The Futility of Self Salvation Text: Nahum 3:14-17
Introduction: The Brick Mold Rebellion
We live in an age that has convinced itself that it can build its way out of any problem. If there is a crisis, we form a committee, draft a policy, and allocate the funds. We believe, with a religious fervor, in the power of human effort. Our fortifications are our technologies, our economic systems, our military prowess, and our political machinations. We are busy people, constantly treading the mortar and taking hold of the brick mold, certain that we can construct a tower high enough to be safe from any flood, whether it be economic collapse, social decay, or divine judgment. This is the native religion of fallen man: the religion of self salvation.
The prophet Nahum is God's wrecking ball sent to demolish such proud structures. His prophecy is a taunt, a divine mockery, directed at the great city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire. Nineveh was the superpower of its day, a bloody city that had built its magnificent walls and palaces on the skulls of its enemies. They were the masters of the siege, the experts in fortification. And here, in our text, God speaks to them in the language they understand best. He tells them, with dripping irony, to double down on their efforts. "Go on," He says, "strengthen your walls. Make more bricks. Multiply your armies. Do everything you think will save you. Pour all your energy into your self salvation project."
Why would God do this? Because He is about to demonstrate the absolute futility of it all. He is setting the stage to show that when He declares judgment, all human preparations are nothing more than building a sandcastle in the path of a tsunami. The very things in which Nineveh trusts for its security, God will turn into the instruments of its destruction. The fire they use to bake their bricks will consume them. The multitude of people they rely on, their traders and their soldiers, will vanish like a swarm of locusts when the sun gets hot.
This is not just an ancient history lesson about a Mesopotamian city. This is a timeless word to every proud nation, every arrogant institution, and every self-reliant individual. It is a word to us. We are all tempted to trust in our own brick-making. We think our 401(k)s, our political party, our educational degrees, or our moral resume will secure us in the day of trouble. But Nahum comes to us, as he came to Nineveh, to announce that there is a fire coming that will consume every human fortification. There is a sword that will cut down every defense that is not Christ Himself. This passage is a glorious invitation to abandon our futile construction projects and to find refuge in the only stronghold that will stand in the day of trouble.
The Text
Draw for yourself water for the siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Go into the clay and tread the mortar!
Take hold of the brick mold!
There, fire will consume you;
The sword will cut you down;
It will consume you as the locust does.
Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,
Multiply yourself like the swarming locust.
You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven,
The creeping locust strips and flies away.
Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust.
Your marshals are like a locust-swarm
Encamping in the stone walls on a cold day.
The sun rises, and they flee,
And the place where they are is not known.
(Nahum 3:14-17 LSB)
A Divine Taunt (v. 14)
We begin with God's sarcastic command to Nineveh in verse 14:
"Draw for yourself water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!" (Nahum 3:14)
This is the language of holy mockery. God is not giving them sincere advice for their defense. He is taunting them. The Assyrians were the undisputed masters of siege warfare. They knew exactly what to do when an enemy army approached. You secure your water supply. You reinforce your walls. You get the brick factories running at full capacity to repair any breaches. God is essentially saying, "Go ahead. Do what you do best. Put your trust in your military expertise. Rely on your engineering. I want you to be at the top of your game when I bring you to nothing."
This is a terrifying thing. It is one thing for God to oppose you. It is another thing entirely for Him to mock your opposition. It is the divine equivalent of rolling up His sleeves and saying, "Is that all you've got?" This is what the Psalmist says: "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them" (Psalm 2:4). All the frantic activity of sinful man, all our political summits, our technological innovations, our military build-ups, when set in opposition to the will of God, are a cosmic joke.
"Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!" This is the essence of man's rebellion since Babel. We will make bricks, and we will build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and we will make a name for ourselves (Genesis 11:3-4). It is the religion of human achievement. It is the belief that with enough mud and straw and human effort, we can secure ourselves against God. But God is here to tell Nineveh, and us, that the mud pit of human effort is a place of judgment, not salvation.
The Inevitable Consumption (v. 15)
The turn in verse 15 is abrupt and shocking. God reveals the outcome of all their frantic preparations.
"There, fire will consume you; The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the locust does. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, Multiply yourself like the swarming locust." (Nahum 3:15 LSB)
Notice the word "There." Where? "There," in the very place of your supposed strength. "There," in the midst of your fortifications, in your brickyards, in the center of your self-reliant activity. The very place you believe to be your sanctuary will become your funeral pyre. The fire used to harden the bricks for the wall will be the fire that consumes the builders. The sword of the Babylonians and Medes is coming, but it is ultimately God's sword. It will not just defeat them; it will "consume" them. The image is of utter devastation, like a field devoured by a swarm of locusts, leaving nothing behind.
