Devotions on the Hebrew Bible by Milton Eng & Lee M. Fields

Author:Milton Eng & Lee M. Fields [Eng, Milton & Fields, Lee M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Published: 2019-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

How Will God’s Judgment Pass over You?

NAHUM 1:8a; 3:19c

MT NIV

1:8a But with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh.

3:19c For who has not felt your endless cruelty?

These two verses share a word having the same Hebrew root, , which has been translated in two different ways in the NIV for the sake of smooth English. The basic meaning of the root is “to pass over” or “to pass through.” Because the word is used in a verse near the beginning of the book and also in the last verse of the book, it forms a sort of inclusio that communicates the basic content of the book: divine judgment on Nineveh, the capital of the dreaded empire of Assyria, would pass through or overwhelm them because their “endless cruelty” had passed through or overwhelmed everyone else. The judgment described in this prophecy is an example of the principle of lex talionis, or judgment corresponding to the crime (i.e., an eye for an eye).

That God’s judgment should overwhelm Nineveh was not inevitable. God offers himself as a secure “refuge” (, 1:7) for all who trust in him. Indeed, Nineveh had found that refuge earlier in their history when God spared them after they had responded appropriately to the ministry of Jonah. But they had forgotten that earlier time, and now their refusal to take refuge in God, their refusal to trust in him, had left them exposed to the “overwhelming flood” of his divine wrath.

In Exodus 12:23, the same root, , is contrastively paralleled with its synonym, , to communicate the justice and mercy of God that are the alternative possibilities for the “passing over” of his judgment. The verse begins with a description of Yahweh as he “passes through [the land] to strike the Egyptians” (). The verse then ends with a description of Yahweh’s passing over, or exempting, the Israelites from that same judgment of death ( “and Yahweh will pass by the doorway and will not give to the destroying one [permission] to go into your houses to strike [you]”).

The alternative possibilities communicated by “passing over” are also, and especially, manifested in the redemptive work of Jesus. He came to have God’s judgment flow over him so that mercifully it would pass over everyone who does, in fact, take refuge in him by faith. There is therefore an alternative to facing the overwhelming flood of God’s judgment ourselves. We can find a refuge from it by placing our faith in the one who experienced it for us.

All of us were at one time like the people of Nineveh — enemies of God and deserving his judgment. But now by our faith in Jesus Christ, we have entered into the refuge of his love. God’s judgment now passes over us instead of overwhelming us. Let’s do what we can, by his power, to let other people know that there is a divine refuge for them as well from the overwhelming flood of God’s judgment.

Michael J. Williams

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