All of us have heard of get rich quick schemes, the idea that you can go from poor to very rich in a moment. We win the lottery or discover oil in our backyard. There really is no such thing as a get-rich-quick plan. It is like thinking that you can get health, friends, or wisdom quickly without any kind of an investment. That is just not the case. There is a difference between just happening to be sitting on an oil reserve in your backyard and investing a dollar at a time over a period of years and then reaping what you have sown.
The truth is, whether it is economics, health, friendships, or wisdom, you will get what you give. This is not negative or positive. It just is. It is life. It is world into which we have been placed by God. You will get what you give. This is a principle we can use to our benefit. That may be the wrong way of putting it, but we ought to think about what we want to be and where we want to be and start giving that now. It is not as if we just happen onto good things. No, we will get what we give.
The prophecy of Nahum in Nahum 3 is a graphic illustration of this truth. It is true of nations, empires, and the individuals who make up those nations. You will get what you give. Nahum 3:1 says, “Woe to the bloody city!” He is talking about Nineveh. God had sent warning. They had repented and God had withheld judgment. Then they had lapsed back and now their judgment was imminent and sure. Nahum 2 is a very picturesque narrative of the approaching conquest of the Media Persians of the Assyrian Empire and Nineveh in particular. What this shows front, center, and last in chapter 3 is that you get what you give.
Why do you get what you give? First, your position is not singular. You are not the only one in your position. Many times, we think, “I’m the only one who occupies this position. The only one who has ever had this problem.” That is not true. Nahum 3:8-10 makes this clear. When it comes to the destruction, God asks Nineveh, “Art thou better than populous No?” No was ancient Thebes in Egypt. This city had been conquered by the Assyrians who were now in turn going to be conquered by the Media Persians, and God rhetorically asks, “Are you any better than Thebes, the large, populous No?” The answer is no, they were not. Were they different than them? No, Egypt and the other cities had strength, yet they were carried away. God said the same thing was going to happen to them. Everyone reaps what they sow.
One of the prophets presented a picture of all the conquered and conquerors in Sheol, the place of the dead. From great to small they are all there. It doesn’t matter who you are. Someone has been in your position before. You will get what you give. Think about the mighty pyramids that stand even today in Egypt. At some point those pyramids will be gone. So, it doesn’t matter how powerful or lowly you are. Your position is not singular and you will get what you give.
Second, your position is not static. It doesn’t stand still. Verse 11 says, “Thou also shalt be drunken.” They were going to be drinking God’s judgment. Verse 12 says, “All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the first-ripe fruits.” If you shake the trees, the fruit will just drop into the mouth of the person shaking it. In this case, the armies at the gate were the ones shaking the Assyrian Empire encompassing Nineveh. So, your position is not static. They were the conquerors and they would be the conquered.
This is true even in personal relationships. I have been a son and now I am a father. I have been a grandson, and now I am a grandfather. I have been a son-in-law and now I am a dad-in-law. We want to freeze ourselves in place and think about how to respond to parents, grandparents, and in-laws. Then you realize you are in their position now. You are going to get what you give.
In verse 16 God says about these people, “Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven.” In other words, “You have done yourselves proud.” But Nahum 2 says that God was against them and in Nahum 3 God says He will bring judgment. This is the Lord Of hosts, the Lord of armies, saying this. It wasn’t just Babylon knocking on Nineveh’s door. It was God through those armies at the gate.
Ultimately, the question is, “Who is going to cry for you when you are gone?” Verse 7 says, “Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?” He is saying, “Who will cry for you when you are gone? You were merciless; you are going to receive no mercy. You made people cry; now no one is going to cry over you. You have been the conquerors; now you are going to be the conquered.” Verse 19 says all who see the calamity of Nineveh will “clap their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” You are going to get what you have given. None of us live or die to ourselves.
Recently I inherited family photo albums from my mom’s side of the family. I know a lot of the people in the pictures. Others I don’t know but I’ve heard of. Some are obscure to me, but in their faces, I can see the faces of people I know now because we are their descendants. I see pictures of my grandma when she was six and I remember what she looked like when she was my grandma and I was six.
There are cycles. So many of us have no idea how we embody the faces, personalities, and physical movements of people who have come before us in our family. We are not doomed to our genetics, but none of us live or die to ourselves. Our position is not static. Someone who is six will become sixty. It behooves all of us to identity cycles in our lives and take steps to stop or start cycles we wish to reap in the future.
I don’t get what I want; I get what I give. Why not give what you want today? Give patience, love, courage, and determination to do right because you will reap what you are giving. You will get what you give.