“Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.”
– Nahum 2:13
What a picture of the wrath and the dread that accompany God being against a nation, a people group, or a person, even. I read these verses and I am clearly reminded that God alone is to be feared. I think about reading the other day in my gospel reading Jesus saying, “Don’t fear people who can kill you. Fear only the one who has power to destroy both body and soul in hell.” Fear God. He has all authority and all power. He is completely holy and just, full of love, and full of holy wrath and judgment due sinful, rebellious people. That’s the picture here. “I am against you declares the Lord of hosts.”
Nahum 2:13 Reminds Us of God’s Wrath but Also of His Love
And obviously on one hand, reading a verse like this just drives us to the love of God in Jesus, to praise God for the way He has made for us to be saved from the just judgment, the just and holy wrath we deserve. Never forget that apart from the grace and the mercy of God, you and I would be separated from Him, in judgment before Him, for all of eternity. We deserve for God to be against us and God has made a way for us to experience His love and His mercy for us.
So let’s, in a fresh way, be reminded by Nahum 2:13 of our need for the gospel and God’s grace.let’s be driven with compassion and love for people who are in this state right now, who we work with, and will pass by today, who we go to school with, who have not trusted in Jesus.
Nahum 2:13 Reminds Us of Other’s Need to be Saved from God’s Wrath
God, we pray that you would help us to share the gospel with somebody today. Help us share the gospel with somebody so that they might be saved from the judgment they deserve and experience your grace and your mercy and your love in Jesus. God, we pray, use our lives, every one of our lives. We pray to spread the good news of your love. We pray that others around us might experience you for them and not against them.
Praying for the South Asian People
And God, we pray this for unreached people around the world who have never heard this good news. God, we pray specifically today for South Asians, from India, other countries around India, who have spread out around the world, specifically in the United Kingdom or in the United States, who are now in places where there are so many churches and so much gospel access. We pray for the spread of the gospel to South Asians in India, in those surrounding countries, and beyond them.
Lord, we pray that they might know that you are the one true God, that you alone are to be feared, not the millions of gods that are worshiped in Hinduism. You alone are God. Lord, you alone are judge and you sent Jesus to make a way for them to be saved. God, we pray for the spread of your salvation to them. As we see Hindu temples more and more in the United States or in the United Kingdom, God, we pray that we would be driven all the more to share the gospel with South Asian men, women, and children all around us. That they might know you as the one true God who is for them in Jesus. We pray all of this in light of your word, in Nahum 2:13. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
