The Surprising Blessing of Justice (Part 1 of 2)
We have a city of about 120,000 people that takes three days to travel across, and that city is about to be destroyed. That is the city of Nineveh. This destruction is being announced through the prophet Nahum. It is predicted ultimately by God, and of course predicted because he decreed it. Nahum also incorporates some of the destruction of Nineveh in his prophecy.
This is about 140 years after Jonah had preached to Nineveh, and there had been repentance at the time of Jonah. This is fascinating because this is the actual capital of the nation of Assyria. Assyria is well-known not for all the poor they fed or the good deeds they did, but because of how brutal and violent they were. The Assyrians were violent, terrible, brutal people. The judgment coming upon them is well-earned and well-deserved. In fact, the Greek translation of Nahum titles it a receipt for Nineveh. With all the sin committed in Nineveh by the Assyrians, the bill is now owed.
Again, during Jonah's time there was much repentance, but by the time of Nahum in the seventh century BC, Nineveh was ready for judgment. Though Nahum is about Nineveh and the judgment of Nineveh, it is really for the people of God. This will be demonstrated within our passage because we are going to look into Nahum chapter 1 and find out how this passage of Scripture is actually a blessing to God's people. That is why we have titled our message The Surprising Blessing of Justice.
I have focused on that term justice to emphasize a concept presented in Nahum. Even in the second verse, God is revealed three times as an avenging God. He is the avenging God. One of the only other times an attribute of God is listed three times in succession is his holiness: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. He is also revealed here in Nahum as avenging, avenging, avenging. This is the avenging God.
That term avenging carries with it the idea of justice. It is not a God who simply was offended because the Assyrians were maybe better and more advanced than God wanted. It has nothing to do with God being a megalomaniac jealous over their success and deciding to act in judgment. What God is avenging is what is right and what is wrong, and the Assyrians have been committing wrongdoing. This is God acting in accordance with the right thing. If you were oppressed by the Assyrians, you would recognize the significance of God being an avenging God in the context of justice. It is the right thing for God to act.
God is also revealed as jealous—this is the term zealot. God is a zealot. God is not jealous of the Assyrians. God is jealous for his own holiness, his own justice, his own righteousness. That is why he is going to judge the Assyrians. The Assyrians have nothing that God wants. They owe him worship and obedience to his righteousness and holiness, but they are not performing that.
Now God is going to act in justice and judge the Ninevites. Justice has two concepts: acting in justice for somebody, the victim—the victim needs justice and is owed justice, so God avenges the victim. But justice is also that which is due upon the wrongdoer—inflicting justice upon them. Both concepts are present within our text.
The idea of jealousy also has two understandings: envying something you don't have that somebody else has and wanting to take it at all costs. That is not the jealousy of God here. God is jealous for something he already has that the Assyrians are not acknowledging. The concept comes across in the New Testament as well.
2 Corinthians 11:2 – “I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”
When the Corinthians are not living in accordance with God's holiness, Paul feels a sense of divine jealousy to make sure they live as a pure virgin to Jesus. Jealousy can be a great thing. Jealousy fights for what's right, and what's right is defined by God.
Which begs the question: Are you jealous for all things God? Or are we jealous for all things us?
This jealous and avenging God keeps wrath for his enemies. This means he knows who his enemies are ahead of time, and his wrath is not reactionary. God is not a God of moral neutrality who reacts with wrath when ticked off. God knows who his enemies are and stores wrath for them. His wrath is not just for sin, but for sinners.
This is where you might say, “I thought you said this was a message about blessing. God keeping wrath—how is that a blessing? God expending his justice—how does that bless me?” God has revealed himself as a God of justice. If we are going to believe in God for who he is, we believe him as he has revealed himself.
There are two types of people in this passage: those for whom God is just for—he's going to bless them—and those whom God is just against—he's going to judge them. It's important to recognize which group you might be in. If we are going to worship God, we must worship him for who he is, not for who we want him to be. At that point, we are worshiping the idol we have created. It is just as atheistic to ignore God in his judgments as it is to be Richard Dawkins. There is no gospel that cannot recognize God's justice, because God poured his justice out upon the cross—one of his greatest displays of justice. We cannot ignore God in his judgments; we must worship God in his judgments.
