The shield of his mighty men is red; his
soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the
day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly
through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like
torches; they dart like lightning. He remembers his officers; they stumble as
they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up. The river gates
are opened; the palace melts away; (Nahum 2:3-6 ESV)
In the following study, I would like to do two
things: answer the question: “Where is Christ in Nahum?” And secondly try to
derive some sort of practical lesson from the message of this prophecy. First
of all, I will be the first to admit that finding Christ in this book is no
easy task. But we know that Jesus himself told us that he is the central focus
of all of Scripture, therefore we should not doubt that he is here. I do not
wish to be reaching at fictions of my own imagination nor grasping at straws.
But neither do I wish to ignore Christ’s own declarations about himself. As
Augustine said, it is better to find Christ in Scripture when He is not there
then to not find Him when He is there.
The book of Nahum contains no direct
Messianic prophecies. By direct Messianic prophecies, I am, of course,
referring to prophecies regarding Christ’s First Advent. The expectations of
judgment against Nineveh and of salvation for God’s faithful people are things
which are ultimately fulfilled by Christ. Jesus and his apostles declared
salvation for God’s people and judgment against his enemies. In fact, Christ
began His judgment and salvation in His First Advent (Jn. 5:22-30). The
spiritual battle in which the church is engaged (Mat. 16:18; Eph. 6:10-17)
continues this process to this day. When Christ returns in glory he will
destroy all opposing powers and hand over the kingdom to his Father “so that
God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:24-28) Furthermore, Paul cites Nahum 1:15
(and its twin passage, Isaiah 52:7) as fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham to
include the Gentiles in the Covenant of Grace (Romans 10:15).
The message of judgment is a fairly central
idea in Scripture. According to the Westminster Confession of Faith 33.3,
“Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of
judgment, both to deter all men from sin; and for the greater consolation of
the godly in their adversity (Luke 21:27-28; Rom. 8:23-25; 2 Cor. 5:10-11; 2 Thess.
1:5-7; 2 Pet. 3:11, 14)”.
If we take the time to work through these
ideas we will see the applicability of the book to our lives, as Christ will
defeat all His enemies. “Christ executes
the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and
in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.” (WSC, 26). We must remember that these enemies are
spiritual (Eph. 6:12). While it is true
that Christ has already defeated them (Col. 2:14, 15), there yet remains a day
when that defeat will be ultimately completed (1 Cor. 15:25-26; Rev. 20:7-15). We live in the already-not yet tension of
Christ’s kingdom; He is restraining them and will one day completely defeat
them. We experience battles and trials
in varying degrees in life, but Christ will defeat them and bring His kingdom
in its fullness!
The 2nd thing which I proposed to
do was to derive a biblically balanced practical application of the prophecy
before us. To do so, I’d like to ask the following question: “What inspiring example/warning example does the Holy Spirit set before
me? How can I obtain/avoid this?” (Thanks
to rev. Arnould T. Vergunst of the Reformed Congregations of New Zealand for
the study bookmark that contains this question.)
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