The Doom of Degenerate Nations (Nahum 3)

Nahum is a prophet, and therefore, he prophesies. However, prophecy is something that is often misunderstood. We tend to think of prophecy mainly as a prediction of future events—what we could call "foretelling." While this type of prophecy does happen in Scripture, the primary form of prophecy is not about predicting the future. Instead, it's about proclaiming what God has revealed concerning the present. This is often referred to as "forth-telling."

One commentator explains this well: "Prophetic revelations were not so concerned with revealing the future but rather with revealing God's will concerning the present."

Most of the prophets in Scripture focus on forth-telling prophecies that speak to particular people at a particular time. Many Christians today have a habit of seeing connections in prophetic texts to future events that aren’t really there. One way to avoid this is by asking two key questions: Who was the original audience of this prophecy, and what did the prophet want them to understand?

Common forms of prophetic writing include:

• Lawsuit: God is portrayed as the plaintiff, prosecutor, judge, and bailiff in a court case against Israel, the defendant (e.g., Isaiah 3:13-26, Micah).

• Promise (Salvation Oracle): A reference to the future, often mentioning radical change and blessing (e.g., Amos 9:11-15; Hosea 2:16-20; Isaiah 45:1-7; Jeremiah 31:1-9).

• Woe: An announcement of distress, stating the reason for it and predicting doom (e.g., Habakkuk 2:6-8; Micah 2:1-5; Zephaniah 2:5-7).

• War: A prophetic announcement of judgment through battle, often containing a call to alarm, a description of the attack, and a prediction of defeat (e.g., Hosea 5:8-10).

Nahum's prophecy combines both woe and war. In Nahum 3:1, he declares:

"Woe to the bloody city,

Completely full of lies and pillage."

God, through Nahum, is announcing the destruction of Nineveh. They are now at war with God. As we saw in 2:13 and see again in 3:5, God declares, “Behold, I am against you.”

Nineveh is called "the bloody city" because, as mentioned in previous weeks, the Assyrians were notorious for their cruelty. They cut off hands, feet, ears, and noses, gouged out eyes, beheaded victims, impaled bodies, and even peeled the skin off living people. This extreme brutality is one of many reasons God is now against Assyria.

In Nahum 2-3, we see four vivid descriptions of God's war against Nineveh. The first of these is in Nahum 2:3-7, which describes the siege of Nineveh by the Medes and Babylonians. The passage ends with a picture of the terror and mourning among the women in the city:

"The gates of the rivers are opened,

And the palace is dissolved" (2:6).

This is an example of forth-telling prophecy. It speaks of events that were to happen imminently—and indeed, they did. When the Medes and Babylonians attacked Nineveh, the city was flooded, and the palace dissolved, just as Nahum had foretold.

It actually happened:

Diodorus wrote that in the third year of the siege, heavy rains caused a nearby river to flood part of the city and break part of the walls (Bibliotheca Historica 2. 26. 9; 2. 27. 13). Xenophon referred to terrifying thunder (presumably with a storm) associated with the city's capture (Anabasis, 3. 4. 12). The Khosr River, which enters the city from the northwest at the Ninlil Gate and runs through the city in a southwesterly direction, may have flooded because of heavy rains, or the enemy may have destroyed its sluice gate.

Scripture says that God sends rain on the just and the unjust. In this case, He sent the rain to cause the unjust to fall.

The second description of Nineveh’s fall is found in Nahum 2:8-13. This section is more abstract and figurative than the first description. Verses 10-12 say:

"She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and waste!

Where is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions,

Where the lion, lioness, and lion’s cub prowled, with nothing to disturb them?

The lion tore enough for his cubs, killed enough for his lionesses,

And filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh."

The Assyrians were famous for their lion hunts, and they used lions as a symbol for their nation. Lions, unlike leopards, don’t typically store food. They kill, eat what they can, and move on. This passage refers to how the Assyrians pillaged and plundered other nations and filled their city with stolen wealth. But now, the den of the Assyrians is about to become desolate and empty.

The third description is found in Nahum 3:1-7. This section gives a deeper reason for God’s war on Nineveh, whereas the first two descriptions focused on the "what." The "why" is clearly laid out in verse 4:

"All because of the many harlotries of the harlot,

The charming one, the mistress of sorceries,

Who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries."

