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Bullies
You can find them just about anywhere, from play grounds, to board rooms; from backwater bogs to Beverly Hills mansions; from neighborhood clubs to major national or political entities. They come in both secular and religious packaging. Obsessed with control, and mean-spirited in the their interactions with others, bullies are people who plot against love.
Why are people sometimes like this? What makes them that way? Why do they seem to dominate too many people too much of the time? Our basic sense of justice and fairness not only causes us to resent bullying, but also cries out for those who do it to be held accountable. It is just not right when some needlessly make others suffer in unkind or even cruel ways. How many of us have not at least secretly cheered when the "bad" guy gets what's coming to him?
According to Nahum, God does not like bullying very much either! Nahum is a record of God's message to the once repentant city of Nineveh, the capitol of the Assyrian Empire, but who had gone back to their old ways. Close to 100 years earlier, Nineveh had listened to the message of Jonah and responded to God's extension of grace. But now, by the way Nahum speaks, it is clear that they have returned to their own brutal ways.
It is difficult to listen to the language of judgement coming from God, until we realize that what God is pronouncing is an end to the bullying. This is not a prophecy about a vengeful God striking out in mean-spirited anger, but rather that of a God Who had already extended grace (no bully need to have been left behind), but could no longer allow the bloodshed and brutality that characterized the Assyrians at this time to continue. It is a prophecy that assures us that God will bring evil to an end, not out of maliciousness, but out of love.
This is the message that pastor Jon explores with us today - just what God's judgement actually looks like, what it brings about, and the ways that it is very different from what "justice" might look like if it were up to us. If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.
You might find some surprises, and some re-assurances, as you review the sermon again, and as you reflect on these passages: 1 Corinthians 13:7-8 and Revelation 21:3 ff
Nahum 1
(TNIV)
Whatever they plot against the Lord
he will bring to an end;
trouble will not come a second time.
10
They will be entangled among thorns
and drunk from their wine;
they will be consumed like dry stubble.
11
From you, Nineveh, has one come forth
who plots evil against the Lord
and devises wicked plans.
12 This is what the Lord says:
“Although they have allies and are numerous,
they will be destroyed and pass away.
Although I have afflicted you, Judah,
I will afflict you no more.
13
Now I will break their yoke from your neck
and tear your shackles away.”
14
The Lord has given a command concerning you, Nineveh:
“You will have no descendants to bear your name.
I will destroy the images and idols
that are in the temple of your gods.
I will prepare your grave,
for you are vile.”
15
Look, there on the mountains,
the feet of one who brings good news,
who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, Judah,
and fulfill your vows.
No more will the wicked invade you;
they will be completely destroyed.
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