Nahum 1:3 KJV
The Lord is slow to anger,
and great in power,
and will not at all acquit the wicked:
the Lord hath his way
in the whirlwind and in the storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
The Lord will punish those who do wrong things. But he does not get angry quickly. He is a powerful God. The Lord does not get angry quickly. But he gets angry when people do wrong things. Then he punishes those people. He is very powerful. You can see his power in the whirlwind and in the storm. A man moves small bits of dirt when he walks. The clouds are like that to God.
Here the prophet speaks of a quality of God.
He is just and holy. This means, among other things, that God cannot just overlook sin. He doesn’t say, “Just forget about it, I’ll turn a blind eye to those facts.” No, His righteousness will not tolerate that!
Poignantly, the prophet Nahum shows the sinful cruelty, pride and debauchery of Nineveh. The same is unfortunately also very recognizable in today’s world, and worse, even in the churches.
Therefore, we as believers or as “church visitors” will never be able to look down on the wicked world . When we are honest, we must recognize that our behavior, is all too often wicked too, and certainly doesn’t show the holiness, which may be expected of born-again Christians.
We cannot do anything else, but admit that God will not be able to rightly declare us innocent.
Think about this …
How great is the wonder of God’s overwhelming love and grace that He gave His Son Jesus for us, who bore the punishment for us, so that He sees us as righteous in Him.
We, who previously lived without God, and went our own way, who are guilty before Him, can still be acquitted of sin, because of the sacrifice that the innocent Lamb of God brought for us.
But now we can know how to become right with God.
God has shown us the way that He will accept people as right with himself.
This way is not part of the Laws that he gave to Moses. But God’s Laws and the messages of his prophets have told us about it.
God accepts people as right with Himself because Jesus Christ did what God wanted.
God accepts every person who believes in the Christ.
It is the same way for everyone, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. All people have done wrong things. Nobody can be good and great, as God wanted them to be. But because God is very kind, He accepts us as right with himself. That is God’s gift to us.
Jesus Christ has paid for our sins so that we have become free. God showed that Jesus Christ died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. God forgives us if we trust in Jesus and the blood of his sacrifice. God did this to show clearly that He is always right and fair.
In past times, God did not punish people who did wrong things. He did not punish them because He is very patient. He knew what He was going to do now, in this time. He has now shown that he is completely right and fair. He accepts people as right with himself if they believe in Jesus.
So then,
▪︎ Nobody should be proud that they are good enough.
▪︎ Nobody becomes right with God because they have done good things.
No! God accepts a person only if that person believes in Jesus Christ.
So, this is what we are saying. A person becomes right with God if they trust in Christ. It is not because they do the good things which God’s Law teaches.
God is not God only for Jewish people. He is also God for the Gentiles.
Yes..! He is the God for all people. There is only one God!
He will accept Jews as right with himself if they believe in Christ.
He will also accept other people as right with himself if they believe in Christ.
What does this show us about God’s Laws which he gave to Moses? When we say that all people need to believe in Jesus, does that mean that God’s Laws have no purpose? No..! When we believe in Jesus, we are showing the true purpose of God’s Laws .
See Romans 3:21-31
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