(Photo: Clouds taken on 28/7/2013 @ about 12 midnite over Little Red Dot)
Awesome clouds seen. After a season of haze and cloudless skies in June this year, these clouds were such an inviting sight. With a heart of gratitude in thanksgiving for His hand upon this red dot for chasing away the 401 PSI haze.....
Read this book Nahum - which means comfort or consolation in Hebrew.
Nahum prophesied the downfall of the great city of Ninevah, capital of Assyria ,which Jonah was sent to preach to much to his reluctance about a hundred years later. In Jonah, we recalled the city which came to repentance around 760BC and God withheld judgement. It was a mighty city in her time then.
But what happened to this city? As written in Nahum 1:8 " But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof and darkness shall pursue his enemies" So it happened as Nahum had predicted. Tigris River overflowed in around 612BC
Can the same happen here in red dot? Many people would say "Nah Nah Nah..."
But some may say "Um Um "
Nahum was a minor prophet in the books of the bible. But minor prophetic books should be treated as much importance as the major prophetic books.
When the earthquakes happened to our neighbours , Indonesia, I felt the tremors once even on the ground floor in city centre. We were not spared when the haze hit us just two months ago. Acts of God are something unimaginable - we call them Mother Nature or natural disasters.
Our sin city is in some ways rather similar to Ninevah. Full of arrogance and corruption, contempt for God , lack of the reverend fear of who God is. Nahum 3:1 " Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery!.." Weak leadership ..sigh..Nahum 3:16-19" You have increased the number of merchants till they are more that the stars of the sky, but like LOCUSTs, they strip the land then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day - but when the sun appears they fly away and no one knows where. ...Oh kind of Assyria , your shepherds slumber, your nobles lie down to rest...Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them"...v 19 :Everyone who hears the news about you clap his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?" Does it not resemble a sin city here? Politicians who fleeced the weak with self interest , the loss of national identity, the elite who came to this land with easy citizenship and pushing out the very own native of this land. Those with money can migrate and flee, but how about those who cannot?
Nahum first chapter 1 -8 - tells us that God is jealous , revenges, furious, reserves wrath for his enemies. Who can stand before His indignation? who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown by him!
But on the other hand, in the same chapter, we see a different character of Yahweh: He is slow to anger, great in power- He can rebuke the sea and make it dry! The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth burned at his presence!
Reflection
In the midst of the things going around -the ungodliness we see uprising, the rise of the LGBTs, the high rate of corruption unfolding in public office, the vices of all kinds and increase in the suicide rates - I take heart in v 7 "The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; he knows them that trust in Him"
The destruction of Ninevah was decreed. It was expected. The destruction of the city was long deserved after they repented after Jonah preached and they went back to old ways.
Pray that the LORD will be merciful to us, Sin city. May we be known to Him as we continue to put our trust in HIm and HIm alone. Take not your cloud covering away from us O Lord.
Can the same happen here in red dot? Many people would say "Nah Nah Nah..."
But some may say "Um Um "
Nahum was a minor prophet in the books of the bible. But minor prophetic books should be treated as much importance as the major prophetic books.
When the earthquakes happened to our neighbours , Indonesia, I felt the tremors once even on the ground floor in city centre. We were not spared when the haze hit us just two months ago. Acts of God are something unimaginable - we call them Mother Nature or natural disasters.
Our sin city is in some ways rather similar to Ninevah. Full of arrogance and corruption, contempt for God , lack of the reverend fear of who God is. Nahum 3:1 " Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery!.." Weak leadership ..sigh..Nahum 3:16-19" You have increased the number of merchants till they are more that the stars of the sky, but like LOCUSTs, they strip the land then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day - but when the sun appears they fly away and no one knows where. ...Oh kind of Assyria , your shepherds slumber, your nobles lie down to rest...Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them"...v 19 :Everyone who hears the news about you clap his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?" Does it not resemble a sin city here? Politicians who fleeced the weak with self interest , the loss of national identity, the elite who came to this land with easy citizenship and pushing out the very own native of this land. Those with money can migrate and flee, but how about those who cannot?
Nahum first chapter 1 -8 - tells us that God is jealous , revenges, furious, reserves wrath for his enemies. Who can stand before His indignation? who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown by him!
But on the other hand, in the same chapter, we see a different character of Yahweh: He is slow to anger, great in power- He can rebuke the sea and make it dry! The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth burned at his presence!
Reflection
In the midst of the things going around -the ungodliness we see uprising, the rise of the LGBTs, the high rate of corruption unfolding in public office, the vices of all kinds and increase in the suicide rates - I take heart in v 7 "The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; he knows them that trust in Him"
The destruction of Ninevah was decreed. It was expected. The destruction of the city was long deserved after they repented after Jonah preached and they went back to old ways.
Pray that the LORD will be merciful to us, Sin city. May we be known to Him as we continue to put our trust in HIm and HIm alone. Take not your cloud covering away from us O Lord.
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