God’s Word for You

Nahum 1:12-13 Inspiration and the gospel

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 8, 2026

12 This is what the LORD says:

This phrase, so common in the prophets (148 times in Jeremiah alone), only occurs this one time in Nahum. It is the prophet’s decree that his is an inspired text, the holy word of God. This is not the prophet’s composition, the kind of thing he felt that God would say to an enemy, but the message given to him by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). This is the very thing the Apostle was writing about when he said, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1).

God no longer speaks to us in this way. Everything he has to say to us, he says in the Bible. As David Hollaz teaches: “The Holy Spirit illuminated the prophets and apostles immediately (that is, directly) and suggested to them concepts of things and of words concerning the doctrine of faith and moral precepts. Today God reveals himself and his will to the human race by means of the Word written by the prophets and apostles.” There were, in the past, several forms of revelation:

1, Direct address by God to man (Genesis 18:2; Exodus 3:2; Numbers 12:6).

2, Dreams (Genesis 28:12; Daniel 2:10).

3, Appearances to people who were awake (Daniel 10:5; Acts 10:10).

4, Immediate illumination by the Spirit, which is inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).

5, The inspired Word (1 Corinthians 2:13; compared with 2:9-10; Daniel 9:2; compared with Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10).

Scripture calls itself the only source of doctrine, the only principle or source of true religion and of theology. “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2). “Be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left” (Joshua 23:6). “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Therefore Christian doctrine cannot come from any leading members of the church, nor from its human head. Christian doctrine cannot be based on the consensus of the church; not even of the church fathers of the first three centuries, nor of the majority of Christian churches today. Paul declares: “God brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me” (Titus 1:3). In the same way, tradition cannot be the source of Christian doctrine—indeed, God forbids it (Mark 15:1-13; Galatians 1:8). Nor can new so-called revelations can be the source of Christian doctrine, nor as a source for conversion of unbelievers, as Jesus declared: “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them” (Luke 16:29).

“Even though they are at full strength,
numerous and well-armored,
yet they will pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.

Older translations have “though they are quiet” in the first phrase, but the Hebrew word selemim usually means “complete” or “full,” such as “full, complete compensation” (Ruth 2:12) from shalem, not shalom. Following “at full strength and numerous,” which are clear words without dispute, there is a questionable term. It is taken by many to mean “they will be cut off,” that is, sheared (like sheep). And usually we would be looking for a parallel term here that would match “They will pass away” at the end of the verse. But Nahum, like Jude in the New Testament, is fond of using triplets in his writing, such as we have already see in verses 7, 8 and 10. The word here, nagozu, might be related to various words used for fish scales and armor made of scales (that is, mail made of plates rather than rings, such as Goliath’s armor, 1 Samuel 17:5).

After this inventory of all of the strong qualities of the Assyrians, the Lord promises that “they will pass away. I have afflicted you, but I will afflict you no more.” This means that the Assyrian threat would be removed. The Lord explains further in the next verse.

13 Now I will break his yoke from your neck
and I will tear your shackles apart.”

These are the same words that David uses in Psalm 2:3, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” Those were the words of God’s enemies, the nations that conspire (and therefore including the Assyrians). But now the tide had turned according to God’s holy will, and it is Judah’s time to have the bonds broken. This is the gospel of Judah’s deliverance, but foreshadowing the greater gospel message of mankind’s deliverance from a much worse enemy, as Paul writes: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). For the dominion of death and hell is the worst enemy we face; Satan is the prancing fool who plays his pipe to try to get us to fall there (and he has many that play in harmony with him, 2 John 1:7; 3 John 1:11), but hell is his prison every bit as much as it is the prison of Caiaphas and Herod and everyone else who has ever rejected Christ as Lord.

But the great Gospel of release from sin, death, and the devil is what we praise our good Lord Jesus for the most. For while he has done so many great and wonderful things for us, including speaking the words of creation (Genesis 1:3; Psalm 33:9), yet the rescue from death and hell is our eternal joy. The Gospel “offers help against sin in more than one way, for God is surpassingly rich in his grace. First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin (the peculiar function of the gospel) is preached to the whole world; second, through baptism; third, through the holy sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the Keys (Luther means the forgiveness given when we forgive a repentant brother or sister, as in Matthew 18:15); and finally, through the mutual conversion and consolation of brothers and sisters. Jesus says, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them’ (Matthew 18:20).” (Smalcald Articles, Part III Article IV. The wonder of the Gospel blesses us always.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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