Kelly - Nahum 2

Have you heard the expression "That'll preach!"? It's used more often in the Methodist churches (UMC, AME, AMEZion, CME, etc.) and I don't think I've ever heard it around Lutherans. It's said in the midst of conversation between a few people when someone says something that has real depth to it - that digs at the very base of faith life. "That'll Preach!" means that you can expand on that thought - and it will challenge and comfort and inspire --- flushing out that idea will make a great sermon.

Jordan said (Micah 7), "if we live in our comfort zone, we will get nowhere." - that'll preach. Matthew said (Nahum 2), "sometimes we need to hold each other up" - that'll preach. Honestly, about 90% of the words in this blog will preach.

Here's fair warning - the rest of this blog posting will not preach...it may be interesting, but in a more academic way. The seminarian in me is peeking out.

I went after information on Ninevah - trying to put Nahum and his words into some context. Ninevah was the capital city of Assyria - had been populated since prehistoric times and always a great and powerful city. According to the authors of Genesis, it was founded by your friend and mine....NIMROD! The archeaological remains of Ninevah lie in the modern city of Mosul, Iraq.

Nahum was most likely written around 615 BCE, shortly before the actual fall of Ninevah in 612 BCE. The destruction of the city of Ninevah would have been earth-shattering - something like the fall of the city of Rome or a modern-day destruction of London....the city had been there forever and had been powerful forever. Its destruction would have brought hope to the exiles, but also been quite unsettling --- if Ninevah falls, what else can happen in this world?

The other great book about Ninevah- Jonah - is more or less impossible to date. All that is known for certain is that it was written between 800 BCE and 200 BCE - quite a gap. In this book Ninevah repents of its sin and God relents. But the focus of that book is more on Jonah and the nature of God than it is on Ninevah itself.