By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Every once in awhile I have what you might call a “spiritual dream.” I don’t have them very often, but when they occur I’m always surprised by what I learn from them. Sometimes there’s a spiritual truth I glean from them and other times they are an obvious answer to a dilemma I’ve been facing. Recently I had a dream that popped out of no where. All I can remember is that I was standing in front of someone, possibly an angel. This person or angel spoke to me and said, “2 Peter, 16.” In my sleepy stupor I managed to write this statement down on a notepad I always keep by my bedside. Then I drifted back off to sleep.

 

The next morning I looked at the note written in scribbled handwriting of the scripture verse and remembered my dream. As I thought about the statement, “2 Peter, 16,” I understood this was in reference to the book of 2 Peter and verse 16, but no chapter was given. 2 Peter has 3 chapters so I wondered which chapter and verse were implied? Then I thought of one possibility. What if the person or angel in the dream wanted me to read each verse 16 in each chapter? That was a curious possibility and so I decided to pursue this and see what kind of study might come out of this theory. Let’s look at each verse 16 in each chapter of 2 Peter.

           

2 Peter 1:16

“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

Peter in this verse establishes the veracity of the eyewitness accounts of Jesus Christ and His ministry. Peter states that the apostles did not invent stories or believe those accounts regarding Jesus Christ that were fabricated in error or from creative imaginations. They also did not believe in whatever man-made stories might be circulating about the coming of the Messiah. They saw with their own eyes Jesus walk upon this earth. They heard Him speak as He taught and carried on conversations with Peter and the other disciples. They witnessed Him healing people. They also very likely touched Him with hugs of compassion and handshakes of greetings.

2 Peter 2:16

“But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey — a beast without speech — who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

Here in this verse we see Peter refer to the account in Numbers 22 where Balaam has an encounter with God through a donkey and an angel. Balaam was a rebellious man who possessed a great desire for wealth. In this situation he was rebuked verbally by a donkey. While this seems quite impossible by our understanding, we can’t limit God in any fashion. Miracles are supernatural events that break the laws of science as we understand them, but we must always ask, “Who made the laws of science?” Our Creator did! God is not bound by natural laws for He works supernaturally. When it suits His will He has the capacity, wisdom and ability to break the laws we are bound by. Peter is referencing this scripture in the Old Testament to illustrate the judgment that false teachers will receive as they attempt to lead people astray.      

2 Peter 3:16

“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Here Peter is describing the Apostle Paul’s style of writing that God used to communicate the truth of the gospel. Paul was a very intelligent man versed in the Law of God. He was an excellent speaker and teacher and often was complex in the ways he expressed himself. Peter has been addressing the topic of false teachers leading people astray and also the coming of the last days. This leads him to make this comment in this verse that Paul sometimes writes in a difficult to understand manner. While followers of Christ who are Spirit-led can understand Paul’s teaching with the Spirit’s help, false teachers cannot. The problem is that people who do not have the Spirit living within them will distort scripture because they do not have the Holy Spirit to help them interpret and apply it properly.

So how do these three verses tie together in a central theme that matches the purpose of Peter writing the letter of 2 Peter and explain why I might have such a dream?

First, Peter in this book has an urgent warning for all followers of Christ. He wishes to warn of the falsehood of people who distort scripture, apply it wrongly to the issues of life and who attempt to use it for their own benefit. In Peter’s day, evildoers and false teachers were infiltrating the church and we have the same problem today. In our modern times there are hundreds if not thousands of ministries led by individuals that call themselves “Christian” who are far from it. It is a sign of the last days that false teachers will attempt to lead people away from God’s truth. Possibly my dream was a warning to me to remember that just around the corner lies a person, a group of individuals or ministry that wishes to lead me astray from the narrow way that we are called to by Christ.

Secondly, Peter is urging us to also be ready for the return of Christ. This gives us a reminder that we can sit on our laurels of our commitment to Christ when we first became a Christian, or we can continue to grow in our faith, remain steadfast in our commitment to the truth and seek to stand for what is right and good. Accepting Christ as Savior and Lord is only the first step of our eternal life. We accept Him as our Savior and therefore receive forgiveness of our sins. Accepting Christ as Lord means we bow daily to His will and example of how to live as a member of God’s family. Salvation has a past, present and future. We were saved from the penalty of our sins when we committed our lives to Christ. We are being saved each and every moment of our life from the power our sins over us by seeking to be filled with the Spirit and being obedient to the Word of God. We are also going to be saved from the presence of sin when we reach our home in Heaven and receive our glorified heavenly body. But often we only focus on the fact of our being saved from past sins and fail to evaluate our present state of needing the power of the Holy Spirit to live Holy each day. This is what Peter is challenging us to do here in 2 Peter. In each of these verses from each chapter he is speaking to followers of Christ and warning them to be careful of people who teach falsely in order to gain wealth or power and are attempting to lead others into a dark pit.

