A jealous and avenging God is Jehovah an avenger is Jehovah, and full of fury Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies.
Nahum's prophecy speaks to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, yet it does not open by listing that city's crimes. It opens with God Himself, and twice calls Him an avenger — which raises the question every reader feels: how can jealousy and vengeance belong to the God of love?
Before any sentence falls on Nineveh, the prophet shows who is passing it. One writer sees a portrait of God, drawn against what He puts up with from human pride:
It begins with a display of the character of God, in view of what He has to bear from the pride of man. God is jealous, and the LORD avenges. It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is also a comforting thought. The vengeance of God is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke and of lust. Then the world may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer.
Where does this jealousy come from? One writer traces it to God's love for the people He chose, and His avenging flows straight out of it:
It is a sublime description. God is a jealous God. The jealousy of God has its source in the love of His elect people... "For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14). He is jealous over His people, in case they serve other gods. And because He is a jealous God, a holy, sin-hating God, He must be an avenger of whatever is against His character. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and reserves wrath for His enemies... God is the God of Love as much as He is the God of Wrath. He must be that, or He would not be the God of Light and Holiness. He cannot afford to let evil go on forever.
The adversaries here are not vague. God used Assyria as a rod on His own people, but Assyria wanted plunder and glory for itself, and its pride brought this sentence down:
The Lord, in that action, had used him as a rod upon His disobedient, rebellious Israel; but "he did not mean it so." He planned "to take spoil and seize plunder." Pride gives him his only language: "Are not my commanders all kings?" he says (Isaiah 10). The Lord God was angry. He pronounces a burden upon him, and Nahum delivers it. "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God."
God's anger and God's patience look like opposites. One commentator says they belong together, and that anger itself belongs to moral perfection:
Are we not all apt to set these things against one another? But in truth it is not so. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more worthy it is that He should be slow to act on His indignation... Usually, slowness to anger is the proof of moral greatness. In extreme cases, though, waiting would show a lack of right feeling.
The same writer points to Jesus Himself:
Today quite a few Christians shut holy anger out of what is morally perfect. There is no greater mistake. Our Lord Jesus on one occasion looked around with anger... The Christian who does not share such feelings is completely lacking in what is of God... But for this very reason He too was slow — not, of course, to form a judgment, but to carry it out on man.
To "keep wrath" means God stores sin rather than overlooking it. The reason lies in what He is:
God never treats the guilty as innocent. It is contrary to His nature, and it would not be the truth. He may put the sin away and receive the sinner cleansed; but He cannot act as if it did not exist when it does, nor be indifferent to it while He remains Himself... But He cannot leave sin anywhere as though it did not exist or did not matter.
- Character first. The prophecy opens by showing who God is, not what Nineveh did — the Judge Himself explains the sentence.
- Jealousy is love. His jealousy has its source in love for His people; He is jealous in case they serve other gods.
- Love must avenge. Because He is jealous and hates sin, He must avenge whatever is against His character. He cannot let evil run forever.
- Delay is not weakness. He is slow to act on His indignation, and that slowness is the mark of moral greatness, not of indifference.
- Vengeance delivers. He stores sin; He never waives it. When His vengeance falls, it frees the world from the enemy's yoke.
Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and doth not at all clear [the guilty] Jehovah, -- his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum's opening vision sets God's patience beside God's vengeance. This verse is where the two meet. If God is slow to anger, why did Nineveh fall? And does His refusal to clear the guilty leave anyone any hope?
The verse before this one speaks of jealousy and vengeance. This one speaks of slowness. One writer says we misread God when we set the two against each other.
Are we not all inclined to set these things against one another? But that is not the truth. The stronger God's feeling against what destroys His own glory, the more fitting it is that He should be slow to act on His anger... Slowness to anger is usually the proof of moral greatness, though there are extreme cases where waiting would show a lack of right feeling.
God's patience is not a softer version of His anger. One writer finds it both solemn and comforting.
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought too. God's vengeance sets the world free from the oppression and misery of the enemy's yoke, and from lust... He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath all the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient. He is great in power, and will not at all acquit the guilty. Who can stand before His indignation?
Nineveh had already tasted that slowness. God sent Jonah to this same city long before, and the city repented.
God's earlier dealing with Nineveh through Jonah may witness to us, in this day of judgment announced by Nahum, that He is "slow to anger." He sent a preacher then to warn them and turn them to repentance. He accepted that repentance, and He spared them. But the One who is slow to anger does not "acquit the wicked."
