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ah

i'm richard buse welcoming you to

another study in our series on the book

of nahum

in book by book thank you very much for

joining us

i'm joined here by paul blackham whom we

work with regularly

and then by our very special guest

gordon bridger who

goes around a lot of england helping

training

speaking and now also writing in his

commentary which is uh

our great commentary on obadiah nahum

and zephaniah well it's nahum we're

studying

right now and as we come to the fifth in

our series

we're looking at chapter two i'm going

to read a few sentences here

starting at verse 13 i am against you

declares the lord almighty i will burn

up your chariots in smoke

and the sword will divide your young

lands i will leave you no prey on the

earth

the voices of your messengers will no

longer be heard

woe to the city of blood full of lies

full of plunder

never without victims the crack of whips

the clatter of wheels galloping horses

and jolting chariots i am against you

verse 5

declares the lord almighty well that's

the theme of course of our study

i am against you as mentioned more than

once

well as we come to our study uh this is

a phrase

i am against you repeated gordon what

does it really mean

would you think to call the living god

it says the lord almighty says this

what does it mean to call him by that

name or the lord of hosts we sometimes

say

yes as you said sometimes translate as

lord of hosts

and i think i've always felt that it has

meant

that it refers to the resources that god

can call upon

heavenly resources the legions of angels

jesus referred to

when he was in the garden and being

arrested and that

in contrast to the idols that the

syrians worshipped

that were made by human hands were

carried about

and had no power whatever paul and i

were struck actually by

your comment when we're looking

preparing for this study

earlier you're on page 151

where you state in your commentary that

the lord in his own nature

is not a bear quote one but a

multiplicity

in unity so the quote hosts

within the divine nature are as you

predict the persons of

the trinity father son and holy spirit

wow

well yes that's another interpretation

which i think

has a great deal of truth about it and i

i think what

seems to be going on which so often

happens in studying the old testament is

that

new testament truth is concealed it is

hinted at

yes but it's not revealed until we get

to the new testament

so when we come to the new testament uh

we see that

it's filled out isn't it filled out like

in john 14 jesus says

the spirit will come to you he says i

will come to you

and in the same passage he says my

father and i we will make our about

with you so he uses those terms

interchangeably you can say god is in

you jesus is in you the spirit is in you

so there's this multiplicity in unity

there's the triune god who's saying

to assyria this evil superpower i'm

against you yes

i mean another example of that is is the

hebrew word elohim

for god oh yes which is the most common

word but it's a plural word

so um let us make man in our own

us yeah so there's the hint again of

this plurality

in the one godhead right through from

the beginning of the bible right through

yes yeah we worship and i think it's

here in that phrase lord of hosts

glorious do you like that poem i love

that i love that

i mean then maybe we should recognize

that across you know

all of history there's nothing more

terrifying really than to have the lord

of hosts

declare that he's against us oh no i

agree

i am against you declares the lord of

hosts

i mean that has got to be the most

terrifying thing to ever hear and we

think like there's the puffed up bully

at school

or anything and they seem so big and

powerful till the teacher arrives

and then they're like oh you know and

then they look they're just a little boy

then

and it's the same here as great and

powerful as the assyrians ever seen

when the lord of hosts arrived they're

rejuve we see them in the proper

perspective they reduce right down to

size

and this lord of hosts stands up for the

widows and the orphans and the needy and

he wills and he hears the

cry the scriptures tells us that so

these bullies and tyrants

once they mess with the with the church

most of all and the lord

really takes it personally when the

world attacks the church

he's coming and the lord of hosts is

against anyone who's against him and his

church

and it's so that you we often think if

you know if god is

for us who can be against us that's in

the bible

but what if if god is against us

who can possibly be for us and all the

allies in the world and that is actually

described about you can have all the

allies

all the military all the fortresses if

god is against you it's useless it's

useless and you think there's the lord

jesus christ he sustains

all things by his powerful word if he's

against you

it's over yes and so that means that

when

peter the disciple was in the garden of

gethsemane

and drawing his sword actually he didn't

need to do that at all

the lord stopped him and said he who

lives by the sword will perish by the

sword

so we could ask ourselves of course how

far is it permissible

uh and right to pride that apply that

principle

to a city as in what verses one to three

where we read

word of the city of blood full of lies

what do you think

well i think nam goes on to say that the

the city that acts in that kind of way

and turns its back upon the living god

goes

further and further in corruption

and immorality and

is as name says a city of blood full of

lies

and i think we need to take notice that

if the violence of the assyrians led to

such disasters for their nation

that we should look very carefully at uh

glorifying

violence yes in our own culture yes

today and we seem to do that in

video games and in entertainment as well

as in other ways

i know we do and we need to watch that

yeah we do

and actually when you think of it i mean

history seems to have been full of

warnings on this line

so there is a syria it goes in one day

bomb gone

and it happened to babylon when you

remember the writing on the wall

suddenly finished in one night we think

of the roman empire later

august the 24th 410 a.d

gone in one day sucked by the visigoths

so the

superpowers cannot say to themselves

we're going to go on forever they don't

even

filter out slowly often they go bang in

one day

which is incredible yeah to us and yet

full of

