Article February 9, 2009 Issue

'YOUR GOD REIGNS!'

Bible prophets, poets, rulers, writers, thinkers, and healers turned to the one God under circumstances that were similar to those we face today.

BY MICHAEL HAMILTON

The Bible includes important counsel for those confronting terror on any scale. Its pages collect the insights and hard-won experiences of a corps of prophets, poets, rulers, writers, thinkers, and healers who turned to the one God under circumstances that were as trying as those that we face today.

I've always found the writings of the Minor Prophets helpful, including the insights provided by Nahum and Jonah. For example, the prophet Nahum writes, "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him," or, as the New English Bible renders it, "The Lord is a sure refuge for those who look to him in time of distress; he cares for all who seek his protection" (1:7).

In a short oracular text divided into three chapters, the book of Nahum makes its case against the decades-long campaign of terror waged against the kingdom of Judah. Nahum's visions are charged with urgency; the kingdom of Israel, Judah's northern neighbor and companion state ruled by Hebrew dynasties, has already been swept away, engulfed by an implacable enemy. The asymmetry of military forces, the civilian casualties, the sinister malevolence, and the intimidation that we associate with terrorism are all present in this tableau from the seventh century BC. However, Judah's foes are not stateless; in fact, they are the forces of the premier military power of the era, the Assyrian empire.

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