Nahum 1:2 - Meaning and Application

Nineveh did not know God, the God who was now rising up against her. So the prophet tells her what kind of God he is. It is good for all of us to receive this truth with faith. It brings terror to the wicked and comfort to God’s people. This great description of the Ruler of the world is like the pillar of cloud and fire: it shines bright toward Israel and dark toward the Egyptians. Let everyone take their share from it. Let sinners read it and tremble. Let saints read it and rejoice.

God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against his enemies, while his favor and mercy are sure for his faithful people. His almighty power makes his wrath truly frightening and his favor deeply desirable. He is a God of strict justice, a jealous God, and he will punish his enemies. Let Nineveh understand this and tremble before him. Their idols are nothing at all. There is nothing truly fearsome in them. But the God of Israel is to be greatly feared.

He takes offense at the insults done to him by those who deny his existence or any of his qualities, who put other gods beside him, who break his laws, question his actions, mock his word, or mistreat his people. Such people should know that Jehovah, the one true and living God, is jealous and a revenger. He is jealous for the good of those who worship him, and jealous for his land (Joe 2:18), and he will not allow it to be harmed. He is a revenger, and he is full of fury. That does not mean a human kind of uncontrolled anger, for he says, “Fury is not in me” (Isa 27:4). Rather, his holy anger belongs to his righteous rule. It sharpens his justice and makes it more serious to those who would otherwise fear nothing.

The Hebrew expression means he is “Lord of anger.” He has anger, but he holds it under his control. Human anger often rules over us, especially in those who do not govern their own spirits. But God is always master of his anger, and he “weighs a path to it” (Psa 78:50). He will settle accounts with those who treat him this way. We are not only told that he is a revenger, but that he will take vengeance. He has said it, and he has sworn it (Deu 32:40, Deu 32:41). Whoever stands against him among men will feel his anger.

Even if judgment does not come quickly, he stores up wrath for them and keeps them for the day of wrath. He does not keep his anger forever against his own people when they repent and humble themselves. But against his enemies he will let his anger fall without end. He will not clear the guilty who keep on sinning, continue in their sin, and do not repent (Nah 1:3). Those who turn away from God and never return (Psa 18:21) will not be acquitted. Humble seekers will find him gracious, but proud beggars will not find him easy to approach, and mercy will not open to a late and loud “Lord, Lord.”

This warning of God’s wrath against his enemies is applied to Nineveh later in the chapter (Nah 1:8), and everyone who keeps sinning should apply it to themselves: “With an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the place” there. The Chaldean army will sweep over Assyria, waste the land, and leave it ruined. When God’s judgments come with his authority, they are like a flood. No people can hold them back or stand against them. Darkness will pursue his enemies. Terror and trouble will follow them wherever they go, until they are driven into complete darkness. If they try to run from the darkness behind them, they will only run into the darkness ahead.

He is also a God of unstoppable power, able to deal with enemies however many, however strong, and however bold they may be. He is great in power (Nah 1:3), so it is good to have him as a friend and dangerous to have him as an enemy. His power is shown in many ways in the natural world, where we see his work in the normal order of things and sometimes in sudden, surprising changes. If we look up into the sky, we see his power in the whirlwind and the storm. Wherever God goes, he carries the whirlwind and storm with him, to strike fear in his enemies (Psa 18:9, etc.). Wherever there is a whirlwind and storm, God rules over it, directs it, and uses it for his purpose. He spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, and even storm winds do what he says.

He has his way in the whirlwind, meaning he moves forward unseen, and the way he works often cannot be explained by us, just as his way is said to be in the sea. The clouds are the dust under his feet. He steps on them, moves among them, and raises them when he wants, like a person’s feet stir up dust. The devil is called the prince of the power of the air only by permission, or rather by usurpation, because that power is really in God’s hand.

If we look at the great depths, we see that the sea belongs to him, because he made it. When he chooses, he rebukes the sea and makes it dry by drying up the rivers that feed it. He showed that power when he divided the Red Sea and the Jordan, and he can do the same again whenever he pleases. If we look around at the earth, we also see his power when summer heat and drought or winter cold and frost make Bashan, Carmel, and the flowers of Lebanon wither, even the strongest and finest blooms.

His power is also seen in earthquakes, which shake the mountains (Nah 1:5), melt the hills, and level them with the plains. When he wills, the earth burns in his presence through the blazing heat of the sun. He could also burn it with fire from heaven, as he did Sodom, and at the end of time he will burn the world and everything in it. The earth and all its works will be burned up. Truly, the Lord is great and full of power.

All of this is especially meant to show the power of his anger. If God is almighty, then we must ask, Who can stand before his indignation? The Ninevites had once experienced that God is slow to anger (as he says in Nah 1:3), and perhaps they had grown bold because of that mercy. But they will find that he is just and jealous as well as merciful and gracious. Having shown the justice of his wrath, the prophet next shows its power, and how helpless God’s enemies are against him. It is useless for the strongest sinners to think they can hold their ground against the power of God’s anger. He is a consuming fire, terrible and mighty.

Here is God’s anger against sin, and the fierceness of his wrath. His fury is poured out, not like water, but like fire, like the fire and sulfur that fell on Sodom (Psalm 11:6). Hell shows what the fierceness of God’s anger is like (Revelation 16:19). His anger is so strong that it crushes everything in its way. Even rocks, which seem immovable, are broken by him. At times rocks have split when fire burst up from beneath the earth, and that gives only a faint picture of God’s anger against sinners with hard, rock-like hearts. No one has ever hardened himself against God and prospered.

See sinners here as stubble before fire, weak and helpless, and a very poor match for the wrath of God. They are completely unable to stand against it and push away its blows. Who can stand before his anger? Not the proudest or boldest sinner, not the whole world of the ungodly, and not even the angels who sinned. They are also unable to bear it so that they can keep their courage and any comfort in themselves. Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? As God’s wrath cannot be resisted, so it cannot be borne. Some effects of God’s displeasure in this world a person may be able to endure, but who can bear the fierceness of his anger when it falls directly on the soul? Let us therefore fear him, stand in awe, and not sin.

Yet God is also a God of great mercy, and even in the midst of wrath, mercy is remembered. Let sinners in Zion, meaning God’s people in Jerusalem, who go on in their sins, be afraid. But let those who trust in God not tremble before him. He is slow to anger (Nahum 1:3). He is not quick to be provoked, but ready to show mercy to those who have offended him and to welcome them back when they repent. And when signs of his anger are seen against the wicked, he takes care of the safety and comfort of his own people (Nahum 1:7).

The Lord is good to those who are good, and he will be a stronghold in the day of trouble. The same all-powerful hand that brings terror and destruction on the wicked is also at work for the protection and comfort of his people. He has power both to save and to destroy. In a day of public trouble, when God’s judgments are in the land and everything is being laid waste, he will be a place of safety for those who, by faith, put themselves under his care. These are the people who trust in him while doing their duty, who live in dependence on him and are devoted to him. He knows them. He claims them as his own. He watches over their case, knows what is best for them, and knows the best way to help them. They may be overlooked in the world, but the Lord knows them (Psalm 1:6).