September 26 - Nahum 1-3: A Strange Compassion

"I see your weariness.  I know your struggle.  Nahum is a name that means 'compassion.'  Read this letter to know My compassion, to feel My comfort." (66LL)

My mental images of compassion and comfort don't include the phrases "serious business...avenge... powerful... tornadoes and hurricanes... quaking mountains... anger spilling out like a river... fury... shattering boulders" (1:2-6).   Yet, Nahum was sent to speak compassion to God's people and these are the words he chose.  Another instance in which my finite mind obviously doesn't comprehend the strange and mysterious ways of God.

God's compassion is based in His holy love, which is far different than my mushy idea of love.  His ways are not my ways:

• His judgment is based on the evil of sin and the need for punishment; not on a vindictive whim (Asbury).
• He is not calling Israel to be Nineveh-haters, but to recognize their own sinfulness (Peterson).   In fact, He sees Nineveh's self-serving demands in me (66LL).
• He wants me to see "the source of [my hassles] as a greater insult to [Him] than to [me]..." (66LL).

This is a picture of God's true compassion, His holy compassion that calls me to see the sin in the world as well as the sin in myself.  His holy love that doesn't let me off the hook to move in love toward those who hassle or disappoint.  (How disappointing that 100 years after Nineveh's dramatic repentance, they're back to their old evil ways.)  His great and sacrifical compassion that killed His Son to remove the "energy of Nineveh that is in every citizen of this world.... that evil passion to make life work for them at any cost to others." (66LL)

God is good, a hiding place in tough times.  He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, no matter how desperate the trouble.  But cozy islands of escape He wipes right off the map.  No one gets away from God. (1:7-8)