Nahum 3:6

Next comes the stern condemnation of the Lord. He once spared her, but now He would have Nineveh know that this was no mere jealousy of others. It was His own resolve to disgrace her — she who had so enjoyed herself and misled others.

She had acted the harlot, and now she receives a harlot's punishment: public exposure. The righteous God stripped her of everything and exposed her shame. She would be a public spectacle for nations and kingdoms. There would be no one to lament over the vile mistress of witchcrafts.

Like all these ancient cities she was full of witchcrafts, that is, sorceries. The power of darkness showed itself in the rule of evil spirits, which Nineveh courted... Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh and other centres of paganism were full of occultism. Practising it hastened their doom. The same evil powers will complete the doom of our own age.

A hundred and fifty years before, God had sent warning to the guilty city by His servant Jonah. Nineveh received the message and turned in repentance to God. But the generation Jonah preached to had passed away. Nineveh had returned to her vileness and wickedness, as a sow goes back to her wallowing in the mire. God waited a century and a half before stepping in with judgment. That proved He was longsuffering in grace. But the time for judgment was now at hand, and those whom Nineveh had oppressed and afflicted could lift up their heads and rejoice.

The repentance in Jonah's day secured nothing, just as the Reformation in Christendom secured nothing. It did not prepare Nineveh for glory, or for a place in the kingdom of God.

Egypt, Babylon and Nineveh stand out for what they morally represent. Egypt is the world in its natural condition, out of which the people have come. Babylon is corruption in the activity of power, by which the people are enslaved. Nineveh is the haughty glory of the world, which recognises nothing but its own importance. By its pride alone, the world is the open enemy of God's people. She will be judged like all the rest, and will disappear for ever under the judgment of the Almighty.

Nahum's prediction came true, but the prophecy also served to bring out what would happen at the end. Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, is long gone. Yet the judgment on Nineveh describes what will come upon the nation that bears the character of the Assyrian in the last days. It may reach his territory too.