Nahum has the unique distinction of being a sequel. His message is addressed not to God’s chosen people Israel, but to one of God’s adopted children--the city of Nineveh. Jonah had been to Nineveh with a message of “Doom and gloom, unless you repent.” Nineveh repented, God relented. For a while.
Enter Nahum. Nineveh has returned to their wicked ways, as it seems all people will do. God is fed up with their sin, and punishment is coming. He is “slow to anger and great in power,” but He “will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3).
The book of Nahum is also different in that there is almost no good news to be found in this book. The few positive words in this book describe the character of God: a stronghold, good, a refuge. However, Nahum warns that God will “pursue his enemies into darkness” and it is clear that Nineveh is among the enemies of God. He even declares Himself against the city of Nineveh in 2:13.
Nahum’s third and final chapter is dedicated to the ruin of war. The people will be consumed by fire, cut down by the sword, and scattered into the mountains. Nothing will be left.
The thing that makes the book of Nahum so sad is this: there is no hope. There is no call to repentance here, no “if...then” as in the other prophets we have read. No hope for restoration.
Historical note: Nineveh was destroyed around 612 BC and even the ruins were not discovered again until the 1840s.
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