2 Peter 2: The Lord Knows How to Rescue the Godly

Today’s reading is 2 Peter 2.

Let’s admit it. 2 Peter 2 is pretty dark. A surface reading makes the prospect look dim. If we are not careful, we can read these two chapters as saying we are all in danger of falling away from God’s grace. In fact, we will likely do so. After all, there are even active agents striving to pull us away. They are awful people who entice us with sensual passions, despising authority, trained in greed, great at deception. What chance do we have against them?

Not only that, Peter also reminds us of awful judgments. He mentions the cataclysm in the days of Noah. He calls to mind the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah. He even tells us about angels cast into hell and committed to chains of gloomy darkness being kept for judgment. If angels get judged, what hope do we have? Frankly, I can understand why someone might be looking for a different chapter to read.

However, sprinkled through this dark warning, is the light of hope and promise. Do not forget where all this began in 2 Peter 1. God’s divine power has given us all we need to partake of His divine nature. The deck is not actually stacked against us. We do need to understand what is at stake. We must not assume that because God freed us from the world’s corruption we are immune to danger. We must not lose sight that we must respond to the grace God has offered. All that being said, we must not forget God is offering grace. We must not forget God is more powerful than Satan. We must not forget God wants to save us.

Yes, Peter brings up the worldwide flood. But he also reminds us despite the incredible wickedness throughout the world, God knew precisely how to save Noah and his family. He knew how to do that even though they were only one righteous family in the whole world. They were the proverbial needle in the haystack. But God knew exactly how to deliver them. God gave them everything they needed to be delivered. Peter tells us about the fiery judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. But he also reminds us God delivered Lot. Though the world is full of corruption, though there are false teachers actively working against us, though horrific and terrible judgment is coming, the God who has given us all we need knows how to deliver us.

Further, let us not for a moment think Peter’s readers didn’t remember the original stories of Noah and Lot. There were significant similarities, especially regarding events that happened with Noah and Lot after their deliverances. But there were significant differences. If we take the original stories in Genesis side by side, Noah comes out way ahead of Lot on the righteousness scale. Yet, both men are delivered. Peter pictures both men as the righteous oppressed. Certainly, Noah was not perfectly righteous, but including Lot in this chapter gives some real hope to those of us who have made big mistakes even in our hunger for and pursuit of righteousness. And the point remains strong. God knows how to deliver. He knew how to deliver Noah. He knew how to deliver Lot. He knows how to deliver us.

We do not have to fall prey to the false teachers. We can, by God’s strength and grace add virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love to our faith. We can make our calling and election sure. We can avoid being swine bathing in mud and dogs returning to our own vomit.

God has given us all we need. God is still working. We can look to Him. We are not destined for destruction. Let us hang on to Jesus who has called us to His glory and excellence. As 1 Peter repeatedly encouraged us, let us entrust ourselves to God, looking to Him, listening to Him, relying on Him. He will deliver us. He wants to. God is not blinded by the many who reject His salvation. He is looking for people to deliver. He knows how to deliver us. We can be those people if we hang on to the outstretched hand of salvation He is sending us through Jesus Christ.

Praise God! He knows how to deliver us!

Tomorrow’s reading is 2 Peter 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does 2 Peter 2 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Revelation 8: Overwhelmed by Shock and Awe

Today’s reading is Revelation 8.

If you are still reeling from yesterday’s discovery that the day of Pentecost on which Christ’s church was established was described by Joel as not merely a day of the Spirit’s outpouring, but a day in which the sun darkened, the moon to blood, and wonders were performed in the heavens and on earth, don’t feel bad. But let’s address the question that brings up. Why would God do that? Why would He have His prophets use such cataclysmic language to describe such mundane fulfillments?

And let’s start right there. Do we really want to call the Holy Spirit filling the apostles and their being able to speak in languages they’ve never studied a mundane fulfillment? That’s pretty amazing, right? Do we really want to call the first day the gospel was preached in complete fullness and ability to respond a mundane fulfillment? Do we really want to call the day people were first baptized into Christ, fully and truly having their sins blotted out and washed away a mundane fulfillment? Was that not a day in which a seismic shift in the spiritual realm took place?

And that is precisely why the prophets used the kind of shocking, cataclysmic, overwhelming language they did. Remember from Tuesday, the prophets’ job was not to predict the future so their hearers would know when something was going to happen (though on occasion they did do that), but to prosecute and persuade their hearers to obey God. Not to get them to obey God way off in the future when they saw some signs taking place, but to obey God when they read or heard the prophecy. If John was trying to reveal a prediction of events, he could have done a much better job by speaking more plainly. The fact is the guys who claim it is all predictive keep thinking its about to start because John obviously didn’t do that great of a job predicting. But perhaps that is because that wasn’t what he was trying to do.

