Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
In the more than 2 years that we’ve been producing “Walking with Jesus” I don’t believe we’ve ever taken so long to deeply consider only two verses in God’s Word, the Bible. Together we’ve been looking closely at 2 Peter 2:20,21 and today let’s finish by looking at the troubling warning of Peter’s statement: “…they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and to turn their backs on the sacred command.“ What could that warning possibly mean?
Some people consider this statement by Peter to be a warning of God’s absolute and final judgment. They conclude that the first part of Peter’s statement which says: “they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”, describes a truly ‘born again’ Christian. They also conclude that the second part of Peter’s statement which says: “they are again entangled in that corruption and are overcome” clearly indicates that this born-again Christian has turned away from God and has become once again immersed in sinful living. I agree with both those conclusions, but I disagree with their interpretation of what Peter’s next statement means!
Some people conclude that Peter’s closing statement is God’s final judgment response: “they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and turn their backs on the sacred command.“ Those who hold to this position believe God has renounced the salvation work He has accomplished in this person, because of their rebellion, and this person is bound for hell under God’s judgment!
Is that what you understand the Holy Spirit is saying through Peter in these two verses? Is that how God treats human beings who turn away from God after they have believed in Jesus?
As I study Scripture, and as I’ve tried to show you this week, my “Walking with Jesus” friends, I believe that is NOT a correct interpretation of Peter’s words nor is it consistent with the character of Holy, Almighty, Merciful God that we see portrayed all through the Bible.
The Old Testament story of the people of God, the nation of Israel, is over and over, in almost every generation, what Peter is describing. A people of God who too often go astray and turn away from God. We see it with the prophets God repeatedly sent to warn God’s rebellious people, Israel. We also see it in the 40 years of wandering in the desert when God’s people refused God’s invitation to trust Him and follow Him into the Covenant Land God had promised Abraham and to which God had brought them after He had rescued them from Egyptian slavery. That event, recorded In Numbers 13 & 14, remains to this day a clear picture of what I believe Peter was saying.
Moses, you may recall, had been sent by God to the nearly one million Hebrew slaves in Egypt with the message that God had heard their cry for help (Ex. 2:23-25) and He loved them, and God would deliver them from their inescapable bondage, if they would trust Him and follow Him out of Egypt. God sent 10 powerful plagues which decimated Egypt and proved God’s superior power and finally the Pharaoh allowed Moses to lead those slaves out of Egypt! (Exodus 3-12) God delivered them again by leading them miraculously through the Red Sea as Pharaoh’s army pursued them, (Exodus 14) and God led them to Mount Sinai where they spent several months hearing God tell them He loved them, and that they were His chosen people, and God had some clear guidelines for how they could live in relationship with God. (Exodus 19-40) Finally, God told them it was time, God was ready to bring them into the land He had promised to Abraham and his descendants, 500 years before! When they arrived at the border they paused, sending 12 of their trusted leaders into this new land to investigate and then return to tell them what the land was like. In Numbers 13 we find that story of Moses sending what are often called ‘the 12 spies’ to investigate the new land. Each of them was carefully selected, trusted leaders of the people of Israel. Upon their return we are shocked to find that 10 of them gave a distorted, fearful report, and the people believed them! Only Joshua and Caleb gave a hopeful report calling the people to recognize all God had done for them and trust God to lead them victoriously into the Land of God’s Promise. It was a defining moment of decision. But the people rejected Joshua, Caleb, Moses and Aaron and they turned away from God overwhelmed with fear. They rejected God and asked Moses to take them back to slavery in Egypt!
Notice please, God’s response in Numbers 14. I believe it’s a clear picture of what God is saying through Peter in 2 Peter 2:20,21.
First: The 10 trusted leaders who stirred up fear and rebellion against God in the people were struck down by God and they died that day. (Numbers 14:37)
Notice, God did not remove them from being members of God’s people Israel, but God did cut short their lives so they could not continue living in their rebellion against God. Because they were men of great influence, God was unwilling to allow them to continue leading God’s people into rebellion against God!
Second: Caleb and Joshua, the two leaders who had called the people to trust God, were honored by God and they were not struck down by God with the other 10.
God not only blessed Joshua and Caleb with long life, but God promised they would lead the next generation into that promised land 40 years later… and they did!
Third: The adults, whom God had rescued out of Egyptian slavery and delivered in the Red Sea miracle, had rejected God and followed those 10 leaders in rebellion against God.
They refused God’s invitation to enter the new land and they asked Moses to lead them back to Egyptian slavery. Those adults received this judgment from God, as recorded in Numbers 14: “Not one of the adults who saw My glory and miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed Me and tested Me, not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers….for forty years, one year for each of the forty days you explored the land, you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have God against you...” (Numbers 14:22-34)
WOW! Living with God against you?!! Yes, and for the next 40 years Moses led those one million people around the desert, day after day, waiting for that entire, rebellious, faithless generation to die. Each suffering day was a reminder of the price they were paying for their rebellion against God. Notice please that God did not abandon them, nor did God renounce His Covenant with them as His people. God continued to provide all that was needed for them to live each day, (Deut. 8) but they never entered the promised land, and they died natural deaths in the heat of the desert. By the way, we have no record that those people ever turned back to God in deep repentance for their rejection of God. In fact, their hearts remained hard, and they refused to give their sons, born in the desert, the Covenant mark of God as we see in Joshua 5!! God’s judgment was severe justice.
His rebellious people had rejected God, but God had not turned away from His people. They suffered great consequences of their rebellion against God, but they remained God’s chosen people Israel. (Ex. 19:4-6) Those 10 leaders died in shame that day and their families lived in the shadow of that shame for generations.
For nearly 1 million adults who had followed those 10 leaders in rebellion, God’s love for them is seen over the next 40 years as God fed them daily with heaven sent manna and led them with a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to find water in the desert to survive. But it was not until that entire, rebellious generation of God’s chosen people had died, that God gave the next generation the opportunity to enter the promised land as they followed Joshua miraculously across the Jordan river into the new land. (Joshua 3,4)
Peter is challenging us to understand that when a person who has trusted Jesus Christ to be their Savior, and has experienced the life transforming work of God, yet they turn away from God, rejecting Him and they re-enslave themselves in the corrupt living of this world, they will suffer the many consequences of their self-inflicted estrangement from God.
God will not allow His Holy name to be mocked indefinitely by someone claiming to be a Christian yet living influenced by the devil, nor will God allow the great atonement sacrifice of Jesus to be mocked indefinitely by someone living intentionally in rejection of their salvation. Also, they will find the hopelessness, the despair of any attempt to find forgiveness of their sin or any road to heaven or any relationship with God apart from Jesus, because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me...” (John 14:6)
But when this Christian, who has turned away from God, and rejected their Jesus earned salvation, and refused the influence of the Holy Spirit but instead chooses to yield to the influence of the devil… comes to the end of their life, they will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave HIS life for their salvation. But in that moment Jesus will be Judge according to 2 Corinthians 5:10 “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” And in that judgment, these words from Hebrews 4:13 will be very important: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him [Jesus Christ] before whom we must give account.”Now I’m trusting Almighty, Holy, God to pour out His justice in that moment with that rebellious Christian person and I’m content and confident to leave that rebellious person’s eternal destiny in God’s hands. How about you, my friends? That’s a great deal to ponder, so I invite us to pray, asking God to help us understand His justice and His mercy. And I’ll be right back with you again on Monday as we continue our journey.
Today’s Scriptures are 2 Peter 2:20,21 & Numbers 13,14.
Choose below to read or listen.
2 Peter 2:20, 21
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Numbers 13
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Numbers 14
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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