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We are living in the great age of God’s message! Many people can now access the Bible for free in many languages through internet, apps, etc. This is great because the Bible is God speaking to us in our time and place. It reveals His character and master plan to reconcile all things to himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, for many Christians the Bible is like an antique. It is treasured but never used!  We have fallen in the error of equating possession of the Bible with knowing and living its message! It is a dangerous temptation that people in every age have faced. Perhaps it’s the serious need to avoiding this danger that lies behind this beautiful message that God gave the nation of Judah :

I recently came across this article about Chloe McKnight one of the youngest female funeral directors in the UK. She was inspired at the young age of 12 to one day become a funeral day after visit the local funeral home on work placement. She remembers that on arrival, she was confronted with a corpse in the chapel of rest and felt "strangely comfortable with it".  It is quite a thought - being comfortable with death. I was very assured though when she later says that the job has tonnes of sadness : " When the police call you to remove a body on behalf of a coroner, you don't know what you're going to see – an accident victim, a suicide …It can be overwhelming at times – even now I sometimes have to take a deep breath – and it's always unsettling when the person is younger than I am".  This double tension of anundertaker - comfortable and yet unsettling is worth bearing in mind as we come to one of the most interesting descriptions of God...

Troubles are part and parcel of our existence. It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor, weak or powerful, young or old! The troubles come in many ways. Some people are on life support, some are facing financial ruin. Some people are bereaved, others are facing abuse at work. The list goes on! In moments of trouble our minds are filled with many questions. Why am I suffering? Where is God? When will these troubles end? Why am I the only one going through this? When our backs are against the wall, life seems very confusing! There are many voices whispering in our ears with many promises. How do we make sense of suffering?

A recent research study suggests that one drink a day could be enough to increase the risk of heart disease. The research found those with a gene variant that resulted in lighter drinking had lower heart disease incidence, contradicting popular claims that moderate consumption has a protective effect.  This finding adds to the general message that drinking costs lives, especially for those who get heavily intoxicated. That is on top of the tragedy we see on the roads from drunk driving. The idea that drunkness is costly is infact at the very heart of Nahum’s oracle against Nineveh. Nahum starts by declaring that God's judgement is coming on Nineveh because through its oppression of God's people Judah it is actually at war against God.  Nineveh has embraced sin as its emblem and God will punish them. To be exact, Nineveh will punish itself : For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. (‭Nahum‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬). ...

I love conspiracy theories!I think part of the reason is that we live in a complex world with many questions and very few answers. The rise of social media has also generated unlimited opportunitirs of finding like minded individuals who share our paranoia and bizarre beliefs. A more obvious reason is one put forward by Oliver Burkeman that we believe in conspiracy theories because they infact do happen. The Bible goes further and says we suspect conspiracies and duplicity everywhere because we ourselves are conspiratorial. It is a legacy of the fall of Adam. The Prophet Nahum was raised by God to speak against Nineveh's conspiratorial stance : What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor. Thus says the Lord,"Though they are at ...

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. (Nahum 1:7-8 ESV) On 1st August Edward Snowden left Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport having been granted asylum by the Russian government. The move brought to an end the United States's pursuit of the intelligence whistle-blower. For all their military and economic power, the Americans in the end failed to catch Snowden and bring him to justice. It turns out that Snowden is not the only one on the run! The Bible says that we are all on the run. As the Prophet Isaiah said "we all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way". We are all running away from God our true Owner of our souls! And consequently we have created for ourselves a community of runaways.

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7) The USA's Barner Research Poll asked, 'If you can ask God only one question, and you knew he would give you the answer, what would it be?' The overwhelming response was, 'why is there pain and suffering in the world?' In other words, just how good is the God we worship in the middle of so much pain and suffering? God’s people in the Old Testament during Nahum's time faced similar questions. Nineveh had overpowered them and were left wondering where His goodness was amid their broken lives. To comfort them God gave Nahum a vision. In the verse quoted above we learn three things about the goodness of God.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. (Nahum 1:3-5) A group of kids where asked, 'how powerful is God?'. One said, 'God is so powerful he could break this school in two'. Not an answer that impressed her headmaster! Another said, 'God is so powerful he can be the best pilot'. Clearly with a future career in mind perhaps! Another said, 'God is so powerful he can do anything he wants to'. All eye opening and sober responses! I easily forget the power of God amid many life’s challenges.

A fundamental aspect of God is that he is a person.  God has his own his character, will and feelings. That is a tremendous opportunity to us because it means that in many ways God is just like us. We are made in his image and likeness despite our sinful nature. We are able to relate to him. But it is also a danger because in thinking about God we may wrongly think him in terms or concepts that are solely familiar us and not pause to think thoughts about him from his perspective.  There's no greater danger of this than in the opening lines of Nahum. In the previous meditations on Nahum, we saw that that God is introduced as extremely angry and filled with vengeance. The target of this anger is Nineveh who has been oppressing God's people. Here is what the verse says:

Danger, threats and opposition are part and parcel of our existence. Sometimes these dangers are global. Around the world from China to Mali many Christians are constantly persecuted for their belief in Jesus Christ. But more often than not it is local. Every day we make choices to stand with God and often such decisions have costs. We lose friends, suffer job losses, incur financial hardship and face general ridicule, to name a few.  Such events can often shake our trust and confidence in God. We are forced to ask “who is truly in charge”? God’s people around 680 years before Christ faced similar suffering. The military superpower Nineveh (Assyria). Where was God in all of this? They needed a fresh vision from God to comfort them. Nahum means “comfort”. God sent Nahum declaring an oracle / burden steeped in the heart of God to comfort His people. God’s vision to Nahum was clear. I am still the God of Israel who is present in your suffering.