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Realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
The DEEP

They Vanished!

Prophesy fulfilled.

Nahum 1:12–15 (NKJV)

Thus says the LORD:

“Though they are safe, and likewise many,
Yet in this manner they will be cut down
When he passes through.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more;
For now I will break off his yoke from you,
And burst your bonds apart.”

The LORD has given a command concerning you:
“Your name shall be perpetuated no longer.
Out of the house of your gods
I will cut off the carved image and the molded image.
I will dig your grave,
For you are vile.”

Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!
O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,
Perform your vows.
For the wicked one shall no more pass through you;
He is utterly cut off.

Now Nahum does shift gears. He’s talking to Israel this time. All the bad news for Nineveh is good news for them.

And the news is the most profound yet. Even though Nineveh is at its peak of power (a historical fact) it will completely cease to exist (also a historical fact). “Though they are safe, and likewise many, Yet in this manner they will be cut down.” Nineveh, that great city (Jonah 1:2), was razed in 612 BC.

Nineveh should have become a popular tourist destination, like Jerusalem or Rome.

It would have—if it still existed. Instead, it’s just an archeological dig.


Few conquered cities vanish so completely. Jerusalem and Rome were conquered but didn’t pass away.

Another interesting city that’s now just an archeological dig is Dura Europos. It was far smaller than Nineveh but is now a great treasure. Early in the third century AD, it was threatened with invasion. In preparation, they filled all the houses in the city walls with dirt, effectively making super thick walls. It didn’t work; it was overrun anyway—then abandoned.

Dura Europos lay dormant for centuries, entombed in dirt and sand. In the 1930s it was found and excavated, yielding up some of the oldest and most significant artifacts in Christianity. One of the houses in the walls was a Christian House Church.

http://www.christianhistoryproject.org/to-the-decian-persecution/the-early-church/dura-europos-church/

https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/bibleandculture/2010/01/the-church-in-the-house-in-dura-europos.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dura-Europos_church


All the weekly study guides, which include all five devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Mike Slay

As a mathematician, inventor, and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, Mike Slay brings an analytical, conversational, and even whimsical approach to the daily study of God's Word.

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