Year 9, Day 250: Nahum 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Nahum 3 has much to say about human drive.  Make no bones about it.  The Assyrian nation was around for a couple of millennia.  It ebbed and flowed throughout the bronze age and found its prime as the Middle East was headed firmly into the iron age.  The Assyrian nation rose to extreme power and became the top dog in the area.  They were the first nation to have a professional army.  They consumed nations around them, annexing land to grow their Empire and making vassals of whatever land they were unwilling to annex.  They were the pinnacle of nations for several hundred years.

Interestingly enough, historians have put forth the idea that the rise of the iron age is concurrent with a decline in society.  I find this idea inspirational.  What is it about the transition to iron age that leads to a decline in culture?  As society transitioned to iron, weapons became more reliable.  Cultures began to dominate over other cultures.  Professional standing armies became a thing.  Warfare goes from a thing to do in the summer to a thing that can happen whenever.  Power is gained more easily through brute violent force than through trade and cultural exchange.  Ideas are taken and appropriated more easily than they are developed.

Look at how this concept comes out in Nahum.  City of blood.  Full of lies.  Full of plunder.  Clatter of wheels and jolting chariots.  Flashing swords and spears.

Where does it lead?  Many casualties.  Piles of dead.  Innumerable bodies.  People stumbling over corpses.

Why did this happen?  Nahum tells it is all because of wanton lust.  Nations are enslaved because the Assyrians desired to take the things of the cultures around them by force.

Assyria thinks they can dominate, and for a while they do!  However, they cannot dominate forever.  The people of the sword die by the sword.  The people who believe they can take through cruel warfare are themselves taken by cruel warfare.  The people that the Lord raised up to bring judgment against the Hebrew people are themselves judged because of their love of power and the corruption it brings.

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