`Marsha's Musings: The Lord Knows How To Deliver The Godly (II Peter2:4-11 NKJV)

                     

  

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. (II Peter 2:4-11 NKJV)

We see terrible wickedness every day in the news. Each day new revelations come out from Wikileaks and The Vertas Project about how certain ones in our elections are conspiring to rig the elections and do other devious deeds.

These verses today tell us that God will not spare these wicked, evil doers on judgement day.  When He decides to rain his wrath down on them there will be no escape for their souls.  

However, God has delivered the godly from destruction in the past as detailed in these verses.  If He can do this for them He knows how to deliver His godly ones today if He so chooses.  This is not to say that God's people will not have to endure suffering and even death for their faith as some of the New Testament saints did.  God may not deliver us in this world, but make no mistake, He will deliver us on judgement day if we are in Christ.  The salvation of our souls is much more important than the saving of our earthly bodies.

The last part of this passage is sobering.  Peter mentions two categories of people that are especially subject to God's punishment; those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and those who despise authority.  He goes on to describe them as presumptuous and self-willed, not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.  Peter says even angels do not bring reviling accusation against dignitaries before the Lord.

These categories aren't surprising to me, but the part about speaking evil of dignitaries was.  I have been guilty of this as have many of my Christian friends.  We get national leaders in Washington D.C. that  we are not happy with and the nasty accusations fly.  I'm not saying that we should turn a blind eye and go along with everything that comes out of our White House/Congress/Senate.  But I have a hard time keeping my remarks and comments limited to what I think about the decisions that come down.  I often find myself engaged in character assassination.  It is difficult to not assign bad motives to some decisions as it looks blatant at times.  

We need to refrain from speaking evil of our dignitaries. We need to limit our comments and remarks to our  dissatisfaction with decisions that are handed down.  Rather than complaining and not doing something to change it, we need to sit down and take the time to write or call our law makers and respectfully tell them why we are dissatisfied and ask them to try to change it or block whatever is coming down the pipe. This is a better way to channel our frustrations than assassinating the character of those in office.  My goodness!  If the angels won't even bring accusation against them, why on earth are we doing it?  Yikes!

God knows I am so guilty of this!  It is so easy to just hit the retweet button or the share button on posts that say terrible ugly things about the character of our leaders.  But what if it's true?  Perhaps we can point out what their deeds are if it's a case where people need to know in order to make an informed decision such as in voting or letter writing to fight it, but refrain from descending into name calling and ridicule.  

So here I sit talking about all of this!  Will I remember it later?  Apparently I did not the last time I posted this devotional back in 2014.  Shame on me!  I hope I will do better this time around. 

So  two lessons here:

1. God knows how to deliver the godly from evil.  Whether He decides to do it in this earthly life  or at judgement day is His choice.  We  know He will deliver His godly ones on judgement day regardless.

2. If the angels will not bring reviling accusation against dignitaries, why on earth should we be doing it?