Last weekend Tammy and I were in the Surfside area.  We have been to Surfside quite a few times over the last 20 years, but this was our first time since Hurricane Ike invaded.  It looked to us like an entire row of houses had been swept out to sea.  Three abandoned homes remained, dilapidated, but they still stood.  I noticed a man with a metal detector sweeping the area under one of these houses and remarked in my sarcastic tone, “I’ll bet he was the first guy to think of that.”  Then I asked, “What do you think he is going to find after eleven months?”  When I got back to the house I looked at the scripture for this week - Nahum 1:7-9.  It is a scripture that many believe is about 2,700 years old, written in 667 B.C. at the zenith of the Assyrian Empire’s power.  It is a scripture that has been examined time and time again, and yet I went to it in search of buried treasure.  What do you think I was going to find after 2,700 years?

We have spent most of this summer in search of buried treasure.  We have found it in the prisons of Egypt, the belly of a whale, the speech of a donkey, a Persian palace, and in the preaching of several prophets.   These treasures have called us to trust, to act, to repent, and to be restored.  This week, in searching for buried treasure, I found it in the first two words of our scripture - tov adonai.  Tov adonai literally means, good is the Lord.  It usually is translated, the Lord is good.  These two words, tov adonai, seemed to jump off the page and into my heart.  It was as if the metal detector sounded every alarm on it.  Here is treasure, treasure for us today, treasure for our entire lives – tov adonai.  I want you to see the passage in which this treasure is discovered.  It is found in Nahum 1:7-9, but before we read it, please join me as we prepare our hearts for God’s Word, by singing that familiar line from Psalm 119:105.  We will sing it through twice, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  Hear now the Word of the Lord in our search for buried treasure:

⁷The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, ⁸even in a rushing flood.  He will make a full end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

⁹Why do you plot against the Lord? He will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage the prophet Nahum reassured his readers that God would rescue them.  The confidence of this claim is founded on the two word treasure, tov adonai. 
 

The Lord is Good.

The Hebrew word tov is a wonderful word.  It is used 559 times in the Old Testament.  It means good, right, excellent, delightful, pleasant, kind.  It is the word used frequently in the account of the creation of the world. “And God saw that it was good.”  It is used in the culmination of that account, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Tov is a wonderful, comforting, inspiring word and it is used to describe the Lord.  Adonai is the traditional pronunciation for the name that God has used to identify himself.  The word is spelled YHWH, but was considered so holy that it was not to be spoken.  So when scholars added vowels to the consonant only Hebrew alphabet, they pointed it with the vowels for the word adonai, which means “Lord”.  Most English translations of the Old Testament designate this by spelling Lord with all capital letters.  I spend this time on these two words because if we get these words, the message in these prophets becomes much clearer.  The Lord, whose name is so holy that it is not to be spoken aloud, is good, delightful, pleasant, and kind.  This combination of goodness and awesomeness is captured beautifully by C.S. Lewis in his introduction of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia.  We pick up the story where the four children (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) are visiting two creatures in the wood, Mr. & Mrs. Beaver.  Their host speaks:

 “They say Aslan is on the move…” And now a very curious thing happened.  None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do.  But the moment these words were spoken everyone felt quite different…At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside.  Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror.  Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous.  Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of summer…

“Tell us about Aslan!” said several voices at once.

“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.

“Aslan?’ said their host.  “Why don’t you know? He’s the King.  He’s the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand.  Never in my time or my father’s time. But the word has reached us that he has come back.

“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.

“Aslan, a man! Certainly not.  I tell you he is the King of the wood, and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.  Don’t you know who is the King of the beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man.  Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will dearie, and no mistake…if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe? ... Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.”

“I’m longing to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point.”

“Safe? ’Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.”  Tov adonai speaks such words of assurance that we too long to see him, even if we do feel frightened when it comes to the point.

I am about to do something that may irritate a few of you.  I am going to conclude my sermon with a couple of trite sounding rhymes.  However, if you stick with me and get past the cuteness of these statements and mine their depth, you may discover some buried treasure.

The first such rhyme is this:  because the Lord is good,
 

Have no fear; God is here.

