Thu Dec 4

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words avenging, wrath, and anger.

Reading

Nahum 1:1-6—The Lord is an Avenging God

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

The Lord is an avenging and jealous God.
The Lord is right to be avenging and jealous.
The Lord poured out his anger against Nineveh.

Questions

(some read the ?s before notes, then ask them after)

Is vengeance right or wrong? Explain.
Is jealousy right or wrong? Explain.
Who can stand against God’s just anger?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors. )

We can sometimes have the wrong idea that vengeance is always wrong. What the Bible instead tells us is that for us to seek vengeance is wrong, but for God to take vengeance is right and is a comfort to us. So, Paul writes to the Romans, Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord (12:19 CSB).

Here in Nahum, the Lord, to whom vengeance belongs, takes vengeance against Ninevah, the capital city of Assyria. Nineveh, who had repented at the pronouncement of divine judgment from Jonah, now some 100 years later, faces God’s judgment.

God takes this vengeance because he is jealous. Miller comments that when speaking of God, the term jealousy may be used to express God’s demand for faithfulness and his zealous protection of those he loves. We are also told that God is an avenging God. As we have already considered, vengeance belongs rightly to the Lord.

Even though God is jealous and avenging, He is never petty. Nor is He quick to anger. But the fact that the Lord is slow to anger does not mean that he is anger-less. And, when God’s anger is poured out, who can stand? No one can stand, unless they are standing in Jesus, who has taken the full measure of God’s deserved anger for all those whom the Father has given Him.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 94a, 57b

Prayer

If you are standing in Jesus, rejoice that God’s avenging anger.
Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.