Taught the weekend of Nov 8th - 9th

Nov 8th – 9th
• We continue looking through prophets’ eyes by looking at Nahum’s curse on Assyria and asking ourselves the question judgment or what the Judge meant?

• Background summary: Nahum’s name means “comfort.” We must remember that Israel would have seen God’s judgment against Assyria as comfort that He had not forgotten His people or overlooked that nation’s violence against them.

• Read Nahum 1:2-3.

• Judgment is never God’s heart; it is what God is forced to do when people refuse to live the way the Judge meant, or intended. He is good, and so at times He is driven to defend His goodness and defeat evil. This is Nahum’s message.

• Teaching point: Nahum tells us two things. First, God is slow to anger. Second, God does not leave the guilty unpunished. This means that, as much as God hates judgment, He hates evil more.

• Teaching point: Today the prophet Nahum leads us to ask this question: judgment or what the Judge meant? This leads us to think back to how Paul told church in Rome to “consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God.”

• Teaching point: Consider the kindness of God today. Life with God is about more than avoiding judgment. It is about learning to live in the way the Judge meant for us to live and to put Others First in our lives.

• Sometimes we break others, and sometimes others break us. Nahum challenges us with the kindness and sternness of God and calls us to go through life choosing between judgment and what the Judge meant.

• Teaching point: The ball is in our court. How will we live? Will we see the world and life through prophets’ eyes, or will we go on acting as if we had never heard Nahum? Judgment or what the Judge meant – the choice is left to us.

• How can we live by what the Judge meant in our everyday lives?

Core Scripture: Nahum 1:2-3

Memory Verse: John 12:47 (NIV) "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it."

Discussion Questions:
1. What is your definition of "judgment"?
2. Who do you think "deserves" judgment?
3. Why do you think we look at judgment this way?
4. Do you think most people judge themselves or others more harshly? Why?
5. How do you think God wants us to view judgment? Is that easy or hard?
6. How can we help others see the kindness and sternness of God appropriately?

Bottom Line:
• Judgment is never God's heart; it is what God is forced to do when people refuse to live the way the Judge meant, or intended. He is good, and so at times He is driven to defend His goodness and defeat evil. This is Nahum's message.

• Nahum tells us two things. First, God is slow to anger. Second, God does not leave the guilty unpunished. This means that, as much as God hates judgment, He have evil more.

• Consider the kindness of God today. Life with God is about more than avoiding judgment. It is about learning to live in the way the Judge meant for us to live and to put Other First in our lives.

• The ball is in our court. How will we live? Will we see the world and life through prophets' eyes, or will we go on acting as if we had never heard Nahum? Judgment or what the Judge meant - the choice is left to us.