Is God angry and vengeful? (Nahum 1:1-8)

The little book of Nahum is not much read, I expect, even among Christians and little is known of the circumstances in which it arose (see footnote).[1] Its message of a ‘jealous and avenging God’ (Nahum 1:2) is an embarrassment if not downright shocking. Instead of simply saying that the New Testament’s portrayal of a God of forgiveness and love trumps Nahum’s message, however, we do well to ask, how this part of Scripture challenges our ideas (often influenced by culture) of God’s character. It is noteworthy, for instance, that the well-known commentator in the seventeenth century, Matthew Henry, shows absolutely no embarrassment in his commentary on Nahum about God being vengeful. Many traditional cultures would likewise have no problem with God judging the wicked. So, it is worth watching out for our cultural presuppositions that affect our reading.

The meaning of God’s jealousy

The book starts with a description of God as jealous (Nahum 1:2), an emotion that is viewed negatively in our modern context as a possessive streak of an insecure person. However, this is not how the Bible understands it. Elsewhere, it describes God in the context of His exclusive relationship with Israel, where He calls them to faithfulness and the eschewing of idolatry (Exod 20:4-5). Such a relationship is frequently compared to marriage in the Bible (most movingly in Hosea 1-3, where God woos His unfaithful people like a husband woos a wayward wife). When God’s people saw the military success of great empires or the prosperity of their pagan neighbours, they often concluded that these gods were more powerful than Israel’s and started worshipping them. God’s jealousy means His love – He wants to reclaim His people physically and spiritually because they belong to Him and He cares for them.[2]

God’s wrath

Thus, His ‘jealousy’ goes hand-in-hand with His vengeance that will punish those who have taken His people captive both by enticing them into idolatry and by making them oppressed prisoners. There are also clues that God’s wrath is not uncontrolled rage bent on revenge. The Lord is the ‘master/ possessor [ba‘al] of wrath’ (Nahum 1:2, NASB ‘wrathful’). Rage does not rule God, rather He channels His righteous anger into judgment and justice over evil. That His wrath is controlled is also evidenced by His slowness to anger (Nahum 1:3).[3] The phrase, along with not leaving the guilty unpunished, is a quote from Israel’s creed revealed after Israel worshipped the golden calf (Exod 34:6-7). Implicitly applied here to Assyria (God’s enemies), God’s mercy then extends even to pagan nations (see Jonah 3:10; 4:11). The delay in judgment is painful for those suffering oppression, but it is a sign that God hopes for repentance even in those who oppose Him (2 Pet 3:9). Neither does the delay point to God’s lack of power (v.3). Indeed, the rest of this section describes God as a mighty Divine Warrior who has even the powerful forces of nature under His control (Nahum 1:3-6). Neither does His grace mean endless allowances made for sin – He will bring the guilty to justice. Thus, our reading concludes with God’s judgment over those who oppose Him and His presence as a refuge for those who seek Him in trouble (Nahum 1:7-8).

Trusting in the character of God

Although the context of Nahum is the judgment on Nineveh, his introduction to the issues engages with the larger questions around justice and mercy. By not specifying the enemies more explicitly, he makes the message more widely applicable than judgment on a foreign nation. Thus, we may suffer injustice or unfair treatment, or experience hurt because of others’ sin on a very basic level. When such things happen, we cry out for justice and rescue and when there is a delay we may wonder about God’s love (does He care?) and His power (can He save?). Nahum affirms God’s protective love through the concept of ‘jealousy’. The Lord wants to reclaim His own and has the power to do so. Yet, why the delay then, we may ask in the middle of our struggles. The prophet points to God’s essential nature of mercy. If we desire God’s compassion for ourselves, we cannot deny it to others. We are challenged to trust in His ultimate goodness and wisdom to know when it is time to deal with those who hurt us.

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[1] Little is known of the prophet Nahum beyond the bare facts laid out in Nahum 1:1. He prophesies the downfall of Nineveh (and by implication, the Assyrian Empire), but as other oracles against foreign nations, it is more than likely meant as a message for God’s people. The reference to a book format suggests that perhaps it was never delivered orally but was a written document from the start. The location of Nahum’s hometown, Elkosh, is uncertain (it has been variously argued to be in Assyria, northern Israel or in Judah). If Nahum sent his message to God’s people from Assyria, then he may have been one of the Israelites from the northern kingdom who lived in Assyrian captivity (Israel was taken in 722 BC; see also my Introduction to the Prophets). Nahum’s name means ‘comfort’ and for captive Israelites or people of Judah living in the shadow of an oppressive empire, his message of judgement would have indeed been comforting. We have no exact date for the book, but it mentions the Assyrian capture of Thebes in Egypt (No-Amon, Nahum 3:8) as a past event (it happened in 663 BC). Since the city of Nineveh fell in 612 BC, which the book predicts, its message would have been delivered sometime between those two dates, in the second half of the seventh century BC.

[2] The Old Testament often uses anthropomorphic language (from the Greek for ‘human form’) and applies these human characteristics to God. This helps us appreciate something about God’s nature at our level, but we need to be aware that God is never entirely like a human being and so these descriptions are only an approximation of who He really is.

[3] The Neo-Assyrian Empire endured for about 300 years (911-605 BC).

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