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Royalty and Ruin
Its victim never departs.
Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear.
There is a multitude of slain,
A great number of bodies,
Countless corpses—
They stumble over the corpses—
“Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts.
Nahum 3:1, 3, 5
With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps account with
the nations. While He offers His mercy with calls to repentance,
this account remains open. But when the figures reach a certain sum
that God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath begins. The account is
closed.
“The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at
all acquit the wicked.” “Who can stand before His indignation? And
who can endure the fierceness of His anger?”
Nahum 1:3, 6
.
This is how Nineveh became a desolation, “where the lion
walked, the lioness and lion’s cub, and no one made them afraid.”
Nahum 2:11
.
Zephaniah prophesied of Nineveh: “The herds shall lie down in
her midst, every beast of the nation. Both the pelican and the bittern
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shall lodge on the capitals of her pillars; their voice shall sing in the
windows; desolation shall be at the threshold; for He will lay bare
the cedar work.”
Zephaniah 2:14
.
The pride of Assyria and its fall serve as an object lesson to the
end of time. “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble;
and He knows those who trust in Him. But with an overwhelming
flood He will make an utter end” of all who try to exalt themselves
above the Most High.
Nahum 1:7, 8
.
This is true not only of the nations that arrayed themselves
against God in ancient times, but also of nations today who fail
to fulfill the divine purpose. In the day of final awards, when the
righteous Judge of all the earth shall “sift the nations” (
Isaiah 30:28
),
heaven’s arches will ring with the triumphant songs of the redeemed.
“You shall have a song,” the prophet declares, “as in the night when
a holy festival is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goes with