Charles Swindohl in his “The Living Insights Study Bible” states that 2 Peter has several themes that weave through it. He sees them in the form of an arrow with three feathers on the end. These themes are like the feathers at the end of an arrow that help the arrow head straight towards a target. Peter used warnings, reminders and promises in 2 Peter to urge followers of Christ to stay on the straight path. Pastor Swindohl suggests the image of the shaft of the arrow as diligence. Diligence is devoted perseverance that provides the motivation to propel us towards the true knowledge of God’s Word and the right living we are called to as followers of Christ. Peter’s warnings, reminders and promises aren’t enough if we just hear them. We must also apply them. If we apply the warnings to how we live, remember the reminders as we live and claim the promises in how we live, then we can remain strong in our relationship with the Lord and in the purity of how we live. This manner of living propels us forward towards the target that is set before us, to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Finally Pastor Swindohl suggests that the point of this arrow is hope. Hope is the key to where we are going and how we get there. Our Father in Heaven gave us hope when He sent His Son to die on the cross for us. The Holy Spirit gives us continual hope as He lives within us as followers of Christ and we seek to be filled with Him. Hope is a dominant theme in the gospel of Christ.

In Romans 5:5 we are told that hope does not disappoint us, because of how God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that He has given us as His children.

Romans 8:5 tells us that as servants of God we patiently wait for the final culmination of our hope. This hope is reaching our heavenly home and receiving our new glorified bodies as well as the release from the power and presence of sin in our lives.

Romans 12:12 speaks of being joyful as we hope, being patient in afflictions we endure and faithful in our prayer. This is a holy triad of behavior of the believer. We are to have hope, seek to be patient and commit to be faithful.

Romans 15:13 calls God the God of hope and informs us that as our Heavenly Father fills us with joy and peace because we trust Him we will overflow with hope as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 reminds us that part of the armor of the Christian is the hope of salvation. The assurance that our salvation rests in is the person of Jesus Christ and is sealed by the person of the Holy Spirit.   

   

Hebrews 6:19-20 describes hope as an anchor for our soul and that it is firm and secure. This anchor of hope rests on our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

 

As I think about my dream and this study that it generated in me to share with you, I see it as a great message for all of us who seek to serve a risen Savior in the hope we have in our great God. Possibly the acrostic that Charles Swindohl comes up with might help you and I seek to make this dream a reality and the message of 2 Peter firm in our hearts. Pastor Swindohl uses the word “hope” as follows:

 

Heed

Open

Pursue

Expect

 

We must HEED what we already know (2 Peter 1:12). Otherwise we are simply fools, who once saw clearly the goal set before them but failed to follow through with their call from God.

 

We must OPEN our eyes and ears (2 Peter 3:17) and use godly discernment to live properly. Otherwise we walk blindly in life, falling into all manner of sinful pit, deceptive teaching and fiery trouble.

 

We must PURSUE a life of holiness (2 Peter 3:11) for this is what we are called to do (1 Peter 1:15-16). If we do not, we fall below the mark set for us, to be like Christ in all we do.

 

We must EXPECT the return of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:12-13) for it will come one day. If we fail to expect Christ’s return, we will not be ready for it and therefore be like the foolish virgins in Matthew 25.

 

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”

Samuel Smiles

 

“Without Christ there is no hope.”

Charles Spurgeon

 

May God use this teaching about my spiritual dream to place hope deep within your faith in our risen Lord. Peter’s short letter written to first century Christians living in Roman occupied Asia was much needed to keep them on the straight path of faith in God. We need it just as much today living in a country that is falling farther and farther away from godly standards and righteous living. Our country needs to Heed what God says in the Bible, Open its eyes to the teachings of wise followers of Christ, Pursue a godly path of God’s will and Expect that we will reap what we sow. Our country will only change when we as followers of Christ, seek to be holy as God is holy and live this out in all aspects of our daily lives.