Hastening the Day of the Lord
by Terry Wane Benton
"Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?" (II Peter 3:12)
What manner of person should you be in godliness, as you are “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” Obviously, the reader would need to be ready and sincere, dedicated, and give his life a lot of introspection. If we know Jesus and hold Him as more valuable to us than anything else in this world (Philippians 3:7-9), then we are certainly looking for that day to come, and we hope it will hurry up (hasten). You can “hasten” it in your desire and readiness only, just as the Jews had over 1500 years to “hasten” the first coming of the Messiah. Moses wrote about vengeance “hastening” upon the Israelites if they set themselves up for the curses instead of the blessings. He wrote 1500 years before the AD 70 day of vengeance:
"Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them" (Deuteronomy 32:35 NKJV).
Notice that it was “at hand” (coming in different stages and finalizing in AD 70), and these things could “hasten” upon them, the first readers. But that was over 1300 years in the making. Similarly, we can contemplate our reward of eternal life and immortality as always “at hand,” and in attitude and desire, we can “hasten” it by being closer to it in the heart.
Isaiah 60:22 speaks of a glorious day, the Messianic age when He makes from children a "strong nation," and the Lord adds, "I will hasten it in its time." But Isaiah started this prophetic book about 750 BC. Thus, almost 800 years before the "strong nation" (the church - I Peter 2:5-8) came to the realization. So, we can "hasten" the day of immortality without it coming in our lifetime. It can be near "at hand" without it being under the earth's clock of timing. Remember, time means nothing to God. The hastening is in our spirit of eagerness.
Peter adds a little more to what he has already said about that day. “The heavens will be dissolved.” The atmosphere above where the birds fly is described as “the heavens” in Genesis 1, and the realm of the stars and planets were also described as the heavens. These were made by God’s word at the beginning and dedicated to the use of man for times and seasons. Before this, there was no mortality, and time was not kept for God, who is not time-limited. Time, days, months, and seasons are for the temporal benefit of temporal creatures. The world was made for mortal man. When the day of God comes, all the righteous of the ages will be restored to God as immortals with God. That will be the “day of God.” The objective is that this program of mortality ends with this accomplished goal: “that God may be all in all” (I Corinthians 15:23-28).
We should be looking for and hastening that day of God. That day of God, being all in all, will forever disconnect our dependence on the heavenly bodies for times and seasons and our mortal connection to temporal things. It will end in an intimate connection to God and immortality. In one final moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be changed from mortal to immortal (I Corinthians 15:50-53). When that moment arrives, the present visible universe will be destroyed by fire that melts every element of it. God promised never to destroy it again with a flood and has “preserved” it from such a disaster, but He “reserved” it for fire.
It is true that in some contexts, the dissolving of the heavens is speaking metaphorically or figuratively of dissolving the universe that a particular nation knows (Isaiah 34), so their world comes to an end. Babylon and Edom are such nations whose world came to an end. It should be realized that the metaphor of falling stars of political powers is a foretaste of the reality God had in mind for this temporal universe that had a beginning and an end. Metaphorical usage of the fall of nations as if they are the universe and that nations’ universe was melting away is figurative for that nation but often foreshadows the eventual and literal ending of the literal universe. God did not make the earth and the heavenly bodies for an eternal purpose. When compared to Jesus, “they will perish, but you remain” (Hebrews 1:10). This was quoted from Psalm 102, and the Hebrew writer showed the difference between the physical creation and the eternal nature of Jesus. God did not make the earth and heavens above it to be eternal. Paul said that the things that are visible to us are temporary (II Corinthians 4:18). Thus, there has always been a plan of God to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10) with a plan to end this mortal phase of man and his corruptible environment (Romans 8:19-24). The whole creation was “subjected to futility” (Romans 8:20) and has in itself “bondage to corruption” (Romans 8:21), which makes it and all people in it “groan” and long (“eagerly wait”) for deliverance from this mortal and corrupt existence into the glorious and immortal adoption and redemption of the body (Romans 8:23).
This change will happen all at once at the end, in the twinkling of an eye (I Corinthians 15:23,44f). Peter is speaking of the same literal world that flooded being dissolved by fervent heat because that is the perishing of the corruptible and mortal and the day we have been hoping for, the day of immortality, a new world where all the things that made us groan here are dissolved. So, while some verses have used metaphors or figures of dissolving heavens, this passage does not use that expression figuratively but just as literally as what happened in the real flood of Noah’s day. As we groan in this mortal tent, we eagerly await that immortal tent from above (II Corinthians 5:1-5). We hasten that day and hope for it with eagerness.
Are you eagerly preparing?
