Nahum 1:10-15

God is a God that expects us to keep our promises -- Nahum 1:10-15: During the days of Jonah the people of Nineveh promised to leave sin and serve God. They did not keep their promises and the pay was destruction. (Romans 6:23) They should have performed their vows that they had made when in distress. At the close of the first chapter Nahum contrasted the comfort that belongs to those that are faithful to God with the utter ruin of His enemies. "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off." (Nahum 1:15) Reference is made to this same thought in Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:15. The person that led the rebellion against God was Sennacherib. In 2 Kings 19:22-23 we learn that he reproached and blasphemed God. He reproached the Holy One of Israel. God had used the Assyrians to punish His people. Sennacherib and the Assyrian people had been exceedingly wicked in their dealing with the people of God. Now with the destruction of Nineveh Assyria's power would be gone! God promised, "out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile." (Nahum 1:14) Not only would the Assyrian king and his country be cut off, but the false gods that they worshipped would perish.

Nahum teaches us that God is the sovereign ruler of the universe and that He is our only hope for deliverance. Only our sin stands in the way of many blessings from the hand of our benevolent Creator.