Month: May 2024

Scripture Focus: Nahum 3.1-3
1 Woe to the city of blood, 
full of lies, 
full of plunder, 
never without victims! 
2 The crack of whips, 
the clatter of wheels, 
galloping horses 
and jolting chariots! 
3 Charging cavalry, 
flashing swords 
and glittering spears! 
Many casualties, 
piles of dead, 
bodies without number, 
people stumbling over the corpses…

Reflection: Transforming Cities of Blood
By John Tillman

“Woe to the city of blood,” Nahum says. 

God is often described as a vineyard owner or farmer, but God also loves cities. God will one day unite our world with the city of Heaven. This heavenly city will also be a life-giving garden with a tree at its heart, providing healing to the nations.

Cities can produce life, industry, and creativity, and can bless the surrounding country. Instead, Nineveh is built on blood. Ease of life for the powerful is whipped from the bodies of slaves. The profit of industry rolls on wheels that crush the poor. Cavalry, sword, and spear enforce the will of prideful tyrants, setting themselves up as gods among men.

God placed humans in a garden to cultivate the earth, but as soon as we got the chance we made cities rather than gardens. Cain, cast far from his agricultural family, plants a city. Rather than a harvest of righteousness, suffering and oppression bloomed. The great cities of humanity throughout the scripture (Babylon and Nineveh are archetypes) are symbols of human rebellion. Cities in their mold run counter to our divine vocation.

One false narrative says that big cities are always evil and “small towns” are always good. Another says that cities are always wise and sophisticated and outlying areas are populated by rubes and fools. Christians shouldn’t fall for either of these. Big doesn’t equal malevolent and small doesn’t equal benevolent. A city with a population under 1,000 can be a city of blood as easily as one with millions of citizens. We should be honest evaluators of ourselves, our culture, and our communities, considering them with sober judgment. (Romans 12.2-3)

Do we live in “cities of blood?” We might be shocked to think of our communities as “Nineveh” but if we open our eyes and ears we might find similarities. Can we honestly say we don’t notice modern versions of Nineveh’s whips and chariot wheels? Don’t we see, metaphorically, the blood of the poor and bodies of the discarded in our streets? Don’t we see people bowing down to leaders who set themselves up as god-like saviors?

The false urban versus rural dichotomy obscures the fact that no matter if you plant a city or a garden, God judges it by its fruit. Whether in the city or in the countryside, God loves cultivation. Wherever we reside, transforming communities is a divine mission.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Nahum 3 (Listen 3:04)
Luke 1.39-80 (Listen 9:26)

This Weekend’s Readings
Habakkuk 1 (Listen 2:39), Luke 2 (Listen 9:26)
Habakkuk 2 (Listen 3:20), Luke 3 (Listen 9:26)

Read more about No Such Thing as God Forsaken
It may be a long road and a long exile between condemnation and redemption. May we not lose hope in our God or hope for our cities.

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Scripture Focus: Nahum 2.13
13 “I am against you,” 
declares the Lord Almighty. 
“I will burn up your chariots in smoke, 
and the sword will devour your young lions. 
I will leave you no prey on the earth. 
The voices of your messengers 
will no longer be heard.”

From John: We will look back today and tomorrow at devotions from 2022 about how the once repentant city of Nineveh, fell again into sin. May we never grow complacent in our repentance or comfortable with sin.

Reflection: Nineveh’s Regression
By John Tillman

About 150 years after Jonah’s visit, Nahum writes to Nineveh with exactly the kind of message Jonah wished to carry: “The Lord is against you. You’re going to burn.” The city that once experienced the fires of revival would experience the fires of judgment.

Jonah’s warning to Nineveh had an unexpected, and for Jonah, undesired, effect. Repentance swept the streets. People from the king down to the lowest servants turned to God and mourned their past sins. Jonah condemned their spiritual ignorance, yet God had compassion for people “who cannot tell their right hand from their left.” (Jonah 4.11)

It was a shocking outcome. An empire that grew fat on evil, fasted and mourned. A city considered a lost cause, was saved. People Jonah hoped would taste God’s wrath, tasted his mercy. But eventually, Nineveh regressed.