Older translations read "will not at all acquit the wicked." That word acquit carries real weight. One writer draws a sharp line between acquitting a person and not counting his sin against him.
Not counting a person's iniquity against him is a very different thing from acquitting him. He never acquits the wicked as such. There is no stronger condemnation of wickedness than when He does not count iniquity. The reason He does not count iniquity against the believer is this: He has counted it, and He has dealt with it according to His own horror of evil and His just judgment of it all at the cross of Christ.
Another writer asks what an acquitted man actually receives, and what the sinner receives instead.
He forgives the sinner, but that is not acquitting him. He justifies the ungodly — that is, He counts him righteous who was not righteous... Acquittal is a word used of someone found not guilty... An acquitted person receives no favour. He only receives what, in righteousness, he could claim.
The second half of the verse puts the most frightening forces a person can imagine under God's feet. One writer contrasts the ground man walks on with the ground God walks on.
To the mind of man, what is more impressive than towering storm clouds? What is more terrifying than a rushing whirlwind that flattens the forest? Man is a creature of dust. He walks on the dust of the earth, and to that dust he returns in the hour of death. But the LORD has the clouds as the dust of His feet.
One writer applies the same words to Job, whom God answered out of a whirlwind:
The whirlwind itself was meant to impress on Job that every circumstance of swirling trouble and confusion stood under the controlling hand of the Creator.
One writer holds both halves of God's character together, without softening either.
He is good, and His people find Him a stronghold indeed in the day of trouble. His wrath is not easily stirred; He is "slow to anger." But when evil lifts its head in constant hostility to good, and will not be put down, God shows that He is not indifferent... His pity is infinite, but He "will not at all acquit the wicked."
- Slow — God's delay is not weakness. Slowness to act on righteous anger is a mark of moral greatness. Nineveh had tasted it once already, when God sent Jonah and spared the city.
- Sure — that same patience makes the judgment heavier when it comes. It is the justice of One who was never impatient.
- Not acquitted — God never declares a sinner "not guilty." Acquittal would be a right earned, not a favour received.
- But forgiven — He does not count the believer's sin against him, because He has counted it and judged it at the cross. That condemns evil more strongly, not less.
- Under His feet — the whirlwind and the storm are not chaos escaping God. The clouds are the dust He walks on. This is the God His people find to be a stronghold in the day of trouble.
He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt, and the earth is upheaved at his presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein.
Nahum opens with a portrait of God Himself, not with Nineveh's crimes. Here the ground itself shakes — so are these real mountains or a figure, and is such a God a terror or a comfort?
The whole passage sets out the qualities of God as the One who governs the earth. The name Jehovah carries that sense, and the mountains are a figure:
So here, in what concerns His government of man on earth, Jehovah shows Himself in certain qualities. This deserves attention. Jehovah is that special revelation of God meant for His people, as the One who governed them… "The mountains quake at Him" — of course a figure. The word "mountains" points to the great seats of power on earth.
(Kelly quotes an older translation: "quake at Him" and "the earth is burned at His presence." The ESV has "quake before him" and "the earth heaves before him.")
The verse just before says the clouds are the dust of His feet. That contrast shows what the shaking means for human pride:
What is more imposing to the mind of man than towering storm clouds? What is more terrifying than the rushing whirlwind that flattens the forest? Man, the creature of dust, walks on the dust of the earth, and to that dust he returns in the hour of death. But Jehovah has the clouds as the dust of His feet. If He rises in His righteous wrath, all will be swept before Him. The mountains stand for the kingdoms of the earth, and they will quake before Him. And He will bring the pride of man down into the dust.
The same chapter calls Him slow to anger, yet the world melts at His approach. That is no contradiction. The delay is what makes the day ahead so serious:
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is also a comforting thought. God's vengeance is the world's deliverance from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust. Then it may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer. No doubt He has long allowed evil to go on. He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath all the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient.
This part of Nahum is an alphabet poem. Each line starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But the pattern does not hold, and one writer sees the break as part of the message:
The prophet sets out to describe the glorious greatness of God. But the surpassing splendour of His majesty and might, and of His changeless character, seems so far beyond his grasp that he fails to put it into ordered words. So he breaks down in the alphabetical structure. It is as much as to say: His infinite and unchanging perfections tower up like immeasurable mountains to the skies, beyond my feeble sight, so words fail to describe them.