As Walter Maier explained, "Thousands of tablets uncovered in the Mesopotamian valley show abysmal superstition. Hundreds of sorcery incantations have been brought to light." The Assyrians didn’t just practice sorcery themselves—they exported their wicked ideas to other nations. Those who reject God don’t keep their false beliefs to themselves. They evangelize. They preach their false gospel while trying to shame you for sharing the true Gospel. This was the case with the Assyrians, and it is the same today.

The fourth description is found in Nahum 3:8-19. This section is a taunt song. One of Assyria's most famous victories was the sacking of the Egyptian capital, Thebes (No-Amon), mentioned in verse 8. This was accomplished by the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal, who was known for his taunting and boasting. It is fitting that God now taunts the last king of Assyria:

"Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria;

Your nobles slumber.

Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.

There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous.

All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you."

The prophecy of Nahum is a mixture of forth-telling and foretelling, with the goal of comforting Israel. All the enemies of God, who hate Him and persecute His people, will be dealt with. Stand fast. Stand strong. That is a good word for us today as well.

The language in Nahum 3 is intense—very intense. It offends our modern sensibilities because we often want God to be like the God of K-Love: only positive and encouraging. But God is intense. He says negative things, fear-inducing things, and very offensive things.

For example, listen to the language in Nahum 3:6-7:

“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts;

“And I will lift up your skirts over your face,

And show to the nations your nakedness

And to the kingdoms your disgrace.

“I will throw filth on you

And make you vile,

And set you up as a spectacle.

“And it will come about that all who see you

Will shrink from you and say,

‘Nineveh is devastated!

Who will grieve for her?’

Where will I seek comforters for you?”

This language is intense, but it only seems that way if we fail to understand the vileness of degeneracy. The word "vile" means despicable, and God is telling Nineveh how despicable they are to Him. We’ve grown accustomed to violence, bloodshed, sexual perversity, and the absurdities of false religion. God hates these things—He despises them.

He tells the Assyrians that He will expose their nakedness and cover them with filth. The word for filth here is literally "detestable things," a very vivid image. God is going to show the world just how ugly and detestable their unrepentant, sinful ways truly are.

Now, let me show you how our culture has softened us, making us comfortable with what’s abnormal and degenerate. God says in Nahum 3:13:

“Behold, your troops are women in your midst;

The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies;

Fire has devoured your bars.”

The NLT is even blunter:

Your troops will be as weak and helpless as women. The gates of your land will be opened wide to the enemy and set on fire and burned.

God said that. Is He a misogynist? No, the Creator knows His creation. Women don’t make good soldiers—they are generally weaker and more prone to fear than men. Men, hormonally, physically, and temperamentally, are built to face down the world.

No man wants to be known as a coward or as weak. We’ve all heard sayings like, "Don’t be a sissy" or "You hit like a girl." It’s not because women don’t possess strength. They do. My wife works on our farm, and it takes incredible strength to give birth. Women can be tough, but they aren’t made to be soldiers. Men, however, are made to protect, to fight.

Walter Maier comments on this text:

Quite overlooked in this connection have been the traditions of the effeminate degeneracy in Assyria shortly before its fall. A picture of this survives… portraying Sardanapalus [Ashurbanipal] with a painted, pumiced face, blackened eyebrows, dressed in a woman’s garments, and sitting among his concubines. Popular tradition may distort abnormalities, but the true historical representation of Ashurbanipal as 'a frightened degenerate' likely typifies the perversions which provoked Nahum’s prediction, 'Thy people in thy midst are women.'

Therefore, it’s a significant insult when God says to the Assyrians, “Your troops are women in your midst.” It’s not that there’s something wrong with women but rather that there’s something wrong with men acting like women. That’s called being effeminate, and it’s a sin.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

This text lists lifestyle sins that will keep you out of heaven. I say lifestyle because it’s clearly talking about a life dominated and controlled by these sins, not isolated acts.

These are defiling, damning sins of which we must repent. Hence, Paul says, “Such were some of you.” If you are a Christian, you know something of the life-changing power of the Spirit of God. Some of you were fornicators, drunkards, and so forth. But God washed you. Amen?

