A Refuge In Times Of Trouble

Not being familiar with Nahum, I found both the recipients and the message interesting. The verses that caught my eye were Nahum 1:7-8. I'll list them separately to illustrate what struck me so:

⁷ The LORD is good,
   a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him, 

An excellent verse, reminiscent of some of the Psalms, as my NIV Study Bible cross-reference suggests. It tells a simple yet powerful message that should be able to get us through anything in life. It's followed by verse 8:

⁸ but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
   he will pursue his foes into darkness. 

All righty then. The carrot has been used with the stick since the beginning of time, and this two-verse couplet is a simple message to the people of Judah.

For the people of Nineveh, however, it's an entirely different story. As we all know, Nahum is the second prophet to Nineveh, after Jonah, and after Jonah shared his message, the people of Nineveh saw the error of their ways and repented. That was then, and this is now. God, through Nahum, is clearly telling the Ninevites that their time is coming. Notes throughout my Study Bible suggest that the Assyrians (and that's where Nineveh was) were especially brutal in warfare, and God was telling them that their punishment for those atrocities was nigh. Yes, the Lord used Nineveh to take the Northern Kingdom into captivity, but that was around 100 years in the past. 

God's will WILL be done, and all through the prophecy section of the Bible, we've learned and will continue to learn that no matter how dire the situation, no matter how ungrateful or evil the people of Israel were, God would always be ready to forgive them and restore them to their former place. We have that same promise today, which we should gratefully acknowledge and not use as an excuse to continue sinning. It's laid out clearly in the first verse I referenced--he cares for those who trust in him. It seems like such a simple request, but we spend so much time and effort trying to NOT trust in God but rely instead on our puny and feeble abilities. Life would be so much easier for all of us if we lived this simple concept.

Scott