Two verses later Nahum calls the Lord a stronghold in the day of trouble. So the shaking is not blind:
But this is not all. When He gives His indignation free course, it is not vague, sweeping away everyone alike. He is good. He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The evil and the judgment overflow. The evil is itself a judgment, and nothing the judgment reaches can stand before it. Even then He Himself is the sure refuge of all who trust in Him, and He Himself knows all who do.
Nineveh did fall. But the writers do not treat that ancient event as all Nahum saw. They read the blows in order, starting with the Assyrian Sennacherib and ending with one still ahead:
The first blow was, I suppose, Sennacherib. The second would not be the threat of the Assyrian rebuked, but the destruction of Nineveh. And the destruction of Nineveh is a picture of the final judgment of the great Assyrian in the last days, the king of the north.
- Pride — the mountains stand for the great seats of power on earth. What melts here is human greatness, not just rock.
- Patience — His slowness to anger is not softness. It is the restraint of One who is never impatient, and that makes the coming day more solemn.
- Power — the prophet's alphabet poem breaks apart. Language gives way where the world does.
- Protection — the same flood that nothing can stand before has a refuge inside it: He knows those who trust Him.
- Prospect — Nineveh's ruin was a preview. The shaking runs on to a final judgment, and beyond it to the world's deliverance.
Who shall stand before his indignation? and who shall abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him.
Nahum asks two questions about God's anger, and no one in Nineveh can answer them. The mountains have just been shaking at God's presence. Now the prophet asks who is left standing when that anger breaks out.
The question gets its force from God's patience. His long delay is not approval of evil. It makes the wrath, when it comes, more terrible, not less.
It is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not bear with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought. God's vengeance is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust. Then the world can flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer. No doubt He has long allowed evil to go on. He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath so much the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient.
The question is not left open. Creation itself gives the verdict.
Slow to anger, and great in power, with the clouds as dust beneath His feet, none can stop the great God. The sea and the rivers dry up at His rebuke! The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt away! Like fire, His fury is poured out! The rocks are rolled down before Him! Who can stand when His indignation awakens? None, surely.
The word "stand" belongs to God's throne. Other Scriptures ask the same question. The point is not that a person's standing is weak. He has none at all.
"The wicked will not stand in the judgment" (Psalm 1:5). "If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (130:3). It is plain that these passages connect the thought of standing with the throne of God... Before that throne, then, the sinner in his sins cannot stand. It is not taught here that his standing has been a bad one, or that he must change it. On the contrary, the point is stated plainly: as a sinner, as a foolish person, he has no standing before a God of judgment. He has no standing before His throne.
Nineveh was a real capital, and it really fell. Commentators also read the city as a picture of something larger. God's judgment there is as unbending as the enemy's greed.
Nahum ("Comfort") is a vigorous prophecy of the judgment of Nineveh, which, being the capital of Assyria, stands for that empire... Egypt pictures for us the world in its comfortable independence of God. Assyria shows the world's vicious opposition to Him... the destruction of Nineveh fulfilled part of it, but it looks on to God's judgment of the King of the North in the latter days. Notice that the determined greed of this enemy is fully matched by the unbending firmness of the judgment of God.
The same God who pours out fury is also a shelter. His anger is not blind, and it does not sweep away everyone alike.
But this is not all: His indignation is not vague and destructive without distinction when He gives it free course. He is good; He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The evil is itself a judgment. Nothing the judgment reaches can stand. When the evil and the judgment overflow, He is Himself the sure refuge of all who trust in Him. He Himself knows all who do so.
Ask the same question about the great day of God's wrath, and the answer rules out every human credential.
When the great day of His wrath has come, who will be able to stand? Who? The great, the mighty, the noble of the earth? Who? The well-disposed, the upright, the moral? Only those who are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish or spot."
- Patience — God's slowness to anger is not tolerance of evil; it makes the wrath, when it comes, the justice of One who was never rushed.
- Power — Sea, mountains, hills and rocks all give way before Him; the honest answer to "who can stand?" is: no one.
- Position — The sinner's standing before God's throne is not merely poor. He has no standing at all.
- Purpose — Nineveh really fell. Commentators also read the city as a picture of the world's open hostility to God. God's judgment matches that hostility in firmness.
- Protection — God is a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust Him. In the day of wrath, only those redeemed by the blood of Christ stand.