The Gods Anger Against the Nineveh - Thesis Example

The Gods Anger Against the Nineveh The name Nahum means comfort, though the name means comfort, his prophecy about God vengeance is not comfortable. The prophecy about the promised destruction of Nineveh by God was comfortable words to the Gods chosen people since Assyrian empire has continuously attacked the Israel and Judah in a cruel way. When an oppressive enemy is destroyed, those who have suffered from oppression will be relieved. The Assyrian empire had their capital city in Nineveh and the empire had a policy of conquering and dominating the world (Burkard, 2003). Among those to be conquered was God chosen people that is Israel and Judah, Judah was very faithful to God more than the Israelites. This article talks about the Gods anger against the Nineveh. Nahum prophecy reveals more about God than any other book in the bible. He showed the divine attributes and each shows God in a different way. The attributes the prophet is revealing is about God anger on Nineveh. Many writings in the bible portray God as gentleman who is kind with twinkling eyes who loves his people and he cannot think of punishing or judging anybody (Harrelson, 1962). Since God anger was not known, it was Nahum who was to reveal it in his prophecies, in his prophecy, the God of Sinai flashes forth in awful fury, in front of God, every human being must tremble and be silent. The God anger was directed towards the city of Nineveh, before, God send Jonah to that city to preach repentance since God was angry with them. First, Jonah didn’t want to go there because he wanted the city destroyed because of their cruelty towards Israel and Judah, he could have been very satisfied if Nineveh was destroyed. But through God miracles, he was swallowed by a fish and later abandoned in Nineveh, because of that miraculous happening he accepted to preach to the people of Nineveh. When he starts preaching, people in the city repented in sackcloth’s and ashes from the King to the citizen at the lowest level and God withdraw anger and they were forgiven. 100 years later, they went back to the sin. God send Nahum to preach to kingdom of Judah, at the same time Assyrian kingdom invaded Israel led by King Sennacherib, because of this destruction, God moved forward towards protecting his people from destruction by destroying Nineveh kingdom. Nahum chapter 1:2-8 explains God anger towards Nineveh. Nahum described god as a jealous, wrathful, and avenging God. He takes vengeance against its enemies (Donald & John, 2006). At the same time, he is slow to anger and it has great might, by no means, he has powers to destroy the guilty. In his anger, God was looking at the Assyria Empire. According to the prophet description, it shows that some people live in perpetual temper; the tempers of the hot tempered people with small provocation can easily boil over and can easily cause destruction. But what is funny is that, many people do not fear this people, Nineveh new about God power but still the empire could not fear destroying Judah and Israel. Some people pity or make provocation about them. Another category of people are those who are quiet and peaceful by nature. When provoked, it takes time before they get angry. When irritated, they can endure it for a long period of time, but once they are exhausted and get boiled, their reaction is terrible. The scripture shows the picture of a patient God, that is why it is described as ‘slow to anger and does not move with speed towards anger.’ The city of Nineveh was given a chance to repent, several prophets was send there to preach repentance. The city believed only in Jonah and they repented their evil doings ways that time and God spared from the judgment he was going to bring. But later on, the city backslides, and that was the big mistake they made. After turning away from the evil, they went back again to the evil ways they had promised to forsake, the backsliding evoked the judgment at long last. When God is angry, it is not a temper outburst; Gods temper does not have any capricious. It does not have any selfishness and it is controlled to a certain range. In this chapter, the awfulness of divine anger is explained. God’s anger is defined by several words, such as wrath, jealous, vengeance, fury, fierceness, and indignation. Jealousy is something burning that can be felt deeply inside the hearth. God jealousy is different from what we normally feel, but to God, it is because of overwhelming love they have for human being. For example, a parent can be jealous because he/she loves the child. Attributing jealousy to God does not have any problem, since the way it is used is to show intolerance and unfaithfulness. This is a strong word that shows that God wants to be totally in control of his people. In Hebrews, the word fierceness means heat and fury means burning. Anger means to breathe heavily, and indignation means foaming that develops in the mouth. All this describe God anger and his terrible wrath when he pours