As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
3When
they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden to them is coming destruction,
just as the labor to her having [child] in womb, and they absolutely will not
escape.
“When they
are saying, ‘Peace and safety,…’” Isn’t it interesting to look around and
realize this is exactly where our
world is going? World War I was supposed to be “the war to end all wars,” and
Woodrow Wilson championed the League of Nations – which became ultimately the
United Nations, whose primary task (supposedly) is to maintain world peace. Their military forces are called
“peacekeepers.” We’ve had Hippies and peace-niks and pacifists. We have “Green
Peace,” and the Peace Corps. Politicians constantly clamor for “peace in the
Middle East.” Barak Obama was elected on a platform of promising to unite the
country and end the war in Iraq. His deception was so convincing, he hadn’t
been in office long or done anything at all notable and they gave him a Nobel Peace Prize. In his case, of course, it
was all hot air, and all he did was divide the country, persecute Christians,
and generally leave the world a far scarier place. But our world was clamoring
for “Peace and Safety,” and he said he could give it ... and they believed him.
Along with all of this, it is notable that boys are no
longer taught to fight. As late as my parents’ generation, practically every
boy learned to box. Before that, throughout the ages, a boy just naturally grew
up learning to use a sword or a bow or to shoot a gun – all with the
understanding that he might need those skills someday to defend himself, his
family, or his country. Probably the last generation of fighting men were the
guys who served in WWII. Even as young men those guys could take up a gun and
walk right into the face of death and ultimately win a world war to defend
their families back home.
But not so anymore. Today we’re raising a generation of
snowflakes. When world events look threatening, they need a “safe place” to go
and hide. I often wonder what the men would have thought about this riding the
landing craft right into the carnage of Normandy Beach. A “safe place?” I
enjoyed blowing up groundhogs as a kid, shooting them with a gun big enough to
drop an elephant, but I’m very aware such activities are frowned upon today. I
say to that, “Humbug.” It’s good for a boy to learn to shoot a gun, to shoot a
BIG gun, to pull the trigger and turn his “enemy” into a pink cloud, to spread
blood and guts all over the place. But, of course, … those are not acceptable
thoughts today.
What’s it all about? “Peace and safety.” The entire mental
climate of our modern world is becoming obsessed with “Peace and safety.” Isn’t
that interesting? Someone predicted it 2000 years ago! The world around is
forming exactly into the world the Lord said it would be when He returns. We
don’t know “the day or the hour” but we have been told what the world would be
like and as Jesus said, “When you see these things, you know that it is near,
right at the door” (Mt 24:33).
Are peace and safety bad things? Certainly not. It is
precisely any government’s primary responsibility to provide for the peace and
safety of its citizens (Romans 13:3). And, as Christians, it is of paramount
importance to us that our God provides us with peace and safety. “‘Peace, peace
to him that is near and to him that is far, and I will heal him,’ says the
Lord” (Isa 57:19). “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you … Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). “The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace …” (Gal 5:22). [A godly man] “will have no fear of
bad news, his heart is steadfast, confident in the Lord. His heart is secure,
he will have no fear …” (Ps 112:7,8).
So what is wrong with a world talking “peace and safety?” The
problem is they think they can find it without the Lord. They think they can
create their own peace and safety. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel,
they are saying, “Let us make a name for ourselves!” Just as the Lord warned in
the Old Testament, He can offer blessings and there will always be someone who “…
invokes a blessing on himself and thinks, ‘I will be safe, even though I
persist in going my own way’” (Deut 29:19). That passage goes on to say “… the
Lord’s anger will burn against that man” (v20). The fact is this is God’s world
and He says, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” No peace. It is the very pits of
arrogance and presumption to think we can live in God’s world, spurn His grace,
and still somehow manage to create for ourselves a world of peace and safety.
In fact, the very father of all of that deception is none other than Satan himself who is
“a liar and the father of lies.” Just like crooked politicians, he knows
people want to hear “peace and safety.” But he himself was “a murderer from the
beginning” and the real world he creates is a world of lies and murder.
Although we may enjoy brief periods of good leadership, the
general trend of world leadership will from now on be constantly moving toward
more and more platforms of “peace and safety,” followed by more division, more
persecution, and oppression of anyone who doesn’t play along. In spite of the
failures, people will constantly believe the new lies and continue to embrace
these leaders who promise them “peace and safety.” The Bible speaks of people
believing a “strong delusion of a lie.” And of the AntiChrist himself, it says “and
by peace he shall destroy many” (Dan 8:25).
Finally, the Lord will intervene to end all the lies and murder,
and, as it says in our passage, “While they are saying ‘peace and safety,’
sudden to them is coming destruction.” I’ve left the sentence structure awkward to
show the emphasis the Greek puts on the word “sudden.” It will be sudden. Like a woman in labor – she may
have known it was coming, she just didn’t know when, and when it does come, it
comes, and there is no turning back. And then the Lord goes on to warn, “and
they absolutely will not escape.” Again, in the Greek, the language is there to
emphasize more than just “they will not escape.” It tells us they absolutely will not escape.” Back in
4:15, we were assured that “we who are alive and remain until the Coming of the
Lord certainly will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Same grammatical
device. “Certainly will not.” “Absolutely will not.”
Our world will more and more talk peace and safety while the
lies and murders only increase. But the God who is the true source of peace and
safety will go on offering His grace and mercy – and for those of us who accept
it, we can in Him live in real peace
and safety.
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