oppression. God’s deliverance of His people—coupled with His judgment of Assyria—was reason for rejoicing: “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!” (v. 15).

Now that the evil nation had been routed, the Lord commanded His people: “Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows” (v. 15). Vows to God were a voluntary way to worship Him in the Old Testament. God commanded festivals, such as Passover and Booths, as a way for His people to remember and celebrate His protection and provision for them. Thus, God tells His people—and us today—to worship Him because He judges sin, because He protects His people, and because He is just and righteous. One day Christ will return and make a permanent end to all evil, and we will worship Him in eternity!

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