Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Faith In the Dark with Ben Carruthers
What does the book of Nahum have to teach us about finding hope in darkness? As we dive deep into this often-overlooked minor prophet, we explore the harsh realities of life in Nineveh, a city steeped in wickedness and oppression. Through the lens of Nahum's short but powerful message, listeners are encouraged to reevaluate the complexities of faith during difficult times.
Nahum’s prophecies unveil a dual perspective, contrasting the assurances of God’s justice alongside the historical brutality of Assyrian power. This episode beckons you to reflect on your own experiences of struggle and despair. Is it possible to see God as a source of comfort in our darkest days? The discussion touches on themes of resilience, personal experiences, and finding light amidst chaos.
Join us as we traverse through Nahum's narrative, discovering the hope that serves to uplift spirits weary from the weight of darkness. Let this message remind you that amid turbulent times, faith remains vital and God's promise of grace and comfort transcends the chaos. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave us a review—we look forward to your thoughts on this enlightening journey!
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My name is Ben Carruthers. I'm the Director of Student and Family Ministry here. Great to be worshiping with you this morning. We are in our series called the B-Sides. The B-Sides of a record is the songs that aren't the hits necessarily.
Speaker 1:Sometimes the minor prophets of the Old Testament are viewed just that. We talk a lot about the major prophets, we read a lot about the major prophets, but these minor guys are kind of maybe tucked away a little bit, and so we've been exploring that. And they're not minor in the sense of they're not as important, but the books are just smaller. Today, nahum, as we dive into his book, it's only three chapters. It'll take you about five minutes to get through and I encourage you after a worship gathering to go home, find five minutes and read the book of Nahum, because I wish we could have read it all, but we didn't want to do that. But it's an intense book and we're going to talk about its intensity. It's an intense book that draws a lot upon things that we've been talking about, like the wrath of God and the injustice that's been going on around the time that these prophets are living and prophesying, and Nahum is no different. It's a pretty dark and bleak book, but the sermon title is called Faith in the Darkness. Faith in the Darkness. And when I read Nahum, something came to mind that might shock you. But that is tax season. Okay, now you're probably wondering minor profits, tax season? Let me explain so. In the passage that you read and throughout the book of Nahum, it starts off with this idea of something good. It says that God is good. And then you read the passages it's not so great, and so tax season's not like that in our house. And so my job is to kind of maybe collect the papers, and then I hand the papers over to my wife and then she does the rest, okay and so. But I like it because I like to give her all the papers and have her do her magic, and I love going in her office when she starts right, because she puts in the first few things and then where do your eyes go? To the top of the screen to see that refund amount, right. And so same thing happened this year. I give her all the papers, I go in there about 10 minutes later and I was like, yeah, the Disney World's right around the corner, let's go, this is beautiful. And I go out and make a cup of coffee and no joke, 10 minutes later I go back into her office and the number has dramatically shrunk. And I asked her I think you're doing something wrong, because the number is not supposed to be going in that direction. It's supposed to be going bigger. So I leave and I come back and the numbers get even smaller and I said how can this be? It started off so good. I had these great dreams of vacation together and all that kind of stuff. And now it's like, well we, oh, what happened here? This is horrible, this is. And now, by the way, I don't get to come in the office anymore and talk about taxes ever again, so I just sit outside and just wait for the bad news.
Speaker 1:This is a lot like the book of Nahum Because, as Beth read, it starts off with what I would think is good news. It starts off with saying that the Lord is good. Chapter 1, verse 7 says this Chapter 1, verse 7, says this the Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. I like that. That's pretty good. It goes on later in that same section, verse 15. It says this Look there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news. Which good news is the gospel. Oh man, this is setting up for a pretty good book, is setting up for some good news. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:And then you get it's only three chapters long. And then you get into chapter two. And then you get into chapter three and you read things like this from chapter three, verses five through seven I am against youlares. The Lord Almighty, I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth. I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. All who see will flee from you and say Nineveh is in ruins. Who will mourn her? Where can I find any comfort for you? When I read Nahum, I had a hard time not blushing when I read some of this stuff. It's intense. What happened it started off with the Lord is good, there's good news coming, and the rest of the book is death and destruction. What's happening here?
