Nahum 3:14-19 (NKJV)

Draw your water for the siege!
Fortify your strongholds!
Go into the clay and tread the mortar!
Make strong the brick kiln!
There the fire will devour you,
The sword will cut you off;
It will eat you up like a locust.

Make yourself many—like the locust!
Make yourself many—like the swarming locusts!
You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven.
The locust plunders and flies away. Your commanders are like swarming locusts,
And your generals like great grasshoppers,
Which camp in the hedges on a cold day;
When the sun rises they flee away,
And the place where they are is not known.

Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria;
Your nobles rest in the dust.
Your people are scattered on the mountains,
And no one gathers them.
Your injury has no healing,
Your wound is severe.
All who hear news of you
Will clap their hands over you,
For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?

The evil that must be exterminated infects more than just Nineveh.

The extermination is complete when everyone applauds Nineveh’s demise.

All who hear news of you
Will clap their hands over you,
For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?

Thus does Nahum conclude with a wondrous point. The battle isn’t against evil people; it’s against evil.

The battleground of spiritual warfare is our hearts and minds. (There are other things going on beyond our view, but that’s it as far as we’re concerned.)

Satan’s goal is not our death; it’s more sin and less gospel. Death may result, but it’s not the point.

One of the ways we battle evil is by teaching about it using things like books, movies, and museums. A great example is the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. It portrays history bluntly, so that people will be shocked by what happened, lest they forget.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — George Santayana

The best way to combat evil is by showing it for what it is. The Holocaust Museum turns people’s stomachs. That teaches the horrors of sin in a way that you can’t forget.

Schindler’s List does the same thing.

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