Nahum 1:3, “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”

The story of Jonah is one of the best-known in the Bible. Nineveh was a sinful place, so much so that God was on the brink of destroying it, but in His mercy, He gave them an opportunity to repent, and they did.

Nineveh was the capital of the vast Assyrian Empire, which lasted for approximately 300 years. It was about 150 years after Jonah that Nahum’s prophecy concerning the fall of Nineveh was fulfilled. Over time, the nation that repented under Jonah’s preaching had returned to its sinful ways. They pillaged the ten tribes of Israel and carried them away as slaves. It was an invasion that was never undone, leading to the expression, “The Lost Tribes of Israel.” Let me hasten to add that while they may be lost to us, they are not lost to God.

Though Jonah had preached God’s grace to Nineveh and the people had repented, the Assyrians had grown proud and corrupt as they expanded their empire. Nahum prophesied that Nineveh would fall, and in the end, Assyria reaped what it had sown. Nineveh is an example that, while God is slow to anger, our sins will not be excused or go unpunished. As Numbers 32:23 tells us, “Our sin will find us out.”

This is not a popular teaching today, but it is a true teaching. If you are living in sin, repent while you still can.