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.

The Assyrians were especially feared for their brutality in war and for their ethnic cleansing of conquered territories. The army of Judah is no match for them! But Nahum appeals to something greater than martial force; he reminds the people of God's greatness, realized in the powerful manifestations of nature. The whirlwind, storm, and clouds are the dust stirred up by His feet; rivers, and the seas themselves, are sucked dry; the verdure of Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon are swept away; quaking mountains, collapsing hills, and burning earth mark out the sweeping barrier His presence places between Judah and her foes (see Nah. 1:3-5). Nahum points out that it is God's design to deprive the enemies of Judah of all resources, to disable their networks and expose their hidden strategies, to blotout their tactical advantage: "He will make a full end of His adversaries. ... Why do you plot against the Lord? He will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice" (1:8, 9, New Revised Standard Version).

That last, unequivocal declaration by Nahum, "No adversary will rise up twice," or, as the King James Version puts it, "Affliction shall not rise up the second time," may have strained the credulity of those who heard him. Weren't they a war-weary people, slowly being worn down by a tenacious enemy, vulnerable to surprise attacks on their own soil? It is Nahum's unequivocal conviction of God's power that makes his words prophetic. God's action is final and irreversible, and, as uttered by the prophet, is meant to stir the people from hopelessness. He reminds them that the primary enemy is idolatry (1:14), and paraphrases Isaiah 52:7: "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" (1:15).

The prophetic vision of Nahum helps lift this little book out of narrow nationalism into a universal prayer for justice. Active spiritual power alone can defeat evil, says Nahum. He evaluates the geopolitics of his time, including the instability of nations, and the Assyrian siege and sacking of the Egyptian city of No (3:8-10). News of the plundering of that city must have terrified Judah, and not only because of its carnage; Judah may have hoped the Egyptians would protect them from the Assyrians, and this hope was effectively dashed by the destruction of No. A political solution seems out of reach. But Nahum sees, right at hand, a very different source of protection and security. His cry for justice is couched in terms of an Old Testament vision of God's vengeance, but this does not wholly obscure the powerful truth that the prophetic spirit points to: the inevitable self-destruction of evil. This vision has tremendous power for a threatened community. The havoc wreaked by the Assyrians will rebound upon them. Their capital, Nineveh, will meet the same fate as that of No.

This searing vision of God's vindication burns through several of the Minor Prophets, but it is not the whole story of their response to terror. A very different response to the enemies of Judah permeates the book of Jonah. This story, with its reluctant protagonist, his sojourn in "the belly of the fish" (1:17), and his change of heart, is so familiar that it doesn't need to be retold here. However, the final leg of Jonah's transforming journey has much to say to anyone who confronts a frightening enemy. When we realize that God sends Jonah to Nineveh, the capital of the hated Assyrian empire, on a prophetic assignment, we can better understand his reluctance. Imagine how Nahum would have reacted! The book of Jonah was probably written several centuries after Nahum, looking back on an earlier period from a standpoint won by many hard lessons learned through exile and the resulting Diaspora. How were enemies to be confronted, and with what weapons?

It's interesting that Jonah seeks escape, not only from his mission to Nineveh, but "from the presence of the Lord" (1:3). Without his consciousness of God, the one Mind, Jonah is lost, and can only find his way when he obediently takes God's message to the Assyrians: In 40 days, your city Nineveh will be destroyed! The response of the Ninevites to the preaching of one unarmed stranger exposes, not their fabled monstrosity but their real, brokenhearted humanity. Everyone is enjoined to fast by their king, who issues this remarkable proclamation: "Let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands" (3:8). Their genuine repentance saves them and their city from terror.

The reward to Jonah for his obedience to God is not the destruction of the Assyrians—which he longs for—but their salvation. The final rebuke in the text goes to Jonah for his inhumanity (see chap. 4). How can this be? Are the wrongs and terrors recorded by Nahum simply to be ignored and forgotten? Is reconciliation compatible with justice? The author of Jonah shifts the focus from the barbarity of Judah's enemies to the universal power and presence of the one God. This deific Mind is not confined, and acts to influence all the peoples of the earth—away from barbarity and terror toward peace. Those who understand God have an urgent task to implement His plan. How ironic, and important, that Jonah, who cannot bring himself to believe that his God is also their God, is the one to bring "good tidings" and publish "peace" in Assyria. The Assyrians respond with repentance and renunciation of violence.

Nahum and Jonah relied on God to actively defeat terror and promote peace. They prepared the world for the message of Christ Jesus, who embodied Isaiah's description: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (52:7).

God's ability to detect, anticipate, interrupt, reverse, and overcome evil makes the New Testament an invaluable study for people of all religions who want to "overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:21). Jesus was nourished on the Hebrew Scriptures. He certainly knew his people's history. Still, he "published"—announced—a message of profound peace: "Your God reigns" (Isa. 52:7, New Revised Standard Version). He said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you" (John 14:27). These words are reassuring, but also powerful; Jesus speaks them as he promises a Comforter, or Advocate, who will act on behalf of his followers, and of all humanity. The Greek word here translated peace also implies prosperity. The flourishing of people and their institutions that is a disincentive to terrorism comes from a spiritual source.

Jesus lived in an age that knew both tyrants and terrorists. He pointed his followers to God, to Mind, for protection from both these cyclical threats. Matthew chapters 23 to 25 include Jesus' thought-provoking teachings on the weakness of religious hypocrisy, false claimants to spiritual authority, and the necessity for spiritual alertness. These teachings offer instruction, not only on enduring difficult times, but on transcending them, and are worth reading and pondering. These chapters conclude with a parable calling people to healing service (see 25:31-46). Jesus says that by serving those in need we are serving him.

The peace Jesus describes is the active spiritual enzyme breaking down terror and its causes. It answers Nahum's cry for justice, and empowers Jonah's mission of reconciliation. Daniel, chapters one to six, and the book of Acts, chapters 10, 12, 16, 17, and 19, also point to the power of spirituality over materiality. When we see this spiritual essence at work in the world, we will not only be more hopeful; we will become spiritual agents of practical change.

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