But look again at this list, and notice that being effeminate is included as a soul-damning sin. Depending on your translation, effeminate may not be in your list. Some modern translations conflate effeminate and homosexual. Sadly, you won’t find it in the ESV or modern NIV.

But it’s in the Greek. And they are two very different words: malakoi and arsenokoitai. They don’t mean the same thing.

This is why the distinction is maintained in the Wycliffe, Tyndale, Geneva, and Luther translations of the Bible. It’s also found in the KJV and the New American Standard Bible.

Arsenokoitai is rightly translated as “men who have sex with men” or "homosexuals." It refers to men who lie with other men, specifically having the sex act in mind.

Malakoi, on the other hand, refers to a “soft man” or a man who plays the woman—hence, the effeminate man.

Translators justify conflating the two by saying that arsenokoitai refers to the active partner and malakoi to the passive partner in the homosexual sex act. But this is wrong.

Being the passive partner in such a vile act would indeed be malakoi, but to restrict malakoi to this meaning alone is incorrect. It’s a much broader category, referring to any way in which a man takes on feminine behavior.

So, it’s good to be a man, but it’s not good to be an effeminate man. Effeminacy, like all the other sins in 1 Cor 6, is shameful. It’s a sin to be repented of.

However, we must make it clear—there is nothing wrong with femininity.

Femininity is beautiful and essential. The world needs femininity just as much as it needs masculinity.

But here’s the thing: men have a feminine side as much as dogs have a feline side.

I always tell folks that my wife is my feminine side.

It’s normal and natural for a cat to meow, but it’s strange and unnatural when you hear a dog meow. So it is with femininity: it’s beautiful in women but repulsive in men.

Thus, saying effeminacy is sinful isn’t an insult to femininity.

It’s akin to saying a dog meowing is wrong. It’s a critique of a man—whom God made male—acting like a woman. That’s repulsive, sinful, and shameful, and exactly what our culture is trying to normalize. We must resist it.

We must, like our God, find degeneracy vile. The masculinizing of women is vile. The feminizing of men is vile. Abortion is vile. Islam is vile. Witchcraft is vile. Cross-dressing is vile. It’s gross, disgusting, and detestable.

But 1 Cor 6 also reminds us:

"Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

God has washed away our vileness. Praise God!

Nahum ends with God asking the Assyrians a rhetorical question:

“For on whom has not your evil passed continually?”

Or as the NLT puts it:

“Where can anyone be found who has not suffered from your continual cruelty?”

Only two books in the Bible end with a rhetorical question.

The other book, besides Nahum, is its prequel, Jonah.

In the final verse of Jonah (4:11), God asks the pouting prophet:

And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?

The contrast is intentional.

In Jonah, God emphasizes, as the central verse (2:9) says, "Salvation belongs to the Lord."

God is merciful and kind. No one deserves salvation. No one earns it. It is a gift from God that can only be received by faith. God can give that gift of salvation to whomever He pleases because it belongs to Him.

In Nahum, God emphasizes, as verse 3 of chapter 1 says, that "He will by no means clear the guilty." In other words, judgment also belongs to the Lord.

God is holy and wrathful. Every sin deserves punishment. No sin will be overlooked. God isn’t like a corrupt politician or judge. He cannot be bribed or manipulated.

As Nahum 1:6 asks: “Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger?”

No one. No one at all.

But there is a solution.

1 John 2:1-2 says:

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The word "advocate" here is a legal term, meaning more or less a defense attorney. Jesus will defend all His people, Christians, on the day of judgment. And He can do this because He is the “propitiation for our sins,” meaning He satisfied the wrath of God on the cross. Hence, we are no longer guilty in the eyes of God.

On the cross, Nahum and Jonah come together perfectly. Both God’s mercy and God’s wrath are displayed for the world to see in the cross of Jesus Christ.

As John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Every sin will be punished.

One final thing…

While there is an obvious individual application, these books are also about God’s dealings with nations.

Dr. Tom Constable says:

The reasons God brought Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire down are the same reasons He will humble any similar people. Any nation or city that lusts for conquest, practices violence and brutality to dominate others, abuses its power, oppresses the weak, worships anything but Yahweh, or seeks help from the demonic world—shares in Nineveh's sins and can expect her fate.

May God turn our nation away from such wickedness. May Psalm 33:12 be true of us:

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage!”

That starts with you and starts right here in Cincinnati.