NAHUM - CERTAIN JUSTICE II - THE SONS OF BELIAL
NAHUM – CERTAIN JUSTICE II – The Sons of Belial
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
February 18, 2020, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The Lord loosed a great poet in the Prophet Nahum
The prophet sees the world’s tyrants as a flash flood, a wall of water sweeping past and away.
In the midst of the revealed corruption of the shadow government within our Federal government, the Holy Spirit turns our eyes to the oracle of Nahum as His testimony of God’s certain justice over wickedness in the nations of the earth. There is a deep state at work in the government of the United States with the “wicked” intent to overthrow the “government of the people and by the people” who are under the covenant of “One Nation Under God.”
Nineveh is a type of all wickedness, lawlessness, lewdness and rebellion against God in the earth. Nahum is the certain Word of Faith that the LORD God will bring justice to all wickedness.
Wicked is one of the harshest terms in biblical language, nearly a curse word. The term speaks of someone who is utterly worthless.
Nah 1:11 - There is one who will come out of you, that imagines evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
The first mention of “wicked” is in Genesis 6:5: God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
God was grieved that he had made man and wanted to destroy man because of this wickedness; but Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
The next mention of wickedness is Gen. 3:13: The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
The next man to be destroyed because of wickedness is Er, Judah’s firstborn was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him. (Gen. 38:7)
Throughout the Old Testament the LORD says that He will not justify or acquit the wicked.
Nahum 1:1-3: The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkshoite. God is jealous, and the LORD revenges, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; the LORD has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.
As I pondered “wickedness” and God’s certain justice against wickedness, I was drawn to the sons of Belial, who are the ultimate wicked. In 2 Co. 6:15, Belial is a name of Satan.
1. worthlessness
1. worthless, good for nothing, unprofitable, base fellow
2. wicked
3. ruin, destruction (construct)
4. 2 Cor. 6:15: Belial = "worthless or wicked.” a name of Satan
There is a story in Judges 19-20, of the sins of the sons of Belial known as the “Gibeon Outrage.” Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that…Israel came up out of Egypt until this day (400 years). The prophet Hosea likens Ephraim’s depths of corruption to the days of Gibeah (Hos. 9:9).
The reason I am including this story in the “Certain Justice” as prophesied by Nahum is our God does not change in His dealing with “wickedness.”
At the time of Judges 19, there was no king in Israel. Lawlessness abounded. Moral, political and social anarchy opened the door for the wickedness of the outrageous sins of the sons of Belial.
People of God, if Jesus had not shown mercy and heard the prayers of the Church, our nation was very near to this level of anarchy. Even now I heard on tonight’s news that George Soros finances prosecutors who will not prosecute criminal justice. Law enforcement has been disrespected and the chief law enforcers of our nation’s justice system were corrupt and lawless. It is the lawlessness of the spirit of antichrist, i.e. Satan, i.e. Belial, and the sons of Belial. I think we can safely call George Soros, a son of Belial.
Judges 19 tells the story of a Levite of Mount Ephraim who took himself a concubine out of Bethlehem-Judah. The concubine then played the harlot against him and returned to her home. The Levite went after her to “speak to her heart.? He stayed 4 days and arose on the 5th day and departed in the afternoon with the concubine and a servant. They came to Jebus (Jerusalem) and then went on to Gibeah, four miles further north. They sat down in an “open place” of the city, but no one offered hospitality. An old man arrived and invited them to his house. Then certain SONS OF BELIAL (worthless scoundrels, sons of the devil) beset the house round about and beat at the door in their perverted homosexual lust. The old man offered his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine. So, the Levite gave them his concubine, whom they abused all night. She was found dead on the doorstep the next day. The Levite took her corpse home and divided it into 12 pieces (the 12 tribes), and sent her body parts into all the borders of Israel.
This evil unified the tribes as they gathered to Mizpeh, 8 miles north of Jerusalem. All of Israel went to war against the Gibeonites (sons of Belial) to purge the blood-guiltiness from Israel.
This incident was the low point of Israelite history from the Exodus to the Exile. The shameful climax of a period marked by covenant breaking and sin. Time-honored laws of hospitality and decency are flouted by the very ones whose covenant-loyalty should have guaranteed their conformity. The heinous sin could only call for judgment.
