Counting Down

Day 82:  2 Chronicles 19–24; Obadiah; Jonah 1–4; 2 Peter 1–3

As I enter the home stretch and begin the count down for completing the 90 Day Bible Blitz, I am aware that the great count down toward the Day of Judgement is hinted at and spoken to in these later books.  It's no surprise that prophets speak of doom and reckoning as payment for sin and rebellion.  It's no surprise that unfaithful kings find themselves warned and meet their deaths.  What is surprising is Peter making so strong an appeal about the end of all things.  We know the New Testament has Revelation, but do we hear the warnings given by the writers throughout?  It is there in every corner if you don't skip over it.  Jesus speaks about it in all the gospels.  Paul speaks about it in his letters.  Hebrews makes the prophetic warnings (2:2-3; 12:26-17). James also reminds the church (4:12; 5:3). And now Peter talks about the end which is near.  We don't really know when the count down will reach zero day.  The clock just keeps ticking.

2nd Chronicles gives more details on the kings of Judah and less on the kings of Israel.  It's history told by priests or levitical scribes about the kings and prophets of Judah.  We learn of Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram who has a measly 9 verses written about him in 2 Kings 8:16-24, but a chapter of 20 verse telling his story in 2 Chronicles 21.  Jehoram is wicked, but we learn it is because of how closely allied he is with the house of King Ahab of Israel. He was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, the wicked queen of Samaria.  Apparently he was bad enough to get a letter from Elijah the prophet, who was prophesied against Ahab in the north!  It is the only writing we have of Elijah that is direct from him.

Jehoram's son Ahaziah was no better, poorly counseled by the idolatrous Queen Mother Athaliah (2 Chr. 22:3).  When Ahaziah is killed by God's punisher Jehu in Jezreel, Queen Athaliah takes the throne and murders all the royal family who might contest her power.  Only the baby son of Ahaziah, Jehoash is saved by his aunt Jehoshabeath.  She was married to a righteous priest Jehoiada.  They kept the baby hidden in the temple complex for seven years, then orchestrated a coup to anoint Joash as rightful king.  They execute Athaliah.

Joash under Jehoiada's supervision repairs the temple and takes up a temple tax as was prescribed by Moses to pay for the work. But Joash is corrupted by the rulers of Judah after the priest Jehoiada dies.  They compel him to lead Judah back to worshipping Asherah poles and idols.  They abandon the temple that Joash had repaired.  During this time Zechariah, son of the priest Jehoiada, prophesied in the Spirit.

"This is what God says: 'Why are you transgressing the LORD's commands and you do not prosper? Because you have abandoned the LORD, He has abandoned you (2 Chr. 24:20).' " 


They stoned the priest to death.  This event was referred to by Jesus when he confronted the hard hearted priests and scribes at the temple.  He told them they always kill the prophets God sends them.  The blood of Abel (Cain's brother) to the blood of Zechariah will be on their heads (Lk. 11:51).  


Obadiah rails against the Edomites for joining in kicking Jerusalem while they were downed by the Babylonians (Edomites rebellion against Jehoram in 848 BC, depending on whose dating you believe).  He says the days are counting down.


"the Day of the LORD is near,
    against all the nations. 
    As you have done, so it will be done to you;
    what you deserve will return on your own head (Obd 1:15)."


Jonah is called to prophesy against the Assyrians at Nineveh, a wicked city.  God wanted Jonah to announce their coming destruction.  Jonah didn't want to go, not because he was afraid of the Assyrians, but because he was afraid they would repent and God would not destroy them.  


Jonah has the famous fish story in which Jonah is swallowed by a great big fish. He spends three days in the belly of the fish and prays to Yahweh.  



As my life was fading away, 
    I remembered the LORD. 
    My prayer came to You, 
    to Your holy temple.
   
Those who cling to worthless idols 
    forsake faithful love,
    but as for me, I will sacrifice to You
    with a voice of thanksgiving (Jon. 2:7-9b)." 


After this horrifying deliverance from certain death in a storm at sea, Jonah does preach at Nineveh in obedience to God.  And as he feared the Assyrians repent in sack cloth and ashes.  Even the cows repent!  That's too funny!  So God has mercy and rolls back the clock.  Nineveh is spared for the time being until Babylon comes on the scene.  This story is a wonderful depiction of how God cares about all people, not simply Israel His chosen.  Jonah's chosen status makes him a servant to his enemy because God cared about Nineveh too.


If Hebrews 11 reads like a Hall of Fame, 2nd Peter chapter 2 reads like the "Hall of Infamy."  Rebellious angels thrown into Tartarus, the mythical prison that holds the Titans are on the roll.  The wicked who perished in the great flood at the time of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah, Balaam

Peter encourages the church to stay alert and pursue a growing fruitful faith. And he instructs them about the proper way to wait for the end.  For some among them had been scoffing a the idea of a second coming.

Scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep,all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation (2 Pet. 3:3-4)." 


But the faithful should see things from God's perspective.  Time means nothing to an eternal being with no beginning or end.  God is not slow in coming.  The wait for the Day of the Lord means salvation. It is a sign of God's patience for He doesn't want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9b, 15)."


How often well intentioned preachers and Christian authors try to frighten with stories of the Day of the Lord. They tell horrific stories of the end of this age in hopes they the frightened will repent.  It certainly was a tactic used by the Old Testament prophets.  Jesus too used this prophetic tool when he told parables about the end when the unrepentant and ill-prepared will find themselves outside the kingdom of heaven "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; Lk. 13:28)."  


But Peter's description of the end points to our great hope in that Day. It is a Day we are to earnestly desire its coming.  It will be a Day of cleansing fire burning away all that is destructible to make way for the new indestructible earth and heaven (2 Pet. 3:10-13).


But based on His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell (2 Pet. 3:13).

Our fallen world is due for a cleansing.  Peter speaks of the torment the righteous experience when witnessing so much wickedness (2 Pet. 2:7-10).  It wears you down.  I am counting down the days for our home together with God, a place where righteousness is at home forever and evil is no more.