Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth…As it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:26, 31.

(God) chose us in (Jesus) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Ephesians 1:4.

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19.

Because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 2 Peter 1:4 NLT.

Reading our chapter, Nahum 2, it helps to remember the verses above. This chapter describes the events in 612 B.C., when the combined armies of the Babylonians and the Medes sacked Nineveh. An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength…It is decreed that Nineveh be exiled and carried away. Her female slaves moan like doves and beat on their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool whose water is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back. Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures! She is pillaged, plundered, stripped! Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale. v. 1, 7-10. From God’s perspective? The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning. v. 4. Anyone who has experienced the devastation of war in their lands understands. The world’s corruption caused by human desires…In the notes below it said that “The major source of wealth for the Assyrian economy was the plunder taken from other nations. The Assyrians had taken the food of innocent people to maintain their luxurious standard of living, depriving others to supply their excess.” The world’s corruption…What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:1-3.

It’s all just words until we understand how much Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, loves us. I pray Creator God breathes the life of His Spirit into every heart, that all can know His love and turn to Him for comfort, for strength, for understanding that brings new life lived to the full with Him. The “treasures” of this world are nothing compared to the love of Creator God. No treasure can heal us, and we are in sore need of healing! The curious verse nestled in this chapter: The Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines. v. 2. Can you imagine the restoration that Creator God will bring to Jacob, to Israel, to every nation and to the whole of creation…and not so we can continue doing what led to our destruction! Because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. It all begins from where it must: From the Beginning…In Creator God and His Love given for us, His children dearly loved. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-5, 14. The Lord came to restore what was broken and destroyed within us: The intimate love and trust of our Creator God that is for us, His children dearly loved, so that we can love Him and love one another. Impossible? Not with our Creator! He is Life!