Hi James and Ellen,
Nahum is two poems. An Elkoshite family clan prophet by the name of Nahum scribed the ‘book’ that was named after him sometime between 663 B.C. and 612 B.C. Your grandpaa thinks that Nahum’s heritage was Jewish. Jew was already being used by this time as a moniker for the guys, gals and kids who God chose – beginning with Abraham, to be His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. No one has been able to pinpoint the location of the area or the town of Elkosh – which is where Nahum lived and where he probably scribed the two poems that became the three chapters in the Nahum Book. Your grandpaa thinks that there may be a possibility that Elkosh was one of the places in the country of Assyria where Sargon II and his Assyrian army in 722 B.C. took 27,280 guys, gals and kids who were living in Israel’s northern kingdom who they captured. It took a three year siege before Sargon II and his Assyrian army were finally able to capture the guys, gals and kids who were living Israel’s northern kingdom. Even though the country of Assyria over the centuries of its existence was – using bullying, a growing active force in the developing world, it was not until Sennacherib became king to reign over the guys and gals who were living in the country of Assyria – which was in 704 B.C., that the country of Assyria’s power was consolidated and centralized. It was at this time that Sennacherib decided that the city of Nineveh would be the country of Assyria’s capital city. The city of Nineveh – since about 3,000 B.C., was a major religious center for the guys and gals who were living in the country of Assyria. Life in the city of Nineveh sometime between 793 B.C. and 758 B.C. was interrupted by God when he had a reluctant messenger – whose name was Jonah, walk around the city of Nineveh with a message that confronted the corrupt stench that had been increasingly permeating the city of Nineveh over the centuries. Jonah was used by God to tell the guys and gals who lived in the city of Nineveh to repent or . . . which they did. By the time when Sennacherib ascribed himself to be the country of Assyria’s king and to base out of the city of Nineveh, the guys and gals who were living in the city of Nineveh were back living their lives as despicably and dissipatedly as before.
By the time that Nahum was led by God to scribe the two poems that is thought of to be a literary masterpiece, any compassion that Nahum might have had for the country of Assyria guys and gals was gone. What is ironic here to your grandpaa is that a meaning for Nahum’s name is compassionate. Instead of feeling compassion for the guys and gals who were living in the country of Assyria, Nahum rejoices in his two poems that God was going to judge, overwhelm, and doom the city of Nineveh. Because the country of Babylonia’s army – aided by the armies of the Medes and Scythians, annihilated the city of Nineveh in 612 B.C., Nahum had to have scribed before 612 B.C. his two poems. Because Nahum compared – when he predicted the city of Nineveh’s pending obliteration, what the country of Assyria’s army did when it overran the city of Thebes in 663 B.C., Nahum had to have scribed his poems after 663 B.C. Nahum’s first poem reflects on God’s kindness and greatness along with God’s sternness when He had the city of Nineveh overthrown and on the joy that the guys and gals had who lived in the land of Judah when they heard that the city of Nineveh has been eradicated. Nahum’s second poem foretells the city of Nineveh being besieged, squandering her glory, sin leading to her downfall and the calamity that was awaiting her.
Because Nahum comes across in his two poems of having an eyeball knowledge of the abject cruelness of the country of Assyria’s army – such as when they staked their captives to the ground before skinning them alive, the thinking is that Elkosh was maybe located near the city of Nineveh. Because of not having a moral compass, the country of Assyria’s army indiscriminately ravaged opposing nations and/or people groups – taking whatever they wanted, leading to the Assyrian empire becoming very wealthy and proud. Your grandpaa is concerned that the United States’ President and other leading elected and embedded non-elected officials are taking the United States today down the same slippery slope that led to the crushing defeat of the country of Assyria’s army and the total devastation of the city of Nineveh. A pervasive mindset has been planted in the United States over the past century by dissolute, narcissistic guys and gals who have been taking God’s teachings out of having any kind of say in how a guy or gal is to live a moral, ethical life. These self-absorbed, arrogant guys and gals have severely undermined the moral fiber that underpins the United States ethos. Once a guy, gal or kid comes under sin’s pernicious spell, sin has a foothold to lead the guy, gal or kid to becoming a conceited megalomaniac – which to your grandpaa is who the present United States President is. Even though the temptation is to dislike a guy, gal or kid who cannot pass moral and ethical smell tests, it is the sin spirit’s minions’ influences that are to be detested – not the guy, gal or kid. Even though Nahum was happy that God was putting a stop to the country of Assyria’s brutality and decadence and that he knew that God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah would really be glad that they no longer had to fear the country of Assyria’s army, Nahum made sure that the sin spirit is who got the blame.
Nahum