Day 266 - Nahum - Habakkuk

ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 266 - Nahum - Habakkuk (Ten Things You May Not Know About God)
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       "God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; 
        The LORD avenges and is furious. 
        The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, 
        And He reserves wrath for His enemies; 
        The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, 
        And will not at all acquit the wicked.... 
       The LORD is good, 
        A stronghold in the day of trouble; 
        And He knows those who trust in Him. 
       Are You not from everlasting...
        You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, 
        And cannot look on wickedness."
        (Nahum 1:2,3,7; Hab 1:12,13)

Theology simply means the study of God and God can only be known through His revelation about Himself as written in His Word, the Bible.  In reading through the short books of Nahum and Habakkuk, I have found at least eight attributes of God that the student of the holy Scriptures would profit well from knowing and understanding:

1.  God is jealous (Nahum 1:2).  Contrary to what some may think, God's jealousy is not at all bad; in fact He would not be God if He were not jealous of His own.  If a husband becomes jealous when his wife shows affection towards another man, how much more would God be jealous when His children, whom He begat through the death of His only Son, be much more jealous when they become unfaithful to Him?
   
2.  God avenges His enemies (Nahum 1:2).  God hate sin and wants us to hate sin as well.  Those who rise up in rebellion against Him will not escape His holy wrath.  We cannot compare ourselves to God when it comes to avenging our enemies for God said, " Vengeance is Mine, I will repay" (Romans 12:19).

3.  God is slow to anger (Nahum 1:3).  We should all be very thankful that God is slow to anger otherwise none of us would even be alive today because of our sins and how we have angered God.

4.  God is great in power (Nahum 1:3).  We all know that God is great in power but do you know that God is all-powerful or almighty?  That means there is nothing that He cannot do except that which is contrary to His nature which is why we need to know who God is.  For example, God cannot look on sin.

5.  God will not acquit the wicked (Nahum 1:3).  God cannot acquit the guilty because of another attribute He has -  that He is a just God.  Imagine a judge in court who lets a child rapist off the hook because it was his first offense; that would be a wicked judge!  Man's sense of justice is completely derived from God's justice that will not acquit the guilty.  This is the heart of the gospel: that Jesus Christ took the penalty for our sins upon His own body in order that those who believe in Him would be acquitted or pardoned for their sins and receive eternal life.

6.  God is good (Nahum 1:7).  God is good all the time; and, all the time God is good.  God is so good that the Bible says "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45)."

7.  God is a stronghold in the day of trouble (Nahum 1:7).  A stronghold is a safe refuge from an attacker.  I don;t need to convince you that there are enough attacks on all of us from all sorts of adversaries including our own family members and even from our own selves.  God invites all to come to Him and " you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28)." 

8.  God knows who those who trust Him (Nahum 1:7).  God is all-knowing and He certainly knows those who trust in Him and He will by no means forsake them.  None is more worthy of our trust than God because none loves and cares for us more than our heavenly Father.

9.  God is everlasting (Habakkuk 1:12).  God's exclusive attribute is his that of being eternal.  The Bible says that God has no beginning nor end.  In fact, God cannot be God if He had a beginning.  Because God is everlasting, He can promise eternal life to those who belong to Him through faith in His Son Jesus. 

10. God cannot look on sin (Habakkuk 1:13).  This is one thing that God cannot do; why?  Because it is contrary to all His other attributes especially His attribute of holiness or purity for "He is of purer eyes than to behold evil (Hab 1:13)."

I hope that this simple lesson of theology has whet your appetite to know more about our great and awesome God.  Your life will be transformed if you begin to know who God is and conform your life according to His character.  But only through the help of His Holy Spirit can anyone be changed into God's image and so I urge you to ask God to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit right now and begin to experience the abundant life He intended for you when He created you.