1Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery—no end to the prey. 2The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, 3the horseman charging, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies 4because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft. 5“Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. 6I will throw abominable filth on you and make you vile, and will make you a spectacle. 7It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?”
8Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? 9Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers. 10Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 11You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy. 12All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs. If they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 13Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
14Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong. 15There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust. 16You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips and flees away. 17Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
18Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them. 19There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you, for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?
Are you uncomfortable with God’s plan to punish the Assyrians? Do you want to gloss over those sections in the Old Testament where God after being patient and slow to anger eventually brings justice to an unrepentant and wicked people? Is there a tendency to say ‘yes but that’s the Old Testament in the New Testament things are different after Jesus comes?’ Maybe it is just me that wrestles with these things!
Does my sin need justice? Is punishment still warranted for my wrong doing? Does my rebellion against God require a price to be paid? Stay with me here because you might not like this answer, but we need to look at it any way. Justice is still needed, punishment is still required and a price still needs to be paid. That’s a bleak thought isn’t, too much to bear almost. But don’t stop reading here or you will leave without the whole story. Here is the thing the justice my sin requires was dealt with on the cross by Jesus, the punishment I deserved was borne by him and for my rebellion he paid the price I could not afford.
Does sin still come at a price? Yes, it does, but we didn’t have pay it. Is justice still required? Yes, it is but Jesus took our blame. Is punishment still deserved? Yes, it is, but Jesus became that sacrificial lamb and bore that punishment for us. Are we fully free and forgiven acceptable before God? Yes, we are forgiven fully and while his salvation is free for those that choose him, we need to remember that it cost him everything. How Loved we are, what a great salvation!
He bore our sins and carried our sorrows and in his wounds we find our healing (Isaiah 53)