On the other hand, as a piece of prosecuting and persuasive literature, it’s hard to beat. John is making it quite clear whose side you want to be on, isn’t he? Do you have any doubt whether you want to be on God’s side or on the side of the idols? Certainly, when we get to Revelation 9:20 and we learn about all the people who won’t repent, aren’t you saying, “I’m not going to make that mistake”? Then John did his job.

Keep in mind two really important points about prophecy in general and apocalypse in specific. First, God is pulling the curtain back so we can see from His vantage point. God is not one of us. He sees differently. He values differently. He thinks differently. He uses shocking, cataclysmic, overwhelming imagery and language because He is attempting to help us see the real importance of what He is doing. Look, I have trouble seeing things from my spouse’s perspective. How much more from God’s? When God strives to reveal Himself, His perspective, His thinking to us, it’s going to get weird for us. But let’s keep working at it. It will be worth it.

Second, the prophets speak to us in shocking words and images because they are dealing with shocking topics. They do not want us to miss them. They want to grab our attention and demand our thought. They want to force us to wrestle with them. If John had just said, “Hang on y’all, God will eventually beat Rome (or Jerusalem, or Babylon, or America, or Russia),” how much time would we spend on it? If John had just said, “Guys, you better repent of your idolatry and see if you can’t get your neighbors to do it as well,” how moved and motivated would we be? But instead He tells us about stars falling from the sky, mountains thrown in the sea, the moon turning to blood, and we stop and listen.

The Day of Pentecost when Jesus established His church and the Holy Spirit was poured out on God’s people was a spiritual event akin to an earthly event so shocking, so shattering, so seismic that to grasp its significance, God said it was the same as seeing blood and fire and columns of smoke, sun turned to darkness, moon turned to blood, and signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. The warning and judgment God was going to eventually bring on the enemies of John’s readers was going to be that same kind of spiritually seismic and significant event. God didn’t want them or us to miss that.

So keep reading. It gets even better.

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 8.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 8 prompt or improve your hope in God?

When My World is Caving In

Today’s reading is Psalm 46.

2012 has come and gone. The world is still standing. Looks like the Mayans got it wrong. However, I’m sure some historian or archaeologist will figure out we just misunderstood their math. He’ll come up with a new date so a new crop of cataclysmic disaster movies can rake in the millions. However, the sons of Korah didn’t need a wide screen theater to envision the collapse of the world. Actually, all they had to do was remember the creation account and envision it going in reverse.

Instead of waters dividing and dry land appearing, they pictured the land simply falling back into the water as it roared and foamed over the quickly engulfed land. If you started to see that, how would you feel? Would you be chicken little: “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”? Or would you be the sons of Korah: “Our God is with us! Our God is with us!”?

The sons of Korah sang about their God. He is a refuge. He is strength. He is a very present help in trouble. For them even the ground collapsing, the tidal wave, the mountain falling into the sea was no need to fear. God would care for them. They had their faith in God.

Perhaps we are now see the faith that allowed the sons of Korah to write Psalms 42, 43, and 44. We wondered when reading them why someone who felt like God wasn’t keeping up His end of the bargain would keep on praying. Here we see why. No matter what it seemed like in the moment, they believed God is a refuge. He is the solid ground. He is the mountain. He is the fortress. They believed He is the only refuge. Look, if the world really is caving in on itself, where are you actually going to go? You go to God.

What about when THE world isn’t caving in, but MY world is? How will I act then? Fact is, this psalm demonstrates there are times when it is like the earth is giving way and the mountains are falling into the sea. There are times in our lives when it seems like all the supports are kicked out from under us, when everything that was a solid foundation in our lives has gone into upheaval. What will we do then? The sons of Korah knew what they would do. They would turn to God. They would keep praying to Him. They would hang on to Him no matter what. After all, God brought Noah through the flood, Jacob through his meeting with Esau, Joseph through his slavery and imprisonment, Israel through the Red Sea. When the floods are rising, the mountains are crumbling, life is collapsing, God is there. I’ll hang on to Him. How about you?

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 46

P.S. No this doesn’t mean if the floodwaters are literally rising in your neighborhood that you refuse to get into the evacuation vehicles that come along. This is simply saying, no matter what is going on in life, I’m going to keep on serving God His way.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the psalm and the written devo above?
2. Have you ever felt like your world was caving in? If so, when? If not, can you imagine what that would feel like?
3. Why do you think it is easy for people to abandon God when it feels like their world is collapsing?
4. What advice to maintain faith would you give someone if they said they felt like their world was collapsing?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this psalm and our discussion today?