Fury's Pleasant Tidings

Preaching a century or more after Jonah's time, Nahum delivered the message of God that Nineveh was going to be destroyed and the glory of the Assyrian Empire was to be thrown into the ashcan of history. The brutality and immorality of Nineveh had surpassed that which had prevailed before Jonah had preached in the city. Nahum's message was that the Lord's fury against the city had reached the point of no return. There was still time for individuals to repent, and the Lord's mercy in His slowness to anger was a powerful incentive for such repentance. But in the coming obliteration of Nineveh there would be welcome tidings for those who trust in the Lord. They would find the comfort that they would be delivered from the fury of the Lord, and they would be comforted in the knowledge that the Lord knows personally all who trust in Him.