Today’s Scripture Reading (January
29, 2014): Nahum 2
Nineveh was
one of the first cities. It was one of the early places where people
congregated together way back in the beginning of the history of the story of
us. The city itself is supposed to be built by Ninus (Nineveh means “The City
of Ninus,” but it is unlikely that Ninus ever existed. Rather, historians
believe that he is a composite image combining several of the early Assyrian
warriors and leaders. Ninus appears on absolutely none of the early lists of
the kings of Assyria.) Ninus is supposed to be the one who first trained dogs
to hunt and he was the first to tame a horse so that it could be ridden. It is
because of this accomplishment that Ninus is often pictured in Greek mythology
as a centaur. And very early on, the city was a cultural center dedicated to
the worship of the Assyrian Goddess Ishtar. And for this reason, the people
flocked to Nineveh.
While Ninus
may have built the city, it was Sennacherib that made the city great. At its
height the city housed as many as 150,000 people within its walls (twice as
much as Babylon housed at the same time.) It had an elaborate aqueduct system
that furnished water for the city. Sennacherib built a “palace without rival”
and it is even thought that the original “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” was
actually built in Nineveh.
But within a
hundred years of the glory days of Nineveh, the city was gone. Death came fast
as the Assyrian Empire degraded into a series of civil wars and became ripe for
defeat by her enemies. In 612 B.C.E, the fighting was brought to the city of
Nineveh. Much of the fighting in the city was done house to house as the
invaders came in and massacred all who had not left the city. The defender
literally staggered from their houses to their posts, but they could not stop
the disaster that was on the way for the city. Nahum’s prophecy of the best of
the troops that the city had to offer stumbling into battle was uncannily true.
The battle came and the troops could not hold the city. In 612 B.C.E., Nineveh
died, and seven years later the Assyrian Empire was also officially brought to
an end.
The site of
the destroyed Nineveh was left untouched after the city’s final battle. No one
inhabited, or possibly even visited, the site for centuries after the
destruction of the city - and when archaeologists started to dig into the site
of the ancient city, they found numerous unburied skeletons of people that had
died on that day when Nineveh was razed to the ground.
Nahum
prophesied of this defeat of an ancient empire that probably none of his first
readers could imagine ending. And the prophecy stands as a warning to all
civilizations that believe that they will stand forever. The reality is that we
all come with an expiry date – and that is a humbling message. And the only
answer to our expiry date is the God who exists without one. Only in him does
‘forever’ find its proper meaning.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Nahum 3
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