Nahum and the Hope Beyond Discipline

I’ve been accused (on more than one occasion) of being a dispenser of “hopium.”  Perhaps it’s the plight of people with natural encouragement in their veins and fire-tested hope in their hearts.  In the face of God’s discipline that some of us have experienced, a lesson learned is that there’s still hope.  In the face of man’s devastation of this earth and humanity, there’s always hope placed rightly in God. 

Climate change, nuclear war, racial tensions, myocarditis…will anyone rescue us from such things?  I say yes.  But it’s not hope in “the thing” or in man because that’s the distinction between genuine hope (in God) and “hopium” (in anything or anyone else saving the day). 

Hear me clearly: no one is coming to your rescue. 

Apart from God.

And praise God, He’s enough!

Nahum 1:12 This is what the LORD says: “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. 13 Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away.”

Nahum’s warning for us would be to consider the afflictions God allows as corrective discipline and to remain hopeful in the duration, following Him to do the works we can.  In God’s perfect timing, there is rescue for the faithful from the worst of tribulations.  There is freedom from the yoke of oppression, slavery, and the evils of this world.

“If the LORD had not been on our side– let Israel say– if the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.  Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth.  We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.   Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:1-8)

Praise God! Discipline has an end (in two meanings). 
Freedom is in store for those faithfully looking to God in hope.

Questions for further thought:

What do we make of man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty?  Are they rival ideas, or do they work in tandem?

When we cannot resolve certain world problems, does that mean we should be complacent because we can’t fix it anyway?

How is the dichotomy presented in a quote often attributed to (but never said by) Saint Augustine incorrect?  “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” 

If it were to say, “Pray because only God can rescue us, then diligently and tirelessly work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” how would that be more like it?

Lord, thank You that You are a sovereign God, and nothing escapes You.  Nothing happens apart from Your will to do us good in the long view, to give us hope and a future!  When we see things that trouble us, Father, please remind us of the truth that Jesus has overcome the world.  We can lay down the heavy yoke of self-preservation and place our hope in Jesus whose yoke is light and easy.  Be with us in these perilous times.  Help us to see Your light at the end of the tunnel, Lord Jesus.  Amen.