The earth is on fire. Rena and Tim’s son’s family and some friends of Mary Anne and others are in and around Vernon. There is a massive fire burning between Vernon and Kamloops (more than 557 km2 have been on fire there at one time this week alone). Susan, Sarah-Grace, Heather and I were just up there during our furlough. We saw helicopters carrying buckets almost every day, dropping chemicals on the ground (while the water bombers sit quietly by the Lake here). Roads were blocked due to the fire.
There were places we couldn’t go. We checked the news every day to see if we would need to be evacuated (like we needed to flee while on our previous holiday; when the plague of coronavirus hit the world, we scrambled to try to get safely home). This recent trip we stayed in Salmon Arm for a week.
There was smoke everywhere. We went kayaking, as well as tourist-ing: sometimes you couldn’t even see across the lake it was so smoky and the sun was a strange orange-y-red ball of fire, itself covered by the haze of the smoke. It looked like the heavens were on fire - just like the earth.
The earth is on fire. We just finished the Olympics. All around Athens is on fire. The home of the original Olympics is on fire. California is on fire. Australia is on fire. BC is on fire. Lytton burned to the ground. I have some great memories around Lytton. I have gone there with great friends. I have met close friends on trips there. More than once we went white-water rafting there. We have camped there. We have played paintball there. When I was a young adult, maybe about the ages of my oldest two daughters, I had a lot of fun making memories there. Now Lytton itself is just a memory. It has been burned to the ground.
There is talk about global warming and talk of climate change. Some climate scientists and others are saying that this is the consequence of our sin of not taking care of the earth – which was one of the very first commands God gave humanity (Gen 1:26-28). The earth is right now cursed because of our sin (Gen 3:17). Many are calling for us to repent of our sins and to take care of the earth.
The earth was first cursed because of the sins of Adam and Eve and they fled Eden. The earth was later cursed (different word in Hebrew) with a flood because of the sins of humanity leading up to the time of Noah. God created the earth from water, through water; and then, Genesis 6-9, it was drowned in water and destroyed by water.[1]
2 Peter 3 tells of a time when the heavens and the earth will both be on fire and the earth will be destroyed by fire. Today the earth is on fire. The fire that is consuming the earth at the present time may not be the ultimate fire or even the penultimate fire. It should ultimately however be a reminder of warnings of 2 Peter 3, Genesis 6-9, and so much more.
Peter tells us that there are scoffers and mockers; people who just do what they want with no mind to others. Peter (2:3) says that they follow their own evil desires. How many of us in our world today are scoffers and mockers; people who just do what they want with no mind to others? How many of us are following our own desires and scoffing; denying, ignoring God, others, and our responsibilities or pretending that we can do nothing? How many of us are ignoring the warning of the burning fires?
The environmental aspect of this passage cannot be ignored. As Genesis (15) and Leviticus (25) tell us, if humanity declines its responsibility to tend for the earth, we will be removed from it just as Adam and Eve, the Amorites and the Israelites were (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21). [2] We cannot ignore God’s commission to care for the earth and expect the earth to be cared for all at the same time.
There is more. Peter knows that every day since the resurrection of the Christ is the last days. Peter was in the last days. We are in the last days. Peter warns us that the end is coming soon– today’s fires should be a reminder of that – and Peter explains how he hopes we will respond to this warning.
Peter exhorts us to, 2 Peter 1:5-8, make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with perseverance or steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with kinship or brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For when these qualities are in our lives, we will not be ineffective and we will fulfil our responsibilities to God, our neighbour, the earth, and our world.
Peter warns us that there will always be temptations, Chapter 2, to sensuality, greed, much more - and even blasphemy. Peter warns us that even when we get free, the many terrible things in our lives that interfere with our wholeness, holiness, happiness and peace; they will try to grab us and pull us back to misery and enslavement.
Even just judging by Facebook and other social media, some of us here have probably struggled with hate in one form or another: either of a person, a political party, an idea, a movement, a pet peeve, or something else. Judging even just by Facebook and other social media, the sins of self-righteous anger, un-forgiveness, and hatred are reaching out like smoke from a fire to choke the life and love out of many people. Greed and self-indulgence also try pull us away from peace, healing, holiness, and wholeness as well. Sin can be like an addiction: just when we think we are free of it, it reaches out to try to pull us into a self-destruction that is accompanied by as much collateral damage as possible. When we are captured by a sin that we had previously escaped, Peter says, Chapter 2:22, we are like a sow which, having just been washed clean, heads directly to the pig sty – rejecting that cleansing that is so freely offered and so effectively applied.
