Nahum is the book Jonah wished he could have written. While Jonah was called to wrestle with the abundant mercy of God toward the wicked city of Nineveh, Nahum is the one to prophetically announce Nineveh’s impending downfall. “Concerning Nineveh… the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries… they will be cut off and pass away.” (Nahum 1:1, 2, 12) “The LORD is slow to anger” was Jonah’s complaint (Jonah 4:2), taken from a famous poem in Exodus 34. Nahum draws from the Exodus poem too, but quotes more of it than Jonah does: “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty.” (Nahum 1:3) God’s anger toward those who commit the greatest evil in the world may be slow to build up, but it builds up all the same, eventually resulting in the divine resolve to eradicate that evil.
The book of Jonah ended with a question, God’s question to Jonah – “Should I not care for Nineveh, too?” This question haunts Jonah. Indeed, we should be haunted by the God is more forgiving than we are. But now, the book of Nahum ends with a question as well. Nineveh, “your wound is mortal… for who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?” It’s now Nineveh’s turn to be haunted, haunted by the God who does not turn a blind eye to the violent injustice brought about by an empire.
At the time of Nahum’s preaching, this is all directing our attention to the future. But the prophet has a word for the scary present moment, too. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Thought they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you.’” (1:12, 15) At no point in Nahum’s words are the people of God called to arms. Instead, Judah is called to celebrate their festivals and carry out their worship as if there is no threat at all, even if that threat appears to be as healthy and strong as ever. Israel’s festivals were meant for joyfully remembering how God has rescued and sustained his people in the past. And Judah is to continue to perform these acts of joyful memory in the face of a world that has plenty of fear to offer.
Does it occur to us what an act of defiance it is to simply worship? To gather, to open up our Bibles, to pray, to sing? In doing so, we proclaim to the world around us (and to ourselves when we need reminding) that we worship the real king of the world. We pray to the God who is really in charge. We sing songs of praise and confidence to the God who is not in trouble. We open our Bibles and re-experience the stories of God rescuing and sustaining those with the least power to do so for themselves.
When we gather in worship, we are experiencing and participating in the real world. The real world is not the sum of routines and rules and institutions we begrudgingly accept as normal. The real world is experienced only in prayer, in scripture, in worship. Nineveh cannot threaten or outlast them, nor can any another empire. So we will carry out our worship, refusing to indulge the world’s attempts to scare us. Empire is not a threat to God, which means it’s not a threat to us either, and our worship will continually proclaim just that.
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