Study 0 From the Book of Nahum is: The Introduction of the Book
of Nahum
In the prophet, Nahum God found a man who, with flaming
conviction, proclaimed the astonishing message that great Nineveh, still at the
height of her power and glory, must fall and disappear. Nahum concentrates on
this seemingly incredible event to the exclusion of all else. With great poetic
skill and vivid realism, he portrays the attack upon the city and her final
end. We can almost see the battle, the
capture, the looting, and hear the noise of her fall and the silence of her
desolation. Nahum’s purpose in writing, however, is not to gloat over the
downfall of the great enemy of his people. It is to magnify the God of Israel,
to declaim that He is, on the one hand, faithful to His promises and strong to
save those who put their trust in Him, and on the other hand, the Holy One, who
is adversary and Judge of the wicked. It
is because the Assyrian Empire was built with ruthless cruelty upon the principle
that might is right that God, as the moral Governor of the world, rises up to
smite it to the dust.
Nahum prophesied between the overthrow of Thebes in Egypt,
about 663 BC (to which he makes reference in 3:8), and the fall of Nineveh in
612. There is no certain clue as to a more exact date, but the most likely
period for his ministry seems to be in the early years of King Josiah. If so,
he preceded Jeremiah by only a few years.
