If This Is Your Enemy, Be Friends!

Nahum 1:2
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.

The prophecy of Nahum is to the same Nineveh that Jonah preached to during his ministry and they got saved from divine punishment. Nineveh had seen the gracious loving side of God. They were glad, but unfortunately, they quickly slid back to sin. Nahum comes with a message from the same God but from a different perspective.

Nahum tells them that this same God who was merciful and forgiving can be a terrible enemy. If you continue sinning and make God your enemy, you have chosen the worst of enemies. The most ruthless and merciless of enemies. If God is your enemy, be friends with Him before it’s too late!

Nahum is speaking to Ninevites who have sinned repeatedly and are so used to sinning and being forgiven. Repeated forgiveness has made them feel immune to punishment. They have abused the grace of God and are now using it as a license to sin more and more.

Jude 1:4
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the GRACE OF OUR GOD INTO A LICENSE for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Nahum tells the people of Nineveh that because they have refused to respond to God’s grace, they will now have to face the wrath of God. He warns them not to wait for God’s wrath as if it is a fun thing to be ignored. The wrath of God is not something to gladly look forward to experiencing.

Amos 5:18
Woe to you who long
for the day of the LORD!
Why do you long for the day of the LORD?
That day will be darkness, not light.

The people of Nineveh seemed to take lightly the fact that their sinful lives had made them enemies of God. The people of Nineveh had so many enemies among the nations surrounding them. They thought they could handle God like the many enemies they had outmaneuvered. Nahum tells them God is an enemy you wouldn’t want to have. As an enemy, God is terrible, jealous, vengeful, and terrifying. If God is your enemy, be friends with Him before it’s too late!

James 4:4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

The message is not only for Nineveh it is ours too. We must be careful that we are not compromised to be enemies with God. If we befriend the world and adopt its ways, we would have chosen to have God as an enemy. It may seem fun to be a friend of the world, but the downside is the life-threatening reality of being an enemy of God. He makes a terrible enemy. If God is your enemy, be friends with Him before it’s too late!

Nahum says God is jealous. He doesn’t like anyone or anything competing with Him. He must remain supreme in our lives. Any competition and He will react in a huge way. Nahum tells us God takes revenge. He doesn’t forget offenses and He will revenge. He has anger that His enemies will face. He may delay, but He will not leave the guilty unpunished, Nahum 1:3. God is so powerful that at His rebuke the sea and rivers dry, Nahum 1:4, what about us?

When God is angry, mighty mountains quake before Him, and the entire earth trembles, Nahum 1:5. Do you remember when Jesus died on the cross and it became dark and there was an earthquake? God is so powerful that His anger affects the whole world. Who can withstand God’s wrath, Nahum 1:6,?

Nahum tells us that God is good and a refuge in times of trouble for those who are His friends, Nahum 1:7. God cares for His friends who trust Him. However, God will totally destroy Nineveh so that it will never be heard of again, Nahum 1:8. God will destroy Nineveh with finality, they will not arise a second time to trouble anyone else, Nahum 1:9. As we write today, Nineveh no longer exists. The people of Nineveh were wiped from the face of the earth. None of their descendants exists anywhere on earth. The wrath of God is true and real. If God is your enemy, be friends with Him before it’s too late!

Only the friends of God have a safe and bright future. Enemies of God may not see it now, but there is serious trouble ahead for them. The trouble they can’t handle. The trouble that may destroy them forever. I pray that I may always be a friend of God that He cares for and protects and prospers, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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