Oppression And Abuse Of Power

See, upon the mountains there advances the bearer of good news, announcing peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows! For nevermore shall you be invaded by the scoundrel; he is completely destroyed. 

The LORD will restore the vine of Jacob, the pride of Israel though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined the tendrils. Woe to the bloody city, all lies, full of plunder, whose looting never stops! The crack of the whip, the rumbling sounds of wheels; horses a-gallop, chariots bounding.  Cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear, the many slain, the heaping corpses, the endless bodies to stumble upon! 

I will cast filth upon you, disgrace you and put you to shame till everyone who sees you runs from you, saying, “Nineveh is destroyed; who can pity her? Where can one find any to console her?” (Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7)

Quite the first reading!  Much savagery exists throughout our world, even in our own nation especially historical savagery against black and brown men, women, and children.  Native Americans have experienced that savage cruelty at the hands of white men wanting their land and resources.  Just ask the Seminoles, Cherokee Nation,  Navajos, Creeks, Iroquois, Sioux, Cheyenne, Algonquin, Apache, Comanche, Arapaho, Crow, Pawnee, Inuit, and Wampanoag, just to name a few.  Try asking the Shawnee leader Tecumseh.  His speeches are on-line such as the one to Willian Henry Harrison in 1811.  Tecumseh mentions Jesus Christ.  We should listen to Tecumseh especially after reading Nahum and about the Assyrians (below).

“Shortly before the fall of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in 612 B.C., Nahum uttered his prophecy against the hated city. To understand the prophet’s exultant outburst of joy over the impending destruction, it is necessary to recall the savage cruelty of Assyria which had made it the scourge of the ancient Near East for almost three centuries. 

The royal inscriptions of Assyria afford the best commentary on Nahum’s burning denunciation of “the bloody city.” In the wake of their conquests, mounds of heads, impaled bodies, enslaved citizens, and avaricious looters testified to the ruthlessness of the Assyrians. Just such a conquest was suffered by Israel, when its capital Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722/721 B.C., and by Judah, when its capital Jerusalem nearly fell to invading Assyrian armies twenty years later. Little wonder that Judah is shown as joining in the general outburst of joy over the destruction of Nineveh!

But Nahum is not a prophet of unrestrained revenge. He asserts God’s moral government of the world. Nineveh’s doom is evidence that God stands against oppression and the abuse of power. As an ancient Near Eastern superpower, Assyria had terrorized its smaller and weaker neighbors, exploiting their economies and subjugating their people for its own ends. Thus Nineveh’s demise is viewed as an act of divine justice, and it is greeted by the small, oppressed countries as a time of deliverance, as a moment of renewal, and as a message of peace.”

I repeat Nahum’s prophetic message relevant to today’s world powers:  “God stands against oppression and the abuse of power.”  Do we?

Deacon David Pierce