We don’t know how long the effects of the revival recorded in Jonah endured. Perhaps that generation of Ninevites continued in repentance and it was the next generation that returned to sinfulness. Perhaps they went “back to normal” a week after the disaster was averted. Either way, we can draw a lesson for ourselves. May we not find ourselves in the position of the Ninevites who once tasted mercy, then spat it out to gulp down rebellion instead.

When we repent, let us make sure that it is not just surface repentance to avoid the catastrophe some Jonah-like prophet warns us of. Repentance and humbling ourselves are continual practices in the Christian faith, not one-time events. Let us repent and continue to repent. To reform and continue to reform.

God’s still in the business of forgiving those we would condemn and having mercy on those we would castigate. He’s still redeeming lost causes and lost cities. But he is also running out the clock on evil and will not leave the wicked unpunished. No matter how far gone someone is, we shouldn’t write them off, because God may be in the process of writing them into his story. However, there does come a time when God allows people to write themselves out.

Unrepentant evil will be crushed, regardless of whether it is found in Nineveh, Jerusalem, or in our modern cities or churches. The Lord is still for us. Let us seek him while he may be found and hear him while our ears can hear and our hearts can respond. (Isaiah 6.9-10, 55.6; Mark 4.9)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My eyes are upon the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me. — Psalm 101.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Nahum 2 (Listen 2:06)
Luke 1.1-38 (Listen 9:26)

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Read more about Becoming Light
Help us not be like those who are of the dark.
They are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

Scripture Focus: Nahum 1:15
15 Look, there on the mountains,
     the feet of one who brings good news,
     who proclaims peace!

Reflection: The Good News of Nahum
By Erin Newton

Nahum prophesied judgment against Nineveh, the Assyrian capital—the same town Jonah avoided. After the little incident with the big fish, Jonah prophesied destruction, which resulted in repentance and spared the city.

The oppression by the Assyrians never ceased and judgment is now heralded by Nahum. This judgment against Israel’s enemy is called “good news” in the final verse. Nahum calls for the people to look up into the mountains (the cosmic divine abode) and see the good news leaping down the mountain to rescue them.

“The feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!”

We are familiar with the good news of the New Testament—the gospel. What is the good news of Nahum? Just as our God is unchanging and eternal, the good news of the prophets is much the same as we find in the gospels.

Blessed are those who are the object of God’s jealousy. Verse 2 proclaims that the Lord is a jealous God. Not an evil, corrupted concept of jealousy—for that would be envy. Jealousy is the longing and the love that covets that which belongs to you. We belong to God, and he is jealous for us.

Blessed are those avenged by God. Evil is not allowed to prevail at the end of the day. The good news of Nahum means trusting that wrongs will be made right.

Blessed are the ones with whom God’s anger moves slowly. Judgment and wrath are not hastily dished out. The good news of Nahum means that God’s patience works faster than his wrath.

Blessed are those who take refuge in him. We are safe within the arms of God. When the floods and torments of life threaten to overtake us, he is our refuge.

Blessed are those freed from the yoke of slavery. The good news of Nahum is freedom—freedom from oppression, subjugation, humiliation, and every form of persecution.

Blessed are those whose feet bring good news of peace. This message of peace is intertwined with the prophecy of judgment. It is not human conflict or self-determinism. God judges evil and brings the peace of safety and freedom.

The good news of Nahum is the dim shadow of the good news of Jesus that came over four hundred years later. He longs for us. He conquers evil. We place ourselves in his care. He frees us. We have peace.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are they who trust in him! — Psalm 34.8

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Nahum 1 (Listen 2:24)
Psalm 89 (Listen 5:29)

Read more about The Limits of Ministry
We must have beautiful feet that carry the gospel. We must take actions that put God’s word into practice.

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