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The Book of Nahum Chapter 1:1-15

[Aired February 22, 2025]

The term “That Great City Nineveh” features twelve times in the Minor Prophets, obviously directly with Jonah’s dramatic entry and grumpy exit; three times in Nahum, and once in Zephaniah, and so, the unintentional flow-on from studying Jonah to Nahum seems appropriate. The Book of Micah is rightly positioned between Jonah and Nahum, warning of Israel’s coming destruction – for the keen spiritual eye’s observation, a grand finalé inventing today with Zionism’s inevitable destruction (Rev 17:15-16).

The broad view of this study is that Nineveh, like our experiences in Gentile Christianity, unwittingly had no option in obeying God but by their own strength. “That Great City, Nineveh” within us, as much as we were terrified by the delusional ever-lasting burning in a lake of fire by Satan’s rotisserie, most frustratingly, never gave us solace through spiritually changed hearts – we just kept on chanting that we were saved; our conscience accusing others as we excused ourselves.

Consequently, the Lord, in his great mercy, warns us seemingly endlessly of our slothfulness in not pursuing him wholeheartedly. Our Lord’s warnings in Nahum incessantly repeated all through scripture, glazed the Babylonian’s eyes in our foreheads most drearily – the topic calmly flatlined, but not so, the Bride’s ravished incites.

Significations:

Nam 1:1  The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite [H512 = God the ensnarer]. 

The book of the vision Nahum experiences is the voice and subsequent burden of God’s word he hears and sees, similar to what John saw and heard in Revelations upon seeing the seven golden candlesticks (Rev 1:9-20).

The ‘burden of the Lord’ and the ‘burden of the word’ are one and the same. Israel’s ‘burden’ stems from centuries of God’s word going unheeded, continuing for an additional 2,000 years within Gentile Christianity. Without the holy spirit, consistently adhering to their Lord’s word was nearly impossible, leading to an immense ‘burden’ and the inevitability of ‘forgetting’ his testaments.

Psa 38:4  For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 

Mal 1:1  The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

Zec 9:1  The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.

Jer 23:32  Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.
Jer 23:33  And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD.

(Isa 49:14  But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.
Isa 49:15  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.)

Continuing,

Jer 23:34  And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.
Jer 23:35  Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 
Jer 23:36  And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
Jer 23:37  Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
Jer 23:38  But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;
Jer 23:39  Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:
Jer 23:40  And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. 

‘Nineveh’s burden’ is the Bride’s joyful burden upon her, seeing that she was that ‘Great City Nineveh’, emblematic of the Great Whore (Rev 17:1-18). Ironically, before becoming the Bride, she was a regular woman in Israel blessed with keeping her Lord’s oracles, nonetheless chosen by God to be his wife, innately full of artifices typified by the meaning of Nahum, the Elkoshite’s (H512) name – “the ensnarer”.

Ecc 7:26  And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. 

Pro 29:6  In the sin of an evil man there is a snare; but the righteous sings and rejoices.

Num 32:21  And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him,
Num 32:22  And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.
Num 32:23  But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.

Jer 17:23  But they did not obey, nor bowed down their ear, but made their neck stiff, so that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

Like any husband who delights in his wife, Christ detests her devotion to unnecessary external incitements.

Exo 34:14  For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

God’s Wrath Against Nineveh

The Lord’s words and expressions in Nahum are widely understood, even by the most oblivious Babylonian, despite the spiritually hidden nuances in the plain meanings of names, so there is no excuse. He says,

Nam 1:2  God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 
Nam 1:3  The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds [mankind] are the dust of his feet. 
Nam 1:4  He rebuketh the sea [mankind], and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan [‘baw-shawn’ = fruitful; east of the Jordan, likely the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gormorrah] languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 

The Jordan flowed through the heart of Israel and symbolically represented God’s word, just as the Euphrates symbolised Babylon’s confusing ideologies that they regarded as wisdom.

Rev 16:12  And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

The Euphrates River, which flowed through the heart of Babylon, is symbolically regarded by the enslaved Israelites as a much lighter burden, even described as delicious. Babylon’s lifestyle and ideologies dry up, making way for the Elect of God, the Kings of the East under Christ’s headship in the One Thousand Year rule under the rod of iron. In the meantime, today, Babylonian Christianity sits as a Queen; in not knowing her burden of Christ’s word, she languishes.

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Nam 1:5  The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 

The verse in Nah 1:5 directly relates to the Lake of Fire, where the ‘burden of the Lord’ is reignited upon all mankind since Adam, not in the First Resurrection. This burden is a blazing furnace of his fiery word that produces fine gold in every man, first in his Bride daily, today, and the remainder of the world in the Lake of Fire on the Eighth Day.

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Nam 1:6  Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. 

The only person who is given to stand before Christ’s indignation and fierce wrath upon his ‘old man’ is the Body of Christ, his Bride.

Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Nam 1:7  The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. 
Nam 1:8  But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. 

Even the Five unwise, sleepy-eyed virgins can easily see the signified meanings of whirlwinds, storms, clouds, dust, sea, rivers, mountains, Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon, but when the fire is mentioned, suddenly, he remembers his oil sufficiency. His heart beats faster, and wide-eyed, he thrashes about in the dark, too late to buy more—trouble and darkness refuse to reveal his enemies. Knowing the story of Lazarus and the rich man, he now faces an “overrunning flood” of fire—the Lake of Fire.  Meanwhile, the Five Wise Virgins have long been subject to their Lord’s fierce wrath against the old man and relish the fire smelting her rocks within, discarding the inferior metals and dross typified by the works of the Old Covenant.

Num 31:22  Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead—
Num 31:23  everything that can withstand the fire—must be put through the fire, and it will be clean. But it must still be purified with the water of purification. And everything that cannot withstand the fire must pass through the water.
Num 31:24  On the seventh day you are to wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”

Psa 69:13  But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
Psa 69:14  Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Psa 69:15  Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

Hag 2:7  I will shake all the nations, and they will come with all their treasures, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Hosts.
Hag 2:8  The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, declares the LORD of Hosts.

Nam 1:9  What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. 
Nam 1:10  For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. 
Nah 1:11  There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor. 

Being “folden together as thorns” is the mishmash of Babylonian confused thinking that is excellent for initiating a fire. Our former Gentile Christian beliefs are that there is only one resurrection and “affliction shall not rise up a second time”; it is the belief that this is the only day of salvation — they are all drunk on their false doctrines that in their time and order, those convictions will burn fiercely. However, the Lord is not a vindictive God; he is a loving Father who has mercy on his Elect, the proud “one” who is first to experience His wrath and loving chastisements before becoming the new “one” in Christ when pervading peace will remain forever.

Mal 4:1  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

There is a consummation to transforming the Bride where her perfection is ending and people will no longer say, ‘Know ye the Lord.’

Nam 1:12  Thus saith the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. 
Nam 1:13  For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. 
Nam 1:14  And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. 

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Nam 1:15  Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts [Atonement], perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off. 

The first mention of a ‘solemn feast’ in scripture is in Leviticus 23:36, the Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which represents the Eighth Day of Creation, the Resurrection to Judgement—the Lake of Fire.

Lev 23:36  Seven days [The Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles] ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.

There will certainly be no work of self-righteousness by anyone in the Lake of Fire; indeed, it will be a solemn assembly as it will burn like an oven. Everyone will tremble at the Lord’s word and want to hide in rocks and caves in the mountains and find no hiding place since His word is now pervasive.

Isa 52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Isa 52:8  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
Isa 52:9  Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Isa 52:10  The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Isa 52:11  Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Isa 52:12  For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.

Lord, hasten the day.