Speaker 1:And sometimes, like a lot of times, we dive into the minor prophets and we, as we have been over the weeks, and we read these stories of injustice and wrath and maybe even God's anger, we have a certain perspective on God and the nature of God, and it's no different in this book of Nahum. But my challenge for us today is to take this very short book three chapters and maybe change our perspective and see that it's not a book just about God's righteous anger, but it's a book that delivers us hope and faith in the darkness. So as we dive into Nahum, will you pray with me, heavenly Father? Lord, god, we give you thanks and praise for an opportunity to worship together, to pray together, to praise together, to confess together. Lord, I thank you for this book of Nahum, this minor prophet, a very short letter, but as we dive into it, lord, I pray for open hearts, open minds to receive your word in a new way, shed some light in a new perspective and help us walk out of here knowing you better. It's in your name that we pray, amen.
Speaker 1:So when we dive into stuff like this, we have to talk about who Nahum is and the context in which it's been written. So this first part's a little bit of history. We're going to make it as interesting as possible. But keep in mind this is super important, because if we read the book of Nahum today, in 2025, it's different than what it was when it was written and who it was written to.
Speaker 1:So we have to talk about the question is who is Nahum? Who is this guy? And I'm going to tell you we don't know a lot about him. We know two things about him. One, his name, which is Nahum. There we go. I'm a biblical scholar, check that out. Right, his name is Nahum. However, I will tell you, do not forget, because we're going to close with his name, so remember that. The second thing we know is that he's from a town called Elkush, elkush, and that's it. We know his name and we know his city that he's from.
Speaker 1:Now we can guess on a couple other things. A lot of the minor prophets are prophets. We're farmers like Amos, and not super glorious people, more just people of the land called to go and deliver a word of God to a people. So we can make guesses, but really that's what we know. But we know a lot more about the time in which he lived. We know a lot more that's going on.
Speaker 1:So here's a quick history recap real fast for you. Okay, so Israel is one nation Around 900 BC. It's one nation, it has had judges and it has had three kings, and now the end of those three kings are over and now the nations split. The nations of Israel split. You have the northern kingdom which is called Israel, the southern kingdom which is called Judah. So they split. They have different capitals. They have different capitals.
Speaker 1:Now, the time of Nahum. What's going on is that Assyria, the big baddie from the east, comes and takes over Israel, comes and invades Israel, and when they would do that. It's not just that they would come and set up camp and live there. What they would do is they would take the people living there and bring them back, living there and bring them back. Now what we know, or we can guess about Nahum is that he lived in the northern kingdom during the time of the Assyrian invasion and he was most likely brought back to Assyria, to the capital of Nineveh. Now, does Nineveh, does that town, strike a chord with anyone? Maybe some familiar Sunday school stories? Because we can't talk about Nahum without talking about this guy right here, right there, that's an actual picture of Jonah from when I was a child. So we can't talk about Jonah.
Speaker 1:Jonah is like the prequel to Nahum. Matter of fact, sometimes people refer to the book of Nahum as the continuing story of Jonah, because what city did Jonah have to go to Nineveh. Did Jonah want to go to Nineveh? Absolutely not. This happens 150 years prior to Nahum, and the city of Nineveh is up to no good. And so God sends Jonah to Nineveh to say listen, tell these guys to knock it off. All right, they're being kind of a pain, they're doing these horrible things. Tell them to knock it off. And Jonah says no way, I don't want to go to Nineveh. Those guys are horrible. The place is horrible. It's not this. He didn't want to go there. He didn't want to go there. He probably feared for his life. It was bad in Nineveh, but we know the story Fish swallows him, spits him back up, boom, he's in Nineveh, right, and he goes there and he tells them of this message that God has for them and they repent. The people of Nineveh repent and they repent. The people of Nineveh repent.
Speaker 1:Now, 150 years later, nineveh is back to its wicked ways and the wickedness is at an all-time high. Nineveh is a place of wickedness, and I don't mean the musical or the movie. Okay, it's bad. We have to understand how bad it is, to understand the book of Nahum and the words that God uses to describe what's going to happen in Nineveh. Nahum tells us what's going on In chapter 3, he uses words like lies on In chapter 3, he uses words like lies, rape, murder, idol worshiping. There's human trafficking going on. This place is bad and we just don't have the words of Nahum.
Speaker 1:We actually have some physical evidence of what was going on in Nineveh with the Assyrian emperor. We have this. This is a pretty incredible thing that we have. These are called the Balawat gates and if you went to the British Museum today, you would see these big, beautiful bronze gates which they believe surrounded the capital city of Nineveh. They have these and on these big, beautiful bronze gates is you see pictures that tell a story? Now, this picture that tells a story is not a story of beauty. The Assyrians put these pictures on their gates to remind people of the power they had, that there was going to be no one, no country, no other god that was going to come and destroy them. This is how they treated people. Now on it, if you can't see, it's pretty gross. They would dismember people, they would impale people on stakes and that piece at the end, there are the heads of their enemies that they would actually surround these gates with. That's the welcome to Nineveh sign that you'd see as you went to Nineveh.
