May 1, 2023: 2 Peter 3:11 - What Manner of Persons Ought You to Be

“Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…” - 2 Peter 3:11

In the prior verse, Peter tells us that everything in the heavens and the earth will melt with fervent heat when the day of the Lord comes. In verse 11, he is exhorting us, believers in Christ, that if we know this fact, then we should live our lives in a way that we place our existence, our true lives, in our eternal home above all the comforts that we may have in our temporary home here on earth.

What will happen when governments and global organizations turn even more tyrannical than they are now? Since March 2020, when it was decided to lock down the entire world because of a virus, the freedoms of people have been decreasing at a pace like never before. What will happen when it will be illegal to own a Bible not only in some countries but worldwide? We are already being censored on social media if we cling to that which God calls good and speak against that which God calls sin. Just this year, a British woman named Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested twice for silently praying in her head - not praying out loud - outside of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England. While she was acquitted of the charges against her in her first arrest, we will see what happens this time. (See: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/6/isabel-vaughan-spruce-again-arrested-thoughtcrime-/). The “thought police” are already here. This woman wasn’t violent, she wasn’t calling out the women who were walking into the abortion clinic as they went to get an abortion, she wasn’t admonishing those who perform abortions; she was simply praying in her head, perhaps praying that the women seeking an abortion would have a change of heart and would choose not to abort their babies but instead choose to give them life. As believers in Christ we will undergo more and more persecution such as this woman experienced, and we must choose if we will stand with God no matter the cost to our lives or cave to the powers that be.

The Old Testament prophet Daniel had to make a similar choice, and for him, it was a “no brainer”; he stood with God. He knew that his eternal security was worth more than anything that this world could offer him, even if it would cost him his life. Daniel was a Jewish young man, probably a teenager, when he and three of his friends were taken captive and exiled to Babylon when King Nebuchadnezzar had seized Judah when Israel and Judah were a divided kingdom of the Jews. Daniel had become prominent under the king because of his ability, through the power of Almighty God, to be able to tell to the king the dream that the king had dreamt which had troubled him greatly and Daniel was also able to interpret the dream, something which no one in the king’s palace had been able to, despite their lives being threatened by the king.

Daniel’s prominence continued to a subsequent king, King Belshazzar, an ancestor of King Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps his grandson. King Belshazzar had held a huge feast for over 1,000 people and had ordered his palace men to retrieve the holy vessels of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem that had been seized under Nebuchadnezzar. The king, his lords, his wives, his concubines all desecrated the vessels as they drank wine from them, all the while praising their false gods. In the same hour as they drank, there was a man’s hand that appeared on the wall and its fingers began to write something. The king saw it and became very afraid, so much so that “his knees knocked against each other.” Neither the king nor anyone in the palace could read what had been written on the wall. The queen, remembering that Daniel had been able to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, told the king that Daniel should be called to give the interpretation. The king summoned Daniel, and Daniel did explain it. Daniel reminded the king that King Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled and had given praise and glory to the Most High God, Daniel’s God and not the Babylonian false gods, but that King Belshazzar had not humbled his heart though he had known that his grandfather did. Then Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall, which read: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” [“Upharsin is the plural of “Peres”] The interpretation was as follows:

“MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:26-28)

The Bible tells us that the Babylonian empire was overthrown that overnight, by the Medo-Persian Empire, ruled under King Darius. Daniel’s prominence continued under King Darius, who made Daniel one of only three governors to rule over 120 satraps, who were accountable to the governors. Daniel was excellent at his governorship, “because an excellent spirit was in him,” and the king even considered making him leader over the whole realm. Consequently, Daniel’s fellow governors and satraps were jealous of him and went on a mission to destroy him. They knew the only way they could do it was with something that was “concerning the law of his God.” Thus, they set a trap for Daniel. They encouraged the king to enact a royal statute and decree that, “whoever petitions any god or man for thirty day, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.” The king signed the decree, and the men who were jealous of Daniel watched to see what he would do. The Bible tells us what Daniel did:

“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.” (Daniel 6:10-11)

The men reported Daniel to the king, who reluctantly ordered that Daniel be sent to the lions’ den. “But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, ‘Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.’” The king spoke truth. When the king came to the lions’ den early the next morning, he asked, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” Daniel answered him - he had survived! “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.” Then King Darius gave a decree of truth:

“To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.” (Daniel 6:25-27)

Just as the kingdom of the unrepentant and prideful king, King Belshazzar, was removed from him, so will the kingdoms of today’s rulers be removed from them by the mighty hand of God. Belshazzar was a man who knew of the miracle that Daniel had performed through the power and might of Almighty God of not only interpreting King Belshazzar’s grandfather’s dream but also telling his grandfather the dream he himself had dreamt. Daniel had later gone on to interpret another dream that his grandfather had dreamt. Belshazzar knew that his grandfather had given Daniel and his friends much responsibility in the Babylonian kingdom, and that his grandfather held them in high esteem and had praised Almighty God (Daniel 4:34-36).

Before Daniel had told King Nebuchadnezzar’s, Belshazzar’s grandfather’s dream to him and then interpreted it, Daniel prayed before God, and the secret - the dream and the interpretation of it - were revealed to him. Daniel then praised God, saying:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells within Him. I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might. And have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the king’s demand.” (Daniel 2:20-23)

Yet, knowing all of this, King Belshazzar chose to live a wicked and corrupt life, and in a drunken feast of 1,000 as he defiled the articles that had been seized from the God’s holy temple, Belshazzar “praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.” (Daniel 5:4). On that very night, Belshazzar was slain by the Medo-Persian Empire, and his kingdom fell and was taken by Darius the Mede. All it took was one night for all that Belshazzar had worked for all of his life to be taken from him. As Daniel had previously prayed, “He [God] removes kings and raises up kings.” God had removed King Belshazzar and raised up Darius the Mede. It was that way then, and it is that way now.

As in another praise and honor to God, King Nebuchadnezzar’s words stand true then and they stand true today. The king had become full of pride and he was humbled by God when his kingdom had been removed from him by God. The king heeded Daniel’s advice to him, “…break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.” The king humbled himself, and his kingdom was restored to him by God:

“‘And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, “What have You done?”

‘At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”' (Daniel 4:34-37)

How many presidents, prime ministers, and other government and non-government rulers and leaders in our world today are puffed up tremendously with pride, living arrogantly, thinking they have put themselves in the positions in which they are in, that they are the “elite” and deserve to live luxuriously, and instead of serving those whom they represent, those whom they represent are supposed to serve them? How many enact laws, executive orders, mandates, etc., that they themselves do not follow but demand their countrymen to obey them? Oh, the time is coming when these same leaders and their kingdoms will be removed, every single one of them, for Jesus’ kingdom is coming, sooner than most think.

We are living in extremely critical times. For the unsaved, I ask you this: are you putting your faith and trust in world rulers, world organizations, and world governments to save you, knowing that they all will be dissolved, or are you putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, whose kingdom will never be brought down and will last from generation to generation?

For believers in Christ, we should not be living our lives in ungodliness and sin. We should be striving to be like Daniel who prayed to God despite the king’s decree against it and like the woman who was arrested for simply praying a prayer in her head, despite what the government forbade her to do, for it is against God. We must be faithful to God and not go the way of the world, for as Jesus told us, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 7:13-14). Going the way of the world is the easy thing to do; it’s always difficult to go against the current, but it will be worth it in the end, when we are allowed entry into His eternal kingdom, “His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end.” (Darius the Mede; Daniel 6:26c) ✝️