Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, with the after-feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, as well as with the memory of a wonderful saint, the Holy Hierarch Clement of Rome, who lived in the second half of the first century, left behind for us his Epistle to the Corinthians, and was martyred for the sake of Christ in Crimea!

Last week we noted that throughout the period of Advent, the Church marks the memory of many of the Old Testament prophets. At that time we briefly discussed the prophet Obadiah and his book in which he foretold the destruction of Idumea. Today let’s focus our attention on another Old Testament saint, the prophet Nahum, as well as his book.

Not much is known about the prophet Nahum. From his book we know that he was from some place called Elkosh. Where this village was to be found is difficult to say, although most likely it was located in Galilee, that is in Israel, the northern Jewish kingdom. We can assume that the prophet lived in the 7th century B. C. The Church celebrates his memory this coming week on Saturday, the 14th of December.

In his short book, or as some think – his poem, the saint foretells the destruction of the large and wealthy Assyrian city of Nineveh. We can suppose that this prophecy was uttered as a response to the taking of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. This book is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, the author in very vivid words reveals the Lord God as a righteous destroyer of evil and defender of the holy. In the second chapter Nahum, in no less expressive words, predicts the fall of Assyria and Nineveh. In the third and final chapter, the Holy Prophet Nahum explains the reasons for the sentence against Nineveh, namely, its immoral, merciless treatment of its neighbours, especially the Jews in Israel and Judah.

This prophecy quickly and completely came to be when Nineveh, together with the centuries old Assyrian Empire, was destroyed by a coalition of Persians and Babylonians at the end of the 7th century (612-609 B.C.). The spiritual or theological meaning of this book is the same as in the prophecy of Obadiah, i. e. that the Lord God will not abandon His faithful followers without support and justice and that the evil, immoral enemies of God and man will not escape the punishment of God. Of course, the main enemy of mankind is not the Ninevites, but the devil, as well as sin and its consequence, death. In the same way that the Assyrians enslaved the Jews, we, when we sin, fall into slavery to the devil and into the kingdom of death. But the enslavement of humans to sin is not eternal, for the Lord Jesus Christ through His incarnation and suffering on the cross have destroyed the power of the devil.

Through the prayers of the Holy Hierarch Clement and the Prophet Nahum, may our Lord God strengthen our faith so that we never fall into sorrow, but always have hope in salvation through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

priest Alexis