Picture with me a little Jewish boy, named Caleb, growing up in ancient Israel, but without a father, grandfather or any uncles. Every male influence in his life has died in war. Caleb has been crushed by his loss, and he is angry with God. The boy’s mother does the best she can, but over time he becomes wild and uncontrollable – as the Bible says, “fearing neither God nor man.” By his teen years, Caleb is the village thug; the head of a small gang of hoodlums. His mother washes her hands of him as he terrorizes the country-side. He becomes a drunkard. The citizens of his village fear him and hate him, as he beats up people for the fun and joy of seeing their torn and bloody faces. He and his squad of criminals start stealing and demanding protection money from those they spare. By the time he is twenty-five he is an infamously wicked man.
Then one day, quite accidentally he causes the death of a little girl. It is an “accident,” if you call releasing a pair of oxen and sending them running, terrified, down the street, being pelted by stones. In their panic to get away from their human tormenters, they trample to death a five-year-old child. Caleb has never committed, or caused, such a serious crime, but this is almost as bad as it could be. He knows that the girl’s father and uncles will be looking for him. This time nothing will stop them. And the law says that they have every right to kill him. So Caleb flees to the nearest Levitical “City of refuge,” and there he is accepted and protected from the avenger of blood. Every person in his home village believes that he should die. But the law says that since it was technically an “accident” that the little girl died, Caleb must be protected within the walls of the city of refuge, despite being an otherwise evil and wicked man. Is that justice? The family of the little girl say that it is not, and the whole village agrees.
Do you know why there were six cities of refuge strategically scattered across Israel? It was due to the GOODNESS of God. The cities of refuge came to my mind as I thought about Nahum 1:7 – “The Lord is good, A STRONG HOLD in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.”
God is…
Most scholars believe that Nahum, the penman of this book, served the Lord about 150 years after JONAH. God showed His goodness and grace toward Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, when He miraculously sent Jonah to preach repentance. Despite Jonah’s objections, the Lord gave repentance to the people of that city and to their king. Nineveh wasn’t destroyed – because its citizens humbled themselves before the Lord. But a century and a half later, Assyria was up to its old sinful tricks again, worshiping idols and attacking the people who served the one, true and living God – Jehovah. So the Lord laid “the burden of Nineveh” on the heart of His new prophet Nahum – a burden of judgment.
For the sake of a lesson this morning, let’s substitute the United States for Nineveh. The details of Assyria’s sins against God, and America’s sins, aren’t particularly important at this point. What I’d like you to see is – the God who pronounced that judgment against Nineveh. I’m here to tell you that no matter how the expression of sin has changed over the centuries, the God who is offended by those sins is exactly the same.
In fact, God CANNOT change. Immutability is one of the immutable attributes of God. The God who destroyed 99.9% of humanity in the days of Noah, hates the sins of that day still today. The God who hated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, hates the sins of Sodom found in America today. The God who sent His Son to die as an atonement for sin, still hates sin just as much as He did then. It is this God that I’d you to consider this morning.
I have a couple dozen books in my library which deal with the study of God – they are “theology” books. With a couple of exceptions, they all take their material and direction from the pages of the Bible. Any theology which isn’t based on the Word of God is going to be idolatrous and Satanic theology. Even though my theology books glean their material from throughout the Bible, we really don’t have to leave the first seven verses of Nahum to find a well-rounded theology. God is described here in several terrifying and glorious ways. The people of Nineveh should have remembered Jonah and his God, repenting at the preaching of Nahum. And the people of our country need to see the God of Nahum as well.
Note verse 2 again. “God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” Each clause in that sentence intensifies the declaration of God’s hatred of sin. The Lord is JEALOUS. He is not jealous of Allah, Baal, Dagon or Ashtaroth, just because millions of people worship them. He is not jealous of the popularity of Mohammad, Joseph Smith, or Ellen G. White, when His prophets and preachers are ignored. Rather, He is jealous over his own honour and glory, and for his own worship and ordinances. “He will not give his glory to another;” not even to His own creation. He is jealous for His people, and cannot bear to see them injured unnecessarily. And the Lord REVENGETH. God will judge those who think to judge His people. He will punish those who persecute the people of God. As He said about the children of Abraham, He could say about the children of Christ Jesus – “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” And God RESERVETH WRATH for His enemies. He may hold back His wrath in reserve for a while, until such time as it is appropriate. But then, divine fury will fall like molten hail from the sky. “Wrath” is the word He uses; it is a step beyond simple anger. There will never be any worse fury than the “wrath” of the Almighty God.
Verse 3 describes more of the attributes of Jehovah/Elohim. The Lord is SLOW TO ANGER. “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” The Lord is slow to anger, but He is also GREAT IN POWER, some of which is described a bit later. God will NOT at all ACQUIT THE WICKED. The punishment demanded for sin will be paid, without exception. “The wages of sin is death,” and it is “appointed unto men once to die,” because “all have sinned.” Don’t think for a moment that God will overlook your treachery toward Him. Even those people, like Caleb, who flee to the city of refuge will find that their sins must be judged. The Lord is absolutely just.
After describing some of the moral attributes of the Lord, Nahum points out some physical characteristics of God’s judgments which should put exclamation marks on what he just said. “The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.” Those tornados ravishing America’s Midwest, are not freaks of nature – they are God’s fingers. And the hurricanes and typhoons which kill and devastate are directed by God’s will. God rebukes the sea and creates the tsunami. He dries up the creek on one hand, while causing the river to overflow its banks on the other. The clouds are the dust of His feet, and they do His bidding. And these come before the display of God’s power and wrath in the earthquake, volcano and fire storm. “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world all that dwell therein.” Don’t be angry with God for these so-called “natural disasters.” They fall upon nations and people because the majority of those people refuse to worship Jehovah. And “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth.”
