The parable of the lion's den.
I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SEN.
1. Its site. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire.
2. Its occupants. The lions above referred to.
3. Its prey. The spoils of the nations Syria, Phoenicia, Philistia, Israel, Judah, and even Egypt had felt the might of Assyria and contributed to swell the ravin she had stored in her cities.
II. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DEN.
1. Its certainty. According to Nahum, Jehovah was against Nineveh, and that was enough to secure its overthrow. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil," etc. (Psalms 34:16). Besides, his uttered threatening, "I will burn her chariots [i.e. all her military armament] in the smoke," rendered her doom inevitable. The word of Jehovah can as little fail in threatening as in promise.
2. Its celerity. So little difficult would be the task to Jehovah, that he would not need fire, but only smoke, to consume the power of Nineveh. "In short, the prophet shows that Nineveh would be, as it were in a moment, reduced to nothing, as soon as it pleased God to avenge its wickedness" (Calvin).
3. Its completeness.
1. That Jehovah is against sin in nations no less than in individuals.
2. That national wickedness is the certain prelude to national ruin.
HOMILIES BY S.D. HILMAN
God the Vindicator of the oppressed.
I. THE OPPRESSION OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE BY THE ASSYRIANS.
1. This is expressed figuratively. "The emptiers have emptied them out" (Nahum 2:2), had exhausted their resources, as the contents of a vessel poured out until every drain had been withdrawn, so had both Israel and Judah been impoverished by the Assyrians, "And marred their vine branches." Ancient Israel was often described as God's vineyard (Isaiah 5:1; Psalms 80:9). This vineyard the foe had ruthlessly invaded, casting down and injuring its fruit-bearing trees,
2. These figurative representations are sustained by historical fact. The more familiar we become with Assyrian history the more do we trace in that vast heathen power the prevalence of the haughty, overbearing spirit. Its rulers and people vainly supposed that national greatness consisted in the possession of might to be used in oppressing other nations and peoples. To be able to depict upon the walls of the palaces of Ninus battlescenes indicative of military triumph, accompanied by great spoil and cruel chastisement inflicted upon their adversaries, seems to have been their highest ambition. Their whole relationship to Israel and Judah was based upon this principle. The favoured of Heaven, having forsaken their God, and hence lost his protecting care, turned in their exigencies to Assyria for aid, bur only to find, in this supposed helper against their foes, a more powerful enemy. In this way the kingdom of Israel was first made tributary to Assyria by Pul (2 Kings 15:17-20), and, soon after, its tribes were carried away into captivity by Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:3-23), whilst the kingdom of Judah in like manner became compelled to acknowledge the lordship of Tilgath-Pilneser (2 Chronicles 28:16-21). Hezekiah sought to cast off the Assyrian yoke, but this only resulted in the nation, in Nahum's time, being brought into circumstances of extreme peril (2 Kings 18:13-17), and from which eventually supernatural help alone was able to deliver it (Isaiah 37:36).
II. DIVINE INTERPOSITION PROMISED ON BEHALF OF THE OPPRESSED. (Verse 2.) Such interposition had in a measure but recently taken place (Isaiah 37:36). "The angel of death" had "breathed in the face of the foe," and had caused "the might of the Gentile" to "melt like snow," and the oppressor to return humbled to his capital (Isaiah 37:37). The time, however, for the complete and final interposition of Heaven had not yet arrived. Still, it should come. The seer, in rapt vision beheld it as though it had been then in operation, and for the encouragement of the oppressed he declared that the Divine eye observed all that was being endured, that the Lord Almighty still regarded them with favour (verse 2), and would yet make them "an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations" (Isaiah 60:15).
III. THIS DIVINE INTERPOSITION EVENTUALLY TO BE EXPERIENCED VIEWED AS CARRYING WITH IT THE ENTIRE OVERTHROW OF THE OPPRESSOR. (Verse 1.) Asshur should in due course be brought low, and the yoke of bondage should fall from off the necks of the captives. In "the day of visitation:"
1. Agents should not be wanting to carry out the Divine behests. The defection of the Assyrian general, the forces of the King of Media, and the overflowing of the Tigris, should all combine to bring about the accomplishment of the Divine purpose; and these forces are here personified as "the dasher in pieces" (verse 1).
2. Resistance should be in vain. They might "keep the munition, watch the ways," etc. (verse 1), but all to no purpose. The proud power must inevitably fall, and in its overthrow proclamation be made that it is not by means of tyranny and oppression and wrong doing that any nation can become truly great and lastingly established, but by the prevalence in its midst of liberty, virtue, and righteousness, Nineveh in her downfall
"... seems to cry aloud
To warn the mighty and instruct the proud;
That of the great, neglecting to be just,
Heaven in a moment makes a heap of dust."
S.D.H.