I don’t want to confuse you ! This chapter seems to jump from one day to another and then back again.
v1 “The day is coming!” The day when the wicked will be destroyed and the righteous blessed. What day is this? Is
it the first coming of Jesus.
v5, 6 are prophecies regarding John the Baptist quoted in the Gospels, that he will come before the day. (v 5) – “That great and dreadful day of The Lord”.
Could this be the coming of Jesus to the air to receive His Church? Or is it, what I will call, the culmination of the second coming of Jesus when He returns to the earth with His Church reign? (That is if there are two parts to it?) This is how it appears to me (see below), but I am not going to fall out with anyone who disagrees. Please be persuaded by God as you study these things.
There are some aspects of all of them in these verses. Peter in his 2nd Epistle Chapter 3 applies the Word of God to us and instructs us in the working out of it in our personal lives.
In v10 be says, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works in it will be burned up”.
Peter writing after The Lord’s first coming, could be referring to His second but more likely the interval between The Rapture and His second coming to earth to reign. It is difficult to know for sure the future events, save to say that God is in control and He will get it right!
Whatever it be, he goes on – “Therefore, since all these will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness”. This is what matters! “Looking for and hastening the coming….”
v14 “Therefore be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless… beware (v17) lest you fall from your own steadfastness being led away by the error of the wicked; but grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”.
It is not knowing when and which Day it is, which is vital, but HOW WE OUGHT TO BE in view of it. Let’s leave it to Him about the days – it will come to pass. Therefore, let us be holy. Not date-fixing but life-fixing.
Similarly Paul writing to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5: 1 and 2) says “But concerning the times and seasons brethren you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that The day of The Lord so comes as a thief in the night”. He and they had no doubt that the day would come and that it would be unexpected. He stresses that the important thing is not ‘when’ but, ‘what we should be like while we wait and when it does come’ “You are light – watch and be sober (don’t get drunk, have your wits about you), put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation” and (verses 5 – 8) and then a whole list of things in verses 13-22.
We do not know when Jesus will come again – only God knows this, even though some might say that Jesus didn’t know when here on earth. Matt 24:36 Jesus said “…my father only knows. “ Mark 13:32 “But of that day knows no man neither the Son, but the Father, “
However, in Acts 1:7 Jesus said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own power, “
We must be careful with that! Jesus was truly man AND truly God, but the Bible says “He humbled Himself and took on the form of a man, the form of a servant and became obedient unto death…'” He restricted Himself – it is a wondrous mystery! Yet there were times when Jesus exhibited His supernatural power in knowing people’s thoughts and needs, and things that humans could not possibly know. His Divinity shone through. He never ceased to be God even though He was in the form of a man. He had to be man to die to be nailed to a cross to take away our sin. God or an angel could not have died. I don’t go along with those who say He was merely a man.
The Bible says that “He will come” (Hebrew 10:37) not a moment too soon, not a moment too late. The important thing is not when He will come, but what are we doing until He does come.
There is a view, which I go along with (you may not), that Jesus will come again to the air to call us away – those who are His, then there follows The Great Tribulation – seven years, and then the return of Jesus to earth with His Saints.
There is a difference of opinion as to whether the Church (Christians) will go through The Great Tribulation – I don’t believe we will, 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 say “Let no one deceive you by any means, for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed” the Greek “the falling away” can mean “the departure” – the rapture; but whether we do or not is relatively unimportant, what is important is that we live holy lives.
We have enough to do and think about for the short time left to worry about minor things. People need to be saved – what are we doing about it? Holding evangelistic campaigns, outreach efforts, etc. Fine, we must preach the Gospel at every opportunity, but how are we are living? It is no good telling people about salvation – being born again, that they can have changed lives, if there is no difference in ours!
The trouble with the Church is that we have become no different to the world. We blend in like the chameleon when we should stand out as different. People are looking for standards that work, for a message with power to change sinful lives. They’ve had enough of the humdrum of the old life. We keep saying that Jesus changes lives, but often there’s not much evidence about it in ours. I’m not talking about froth and cosmetic – I’m talking about real, solid, maturing Christian lives. Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “Put off concerning your former conduct, the old man ….and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.” There’s still lots of rubbish in our lives and we need then to put it away, to “set our minds on heavenly things”.
v 2 tells us that that day will “….burn like an oven, all the proud, yes all who do wickedly will be stubble. The day which is coming will burn them up. “ 2 Peter 3:7 says, ” the heavens and the earth are kept in store by (His) word reserved for fire until the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men. “
Reminds me of 1 Corinthians 3 where Paul tells the Corinthian believers that they are carnal and not spiritual. He talks about foundations and what we are building on and building with. Verses 12 and 13 “Now if anyone builds on this foundation (Jesus Christ) with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one’s work anyone’s work endures, he will receive a reward, if anyone’s work is burned, he himself will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire Do you not know that you are the temple of God for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. “
You can’t have it plainer than that! I’m sure that no one really wants to be wasting their time and building their lives with stuff that is not going to withstand God’s fire. So let us examine our lives and get rid of the dross and concentrate on the things which are going to last – that’s the success and prosperity that we preach. The fire will burn up both root and branch – no possibility for re-growth – roots could send up new shoots, the branch could produce seed to germinate. Neither the root nor branch will be left – gone forever! Useless for eternity.
