Nahum and the Good Refuge

You don’t need a refuge when everything is peaceful and going swimmingly.  It’s when times get tough that a refuge is sought as shelter from the storm.

“The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him, but with an overwhelming flood He will make an end of Nineveh; He will pursue His foes into the realm of darkness. Whatever they plot against the LORD He will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time. They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble. From you, Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the LORD and devises wicked plans. This is what the LORD says: “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. (Nahum 1:8-12)

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There are times when we look at our current world situation in freefall and want to cry out “Make it stop!  Somebody!!!”

Our God is patient beyond anything we ever could exhibit, and truth be known, that’s a source of frustration for many of us.  But there comes a point when God says, “Enough!”  He’ll put an end to that and what He ends…is finished.

Such happened to Nineveh.  They were evil, heard the world’s shortest sermon by Jonah (Jonah 3:1-4:1), and repented (to Jonah’s great disappointment).  However, repentance doesn’t always last long. It’s not transferrable to the next generation, and therefore, what had been bad in Nineveh became worse.  Kind of like Jesus’ discussion of a kingdom divided in Luke 11:17-26 and the situation becoming worse than before.  Nineveh—at this point in their history—was worse than the Mos Eisley Space Port in Star Wars, of which Obi Wan famously said, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”  Obi Wan never went to Nineveh apparently. 

Beyond redemption: two of the scariest words ever put to print.

When something or someone is beyond redemption and God has said, “Enough!”, there’s no safety in numbers or powerful allies.  There’s no safety in darkness.  They’re all going down.

Bringing us to the modern times, how much “fundamental transformation” away from a Christ-honoring world will we need to experience before God says, “Enough!”?  I don’t pretend to know, but we’re on our way to that point with a recent Pew Research survey saying that more than 70% of a segment of Americans think the church makes things worse for the world but colleges make it better.  Church leaders in the UK are lamenting that Christianity has now “almost been vanquished”.  True, we may have little recoveries/victories for Christ here and there, but if the global transformation has been/is, in fact, “fundamental” then no amount of a human’s clawing it back is going to bring it from God’s declaration of beyond redemption… to redeemable.

Questions for further thought:

Sometimes when God says “Enough” there’s a period at the end of the sentence, forevermore.  Were Sodom and Gomorrah ever rebuilt?  What caused God to say “Enough”? See Deuteronomy 29:23-28.

Isaiah 13:19-22 tells the fate of ancient Babylon.  Had God had “Enough”?

Saddam Hussein tried rebuilding it, inscribing his name all over the place, but even now, it’s disintegrating and deserted. Now having received world historical site international recognition, restoration is on the horizon, already including the dragon body with the serpent head, a favorite of the god Marduk. In the article, they proclaim, “One can only imagine that Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, to whom local ladies still ask for intercession at a de facto re-appropriated fertility site where a recently reconstructed medieval shrine to Imam Ali’s son sits on top of his ancient temple, is well pleased that Babylon has been officially recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.” Yikes.

Jericho, another city destroyed, was rebuilt at a heavy cost as predicted by Joshua.  It became developed enough that Jesus went through there (Luke 19:1). But it was never again what it once was.

What about Europe?  America?  Has God had “Enough”? These are serious questions for serious Christians.