FHBC Sermon Notes

Nahum 2:1-13

Last year, a national study came out showing a stark rise in narcissistic personality disorder. This is the condition of one that is overwhelmingly enamored with themselves.   This is suppose to afflict about one percent of the population.

The Bible years before this, though had identified this. It is called pride, arrogance, vanity. We see this is our passage today.

*Let us read*

**1. Pride is man's fundamental problem. (1:9, 11-12)**

Our greatest problem is not a condition, a disease that simply needs therapy to cure.  It isn't a cancer to be cured, for in death the cancer goes away, but the condition of pride is not simply one in this life, it is an eternal condition.  It is a condition that if not dwelt with lasts forever.

In this passage we see judgment given on the Assyrian empire.  But who are the Assyrians?  They lived in what is now modern Iraq, from about 900-607 B.C.  Like other nations, there were times when they were strong and other times when weaker, but they never ceased to be a impressive force. They were the height of military might in their day, being one of the first to development siege weapons, such as the battering ram.  They were known for their ruthlessness, their utter brutality to those they conquered. Mutilation of their victims, decapitation, gouging of eyes… terrible things, often for seemingly small transactions. These people were some bad dudes.  Their art demonstrates this: they didn't just do this, but they glorified in it, they relished in their brutality, they loved themselves and who they were. 

Why are we making such a point about the Assyrians?  They are judged already, they have been destroyed.  It is because we are just like them.  Our pride is the same as theirs, before God it is an absolute absurdity.  We may think ourselves as Christians, but if we live only in our pride, then we are a practical atheist. We are futile in our thinking, just as what Paul says in Romans 1.

 >And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Pride is my fundamental problem, it is each of our fundamental problem.

But what do we do about this? We must acknowledge our pride, turn from it and cling to the one who saves us.  Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent to save us from his wrath for our pride, His wrath. Yet, in Christ we are made new, our pride stripped away and replaced with his own Spirit.

Let our boast not be in ourselves, but in the one who saves us. 

**2. Pride invites God's judgment. (2:13)**

In this passage, Nahum lays out exactly what later happened. v.1. "The scatterer has come up against you." Who is the scatterer?  It is God himself.  This then is detailed in the following verses, as we see reference to the siege engines used, and also of the drying of the river and the flood used to destroy of the walls. (v.6)This is what the conquerors of Assyrian were known to do. Nineveh was given over to fear, conquered and destroyed. (v.7)

In verses 10-12, we see Assyrians own imagery of the lion used to demonstrated their destruction.  

>Proverbs 16:18 - "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

This destruction is very personal, very specific.  A passage like this should create in us fear, but it does not end there. Pride is worthy of God's judgment, but we have received God's pardon, which we do not deserve.  And so we give him thanks. Our pride is laid on the alter, and we receive the inheritance, the reward that was for another. What a wonder is that.

**3. Pride becomes the occasions for God's amazing grace. (2:2)**

Is there any hope when we deserve God's judgment.  YES, YES, YES, a thousand times YES. 

Though pride brings judgment it is also the occasion for God's amazing grace. It is the moment we God can change us.  He knows those who take refuge in him. 

>For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ringed their branches. (2:2)

The people were languishing, because God in an act of love had sent the Assyrians, that cruel conqueror, to crush his people, so that he could restore them.  Their sprouts had all been destroyed, (2:2), but God will and has in Jesus restored them, and in his grace, has restored us as well.

Isaiah 11

That is the awesome message of the Bible, God will bring forth a branch of hope, from where there was none.  God is wrathful and vengeful, but he is also gracious and compassionate.  Such awesome great news, He has given us new life in JESUS. How awesome is that. 

AMEN.