out. Though he is patient and slow to anger, in his right time, he will execute his greatness and all the evil dowers will be punished. This is balanced by the goodness to the chosen people. The majesty of god are explained using strong words such as whirlwind, clouds, and shocking effects on rocks, mountains and others. In chapter 7 it says that God is good and it will offer a strong refuge to the believers in time of trouble. At the same time, he is always close to those who trust in him. The word trust means those who seek refuge in him, and truly trust in him. God is a strong fortress and he can stand strongly with the believers in trouble times like an overwhelming flood. God is not like unjust judge who sometimes allows the guilty to go free due to false sense of compassion. Sometimes human can say let bygones be bygones, but God can’t say that as explained in verses 8 that, ‘he will bring Nineveh to the end and pursue his enemies to the realm of darkness.’ At long last Nineveh was destroyed. God ensure that every sin is accounted for and the wicked will not be acquitted. He ensures that sin is paid for either in hell or in the cross, he never leave the wicked go unpunished. When God doings are looked at from the beginning, he has never abandoned or leave the wicked unpunished. The omission of God is developed in the explanation that he provides refuge for those who believes in him in time of trouble. When God send Jonah to Nineveh, the people accepted his words but later on omitted it. When his ways are omitted he is a vengeance god and he vents his wrath on the enemies. Theology is a subject that involves a reflection towards certain faith and practicing those beliefs. Theology is important to the society because of several reasons. One is that, it provides human being with answers concerning life’s questions in regard to meaning of life. It answers the questions such as who am I, why am I in the world, and where I am heading to (Sarna, 1960). In theology, the central book that is used is the bible, it will not just tell us what the bible say but more importantly what it means. What it means to sin and to become a saint, and the consequences of sins and faithfulness towards God. Nahum 1:2-8, teaches us that if you sin against God, he has powers to destroy you and he means his words, if he wants to destroy he destroys, and those who are faithful to him will be protected (Wolfe, 1959). For a church to be truthful, it must preach the word of God. For it to be relevant, it should talk to the times. It helps us understand God not only in life boundary, but in the core of everything we do. Theology in the society calls for peace, compassion, and justice. God always seek for justice for the righteous. He never acquits the guilty and in God the innocent always get justice. The bible preach love, one of the commandments say that love your neighbor as you love yourself. These are prophetic words and the church has a role in prophetic words. The church is challenging everybody to live to its full potential, the church provide wisdom that enable us to evaluate the world ways of doing things. Theology makes us work towards the welfare of every member of the community; when Christians feel the love of the lord, they always belief that God has plan for everybody, among the plans is caring for the poor and powerless in the society. One of the significant concerns is justice to be served with mercy. The church should lead in helping the needy in the society and ensures that even the poor get justice at all times. The words that gods vengeance and his goodness that God is avenger as related to criminal justice means that the criminal justice in the world should exist and the system should provide justice for both the rich and the poor. Those who are guilty should be sentence and the innocent freed, and even if the world justice system doesn’t not provide justice, during the judgment day God will provide justice. References Bartholomew, C. G. (2011). Where mortals dwell: A Christian view of place for today. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic. Cathcart, K. Biblical Studies in Contemporary Thought: The Tenth AnNIVersary Commemorative. Volume of the Trinity College Bible Institute, 1966-1975, pp. 68-76 Ehud, B. Z. (October 01, 2003). Nahum. Sarna, N. M. (September 01, 1960). Book Review: The Semites in Ancient History. Journal of Biblical Literature, 79, 3, 288-289. Burkard, M. Z. (January 01, 2003). The Perspective on the Nations in the Book of Micah as a “Systematization” of the Nations’ Role in Joel, Jonah and Nahum? Reflections on a Context-Oriented Exegesis in the Book of the Twelve Wolfe, R. E. (December 01, 1959). Book Review: The Book of Nahum: A Commentary. Journal of Biblical Literature, 78, 4, 369-370 Harrelson, W. (December 01, 1962). Book Review: Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Introduction and Commentary. Journal of Biblical Literature, 81, 4, 428-429. Donald, S., & John, J. C. (March 01, 2006). The Book of Nahum. Read More