Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim;
Nahum 2:3-4: “The shields of his mighty men are colored red, the warriors are dressed in scarlet, The chariots are enveloped in flashing steel, when he is prepared to march, and the cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly in the streets, they rush wildly in the squares, their appearance is like torches, they dash to and fro like lightning flashes.”
Years ago some pastor wrote a book entitled: “Automobiles in the Bible.” I don’t know, must have been self published. The writer used this passage to point out that the Bible was predicting automobiles and the approach of the end times. I’m all for finding a spiritual application and I even believe in ongoing prophecy, but there are, after all, boundaries like never lose the pashat or literal meaning.
Nahum was a prophet in the days of King Josiah. He was an Elkoshite, a religious order devoted to peace and trusting God in everything. As you recall from an earlier devotional, King Josiah, although a Godly king, disobeyed God at the end of his life and tried to stop Egypt from rallying the Assyrians to attack Babylon. Despite King Josiah’s disobedience, King Josiah was successful in stopping the assault on Babylon allowing Babylon to build itself into a world power and in just 23 years turn against Judah and take Judah into captivity. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Still, King Josiah was well aware of the prophecy of Nahum and chose to ignore it. King Josiah was afraid of the Assyrian Empire even though it was in decline. He feared it rising back up and finishing the job it started with Israel. Yet, through the prophet Nahum, God clearly told King Josiah and Judah they had nothing to worry about. Nahum 1:15: “Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; pay your vows, for never again will the wicked one pass through you, he is cut off completely.”
Nahum then proceeds in the next two chapters to give in precise detail just how the destruction of their enemy would take place. Their warriors would be dressed in scarlet with red shields. This was done so that if the warrior was wounded his enemy would not see the blood and would not realize he struck a fatal blow. Assyria would be destroyed with the very weapon that made them a world power, chariots. Only these chariots had those Ben Hur wheel covers, you know the ones with the razor sharp knives and they would run through the cities to and fro slicing and dicing. The razors shinning off the sun’s reflections like lightning flashes. With a prophecy like that from a well established holy man and prophet like Nahum, you would think a Godly King like Josiah would utter those famous words of Alfred Newman: “What? Me worry?” But he did.
You want to read automobiles into this, be my guest, but I prefer to read something else into this. God has given us numerous prophecies in his Word that He will protect us, He will shield us. The very weapon our enemies use against us, will come back at them and destroy them. In the meantime we are commanded, like in verse 15, to celebrate our relationship with God and to pay or fulfill our vows to Him while he takes care of the enemy for us. We are not to take matters into our own hands like King Josiah and ally ourselves with Babylon who will very shortly come back to bite us. We need to be very careful that we do not form an alliance with this world to seek the protection that God Himself will give. Not to say He will not use a Nebuchadnezzar or a King Darius, but it is God in whom we trust, not in a king or a chariot.
With all the promises in God’s Words, can we not say in times like these: “What? Me worry?”
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