But at the same time, “the LORD is GOOD” – verse 7.
The Lord God is EQUALLY as good as He is anything and everything else. He is ESSENTIALLY good; not just virtually good. He is fundamentally, basically, substantially – and for all intents and purposes – good. He is AS good as He is omnipotent and all-knowing. He is as good as He is “angry with the wicked every day.” He is eternally good, meaning that with what He blesses His chosen people He will bless forever. He is good in the things He has created for our use – medicines in plants, and nutrition in animals.
The Lord Jesus said that God ALONE is good, referring to goodness in the ultimate sense. Any goodness we might display comes from one original divine source. When you tell your children or grandchildren to be “good,” you should add a prayer for God’s blessing, because they aren’t going to be good without the Lord. And I know that this isn’t a Biblical declaration, but in the old Saxon language, from which English is derived, the word “God” is derived from the word “good.” God is good and goodness comes from God.
Exodus 33 tells us that Moses was in the tabernacle one day talking with the Lord. “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” As they were chatting about Moses’ ministry and his responsibility to bring Israel up to the Promised land, God’s servant humbly said, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory. “And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.” Store away that statement for a few minutes – “I know thee – by name.” “And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee…” “Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live.” I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.” “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty…” Notice, the Lord made His goodness pass before Moses, when he asked to see God’s glory, declaring His mercy, grace and longsuffering, but at the same time maintaining His infinite justice in judging the wicked. The goodness of God is seen in every divine attribute.
The Bible is filled with comments and even exhortations about the goodness of God. For example there is Psalm 107 – “O give thanks unto the LORD, for HE is GOOD: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so…” Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with GOODNESS.”
And there is Psalm 145 – “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable…. Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great GOODNESS, and shall sing of thy righteousness. The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is GOOD to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” Isaiah and Jeremiah speak of God’s goodness, as does Hosea – before we get to the Apostle Paul.
Did I preach from Romans 2 six or eight months ago? And didn’t I say last Wednesday that we should memorize Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit? “The fruit of the spirit” – those things which the Holy Spirit produces in us include – “love, joy, peace longsuffering, gentleness, GOODNESS, faith, meekness and temperance.” – GOODNESS. Paul said in Romans 2, condemning the Jews, “Despisest thou the riches of his GOODNESS and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the GOODNESS of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against he day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds.”
Among the things NAHUM mentions about the goodness of God, he includes two additional points:
“The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in Him.” Again, it was out of God’s goodness that He told Moses to set up six cities of refuge. “Whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past; As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall FLEE unto one of those CITES, and live. Lest he avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake hm… and slay him.” Did Caleb, in our opening illustration, deserve to die? Society said that he did. Nevertheless, the goodness of God provided a way of escape for that wicked man. There was a stronghold into which he could flee for safety, which was guaranteed by the Lord Himself.
Does this mean that God was overlooking and forgetting about Caleb’s sin and the death of that little girl? Absolutely not; sin requires an atonement, and God accepts only blood to meet that requirement. Leviticus 17:11 – “The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” As a part of the God’s goodness in regard to the city of refuge, the manslayer was safe inside the stronghold until the death of the high priest. At that point he became a free man. The death of that human priest was a picture of the Christian’s High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. With the death of Christ, the debt which the believer owes to the justice of God is perfectly met. We are free; absolutely free from any future condemnation.
There is one more thing: “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in Him.” The Caleb of our story was a dead man – if he had not fled to the city of refuge. He had to put his trust in the safety which the goodness of God had provided within the stronghold. He also had to stand before the city leaders and state his case, asking for protection. And as a result the city officials knew who they were protecting.
Similarly, the omniscient God knows everyone of those who put their trust in His provision. As Hebrews 6:18 says, they have a strong consolation “who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” When you and I, as people who have slaughtered the God’s law and worship, flee into the safety of Christ, we can be assured that He knows who we are. Cloaked in the knowledge which the Lord has of us, we are safe because of the death of our high priest. II Timothy 2:19 – “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Let everyone who has fled to the city of refuge, begin to live the new life which has been given to him. Imagine the swift judgment that would have fallen on Caleb if he murdered someone inside the city of refuge.
One of the best known and most loved of all scriptures flows out of the goodness of God. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” There is the epitome of the goodness of God. It is within your grasp; it is just down the well-marked and well-maintained road to the city of refuge. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, (but) the world knew him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” The goodness of God demanded that Israel, perhaps as a picture of a New Testament evangelist, was to keep all the roads to the six cities of refuge in good shape. There were to be road signs and mile posts, pointing the way to safety. Anyone who had the avenger of blood hot on his heels had easy access to safety. But I wonder how many died, because they thought they could save themselves outside the city? For the law-breaker, for the murderer, there was no safety outside the city of refuge.
The goodness of God tells all the Caleb’s in this world, “come unto me, and I will give you rest.” The goodness of God has provided an escape from the fierce wrath Nahum describes in the first 6 verses. You will not escape the judgment of God, if you don’t enter God’s proscribed city of safety. You have to enter behind the veil inside the gate of the city. You must acknowledge there is blood on your hands; you are sinner without hope; a dead man walking. And with that humble repentant heart, you need to turn to the Saviour.
God’s avenger of blood is right behind you, and you could die this afternoon. How can you afford not to flee into the gift of God’s goodness? I plead with you to repent before God and to put your faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do it today. Come while we sing a closing hymn and let me show you how to be saved.