Nahum 1
Nah 1:1
See Lesson, Prophet, the.
See Lesson, Minor prophets, and their messages.
"These words were spoken to a very different Nineveh from the
one to which Jonah went. It seems that their repentance did not last long...
Commentators seem to think we are about 100 years on from Jonah. It is
frightening to recognise how easy it is for man to turn from God within a
generation or two. We should take heed, knowing that this too could happen to
us. The only way this can be done is to pass down the truth of God firmly to
those generations that follow. Each one of us can only influence our own time,
but those following can affect the next short span, and so on. Let us be sure
God's message does not get watered down so that it can be taken over so easily
by man's lusts and desires" (PC).
Nah 1:3
SLOW TO ANGER, AND GREAT IN POWER: Slow to show anger,
BECAUSE great in power. His power to judge is omnipotent, but His mercy is
stronger! "He is truly great in power who hath power over himself. When God's
power doth restrain Himself, then it is power indeed: the power that binds
omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be
insulted long, and only resents the wrong when a sense of right demands his
action. The weak mind is irritated at a little: the strong mind bears it like a
rock which moveth not, though a thousand breakers dash upon it, and cast their
pitiful malice in spray upon its summit. God marketh His enemies, and yet He
bestirs not Himself, but holdeth in His anger. If He were less divine than He
is, He would long ere this have sent forth the whole of His thunders, and
emptied the arsenals of heaven; He would long ere this have blasted the earth...
and man would have been utterly destroyed; but the greatness of his power brings
us mercy" (CHS).
SLOW TO ANGER: As God is described in Exo 34:6,7: "The
LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger..." This
compassion extends to the Gentiles, as well as the Jews.