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Dear Heavenly Father, Praise Nahum said, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty” (Nah 1:2–3a). I praise you today for your wrath against sin and your punishment of the unrepentant wicked. Those who shake their fist in your face and spit on the blood of your precious Son will feel the fury of your righteous anger. Hallelujah! Today in Your Word Today you told me about the reign of Manasseh and Nahum’s prophecy against the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Manasseh was crowned king at the age of twenty-two, and he quickly became the worst king Judah had ever seen. His wickedness was so great (greater than the Amorites who were before him) that you pronounced an irrevocable sentence of doom on Jerusalem and Judah. Not even the godly Josiah, Manasseh’s grandson, could prevent the coming calamity. He could only delay your judgment (cf. 2 Kgs 24:3–4; Jer 15:4). This teaches me that there is a limit to your patience with sin. Just as the Amorites filled up their “cup of iniquity” and then suffered your judgment, so my country is filling up its cup of iniquity, and someday you will say, “Enough!” Help me to be among those who “build up the wall and stand in the breach” so that your wrath may be delayed (Ezek 22:30). During Manasseh’s bloody reign, Nahum of Elkosh prophesied against Nineveh. The repentance that had followed Jonah’s preaching was in the distant past, and the city was now the capital of the mighty Assyrian empire. Judah was firmly in its iron grip, and Ashurbanipal forced Manasseh to aid his conquest of Egypt (cf. the sack of Thebes in Nah 3:8–10). It was no accident that you inspired Nahum to write of Nineveh’s downfall when Assyria’s power and domination were at their height. You had used Assyria to punish and discipline your people, and now the doom that Isaiah had foreseen was at hand (Isa 10:5–12). In only a few short decades, the city would be destroyed by the Babylonians: “There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off” (Nah 3:15). This teaches me that you hold the nations accountable for their actions, and although you may use them to accomplish your purposes, they will not go unpunished for their sin. Their power may appear invincible, but they cannot stand against the fury of your wrath. I put my trust in you, Father, and my boast is that I know and understand the God who practices justice (Jer 9:23–26)! Reflection No one can sin and get by. If I harden my heart against you and worship other gods, nothing remains “but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” (Heb 10:27). Request Father, may I never be counted with the unrighteous! Keep me from walking in the counsel of the wicked, from standing in the way of sinners, and from sitting in the seat of scoffers! May my delight be always in your law, and may I meditate on it day and night (Ps 1:1–2). Thanksgiving Thank you for reminding me of the certainty of your judgment on the wicked. If I heed Nahum’s words, my heart will cling to you in love and my feet will stay on the narrow way! In Jesus’ name, Amen. Suggested Hymn: “I Am Thine” — H. R. Jeffrey. Meditation Verse: Nahum 1:7.