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Prophets and Kings
“Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee:
The remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.
Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God:
Let all that be round about Him bring presents unto
Him
that ought to be feared.
He shall cut off the spirit of princes:
He is terrible to the kings of the earth.”
Psalm 76
.
The rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire is rich in lessons for the
nations of earth today. Inspiration has likened the glory of Assyria
at the height of her prosperity to a noble tree in the garden of God,
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towering above the surrounding trees.
“The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with
a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among
the thick boughs.... Under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus
was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root
was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide
him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were
not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto
him in his beauty.... All the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of
God, envied him.”
Ezekiel 31:3-9
.
But the rulers of Assyria, instead of using their unusual blessings
for the benefit of mankind, became the scourge of many lands. Mer-
ciless, with no thought of God or their fellow men, they pursued the
fixed policy of causing all nations to acknowledge the supremacy of the
gods of Nineveh, whom they exalted above the Most High. God had
sent Jonah to them with a message of warning, and for a season they
humbled themselves before the Lord of hosts and sought forgiveness.
But soon they turned again to idol worship and to the conquest of the
world.
The prophet Nahum, in his arraignment of the evildoers in Nineveh,
exclaimed:
“Woe to the bloody city!
It is all full of lies and robbery;
The prey departeth not;