Verse 2 seems to refer to a different time – “But to you who fear My name – The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” – refers to the Messiah (Jesus Christ). He brought light in the darkness after His first coming. Matthew 4: 12 – 17 Jesus went to Galilee when He heard that John had been put in prison. “Therefore that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying “The land of Zebulun the people who sat in darkness saw a great light. And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned ‘”‘ This is the time we live in today when the light has come in all His brightness to bring us forgiveness and a way out from the darkness of sin.
v4 this refers to the giving of the Ten Commandments to the people, in Deuteronomy 4 we read that Moses gathered the people at Horeb and they heard the voice of God. They saw no one but God spoke to them. He reminded them how privileged they were to hear the voice of Almighty God speaking from the fire which burned at the foot of the mountain. They had a God who spoke to them and was so near to them that they could call upon Him. Deuteronomy 4:7. They were instructed never to fall into idolatry, never to make an idol representing God – He made it clear that they had NOT seen God and therefore couldn’t fashion anything to look like God. Moses reminded them that “God loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them and He brought you out of Egypt with His presence and with His mighty power” (Deuteronomy 4:37). Psalm 147:19, 20 states this fact – “He (The Lord) declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgements to Israel He has not dealt thus with any other nation”. Even the Psalmist went on to lament that “And as for His judgements, they have not known them”. (v 20)
It was and is clear that despite their privileges being God’s chosen people, they had rejected Him and turned to their own ways, even reached the stage of not knowing God’s laws. It is a similar story today we have a generation who do not know The Lord, we are living in a pagan society which needs to be reminded of God and His laws and His judgements.
This is our mission field, wherever we are, to reach the lost with The Good News of Jesus. The gospel. “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of The Lord And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. ” (v5)
Jesus quite clearly states that this Elijah is John the Baptist (Matthew 17:13). The Angel Gabriel appearing to Zacharias to tell him of the miraculous news of a son, also said that “He will go in the spirit of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children… “ (Luke 1:17)
Only John himself, in great humility, doubted that he could be such a great person. (John 1:21) – when asked “are you Elijah? He said, “l am not” are you the prophet? he answered “no “”I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of The Lord”.
John was known as a humble man and he evidently doesn’t want any accolades of praise. (Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist….” Matthew 11:11). Jesus said that John was the Elijah referred to by Malachi in his prophecy, “He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers”.
Interesting! What significance? In a day like today! How relevant it is for our present day!
Could it be to do with the disintegration of the family. Satan is hell-bent on it as we know. There is a great need for fathers to turn their hearts to the children. Life is stressful – fathers seem to have less time to spend with their children, although a generation or two ago, when fathers were involved in more strenuous manual work than today they seemed to have just as little time, but as then, so now – we have to make time.
So many split families means that more and more children are being brought up in a home without a father.
Father’s Day has become an unknown to many children. And as generations pass, fewer and fewer boys and men
know how to be good fathers because the role model is absent from the home. In my service in male prisons, it is something we often refer to and many men recognise their failure in this.
Rightly or wrongly, one of the reasons given for homosexuality in males is an over-dominant mother, although that can occur not only were there was no father present.
A common phrase today is the ‘nuclear family’ where there has been a divorce or any case where the children live with one parent and another adult who is not their parent; and where a father has more than one family to support. I often think that the word ‘nuclear’ is a significant term – as the whole thing is likely to blow up in their faces.
Not only do we fathers need to turn our hearts to our children but, oh! how children need to turn their hearts to their fathers! This I believe refers to discipline and recognition of authority. Children do not want authority but they need it! It has ever been thus, no more so than today. How many fathers opt out and leave it to the mother?
Fathers need to love their children and children need to love and respect their fathers. This is not of course, to diminish the role of the mother at all. That is vital and God recognises that the relationship between mother and child is different and much closer anyway. The fathers are the ones who have to concentrate more and recognise their role more because they have more distractions and other (often legitimate) concerns. But this states clearly that the prophet Elijah – John the Baptist, would have a message for fathers and children – it was this very thing that lead to his death – Herod, Herodias (his brother’s wife) and Salome her daughter – an immoral relationship which John spoke out against with fatal consequences.
The Old Testament ends with a curse – if mankind does not follow God’s ways, His laws and respond to The gospel of saving grace then the end is stark – a curse. Is that your future?
You can escape by turning to and receiving Jesus Christ. Thank God that Jesus came to do away with the curse. In fact, He took the curse upon Himself so that we can go free.
The New Testament ends with “Even so come Lord Jesus”. Can you say that with absolute assurance and certainty? Are you ready for His coming. There is hope for now and for eternity. He will have the last word. Will you be ashamed on that day? Or do you long for it?
Are you ready? I pray that you will be.