But this letter that we call 2 Peter isn’t a lecture telling us that we must be good and we mustn’t be bad. That will come.[3] This letter is a promise. This letter promises that we can be delivered from the things that are trying to separate us from our peace and our sanity. This letter tells us that we can be delivered from our addictions, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, and greed. We can be restored to wholeness and holiness and God will not give up on us until we all have had our chance. [4] God is patient. He is perseverance personified.
If there is some sin or addiction trying to drag your life away from you, don’t give up. Keep keeping on. God wants you to succeed and to be free from it. He is patient with you (3:9). He does not wish that any of us should perish in our struggles. He desires that we should all turn away from and be free of that which is trying to destroy us.
God won’t destroy the earth by fire prematurely. Just like the Amorites were given four hundred years grace before He eventually removed them from His land; and just like the Israelites were given the same warnings in the same land, generation after generation, before He eventually removed them from His land; and just like the people of Noah’s generation were not removed from the land until every inclination of their heart was only towards evil all the time, so too in these last times. When everything else had been done, God finally cleansed the earth with floodwaters. [5] Only when everything else has been done, will He cleanse the earth with fire. The Lord is not slow in bringing this concluding fire and resulting renewal. He will give us every opportunity to be free of all that tries to enslave us before He scrunches up, like a paper, this world of sin that tries to ensnare us, and tosses it in the bin, into the fireplace. God will not end any of our time here before we have all the time and every opportunity to experience the freedom that only comes from serving God. He doesn’t want any of us to miss out on His peace, His love and forgiveness.
Peter encourages all of us. As sure as the fires are burning across our world today, people are perishing in many ways – help them. People are struggling with many things – help them.
When the world does eventually get so bad that there is nothing left in it but only evil inclinations all the time and God does cleanse it with fire, He promises that even then He will create the world anew: new heavens and a new earth. He promises that in these new heavens and on this new earth there will be no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more suffering, and no more death (Rev 24:4). This is something to look forward to - but don’t worry. The Lord is not being slow in bringing these new heavens and the new earth; He loves us all so much that He wants to make sure that everyone who wants to be present in the new heavens and on the new earth, He wants to make sure that everyone who desires to be a part of His eternal kingdom of love and forgiveness can and will be a part of His eternal kingdom of love and forgiveness. All the same, He is not slow to come. He is coming soon.
It is to this end that I really encourage each of us today: if you know someone who is struggling, reach out to them. If you see someone who is suffering, reach out to them. If you are struggling, as it is possible, reach out to someone; if you are suffering, reach out to the Lord. For as we come to Lord and as we bring each other to the Lord, He will transform us, making each of us anew, even before He makes the whole world anew, so that even now - in the midst of the very real challenges of our lives - we can start to live new whole, holy and peaceful lives that will continue on in love and peace for now and eternity - even unto the new heavens and the new earth.
Let us pray.
[1] Doug Oss and Thomas R. Schreiner, 2 Peter3:4-6, in ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, Illinois: Good News Publishers, 2008), 2422.
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, The Nipawin Journal, "What is My Responsibility to the Environment?" (September 2008) Available on-line: http://sheepspeak.com/sasknews.htm#environment And cf. Laird Harris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Leviticus/Exposition of Leviticus/IX. Laws of Land Use (25:1-55), Book Version: 4.0.2
[3] Tokunboh Adeyemo, Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1554: By the Yoruba of Western Nigeria, “Faith is regarded as a gift that brings salvation. But accepting this gift has consequences...We do not receive faith without it taking something away from us. It will take away sorcery, idolatry, adultery, witchcraft, and the like.”
[4] Cf. Duane F. Watson, 2 Peter, (NIB XII: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1998), p. 353
[5] The story of Noah demonstrates God’s ability and desire to deliver the righteous even in the most extreme circumstances. Cf. Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1995), 183.
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