Conclusion
February 4, 2021
Commentary
For the last time, Nahum gives his advice to the Ninevites. Make sure you have enough water! Strengthen the defenses! Make more bricks! (v. 14). All their preparations, however, would be in vain. They would be devoured by fire and cut by the sword (v. 15a). Nahum next uses locusts to draw three metaphors:
1. Devoured by locust (v. 15b). Nineveh’s enemies would devour everything in their path, just like a swarm of locust leaves nothing alive in its path.
2. Multiply like locust (v. 15c-16). Before the destruction comes, Nahum advised that they should multiply themselves like a swarm of locust does. He specifically mentions the expansion of their trading efforts.
3. Flee like locust (vv. 16-17). If anyone was going to survive the coming destruction, it was going to be Nineveh’s trading class (v. 16c). This makes sense as they would be out and about trading their goods while their homes were being destroyed. Like locust, they would fly away. Another group that would seemingly survive would be the princes and scribes of the city. They sat on the fences on the pleasant, cooler days, but they fled from the heat of the sun (v. 17). And no one knows where they went.
However, it appears they were just sleeping (v. 18). The people are scattered without the leadership of their shepherds (the nobles). Nineveh’s wound will be beyond healing (v. 19). And everyone who hears about their destruction will rejoice because their evil affected everyone.
Application
As we conclude this book of judgement upon a sinful nation, I can’t help but think about America. Let’s pray for the revival of our once great nation.
Nahum 3:14– 19 (NET)
14 Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!
15 There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down; it will devour you like the young locust would. Multiply yourself like the young locust; multiply yourself like the flying locust!
16 Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven! They are like the young locust that sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your courtiers are like locusts, your officials are like a swarm of locusts! They encamp in the walls on a cold day, yet when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria. Your officers are slumbering! Your people are scattered like sheep on the mountains, and there is no one to regather them.
19 Your destruction is like an incurable wound; your demise is like a fatal injury. All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy, for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!
Illustration: Cornerstone of Ice Laid For The Ice Palace
On November 25, 1895, a cornerstone of ice was laid in Leadville, Colorado—the beginning of the largest ice palace ever built in America. In an effort to bolster the town’s sagging economy, the citizens staged a winter carnival. On New Year’s Day of 1896, the town turned out for the grand opening. The immense palace measured 450 x 320 feet. The towers that flanked the entrance were 90 feet high. Inside was a 16,000-square-foot skating rink. But by the end of March the palace was melting away, along with the hopes of Leadville. The thousands of visitors had spent very little. (Today in the Word, August 4, 1993).