Gospel Feet
“Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows.
No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.”
Today’s Text: Nahum 1:9-15 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
Nahum was a prophet of Judah sometime between 660-610BC. Judah became a vassal state of Babylon in 605BC. And then in 587-6BC, Jerusalem and the temple were razed to the ground.
The prophecies of the Old Testament that predict the future operate on two levels, at least. The first level is history that is about to happen. This prophecy of Nahum is about the imminent destruction of Nineveh. And in fact, they were “completely destroyed.”
God saved His people from the Assyrian Empire, and in light of that “good news,” God calls His people to worship and serve Him: to celebrate their festivals in Jerusalem, the city of God, and to fulfill their vows in the temple, the house of God.
But there is an enemy much more insidious than the Assyrian Empire or the Babylonian Empire or any oppressive empire. That enemy is sin. Sin, the ultimate enemy, is what leads to all those oppressive, violent empires, including the Third Empire known as the Third Reich.
The second level that the prophecies of the OT operate on is at the eschatological level. Eschatology is the theology of the end times.
In the end, God will completely eradicate sin, and along with it all evil, all oppression, all suffering, and ultimately death—at least, for those who put their trust in Christ.
It is the feet of Christ—broken and bloodied by a nail on a cross at Calvary—it is His beautiful feet that come down from the heavenly Mount Zion to bring good news, the gospel, to proclaim and deliver God’s peace forever more.
And just as Nahum’s prophecy was a certainty for the people of Judah in his day, Nahum’s prophecy of Christ is a certainty for the people of God today who believe the gospel and put their trust in Him.
Therefore, let us worship God, for He is worthy. Let us rejoice in His salvation and declare His praises. And let us live our lives in faithfulness and obedience, serving our Lord with thanksgiving in our hearts.
Father, Your word is a sure foundation for our lives. We do not know what even the next second holds, but You have revealed to us how our story unfolds in Christ Jesus. Give us faith, Lord, to trust what You say, and to live our lives in worship and service, that we may glorify Your name and bear witness to Your great salvation. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
