Nahum 1
Nah 1:2 I. There are many terms applied to God in Scripture, which seem to anthropomorphize His character: The "angry" God; the "repenting" God; the "foreseeing" God. Now, whenever such terms are used, think of them as steps of Divine descent. Through those words, as down a stairway, Divine Majesty descends to us, and infinite relations make themselves known. "Jealous" is the same word as zealous, and both are derived from the Greek word ζῆλος, fire. Zeal is enthusiasm, moral fire; and jealousy-what is jealousy, but love on fire? And is not this the representation we constantly have of God? And is it possible that to us He could be what He is-love-if it were not so? Jealousy is love on fire, and the jealousy of God is love on fire.
II. From our most innocent down to our most corrupt affections, there is danger that in them, in our haste, we forget God. If you love unwisely and vehemently, whatever it may be, you must accept the consequences as a proof of Divine jealousy. God is jealous of sin; and being jealous of sin, He is jealous of all aberrations from Himself. He is jealous of love, of power, of knowledge. See how He is constantly reminding man of his weakness, as He incarnates his strength. And God is constantly absorbing man's knowledge, love, and power to Himself.
III. We feel that there is no love where there is no fire; but let it burn with the white, not with the red, heat. Christ was love on fire. God so loved the world that He gave Him. The Cross illustrates the jealousy of God.
E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 111.
Reference: Nah 1:2 .-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 256.
Nah 1:8 The text presents us with two great subjects of meditation: the admirable patience of the Divine Being, and the mysterious and awful character of His providential operations.
I. We believe, from the structure of the passage, that it was the Divine patience which the prophet desired to exhibit, and that he added a reference to the power of God, and His punishment of the wicked, in order to guard men against presuming on His forbearance.
The Divine patience is evidently a property which could not be displayed unless there was sin. There was abundant evidence of the Divine goodness before man transgressed; but none of the Divine patience. When our race rebelled, Divine patience instantly displayed itself. Men were not immediately punished; but, on the contrary, were allowed opportunities of repentance, so that it was evident that vengeance might be deferred, yea, finally averted, and that God was a Being who could restrain His anger, and receive back to favour the creatures by whom He had been provoked. We may safely affirm that the reason why long-suffering was exhibited in the instance of men, though not in that of angels, was that Christ had undertaken to be the surety of human kind, and that, therefore, repentance and forgiveness were possible in the case of the posterity of Adam.
II. Consider the remaining portion of the text, in which the prophet speaks of God in these sublime words: "The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet." God has everything at His disposal, and He accomplishes His purposes, and works out the counsel of His own will, through a varied instrumentality; not only through engines that seem worthy of being employed, but through others, that we might have thought unsuited to His ends; not only through the manifestations of gentleness and benevolence, but through the terrors of the hurricane; whether the hurricane that sweeps the firmament, or the far fiercer and sterner of human rebellion. It ought to come home to us as a beautiful truth that it is not in the calm of the sunshine, or in the pleasant breeze, that the Lord is said to have His way, but in those furious ebullitions, those tremendous concussions, which spread terror and ruin far and wide. It may have been a wild tempest which hath swept over you, casting down what you had been long in rearing, and blighting what you have long fondly cherished; but the Lord hath His way in that tempest. It could not have raged without His permission, and He gave that permission because He loved you and wished to do you good.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit. No. 317.
References: Nah 1:3 .-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 137; vol. i., No. 36; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 53; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 113. Nah 1:7 .-Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 345. Nah 1:10 .-G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 157.
Hab 1:13 The absolute holiness of God is a truth of both natural and revealed religion. We could not worship one who was not supremely holy. Every reason we have for believing in God at all is a reason for attributing this character to Him. The words of our text are an appeal to God on the ground of His holiness; an appeal to Him to explain what seemed inconsistent with this. It is the old, old problem. Why does God tolerate the existence, even permit the triumph, of the wicked? The holiness of His personal character must be offended at them; the righteousness of His rule demands their exposure and defeat; and yet again and again we see them prosperous. The results which are brought by the rule of God in a mingled world, where sin is allowed to display itself, are just the ends which a Holy Being would delight to secure.
I. Consider the imperfect holiness of good men. It cannot be said of any one of us that we are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Some evils we cannot bear to see; but there are others of which we are very tolerant. There are few ways of bringing the evil of sin home to us more effective than making us see sin in others, and feel the bitterness of sin at the hands of others. The ungodly Jews were to learn, by the invasion of the still more ungodly Chaldeans, what a hateful thing ungodliness really was.
II. Consider the partiality of our appeals to the holiness of God. Personal antipathy wonderfully sharpens our sense of wickedness, and personal liking equally dulls our apprehension of the Divine judgment. God is wholly free from this disturbing partiality. What seems to us tolerance of evil, or indifference towards us, is often but the patience of wisdom working for ends which our partiality will not let us see.
III. The Divine method of rebuking evil is another thing to be considered. His method is to let wickedness expose and punish itself; and this it is sure ultimately to do.
IV. We have not a true conception of the holiness of God when we view it as impulsive merely; it bears the sight of evil in confidence of overcoming it. To overcome evil, and turn it into penitence and faith and love, is the object of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity, when He endures the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and holds His peace in presence of unrighteousness.
A. Mackennal, Sermons from a Sick Room, p. 29.
Hab 1:16 The word "drag" simply means a large fishing-net. The bold metaphor of the text is that of a fisherman whose mind is so overborne by the large draughts of fish which he is continually taking, that he begins actually to worship those nets which are the instruments of such wonderful success.
I. The sin of man keeps repeating itself throughout the ages. Notwithstanding all the lessons of the past, there are still multitudes who forget the living God. They are not at all anxious to be doers of the right; but they are anxious that "their portion be fat, their meat plenteous." And when they are successful, they are puffed up with pride. They glory in their own skill and power. "They sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag."
II. "What have we that we have not received?" Our very existence is itself a boon from God, and all our faculties and blessings are gifts of His bounty. The highest blessings for man are not material, but spiritual-not the fat portion and the plenteous meat, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. It is for want of grasping these two simple, cardinal truths that men so often fall into the worship of the net. Rank, wealth, intellect, business, such are some of the nets men worship. But God is not mocked, and in many ways He breaks men's idols before their very eyes. Let us take God's gifts with humble gratitude; let us use the powers which He has given us, not for our own aggrandisement, but for His glory; and instead of casting forth our net merely to enrich ourselves out of others, let us seek to become, in the good, true sense of the word, "fishers of men."
T. Campbell Finlayson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 168.
Reference: Hab 1:16 .-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 170.
