First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

Nahum probably wrote his prophecy shortly before 612 B.C.E., near

the time of the reforms of King Josiah of Judah (see II Kgs.

32:8-23:25). Over 100 years before, the Ninevites, those citizens

of Ninevah (the city made the capital of Assyria by King

Sennacherib) had apparently turned to G-d in a great revival

under the preaching of Jonah. Now, however, that generation had

long been dead. Almost 100 years before Nahum prophesied,

Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, had been

destroyed (722 B.C.E.) by the spiritually untutored great

grandsons of the people in Assyria who heard Jonah preach, and

nearly 70 years before Nahum was written, Jerusalem itself had

been threatened by these Assyrians (701 B.C.E.). Nah. 1:9 (NIV)

proved true, however, because G-d did not give Ninevah a second

victory over His people. In 663 B.C.E. the Assyrians even

captured the Egyptian capital of Thebes (see Nah. 3:8). Now, near

the time of King Josiah's revival in Jerusalem, G-d gives Nahum a

dramatic you-are-there prophetic foreglimpse of the siege and

awesome destruction of Ninevah, Assyria's showplace capital.

Nahum's "vision" is written down a short time before the Medes

and the Chaldeans (from southern Babylon) and the Scythians

destroyed Ninevah in 612 B.C.E. and the Chaldeans or

neo-Babylonians triumphed over the Assyrian empire with the

destruction of this city. The Babylonian empire then lasted from

612 B.C.E. until 539 B.C.E., when Cyrus King of Persia conquered

the city of Babylon.

This prophecy is very important. It shows what G-d will do in the

end to every cruel militaristic nation--what He did to Assyria

and her capital Nineveh (see 1:8). Chapter 2 gives Nahum's vivid

description of the siege and sack of Ninevah. Nahum's little book

also gives a word of enocuragement (his name means "oomfort" in

Hebrew) to the oppressed remnant of G-d suffering under every

oppressive military power, whether it be Assyria or some modern

counterpart (1:12-13).

The key to the doctrine of justification is found in 1:3, which

says, "G-d will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." Here we

have the uncompromised character of G-d's justice, which must be

understood in order to grasp the cruciality of the death of the

Moshiach which satisfied that justice by providing an acceptable

vicarious punishment for the guilty (Isaiah 53:5). When we grasp

this doctrine, we realize the basis for our being acquited of our

quilt before G-d. We are no longer guilty under G-d's avenging

wrath (we have peace with G-d--see Isaiah 53:5). We have been

taken out of condemnation and are no longer culpably left

unpunished because the vicarious punishment of Moshiach and his

resurrection is accredited to us as a free gift through faith

--Romans 4:23-25. We also see the key to our sanctification is

in offering our bodies as dead-to-sin living sacrifices no longer

under the power of the old guilty nature, which was sin-prone and

culpable as far as punishment is concerned (see Romans 12:1-2).

Indeed, we can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory

because that old life is dead and gone and the life we now enjoy

is a new creation life far above the death-dealing sinful life

that once doomed us (I Shimon Kefa 1:8; Gal. 2:20; II Cor. 5:17;

Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1-3; Ro. 7:21-25).

G-d will indeed punish those who oppose his holy purposes (1:11;

2:1) for his people (1:12-13) and the nations (3:1-7). 2:8 seems

to refer to Thebes in Upper Egypt, which was sacked by the

Assyrians in 663, and Nahum is saying that just as that great

power fell, so will Assyria fall. For Assyria, which had been

G-d's instrument of punishment on the unrepentant northern

kingdom of Israel, must now receive its own punishment for all

its wicked, cruel deeds (1:14; 2:13-14; 3:1,4,19; see also Is.

37:10-13). "Who can stand before His wrath?" (1:6) so today every

barbaric power that unleashes cruelty on the innocent can expect

the same destruction from the avenging G-d of Abraham.

Saddam Hussein's latter-day "Assyrian" army, threatening Israel

with SCUD missiles, met destruction on Purim, 1991, in a modern

fulfillment of this prophecy. Nah. 1:11 and also Nah. 3:18 may

refer to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-627 B.C.E.). The

"you" in Nah. 1:12 refers to "Judah" (see Nah.1:15). The "you" in

Nah. 1:14 refers to Ninevah, whose end is imminent. Nah. 1:18

speaks of a proclaimer of Besorah (good news). When G-d defeats

his enemies (in this case the Ninevites/Assyrians), the people of

G-d publish "good news" (see also Is. 40:9; 52:7). Of course,

death is the greatest enemy of all, so in 1991, if there were

really a revival in the U.S.A., Americans would not only be

proclaiming the Good News of the defeat of the defiant modern

Assyrian threat (the Iraqis) in the Persian Gulf War; they would

also be proclaiming good news of the defeat of the greatest enemy

of all--death itself--through the death and reeurrection of

Yehoshua the Moshiach.

NAHUM 1:3

The L-rd is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at

all leave the guilty unpunished: the L-rd hath His way in the

whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His

feet.

[In the Torah, death is not merely the curse of sin--see Genesis

2:17; 3:17-19. Death is also the legal penalty of justice so

that G-d's honor is not impugned by allowing evil to go

unpunished--Nahum 1:3. Therefore, should we be surprised that

when the Word of G-d came in the Law of Moses he demanded death

for sin? Should we be surprised that when the Word of G-d came

in the Moshiach he satisfied his own demand by offering his own

death as justice and mercy for all transgressors? The Word that

promised life through Moses and the Prophets came to provide a

death that would allow no sins to go unpunished, a death that

would shield the redeemed from the curse of death and bring

divine justice and immortality to light. The Word of G-d became

our Moshiach, our Deliverer. By his death he turned aside his

Father's holy fury against all our ung-dliness. He took the

penalty of death for us. When he said, "My G-d, why have you

abandoned me?" He was G-d's righteous and merciful Word taking

our curse of abandonment from G-d--the curse of hell--upon

himself to rescue us from the punishment we all deserve--see

Isaiah 53:5. He did this so that all who believe can be raised to

a new spiritual existence with him.]