1. Delayed Justice Is a Grace
God delaying his justice is a demonstration of his common grace upon humanity. What do we mean by delayed justice? Our passage informs us that God is an avenging God—repeated for emphasis. He avenges with wrath and keeps wrath for his enemies. If God exists and is this powerful, why wouldn't he pour out his wrath immediately?
Notice what verse 3 says: The Lord is slow to anger. This is the long nose of God—an idiom painting the picture of patience. If you have a long nose, it takes longer for anger to rise. God is slow to anger. His anger is delayed because of his patience.
James 1:19 – “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
Every one of us should be slow to anger. If there are attributes of God we can reflect, we should. If incapable, we should worship him in them.
2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
Peter is concerned with the elect, but the delay results in repentance. If God ended things now, many would not be saved. Don't take God's delayed justice to mean you can live however you want.
2 Peter 3:11 – “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?”
Delayed justice is not license to sin; it's opportunity for repentance. Some think lack of immediate judgment means it's okay to continue in sin—they've missed it. Delayed justice means it will happen, but God holds it off to give opportunity.
Deuteronomy 32:35 – “Their foot shall slide in due time.”
Jonathan Edwards said: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell but the mere pleasure of God... The wrath of God burns against them. Their damnation does not slumber. The pit is prepared. The fire is made ready. The furnace is now hot, ready to receive them...”
Delayed justice is a grace. Verse 3 also says God will by no means clear the guilty. Under no circumstance will God withhold punishment. This demonstrates his sovereignty and a problem throughout Scripture.
Exodus 34:6-7 – “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”
Proverbs 17:15 – “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.”
God sees justifying the wicked as an abomination. God will not say the sinner is righteous; he will not clear the guilty.
John 3:18 – “Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Matthew 13:30 – Let the tares grow with the wheat; delay that justice.
Romans 3:9 – “We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.”
If everyone is under sin and God will not clear the guilty, delay is even greater grace—staying wrath since punishment cannot be removed.
2. Definitive Justice Will Happen
Not only is delaying justice a grace, definitive justice will happen. Verses 8-9: With an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversary and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; distress will not rise up twice. Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC as prophesied—by Babylonians, Scythians, and Medes. The largest city in its day, now a wasteland in modern Mosul, Iraq.
God says he will make a complete end; it won't rise a second time. There's eschatological significance: God pursuing enemies into darkness evokes outer darkness.
Matthew 22:13 – “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Gnashing from incessant pain, with absolute absence of hope—never-ending agony without relief or decay.
3. Deliverance from Justice Is Found in Christ
God delays justice (grace), but justice will definitively happen. What hope for the guilty? Deliverance from justice in Jesus Christ. Though no direct messianic references in Nahum, the prophets speak of Christ.
Acts 13:27 – “They did not recognize... the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath.”
Luke 24:25-27 – Jesus interpreted in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
We are ungodly sinners; God won't justify the ungodly. Justice delayed, but eventual unimaginable eternal punishment. How is this a blessing?
The prophet's name Nahum means Comforter. Why call a judgment prophet Comforter? He comes from Galilee, like Jesus, our Comforter and Advocate (John 14:16, parakletos—lawyer in God's courtroom).
Nahum is about Nineveh but for God's people. Immediate comfort: Assyria, having conquered northern Israel, will be judged—relief for the oppressed.
2 Thessalonians 1 – The Lord will remove our adversaries.
Verses 6-7: Who can stand before his indignation?... The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him. Personal, intimate knowledge—like God's foreknowing his people.
Verse 9: He will make a complete end... Trouble will not rise up a second time. Literally, God will not avenge a second time for the same thing. God is a one-time avenger—no double jeopardy.
Believers cannot fully satisfy God's justice, but if God avenged your sins on Jesus, he will never avenge them on you. Christ's atonement must result in actual salvation—it actually saves. It must be for you. Faith realizes the atonement is for you, doesn't make it so.
You are free to run into that stronghold and take permanent refuge. God never saves his children to kick them out.
Verse 15: Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; pay your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.
Isaiah 52:7 – “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news...” (Quoted in Romans 10:15.)
God will never justify the wicked. But if he satisfied his justice on Jesus, it is right to declare you innocent.
Questions to Consider
Do you understand why you should repent? Not because heritage is a cosmic killjoy, but because sin ruins lives and Jesus restores them to what they should be—not what we want. Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven, warning of judgment to bring us into right relationship with the avenging God.
You're not just saved from something; you put on new life where the infinite God is your permanent source of joy, happiness, and contentment that can never be taken away.
