The waters came without warning,
a torrent of mud and stone,
sweeping away everything in their path.
In the green miracle house
a family climbed to the upper floor,
huddled together,
waiting for the end.
Outside, the waters raged.
The foundations trembled.
But the house remained.
A refuge in the storm.
Once, Nineveh had been spared.
The city heard God’s warning,
turned from its violence,
and found mercy.
But mercy was forgotten.
The streets filled with blood,
the powerful crushed the weak,
and the oppressed cried out:
Where are you, God?
Have you forgotten us?
Nahum came with a strange comfort.
The Lord is jealous.
The Lord avenges.
The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
We struggle with such words.
Isn’t God love?
But what kind of love
could watch the innocent suffer
and remain unmoved?
God’s jealousy is not
frustration, envy or spite,
but a zeal to preserve
what is supremely precious.
And Volf,
remembering the slaughter,
of his own people,
could no longer imagine
a God who was not angry.
God is not wrathful in spite of being love.
God is wrathful because God is love.
What kind of love
could watch the innocent suffer
and remain unmoved?
Yet we are quick to welcome judgement
when it falls upon others,
less eager when it turns towards us.
For we too have wounded,
failed,
and answered hurt with hurt.
Who can stand before the One
who flung the stars into heaven?
Where can we run?
Then, amid the thunder,
comes a quiet word:
The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
The Judge is also our shelter.
And on a hill outside Jerusalem,
another storm gathered.
Jesus did not run.
He endured the mockery,
the blows,
the nails.
The innocent bore the weight
of our violence and sin.
Through his wounds
a refuge was opened,
where justice and mercy meet,
where grace makes a new beginning possible.
Nahum does not promise
that the waters will never rise.
But evil will not have the final word.
And when the storm comes,
when our strength is spent,
when there is nowhere else to go,
where do you run?
Into the arms
of the One
who did not run from us.
Original message by Sean Tan
The Bridge Church Macquarie Park NSW
18 October 2026
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