Nahum: A Prophet of Doom (Nahum 1:1)

¹An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

So begins the small prophecy known in our Bibles as “Nahum”. The book is one of the twelve prophecies making up what we call the Minor Prophets. This group is referred to as “minor” not because they are less important than other Scriptures but because they are smaller in size than prophecies such as Jeremiah.

“An oracle” is the Hebrew word “massa” and means “burden”. The entire book is a proclamation of the coming destruction on the city of Nineveh. For an Israelite such as Nahum, Nineveh’s destruction would be a blessing, not a burden. However, as anyone who has ever preached on judgment from the Word of God, such a message is a heavy load for the speaker to deliver. Such messages are a burden not only to the listener but also to the preacher. For this prophet of God, he has a very heavy message to share.

Furthermore, this message revolves around the city of Nineveh. Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian empire, the dominant power in the Middle East. About one-hundred years earlier, God sent a prophet from the Northern Kingdom by the name of Jonah to this same city. Reluctantly, Jonah proclaimed the demise of Nineveh only to see the Ninevites repent of their sin. God stayed His hand of judgment at that time much to Jonah’s dismay.

But Assyria return to their wicked ways. Fifty years after Jonah, Assyria defeated the Northern Kingdom of Israel, taking captives and dispersing them throughout their kingdom. Assyria acted wickedly to those living in Judah and grew in power and evil. God had not forgotten His people. Nineveh had been warned once and heeded that warning. But they returned to their wicked ways and there were no more warnings coming from the Lord. Judgment, not mercy, awaited those in the city.

Nahum indicates he received these words in a divine vision. This was not some ecstatic, wild nightmare type of vision. Rather, it was a clear and reasonable word given by God to this chosen servant. The prophet, whose name means “consoler” or “comforter”, would prove to be a comfort not to Nineveh but to Judah. The long Assyrian oppression against the Southern Kingdom was about to end.

The prophet Nahum is a man like us. He is from Elkosh, an unknown village in the Middle East, likely a small village. If God uses obscure people from obscure places to proclaim His Word, He can use us to do the same!