Daily Devotional For Saturday, August 1, 2026
Good morning Southside and hope your weekend is a restful and relaxing one. Our daily devotional for today comes from Nahum 1:2-3a:
“The LORD is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and rage. He takes revenge on all who oppose Him and continues to rage against His enemies! (3) The LORD is slow to get angry, but His power is great, and He never lets the guilty go unpunished” (NLT).
I do not know the last time you read something from the prophet Nahum in the Old Testament, but he was something else. First, His prophecy comes from God against Assyria and its capital Nineveh, revealing their eventual destruction by the Lord. Second, Nahum is a taunter. He has more thoughts in his scroll than any other Old Testament prophet. For example, he takes the national symbol of Assyria, the Lion, and uses it to mock Assyria itself. You can read this in Nahum 2:11-13.
Like most of the so-called minor prophets, very little is known about the prophet Nahum. We know he was from a city called Elkosh (Nahum 1:1), though the exact location of the city is unknown. We know his name, Nahum, means “Comfort.” Old Testament scholar Stephen M. Coleman writes this:
“At first glance, the prophet’s name seems ironic because Nahum offers very little in his prophecies that is explicitly comforting. Nahum is almost exclusively a prophet of pure and unrelenting judgment. The entire collection of oracles is in fact a sustained declaration of God’s imminent judgment upon Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. But Nahum’s name is not ironic because, when rightly understood, his message—for all of its words of judgment and woe—is, at the end of the day, a message of comfort for God’s people” (Source: Stephen M. Coleman, Preach The Word, “Nahum: The Minor Prophets Seek The Lord And Live,” p. 637).
But Nahum’s prophecy brings us encouragement today as we live under the siege of the devil and his demonic army. We live in a world where evil, abortion, deception, lies, rape, murder, wars, sex trafficking, and etc. happen every day in our country. We have churches where the people of God seem deaf to the Word of God. We feel at times is it worth it? Sometimes, we have the same attitude as Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Everything is meaningless, completely meaningless” (NLT). But is it?
God who inspired the prophet Nahum says emphatically, “NO!” Nahum repeatedly affirms who will destroy Assyria and her capital, Nineveh – Yahweh – the King of kings and Lord of lords. All who have gone into the boxing ring with the Lord have been knocked out. We see this in Exodus, when God sent Moses to Pharaoh telling him, “Let My people go” (Ex. 5:1). And see Pharaoh questioning who this God is and over the next nine chapters, God decimated Pharaoh and Egypt with plague and plague. In the end, Pharaoh got knocked out. So, who is the Lord to you? Do you doubt God is in the boxing ring for you?
We see Nahum using the word “vengeance” to describe God. This may make some uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to do this. When we resort to vengeance, we are prone to go too far and be too severe. When God does, He knows exactly what to do to bring justice when an injustice has occurred.
Reflection Assignment: Do you agree with Solomon – “All of life is meaningless”? Do you ever think or feel that evil seems to run amuck with no restraints? So, who is the Lord to you? What or who is your Assyria or Nineveh symbolically? Will you let the Lord handle this Himself? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Samuel 17:47, “David said to Goliath, ‘And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues His people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and He will give you to us!’” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, there are “Goliaths and Ninevehs” in my life. I am asking you to fight against them and defeat them for Your glory. I do not want to just exist in a meaningless life; I want to live the abundant life You promise. Thank You Lord and I love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly