The City Is Judged

Bobservations Column
By Pastor Bob Lawrenz

The severity of the judgment against Nineveh is not surprising. The Ninevites and the Assyrians in general were a vicious and violent people. It is not surprising then, that Jonah was reluctant to go to Nineveh when God sent him there 150 years before Nahum wrote of them. In Jonah 1, the Lord said to Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah did rise up, but he ran in the opposite direction! The reputation of this large city was known throughout Mesopotamia. Cities and Tribes that the Assyrians conquered had their citizens brutalized and killed in the cruelest ways.

Ethnically diverse from the rest of Mesopotamia, the Assyrians worshipped two primary gods: Ishtar was a goddess of love and fertility, and Adramelech was a sun god. Ishtar’s likenesses are found in many ancient civilizations, Ashteroth, Ashtoreth, Dianah of the Ephesians, etc. Adramelech, however, was an odd composite beast, that we actually find described in Romans 1, having the head of a man, wings of a bird, and a four footed beast with hooves for feet. (Google images are available on-line.) He’s simply grotesque!

Idol worship like this will lead a nation into vile affections, and sexual confusion, exactly as stated in Romans 1:21-27. Adramelech is a god of human design, as men saw each parts’ role in their world. Worshiping the things of Earth will have a direct adverse effect on every relationship we have, and in spite of all our “higher learning,” idolatry such as this has resulted in the traits identified in Romans 1:29-32.

Our society is laden with sin because that’s what God’s Word states it will be. Our only hope is in the soon return of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Insulate yourself in these confusing times; put on the full armor of God! The Apostle Paul warned the Greeks of Corinth, “Wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14). And to the Colossians, Paul wrote:

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” ~ Colossians 2:8 ~