Understand God's Heart Against Sin by Zac Poonan

The message of Nahum was a message of God’s anger. In Nahum 1: 2 and 6, we see seven words - jealous, avenging, wrathful, vengeance, indignation, anger, burning, and rage. These words express God’s intense anger and blazing fury not just against sin, but also against the people who continue in sin. “The Lord is slow to get angry, but when He does get angry, you can’t stop Him” (Nah. 1:3). God is longsuffering and very patient. But finally, He will judge. And His anger and judgment are mainly directed against those who exploit others. He will bring justice to all who have been cheated on earth.

There was a difference between Adam’s sin and Cain’s sin. Adam hurt himself, but did not hurt anybody else. So he was not cursed. Only the ground was cursed (Gen. 3:17). But Cain’s sin hurt another person – Abel. So he himself was cursed by God (Gen. 4:11). When you do something that hurts another person in some way it is a serious sin. It can bring God’s curse on you like it did on Cain, if you do not repent and confess your sin. For example, you may have backbitten against someone and thus spoilt his reputation; or you may have become friendly with a girl and stirred up her emotions and then given her up (you may not have touched her body, but you have still hurt her). God is jealous, wrathful, angry and indignant, and His blazing fury will take vengeance and revenge on everyone who does such things. This judgment may not have come in you as yet, because He is still waiting for you to repent. But God takes note of the smallest things that we do against others, and He will punish us for it all one day. Many preachers have lost the anointing of God upon their lives because they spoke careless words against others, without knowing the truth – criticizing and spreading unverified stories. Then God removes His anointing from such preachers. And if they continue to be careless in their speech, God will one day take away their salvation too.

Why was God so angry with Assyria? It was not because they were smoking and drinking, or taking harmful drugs. We think taking drugs is horrible. It is. But in God’s eyes, it is not as horrible as backbiting – because when you take drugs you hurt only yourself, but when you backbite, you hurt others. I want to do what those Old Testament prophets did: Give you a proper understanding of what God considers as serious sins. God’s blazing fury against Assyria was because they hurt other people. In the same way, one day God will judge every single human being that ever lived, if he hurt anyone in any way by his words or his actions. People find it difficult to believe that. But that is just like people finding it difficult to believe in a real place called “Hell”. There are many who imagine that God will finally save everybody and that even those who go to hell will finally go to heaven!!! Some even go to the extreme of believing that Satan himself will get converted one day! But I believe God’s word. If you cannot believe in a God full of anger, then you do not believe in a God full of love either. Love demands anger and punishment - and I’ll explain why.

Suppose you have two children, whom you love equally, and one day you see the older boy hitting his younger brother with a stone and making him bleed. That poor younger boy is unable to defend himself against someone stronger than him. What will you do as a father? Will you just stand and watch that? You love both your boys. And because you love, you will be angry. If you don’t love your child, you will ignore what is being done and won’t be angry. But love will bring anger against evil, for love demands justice. You will punish the older boy for hurting his weaker brother. That is exactly what God did with Assyria too. And that is what He will one day do to all people who hurt others in any way. We will see this clearly in the Day of Judgment.

So I hope our study of Nahum will make us extremely careful in future to avoid words and actions that might hurt others in any way. Do you want to be a servant of God? Then be careful with your words - especially words that you speak about those whom you don’t like, or with whom you don’t agree.

In Nahum 1:7-10, we see God’s attitude towards His friends and His enemies. First we see His attitude towards those who respond to His word in repentance. He is good to them. When trouble comes He is a strong refuge. If you humble yourselves and respond to these strong warnings of the prophets God will be very good to you, and when trouble comes He will be like a refuge to you, protecting you like that father protects his little boy from being bullied by others. The Lord knows everyone who trusts in Him. He doesn’t forget even one person. You may be weak, poor and hopeless, but God knows you personally, if you are one of those who trust in Him.

Then in the next few verses we see God’s attitude towards His enemies. “He sweeps away His enemies like in an overflowing flood” (Nah. 1:8). When a flood comes, it just wipes out everybody in a moment. That’s how judgment is going to come upon God’s enemies. “He pursues His foes into the darkness of the night.” The prophet uses these expressions to show how God pursues those who don’t take His word seriously in order to destroy them. “Why are you scheming against the Lord? He will destroy you with one blow. He doesn’t need to strike you a second time. When God strikes His enemies they will stagger like drunkards and be burnt up like dry straw in a field. Who is this king of yours who dares to plot evil against the Lord?” (Nah. 1:9-10).

What were Assyria’s sins that God was so angry with them? First of all their pride towards God, and secondly their cruelty towards others. They took advantage of others and exploited them. These are the two things that the prophets always emphasised - the people’s attitude towards God and towards other human beings. It is because most believers don’t read these prophetic books sufficiently that they too remain proud towards God and hard towards others. Many believers say that these Old Testament prophetic books are boring. That’s exactly what the devil wants you to say, so that you understand nothing of God’s anger against pride and hardness of heart.

I want to encourage you to read these prophets, even if you find some of it laborious reading. You can get inside the heart of God as you read these words and understand how God feels towards such issues. By constant repetition, the message will hit home and finally be written in your heart – that God hates sin. Then you will fear and tremble to commit any of those sins.