of uh important understanding so

it seems to me that verse four now here

um with reference to harlots and

sorceries shows us also another side of

the syria's

sins did you think i do and it's first

of all when you read it

it looks if it's about sexual immorality

but actually

it's something much worse than sexual

immorality it's about

spiritual immorality so that what

assyria has done and again we get that

in two kings chapter 17

where they exported all these false

religions

around the world and you know they put

them into

into israel and and and brought

nations with all their false gods and

things and this

reliance on um sorceries the occult

all and witchcraft and things it's like

for all the military power and things

they've got all this kind of

superstition and magic and spells

why because they trust in these things

you know we

pray and say lord god you the one who

has all the power

they believe in casting spells because

it's about their power you know we have

this sort of a cult power

of magic we can bewitch the world with

all these things

it's deep because i think the thing is

about and today we get that don't

we we have people who are supposed to be

so sort of

clear thinking and then they'll have

under the some sort of crystal

to ward off evil energies or or to

me make sure they're healthy or to to

bring good luck charms and things

and it's what's that really about is the

spiritual adultery

that's why there's that language of

prostitution and adultery and things

because we belong to the lord god that's

the issue isn't it

we were created to be married to the

living god

and when we marry ourselves or unite

ourselves to

rubbish like occult and false gods and

false rouges and idols and all these

things

that's adultery much and you know how

incredibly

where people's lives are heartbroken

with you know

human adultery that is only a small

picture of the

terrible offense of spiritual adultery

oh and we take our warnings again and

again from this book

looking on actually verses five to seven

i mean

nineveh would be visualized in ruins

no one to mourn for her why does the

lord of hosts then use such

shocking language against niva and the

assyrians here

it's barely worth well it's bad we can

barely read it for the shock

it's part of god's word yes i sometimes

think that

maybe he has to use shocking language to

get us to think

seriously about sin and evil because we

think too lightly about it and maybe

it's the awakeness

to that yes um i think there's an

element too

isn't there of the punishment fitting

the crime

the assyrians had dealt with their

enemies in this kind of way god said if

you do that then

it rebounds on you judgment will come in

a similar way to you

yes and i think you know what if man

says he reaps

that's true individually but it's true

of nations as well

righteousness exalts a nation but uh

disobedience and corruption

lead to further corruption and it means

no one looks anymore with favor on her i

mean looking at verse seven

you know when it says nineveh is in

ruins who will mourn for her

so maybe it tells the children of the

resurrection something about that final

day of judgment

yeah well it does because sometimes and

i've heard quite often people say to me

oh i just couldn't bear that day of

judgment and the new creation future and

things because

what about all the people i've known or

been friends with

and they're taken away in judgment uh

you know they've refused to find refuge

in jesus

i it would i that would be horrible and

all and they're very anxious about that

final day

and i can understand that to a degree

but if we can

how could we enjoy the new creation if

people are shut out forever

i think there's a clue here that all who

see this

total fall of the assyrian empire uh

they'll they'll free and they'll they'll

rejoice nineveh is in ruins who will

mourn for

and there's something of that in

revelation isn't that when babylon falls

which is the same

imagery that's coming up babylon is the

city there

and that represents all the godless

corruption of the world and when babylon

falls

okay the godless people of the world are

mourn it we'll stand over her graves we

stand over and there's rejoicing among

the righteous and the poor and the

innocent who've relied on the lord

though yay

babylon's fallen and heavens there's a

party going on in heaven

i think we've got to remember that and

hold on to that and think you see then

when the full

evil of everything is exposed and we see

the corruption of sin for what it is and

the sinfulness of sin and how bad

everything is

and when the light switched on and the

lord jesus comes and we see with his

clarity

i i just think there's going to be

enormous rejoicing

and i don't i don't think we'll be like

lot's wife and we'll look back and say

oh i wish i was back in the world as it

was

we'll be always looking forwards into

that bright new creation future saying

no glaze hooray that that

age has ended now is the age of home of

righteousness forever and ever

i know so as we think about

the fall of these nations and also think

of the chaos that they've caused for so

many believing people

today i would like to ask as we close

off

you who are sharing in our study are you

part of a prayer fellowship

do you have a prayer meeting at your

church

do you in your prayer meeting remember

the sisters and brothers of the

christian family worldwide even if you

don't already

know their names those suffering in

prison for their beliefs

you know it was kate booth of the

salvation army years ago

she was the oldest daughter of general

booth and

many many years ago when she took her

hallelujah lashes from the salvation

army onto the streets of paris

she was a very very brave witness and

preached to people in the dives and the

brothels and so on

so brave was she they gave her a

military title they called her

la marechal the mary show and when she

got to switzerland her preaching again

was so strong in the streets

that they put her in prison for

disturbing the peace but in prison

she wrote a song that went worldwide it

was called

the mary charles prison song best

beloved of my soul

i am here alone with thee and my prison

is a heaven since thou sharest it

with me if there's somebody sharing in

our study and you've been

in prison or under heavy pressure for

your beliefs

we want to tell you from this little

studio here in london

we love you and you inspire us

to live better for the kingdom that will

never die

god bless you

you