Nahum’s Automobile Prophecy

By Prophet Jacob R. Blandford

Nahum is a small Biblical Book with only 3 chapters. It is one of the ‘Minor Prophets’ Books. Scofield dates the Book at 713 B.C. In Chapters 2 & 3 there is an amazing prophecy about the modern automobile or car. In the first verse Nahum says the book is a “vision”—what Nahum saw was the last days before Christ’s second coming: and that the streets would be full of cars. Now let’s take a closer look...

"The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings... The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots."

(Nahum 2:3-4, 3:2 KJV 1611)

· “the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation” (Nahum 2:3)

o These “chariots” are the only term Nahum could use to describe what he saw because chariots were the vehicles used in his day. The “flaming torches” are the headlights and taillights which are highly visible at night. And “the day of his preparation” signifies the time when this would be seen: the last days before the Lord Jesus Christ’s Second Advent.

· “The chariots shall rage in the streets” (Nahum 2:4)

o There are the “chariots” again or cars. Nahum predicted there would be ‘road rage in the streets’. That is prevalent on any given day in any major city in the modern world. And the King James translators used the terms “rage” and “streets”.

· “they shall justle one against another in the broad ways” (v. 4)

o The ‘jostling’ spoke of here is the crashes and bang-ups that so frequently happen on our roads, streets, highways, and interstates. It’s interesting we see here the words “broad ways”, because ‘Broadway’ in New York City is one of the most famous streets in the world, especially the United States.

· “they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings” (v. 4)

o Again, the “torches” are the head and tail lights from the cars. And they “run light the lightings” because some of the speeds on the major highways are more than 65 miles per hour. Compared to the speeds of the chariot and horse of Nahum’s day, what he saw in this vision was like “lightnings”. This also refers to the trail of light the headlights leave.

· “The noise of a whip” (Nahum 3:2)

o There’s your modern slang word for a car—a “whip”: and most ‘whips’ make a noise because of their mufflers.

· “the noise of the rattling of the wheels” (v. 2)

o There are your clunky trucks making a sound with their heavy rims, wheels, and tires. Again, these terms were used by the King James translators over 400 years ago: and as you can see, they’ve influenced our modern language and speech.

· “the pransing horses” (v. 2)

o Now in Nahum’s day, horses were the power—now it’s all about horsepower. Also, the Ferrari logo is a prancing horse. And the Ford Mustang is named after a horse too.

· “the jumping chariots” (v. 2)

o Here are the “chariots” again. If Nahum had used the word ‘car’ back in 700 B.C., or if the KJV translators translated with the word ‘car’ in 1611, nobody would have know what they were talking about until the 20^th century. That’s why the Holy Spirit led Nahum to use the “chariot” as a typology for the modern automobile in the last days. In the Lord Jesus Christ’s holy name, Amen.