Not Nineveh! #7

 Read Nahum 3

Background: Having announced the coming judgment on Nineveh, the capital city of  the Assyrian Empire, Nahum then described in detail what the destruction would look like: total chaos where everything that the city had bragged about and depended on actually contributed to the chaos and their downfall.  In this chapter God reveals more of the why: Why was this judgment happening and why now? Simply put, things had been piling up like the dead bodies of the innocent lives they had taken: they promised to accept tribute to not attack a city, then did it anyway to take all the spoil; they forced their immorality and idolatry on the nations the conquered, adding inner destruction to the physical; they saw God allow them to be His hand of judgment on other greater societies, yet began to think of herself as "god"; they had become a gigantic political and economic monster which was about to self-destruct.  

Key verses: 18 King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;
    your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
    with no one to gather them.
19 Nothing can heal you;
    your wound is fatal.
All who hear the news about you
    clap their hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
    your endless cruelty?

Thoughts: This closing statement of the chapter and the book give the basic picture: God is saying: "I'm coming after you, and there's nothing you can do. There will be no Jonah to call you to repentance, and when you fall, no one is going to be sad.