2 Kefa 3:1-13

The Day of the Lord Will Come ~ Part 2

In my last post, we began to unpack Kefa’s prediction that The Day of the Lord Will Come ~ Part 1 in 3 Kefa 1:1-8. In this post, we continue to examine The Day of the Lord Will Come ~ Part 2 in 3 Kefa 1:8-13.

⁸ Moreover, dear friends, do not ignore this: with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

Kefa appeals to Psalm 90:4 to make his point, as did many other Jewish writers of his day (who often took “the day as a thousand years” literally and applied it to the days of creation). ^[1] What seems like a delay makes the Lord’s return no less sure. Kefa noted that God views time differently than humans. Yeshua will return following the divine timetable, not ours. Dear friends recalls the recipients of the letter (1:1).

⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some people think of slowness; on the contrary, He is patient with you; for it is not His purpose that anyone should be destroyed, but that everyone should turn from his sins.

The Lord has not yet returned, says Kefa, because He is patient with you. The Tanakh emphasized that God delayed judgment to allow an opportunity for the wicked to repent. His patience concerning the world’s end was further emphasized in later Jewish texts like 4 Ezra; in Jewish texts, one could no longer repent once the day of judgment had come.

¹⁰ However, the Day of the Lord will come “like a thief.” On that Day, the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.

Even though the Second Coming appears to be delayed, the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, says Kefa. Like Sha’ul teaching on the same subject (see 1 Thess. 5:1–8) and Yochanan reporting his vision (Rev, 3:3, 16:15), he alludes to Yeshua’s own words about the suddenness of his reappearance (see Matt. 24:35–44, Luke 12:35–49). The cataclysmic picture of that Day which Kefa gives here and in vv. 7, 12 is founded in the Tanakh. (Take out your friendly concordance and see how many references you can find.)

 ¹¹ Since everything is going to be destroyed like this, what kind of people should you be? You should lead holy and Godly lives,

As usually in the Brit Hadashah, Kefa’s discussion of the future is practical and suggests how to live in the present. This focus corresponds with some apocalyptic writers’ motives but contrasts with what appear to be those of many others: impatient curiosity about the future. Those who suffered in the present order especially embraced apocalyptic hope, which gave them the strength to persevere amid seemingly insurmountable tests in this age. ^[2]

¹² as you wait for the Day of God and work to hasten its coming. That Day will bring on the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt from the heat; ¹³ but we, following along with his promise, wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness will be at home. ~ 2 Kefa 3:8-13 (CJB)

Jewish Rabbis disagreed among themselves about whether God at a time fixed the end of the age or whether Isra’el’s repentance and obedience could hasten it. In this context, Believers hasten the coming of the end by missions and evangelism, thereby enabling the conversion of those for whose sake God has delayed the end (2 Kefa 3:9, 15).

Kefa insisted that the anticipation of the Lord’s return and its accompanying events of judgment should rouse Believers to holy living. Evil will be destroyed when Yeshua returns, and righteousness will dwell in new heavens and a new earth.

In my next post, we will complete our study of 2 Kefa by examining his Final  Words.

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^[1] The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament.

^[2] Ibid.