The prophet Nahum put it as a promise of safety in difficult times.  The Lord is described as a stronghold in a day of trouble, who protects those who take refuge in the Lord, even in a rushing flood.  The people of Israel needed to hear this.  Assyria had run rough shod over them and had just crushed Thebes in the early seventh century B.C.  The Israelites had forgotten their God long ago and now are convinced that God had forgotten them.  However, the prophet Nahum reminds them of the competence of their rescuer.  If they would only seek shelter in the Lord, if they would seek shelter in the Lord only, they would be safe.  Is there any evidence of this truth in your life?

I have been reliving my senior year all over again this summer.  I have watched my 18-year-old son, Zac, graduate from high school, surviving a very serious case of senioritis, and wander apparently aimlessly and stress free through the last three months.  He is way ahead of where I was at his age. I had no idea what I was going to do, not only with my life, but with the next year of my life.  I knew I couldn’t stay at Kentucky Fried Chicken forever, so I got a full time job washing dishes at the downtown cafeteria.  My big break came when a job opened in one of the plants for me to drive a forklift and other tractors.  I was working with grown men and seemed to be on the road to the rest of my life.  Less than a year into that lifelong road, the company downsized and I was handed a pink slip of paper.  A day of trouble, a rushing flood, and a God who is always here.  How did a forklift driver in Findlay, Ohio become a United Methodist pastor in College Station, Texas?  All I can say is that I can see God’s fingerprints all over this one.

When was your day of trouble?  Are you there now?  Do you feel the rushing flood sweeping your feet out from under you?  Take refuge in the Lord.  One thing I tell college students who often find their faith being tested and their lives being stretched is to never stop praying.  Even if you get to a point where you don’t know what to call God, talk to the Lord and be as honest as you can.  Have no fear; God is here.  Tov adonai; the Lord is good.

I promised you two trite sounding rhymes.  The second is this:  because the Lord is good,
 

You’d best beware, God is there.

It is because God is good that God refuses to accept evil.  God is wherever one might go to abuse, mistreat, or exploit another human being.  Assyria had become that kind of an empire.  They were described as a rushing flood in other historical accounts, washing over the invaded country and leaving it in ruins that make Hurricane Ike look like a passing shower.  They were violent, idolatrous, and arrogant. Nahum described their capital city, Ninevah, who once had been so responsive to Jonah’s message, as a city of bloodshed and utterly deceitful.  This message is consistent throughout the prophets and the entire scriptures - we will be held accountable for mistreatment of others.  Because the Lord is good, you’d best beware, God is there.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to throw out the first pitch at a Brazos Valley Bombers game.  I was so intent not to throw the ball into the dirt that I wound up with a pitch high and outside.  Even so, the catcher came to me and gave me the ball that I threw.  I have seen dignitaries ask the player to autograph the ball and was embarrassed to realize I did not have a pen.  As the game began, I kept thinking about that ball and whose autograph I might get on it.  Then I knew – we had dozens of children and youth from A&M United Methodist Church at that game.  I secured a pen and asked each of them to autograph my baseball.  I wish you could have seen their joy as I asked them for their autograph.  It was so cool.  Then somewhere toward the end of the game I was teasing one of the kids and noticed that in my teasing I had actually hurt the feelings of a child.  God was there and spoke to me through the person sitting next to me who snapped, “You jerk!”  I looked at my autographed baseball and realized that I have a responsibility for every one of those children – to care for them and to be careful not to ever hurt one of them.  A couple of weeks ago, Lindsay described the Day of the Lord as the day when the Holy Spirit confronts us.  It was in that careless moment that the Holy Spirit reminded me that God was there. 

Tov adonai, the Lord is good.  And because the Lord is good, have no fear; God is here.  God knows what’s going on in your life, cares deeply for you, and will never forget you.  Take refuge in the Lord.

Tov adonai, the Lord is good.  And because the Lord is good, you’d best beware, God is there.  That same goodness of God that comforts you in a day of trouble, will confront you when you wound one of God’s children.  God simply cannot accept that kind of behavior, especially from God’s vehicles of grace – the church.

Tov adonai, the Lord is good.  What a wonderful expression! It is like finding buried treasure.  Amen.