We, who are preachers, much preach and call to repentance sin. We must confront sin. We must call it out. If we do not, we will be no better than the Levite Priest who turned the concubine/harlot/church over to the sons of Belial to rape and kill.
The sins of our government leaders of legalizing abortion; failing to end sex trafficking; sedition in trying to overthrow a president; legalizing same sex marriage; physically attacking police; failing to prosecute criminals (sons of Belial); sexual abuse of children through pedophile rings; and corruption of foreign aid put us at the same risk of Nineveh at the time of Nahum.
But God has given us a window of grace for the Church to preach the gospel of good tidings and to publish peace.
Nah 1:15 - Behold upon the mountains the feet
of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace! O Judah, keep your
solemn feasts, perform your vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through
you; he is utterly cut off.
We, the congregation are bid to lift our eyes to the northern skyline (where revival comes from) where the feet of the messenger will bring the news that the tyrant is down, the terror past. Wicked men shall never again overrun you. Isa. 41: 25-29 prophesies the coming deliverer, King Cyrus. America had to have a deliverer because even the church leaders cowered down to the tyrant, terrorism, and homosexuality.
41: 25-29: I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon My name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treads clay
Nah 2:1 -2: An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength!
The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines. (NIV)
Nahum was a prophet during the time of Josiah. The Lord brought a mighty revival during the reign of Josiah. The splendor of Jacob here refers to the northern kingdom and the revival of Josiah.
In present truth, the vine is descriptive of the Israel of God (Gal. 3-4). The vineyard speaks of the local church whose primary purpose is to produce wine, which symbolizes the joy of the Holy Ghost. This can also apply to each of us individually as the receptacle of the joy of the Lord and then the dispenser.
In verses 3-13, we come to the flaming center of Nahum’s book, to the powerful and vivid lyric which has earned him his immortality. His language skill could only be divinely inspired.
The storming and capture of Nineveh runs before the eyes in this wild poem like a film. The hammer is the battering ram, mounted against the gates. The chariot and cavalry screen races, shields flashing, in a wide line in the forefront of the assault. The wall is rushed, and such towers as are shown in the Assyrians’ own reliefs are thrust forward to overtop the walls and clear the battlements of the defending bowmen. Then comes the crowning stratagem. The Tigris, or some inter-connecting system of irrigation canals is dammed, and the waters let down on the city in a swift and devastating flood, and Nineveh has become a pool of water, like the waters around her, which are ebbing away. The pitiable train of captives from queen to slave girl, go out moaning and beating their breasts. But let us read the passage in Nahum’s immortal words:
Nah 2:3 -13: The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is no end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melts, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's cub, and none made them afraid? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his cubs, and killed for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with flesh.
Behold, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions: and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.
As Nineveh has done so it was done to her. Those who take the sword perish by the sword.
People of God always do that which is right in the eyes of God and right that which is wrong among those whom we live. God’s justice is certain. We will reap what we have sown. He is not a man that he should lie and in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning.
We have all felt strongly that witchcraft has a strong hold over many of our government officials. The spirit of the harlot is in battle with the Holy Spirit as the corruption is being exposed. Wickedness is being exposed and justice is certain. Those who “call themselves the Church” but have given their congregations over to the spirit of rape and abuse to the sons of Belial will reap the judgment of God.
Like a beautiful wanton woman, Nineveh had lured the nations to their death.
The word “burden” is used by prophets to describe the heaviness of their prophecy.
This prophecy is an encouragement to all who cry out for righteousness. Though God’s judgment may seem to tarry, inevitably his justice will move to its overwhelming end.
Nahum’a faith in this is absolute.
Nah. 1:4-8: The LORD rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that trust in Him. But with an overwhelming flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
The LORD is tender to those who wait for Him. Under the shadow of the ruthless empire, the cowering people had waited long. It can be now said of America that we too had begun to cower in fear under the oppression of our government and media, but a deliverer was raised up.
The Lord has commanded and destroyed false religious systems with its pagan temples, idols, and disgusting practices. You are vile.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
www.eastgateministries.com – I entered into the labors of F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, E. M. Blaiklock and Principles of Present Truth from Judges by Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.