Speaker 1:It's bad, it's bad, and Nahum has to deliver this word to the wickedness that is there Now. This is really important to know because this perhaps changes our perspective on what we read in these three short chapters. It changes our perspective on what we might view as an angry, wrathful God, maybe into something different because of the perspective. So this is gonna be a little audience participation here. So get ready.
Speaker 1:I know you come to church. You're like please don't call on me. Please don't call on me, don't make me say anything, but it's okay, it's very simple and this isn't a trick question. But what do you see? A gift, a present, a box? Okay, all right, how about now? What do you see all the way in the corner over there? What do you see? A box? Yeah, you're right, a box. That's right, exactly correct, right, you see a box. What do you guys see over here? What do you see? Mickey Mouse, even closer. Yeah, how about you guys? What do you see? A candle. Now, what do you guys see? What do you guys see? I'm a little disappointed. In the first service, peter Dueserman said a handsome man holding a box, and my wife is in this service and I didn't even hear that. So it's okay. It's you see, the perspective of what you see. It changes, it changes.
Speaker 1:I want to put out to you today that there are two perspectives in the book of Nahum. There are two perspectives. First is the perspective of the Assyrians living in Nineveh, the people of Nineveh. This unknown, poor farmer prophet named Nahum comes to town. Actually, he's probably already been living there under this kind of oppression, seeing his people being treated this way. But he has this message from God and he goes to them and says all of these things of how God is going to wipe out Nineveh, destroy the Assyrian army, and he does so in incredible detail. Now, from their perspective, they probably laugh in his face. Really, your god that has let you live in this darkness for so long is going to stop us, one of the most greatest powers on the face of the earth. Your god is going to come into our city and destroy us and he sends you to tell us a poor, unknown farmer prophet named Nahum you are the messenger. They probably laughed in his face Because, from their perspective, they weren't going anywhere. They were the big, bad baddie on the block and they were powerful and no God was going to come and destroy them.
Speaker 1:That's one perspective of the story, but I think there's another perspective and it's from the perspective of the Israelites who are living in this captive culture, who are living with these people, who are taking them and killing them, separating their families, destroying their lives. And then this unknown, poor farmer prophet named Nahum comes to town and he brings this word of destruction to Nineveh. This is now a message of hope. This is now a message of faith in the complete darkness. Wait a second, nahum, you're telling me that our God is more powerful than the people that are in power right now. Your God, our God, can come and rescue us, because people have tried to take over the Assyrians, people have tried to take over Nineveh and they fail because they are the biggest, baddest baddie on the block. So you're telling me that God is going to come and rescue me from this. This now is a perspective of hope and faith in the darkness, in the complete darkness. Now there is a little bit of light for these people. So I said there are two perspectives.
Speaker 1:I also think there's a third, and I think it's our perspective today, because this idea of being surrounded by darkness has not gone away over these thousands of years. Now it might not look like it did for the Israelites of a country coming and invading and taking us over, but we all know what it looks like and feels like to live in darkness, to be surrounded by constant worry and anxiety to the point where you feel like you're going to crumble. Darkness of addiction that continues to haunt and ruin families and relationships in your life. Darkness of feeling that you're not good enough and not worth it. The darkness can consume us. Maybe it's the perspective of today of a that God is bigger than all of that, that God is bigger than all the darkness that has surrounded you and oppressed you in your whole life. Because God is saying to you today that there is no big, bad baddie in the world that is stronger than me. There is nothing in this world that can separate you from me. I'm willing to go anywhere to rescue you. You take on any darkness to rescue you, and that's our hope, that's our light in the darkness. Sometimes we get in our own minds about the darkness in our life. Sometimes we look at it and it's too big, it's too strong, it's too powerful.
Speaker 1:My son, arlo, plays football and this year his team went to the playoffs and got to play in a tournament and they had one loss all season. He's in third grade, so it's just little tykes, right, it's like watching a lot of bobbleheads play some football and it's great, though I love it and he loves it. And they had one loss during the season. It was to a team in St Francis and I remember we showed up there and our team is relatively on the smaller side. And then St Francis showed up. Man, I don't know what kind of cereal they eat in St Francis, holy smokes. Their quarterback was like 6'3", 300 pounds and smoking a cigarette. Like it was insane man, he was ginormous. And my son he's on the younger side and on the smaller side he came over to me. He's like do you see their quarterback? I was like it's hard to miss, like he's giant, and he's like there's no way we're going to win. I'm like buddy, don't go into the game with that attitude, you can do this. They lost, all right, they lost. But they met that same team in the playoffs and I remember he came up to me and he said this is the team we lost to. He said that doesn't mean you're going to lose again, but he was already in his head because he'd been beaten already by that team.
