College Creek Meditations I.3

On Wednesday night a group of us gathered together to pray and read the end of II Peter. In the last chapter, Peter wrote about the coming day when the Lord will bring destruction to the heavens and earth. In the days prior, as others also wrote, “there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts” (Jude 18 NASB). And their mocking and scoffing will be present up until the hour of their destruction, as also Jesus asserted when he said,

Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:36-39 ESV)

And the truly dreadful part is as Misty Edwards succinctly phrased it: “When the rain starts falling, it’s too late.” Peter’s account is a grim and terrible scene where the whole creation is rended and burned. But, he quickly adds, we who have set our hopes to the salvation of God are given a promise of a new creation!
Wednesday night we engaged in a long discussion of some of the most troubling parts of this passage. Jonathan recently has rescued a small bunch of abandoned baby rabbits and has been trying to nurse them and keep them healthy. Over the last week, two of them died. When we read the passage in II Peter he confessed that he was struggling with the notion of a decaying creation. Reading what Peter wrote is for him a blessing of joy, because of the beautiful promise mentioned, and simultaneously a burden, because the thought of death and destruction is very disturbing to him. Because of the promise he eagerly waits for the day of the Lord; but because of the curse on creation (ref. Genesis 3:17, etc.) he dreads the judgment of ungodly men and the dissolution of the whole creation. Honestly, I find myself with a similar sense of horror. Shall we think ourselves as missing the mark to have compassion and hope outweigh our outrage and our desire to see the justice of God? No, indeed, because we know that “mercy triumphs over judgment,” while “judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13 NASB).
We are right to be in awe and fearful before God, asking Him for mercy and grace on behalf of His creation. Few have seen and heard the horros that Joel described:

“Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of the LORD is coming;
Surely it is near…” (Joel 2:1).

The accounts from the prophets through to Apostle John describe this most holy and terrifying day. But we, being so moved to fear and sorrow by the thoughts of destruction, must not think the Lord is heartless in all of this! Knowing that God was distrubed terribly by the great flood in Noah’s time, think of His heartache for this coming day. His anger does burn against those who have embraced the curse, but the verse that tells us “mercy triumphs over judgment” is about God’s mercy; therefore, it is unrealistic to think that does not have the same hesitation and sorrow as we, and even greater. Peter prophesied that the Lord has tarried this long not because He desires to withhold the promise from us, but because He is patient toward all humankind, “not wishing any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). Concerning creation and the whole of those against Him, he will say, “I gave her time to repent” (Revelation 2:21); and therefore we should consider this time as a means of grace for all humans, though it has prolonged the groaning and suffering of creation.
And concerning the suffering that had stirred Jonathan’s heart,—indeed all suffering, not only physical persecution—Paul wrote,

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. (Romans 8:22-25)

And also, for us who have been agonizing and striving in futility along with creation, Paul gives a rebuke and encouragement, especially in the final sentence:

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (II Corinthians 5:1-9)

We must not lose sight of the ultimate end, which is very mysterious but not wholly obscured from our the foresight given to humankind. Nicol Sponberg prophesied rightly when she sang in prayer,

You have a way of turning winter to spring,
Make something beautiful out of all this suffering.

The coming day of the Lord will be the dissolution and destruction of creation, but it is also a consummation, and all creation is longing and groaning in anticipation of that day. The creation, despite receiving the curse along with Adam’s sin, rejoices in the justice of God and in the prophecy of the coming destruction in the same way that a seed would rejoice in its own death: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal” (John 12:24-25). The creation has this understanding. If only our race would be so humble to acknowledge the Lord’s will and embrace the hope of salvation in Christ Jesus, rejoicing in both the justice and mercy of God.