Advent Two 2023 — 2 Peter 3:8-15

For week two of Advent this year the epistle reading is from 2 Peter. The passage is rather terrifying on the face of it, but this terror is balanced by the hope found in Messiah Jesus. Below is my translation, followed by some comments on the translation, and the last section are some thoughts on it.

2 Peter 3:8-15

8. Beloved, you must not ignore this one fact, one day for the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. 

9. The Lord is not slow with the promise the way some people define* slowness. Instead, he shows patience to you, not wanting to destroy anyone but for all to come to repentance. 

10. Yet, the day of the Lord will come as a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud rush of noise. The elements will be burned. The earth will break apart. * *The works in it will be discovered. 

11. When all these things fall apart***, it will be important to be the kind of person who has a holy and godly way of life

12. awaiting and wanting for the day when God comes, by whom the heavens will be set on fire and the elements will be released, burned, and melted.****

13. We wait expectantly for his promise, a new heaven and new earth, and the very place where righteousness abides. 

14. Therefore, beloved, those of you awaiting these things must make it your concern to be found spotless, unblemished, and in peace. 

15. Think about the patience of our Lord in salvation, just as our brother Paul wrote to you about, according to the wisdom given him.  

*The word is usually translated as regard or think. For what Peter is saying, I think define is a cleaner option.

**I have omitted a ‘kai’ or ‘and’ here. It makes it read better. I have also changed what happens to the earth from the usual rendering. It is generally formed as a a thought like ‘the earth and everything in it will be revealed.’ But my take is the earth is more connected to the earlier verbs than the later. There is no verb here for ‘to break apart’ but instead the verb ‘to loose’. Earlier I rendered this as ‘release’ and here ‘break apart’. It is often translated as ‘dissolve’ or ‘disappear’ but that is not the feel I get reading the text.   

***Again, same verb as ‘to loose or ‘release.’

****I have cleaned this verse up making the elements, or fundamental elements the object of all these destructive verbs. It could also legitimately be rendered as two thoughts: ‘the heavens, burning, breaking apart and the elements burning, melting.’ Either way, none of this sounds like a fun experience unless you’re watching from a distance.

I have preached this passage in the past and talked about nuclear annihilation. We usually send the children out for this one. It may be simply that I am a product of the Cold War, but when I read about a time coming that the very elements of creation will be melted all I can see is the A-Bomb going off. Not to get too technical or in the weeds (or morbid) but Peter’s use of the verb ‘to loose’ here over and over (I count three) is perhaps close to the scientific idea of splitting atoms in which the nuclear bonds are released. I am by no means a physicist and defer to those with technical expertise but Peter does mention the fundamental elements – atoms and nuclei and such. Recent events could lead people to understand it as a result of global climate change.

Merry Christmas!

There are three theological ideas wrapped up in here, though. The first one is patience. The reading begins with the quotation from the Psalm of Moses (90:4), which, in and of itself is a meditation piece on life and death. Peter’s point here is we human beings are poor judges of time. Our watches and clocks don’t measure the way the Lord does. He is in no hurry, but when he acts, it is certain and mighty. 

The second verbiage that gets to me as I read these is the use of ‘promise.’ Peter seems to not feel any need at all to elaborate on what exactly this promise might be. He assumes his reader is fully versed in it. All he really indicates is that the promise is about a new heaven and a new earth. This promise is part of the Christian hope of the long-awaited time when Jesus returns; all will be set right, Isaiah’s vision of law pouring fourth from Mt. Zion for all the world will be fulfilled, the wolf and the lamb will coexist, and when justice rolls like rivers. It is the promise of no more tears, no more pain, and nations are healed by the leaves of the trees.

The third, and easiest to miss, is the clear ethical challenge Peter lays out. He finishes the reading by encouraging us to live lives that are holy and godly. Why? Because the end is coming when all will be laid bare. I think Peter would argue the whole point of all this burning and melting and breaking apart is to uncover or reveal the hidden ‘works’ in the earth. Keep this in mind as you practice your hermeneutics here because it may indicate this burning and melting is more societal, psychological, or dare I say spiritual than environmental or cataclysmic. Whenever this time of revealing occurs, Peter wants us to be pure. Therefore the logical response to this eventual destruction of all things is not an obsession of when, but should be an obsession about how prepared (and by prepared I mean spiritually and morally righteous) we are to have everything laid out in the open.