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"You have multiplied your merchants"

Text: Nahum 3:16

THE MIGHT OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

The Assyrians was once powerful. Two powerful factors contributed to their success. But what if those factors were no longer there?

“You have multiplied your merchants more
than the stars of heaven.
The locust plunders and flies away.
Your commanders are like swarming locusts,
And your generals like great grasshoppers,
Which camp in the hedges on a cold day;
When the sun rises they flee away,
And the place where they are is not known.”
Nahum 3:16-17

1. The merchants

a) The Assyrians began as conquerors.

b) But a conquering nation needs to sustain itself.

c) Assyria decided to have merchants to run the empire.

d) They multiplied the merchants.

e) They were so many they were likened to:

i) The stars of heaven

ii) The locusts

f) The problem was that these merchants were indeed like locusts.

i) They plundered the people they were sent to trade with.

ii) They left impoverished nations after the merchants were done.

iii) The impoverished countries hated the Assyrian merchants.

iv) They waited for the opportunity to strike back at the Assyrians.

2. The commanders/generals of the Assyrian armies

a) They were compared to:

i) Locusts

ii) Grasshoppers

b) They were very effective in leading their campaigns against weaker nations.

c) They wasted many nations they conquered.

d) But like the locust swarms, they were unpredictable.

e) They were uncontrollable. The kings of Assyria did not know where their generals ended up!