Tag: earth dissolved
God’s patience will run out
Scripture reading for October 21st: Jeremiah 50-51, 2nd Peter 3
2nd Peter 3: 8-10 “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”
God is loving and compassionate, slow to anger and patient in working for salvation of each person and nation. God gives time to repent and sends His messengers and Word. But Peter also warned the Church not to take God’s love and patience as an indication that He was not just and would not bring recompense for those doing evil. Peter warned that the Day of the Lord would come like a thief with sudden destruction. God would punish evil and unrepentant people and would ultimately cleanse the heavens and the earth by the fire of His wrath against sin. This is cause for self-examination and renewed dedication to Christ Jesus and flight from the fallen world system that is under God’s judgment. It is also time to be about God’s business of saving the lost while His patience waits.
2nd Peter 3:11-13 “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your great patience and compassion for lost mankind. Thank You for sending Jesus Christ at just the right time to redeem us by His blood. Thank You for sending Your Church with a Gospel of grace and warnings of the coming Day of the Lord and Your just anger and wrath against sin. Use me today to spread the Gospel and proclaim Your call to escape the coming wrath.
Jeremiah 51:5-6 “For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord of Hosts, but the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. “Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance, the repayment He is rendering her.”