Readings:
Jeremiah 17
Sirach 46
Nahum 1-3

Jeremiah 17

God tells Jeremiah that the sin of idolatry is rooted in people having a lack of trust in God. They put their trust in themselves or in other men, and it’s led them astray. But the man who puts his trust in God will never wither and fade away, he’ll be rooted in goodness, righteousness and wisdom to endure in this sinful world.

Jeremiah then responded with his own prayer and petitions for salvation from among this people who’ve done so much wickedness and turned away from God.

Nahum 1-3

Nahum was one of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, but once again this doesn’t diminish their role in the life of the people, or what they had to say, but is based on the length of their writings. His book is made up of three short chapters and a single theme; the coming destruction of Nineveh. This was the capital city of the neo Assyrian empire that toppled the norther kingdom of Israel and laid siege (unsuccessfully) to Jerusalem.

The fact that it speaks of a coming destruction means that we can assume it was written not too long before the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh in 615 BC. That puts him around the beginning of Jeremiah’s prophetic career and a few decades before the Babylonians did the same to Jerusalem.

Nahum himself was from a town that’s been identified as in what’s modern day northern Iraq. Possibly he was there due to the Assyrian’s exiling the survivors of their conquest in 720 BC, or perhaps there was a Jewish community there for commerce. But that’s where he’s traditionally thought to have lived, and his book speaks of a coming destruction of this vicious and brutal nation that had conquered Israel a century earlier.

The book talks of the downfall of Assyria, the destruction of Nineveh and the rejoicing of nations because of it. The Assyrians were different than other ancient near eastern empires in that they were extraordinarily cruel and violent. They invented new forms of torture and pain, and they were extremely heavy handed in areas they conquered. Unlike the Romans or Persians who perfected the balance of carrot and stick, the Assyrians employed only the stick. They were not missed after 615 BC when they were destroyed.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Jeremiah 18
Sirach 47
Zephaniah 1-3