Speaker 1:See, sometimes the darkness is like that. Sometimes, as you are living in it, you think to yourself I've already lost once. There's no way I can win. The darkness has no power because God is willing to go anywhere that it tries to take you, and he has shown us. That's what the cross is all about. The cross is God's sign to us that says there is no power on this earth or anywhere else that can pull you and drag you away into the darkness with no light. And it's also a reminder that there is no length that God will not go to to rescue you. There is no big bad baddie in this world or anywhere else that can take you away from the love that is in Christ Jesus, from the love of God. This is what this passage is about that these people have been waiting and are in pain and are living in the darkness and this no-name prophet named Nahum comes and says your time is done, the darkness of Nineveh is over and the light has come. The book the darkness of Nineveh is over and the light has come, the book of Nahum starts off by saying the Lord is what Good it says. A time is coming when good news is coming to you, people of Central. Good news is that God is good, and the darkness of this world is nothing compared to the power and the love that is in God. I want to close with this story.
Speaker 1:So when I was in ninth grade, I was in the marching band. Hold your applause, all right, thank you. I always tell people I was a drummer. It was fine, I was a drummer, I was in the marching band and they were going on a trip to Michigan and so we had to work fundraisers to pay for this thing, and at the time the best fundraiser was to work at the Haunted House in Anoka. Has anyone ever gone back in the heyday to the Haunted House in Anoka? Okay, a few of us. And so, believe it or not, that thing was run by band students. That's probably why it was so great. So I had to sign up and serve at the Haunted House. I did not want to do this.
Speaker 1:Okay, back in ninth grade I was scared of haunted houses. I wanted nothing to do with it, but I wanted to go to Michigan with my buddies in the band. So I had to do it. So I show up and you know there's some really cool jobs you can do. Like there's someone who's Freddy Krueger and he's dressed up like Freddy and he can jump all over the place and get his little claws out there. I'm like, ah, that sounds awesome, but I'm not doing that. They're like what do you have? That involves nothing. And so they gave me a pair of gloves that glow in the dark and a face, a scary mask. They said just sit here and pop out. I'm like I can do that, that's fine. I scared no one. That was a joke. People laughed at me. That's fine.
Speaker 1:But the point of this is, at the end of the night the last crew came by and it was a, and then their guide who had the flashlight, and he says to me this is the last crew for the night. Do you just want to follow us out? I was so scared of haunted houses, even though everyone in there were my friends from marching band, that I said, no, I'll follow my own way out, I'll just go back the way I came. He said that's okay and he left, and as he did, he took the light and I was left in complete darkness and I had no idea where to go. So I just came out of my little box and started walking and within three minutes I realized I was completely lost and somehow I had gotten between, like the fake wall of the haunted house and the building itself and I had no way out. And I literally started to bawl and cry and I was banging on the wood. Someone, help me, I'm trapped, I can't get out. Nightmare, just horrible. And I'm banging on the walls. I'm making more noise.
Speaker 1:If you were in the haunted house, you were probably scared to death. You probably heard someone yelling please, god, help me, and someone banging on the walls. I was really good in that haunted house now that I think about it, and I was petrified. I was scared until I heard an old man from on the other side of the wall in a faint voice, say what are you doing? And I'm crying, I'm like I'm stuck in the wall. I don't know how to get out. Someone help me, call my mom, someone get me off the phone. And he's like, first of all, he's like he was saying some other colorful words Like how'd you get in there? What's going on? But he said this. He said follow my voice, follow my voice, and I did. And as I was going through the walls, I could tell when I was getting farther away because his voice was more in the distance, and I could tell when I was getting closer because it became louder and louder and louder. And finally I saw light at the end of the tunnel, literal light at the end of the tunnel, and I came out and I'm not a hugger man, but I hugged that guy, I thanked him. You saved my life.
Speaker 1:But we all know what it feels like to be in that darkness, to feel alone, abandoned. That's how I think they felt in the book of nahum abandoned by their god, that god has forgot about him. God hasn't forgot about you and he's there with that maybe small voice that says follow me and he'll lead you to the light, because God is good. I told you I was gonna let you know about his name and this is the final thing that I'll close with, and I mean it this time Nahum. The book is three chapters long and it is a book full of chaos and destruction and questions, but the name Nahum means comfort. It means comfort In a book of complete chaos. The person bringing it his name is comfort, so Central. May you find comfort in knowing that God does not abandon you in the darkness, amen.