And then God continues His taunt. "Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, multiply yourself like the swarming locust." He is telling them to increase their numbers, to swell their population, to build up their armies. Why? Because the more numerous they are, the more impressive the judgment will be. A locust swarm is a picture of an innumerable, unstoppable, consuming force. God is saying, "You think numbers give you security? Go ahead, become as numerous as the very plague I am sending against you. Become the fuel for your own destruction." God is going to use the locust imagery in three devastating ways. First, His judgment will consume them like a locust. Second, He dares them to multiply like locusts. And third, as we will see, their own people will prove to be as unreliable as locusts.
The Vanishing Economy (v. 16)
Next, God turns His attention to the foundation of Nineveh's power: its commercial empire.
"You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven, The creeping locust strips and flies away." (Genesis 3:16 LSB)
Nineveh was not just a military power; it was a center of global trade. Its merchants and traders were as numerous as the stars, a clear echo of God's promise to Abraham. Assyria had built a counterfeit covenant community, a globalist empire based on plunder and commerce instead of faith and righteousness. They had their own form of prosperity, their own version of the good life, built on the backs of the nations they had conquered.
But what happens to this mighty economic engine in the day of judgment? It acts just like a locust. "The creeping locust strips and flies away." The picture is vivid. A locust swarm descends on a green field, strips it bare of everything valuable, and then, when there is nothing left to consume, it simply flies away to the next field. This is what Nineveh's vaunted merchant class will do. They are not loyal citizens committed to the city. They are opportunists. As soon as the trouble starts, as soon as the enemy is at the gates and the economy begins to collapse, they will strip the city of whatever wealth they can carry and fly away. They will abandon the city that made them rich without a second thought. Any economic system built on greed and godlessness has no cohesive power. It is every man for himself, and when the judgment comes, the rats are the first to flee the sinking ship.
The Cowardly Protectors (v. 17)
Finally, Nahum targets Nineveh's military and civil leadership, the very men tasked with protecting the city.
"Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like a locust-swarm Encamping in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises, and they flee, And the place where they are is not known." (Nahum 3:17 LSB)
The imagery here is precise and devastating. Locusts, being cold-blooded insects, are sluggish on a cold day. They will gather in great numbers on a stone wall, waiting for the sun to warm them up so they can fly. This is the picture of Nineveh's guardsmen and marshals. They look impressive. They are numerous. They are all at their posts, encamped on the walls. They are a great "locust-swarm" of military might. But they have no heart for the fight. They are fair-weather soldiers.
What happens? "The sun rises, and they flee." The moment the "heat" of battle begins, the moment the sun comes up on the day of God's judgment, they are gone. They scatter in every direction. And the final phrase is the ultimate indictment: "And the place where they are is not known." They vanish without a trace. They desert their posts so completely that you cannot even find where they were supposed to be. The proud Assyrian military machine, the terror of the ancient world, will melt away like frost in the morning sun.
So, to summarize God's argument: Your best efforts at fortification are the very place you will be burned (v. 14-15). Your economic strength will strip you bare and abandon you (v. 16). And your military protectors will vanish at the first sign of trouble (v. 17). Every single thing you trust in, apart from God, will not only fail you, but it will actively participate in your destruction.
Conclusion: The Only Stronghold
The message of Nahum to Nineveh is a message that echoes down through the centuries to us. Do not trust in the brick mold. Do not trust in your numbers. Do not trust in your economy. Do not trust in your military. Any society that builds on a foundation other than the Lord Jesus Christ is building on sand. And the storm is coming.
We see the same frantic, futile, brick-making all around us. We see our culture desperately trying to fortify itself against reality. They are treading the mortar of transgender ideology, taking up the brick mold of critical race theory, and strengthening the fortifications of secular humanism. They are multiplying their traders in globalist schemes and their guardsmen in bloated government agencies. And God looks down from heaven and He laughs. He holds them in derision.
Because there is a fire coming. There is a judgment that will test every man's work. And on that day, the only thing that will stand is that which is built on the rock of Jesus Christ. The good news of the gospel is that God has provided a stronghold for His people in the day of trouble. Nahum says it at the very beginning of his prophecy: "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him" (Nahum 1:7).
The ultimate day of trouble was at the cross. There, the fire of God's wrath against sin was poured out. There, the sword of His justice fell. And it fell upon His own Son. Jesus Christ took the full force of the consuming judgment that we deserved. He entered the brickyard of our sin and was consumed for us, so that we might be saved. He is the only fortification that holds. He is the only refuge that is safe.
Therefore, the call of this passage is to repent of our self-salvation projects. It is a call to throw down your brick mold. Stop trying to build your own little tower of safety. Your efforts are futile. Instead, flee to the stronghold that God has provided. Flee to Christ. For all who are outside of Christ, no matter how strong your walls may seem, the fire is coming. But for all who are in Christ, though the nations rage and the kingdoms totter, you are safe in Him. He is your fortress, and He will never fail.