I Thessalonians 5:3 – “Peace and Safety”

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.

I Thessalonians 5:1-2 – “Curiosity”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹But, brothers, you do not have a need to write to you concerning the times and the seasons, ²for you yourselves know accurately that [the] day of the Lord is coming as a thief in [the] night.

I’m going to go back to I Thess for a while, then eventually get back to Daniel 3. One thing I must say is that Greek is sure easy to work with! It is so similar to English. After working in the Aramaic of Daniel 2 for a while, I almost can’t believe how easy and smooth the Greek is back in the New Testament. The Aramaic and Hebrew of the Old Testament are almost like working in Chinese. There is seemingly nothing in them even faintly reminiscent of English. That in itself makes it fun to work with them, but, on the other hand, I don’t know if I’ve ever noticed before just how easy Greek is.

To the passage at hand.

Paul at the end of chapter 4 has been discussing prophecy and the Rapture in particular. There, of course, was no chapter break in his letter, so the words before us need to be read as a continuation of chapter 4. It would seem that what Paul is doing here in vv 1,2 is anticipating an (apparently) very predictable human response: curiosity. He’s been talking about the Lord “descending from Heaven with a shout,” and now (apparently) is anticipating the question “When?”

Humans are (again, apparently) incorrigibly curious. When Jesus was teaching the disciples about the end times, their response was: “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” Then, even after He was resurrected and just before He returned to Heaven, they asked Him, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” To the first question He answered, “About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” To the second He answered, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.” When Jesus told Peter he would die an old man, Peter immediately looks at John and asks, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

Curious. People are curious. They want to know. They want to know a lot of things. They generally don’t like to not know. I suppose, if we pondered it for a while, that it has something to do with us being made in the image of God. God Himself, of course, is Omniscient, all-knowing – perhaps our curiosity arises from our desire to be like Him in that way? Hmmmm. I’ll have to think about that one for a while.

At any rate, we do find ourselves curious beings and the subject of prophecy seems to always leave us wanting to know “When?” It is apparently almost irresistible. I say that because Jesus made it very clear, “No man knows the day or the hour,” and yet people all down through the ages have incessantly strove to pin-point that day and hour anyway, and then often have been able to generate large followings of other people, equally willing to completely disregard Jesus’ very clear words, even to the point of selling their property, giving all their money to their charlatan leader, and doing all sorts of other very foolish things.

Paul was able to write I Thessalonians 5:1,2, which I’ll write out in opposition to people’s insatiable curiosity: “But, brothers, you do not have a need to write to you concerning the times and the seasons, ²for you yourselves know accurately that [the] day of the Lord is coming as a thief in [the] night.” Paul says, “You know, very well,” that the Day of the Lord will come at an unexpected time. They already know that. Jesus made it clear. Paul has apparently made it clear. Yet he needs to say it again. “Like a thief in the night …”

The bottom-line of this is, in spite of our insatiable curiosity, this is one question for which we cannot and will not get an answer.

Will not. Period.

No matter how many times we ask. No matter how much we study. No matter how many “secret codes” we think we find in the Bible – this in one question for which we cannot and will not get an answer.

It seems to me that somewhere in my Bible studies I have run across this same issue. We know about the past. We live in the present. But the Lord has hidden from us the future. We all have to live in the present, honestly not knowing what will happen in the next five seconds – much less the next 50 or 100 or 1000 years. We all know it is true and yet there is something in us, this apparently insatiable curiosity, that leaves us yearning to somehow pierce that dark veil of the future.

I don’t think it is a matter that we somehow need to stop being curious. Again, that may be an expression of the image of God in us. But somehow it needs to be a sanctified curiosity. It needs to be a curiosity that humbly accepts what the Lord will not let us know. We must believe that He knows best, and even in what He withholds He is giving us what truly is best for us. And apparently it is best for us to live our lives knowing He will come but not knowing when.

He will come … like a thief!

Daniel 2:48,49 – “Faith in the Real Workplace”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴⁸Then the king made Daniel great and gave to him many great gifts and he made him ruler upon the all of the province of Babel and chief ruler upon the all of the wise men of Babel, ⁴⁹and Daniel asked from the king and he appointed upon the service of the province of Babel to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel [was] in the gate of the king.

At first glance, this seems like just an “Aw, that’s nice” passage, and then we quickly move on. Apparently that is how almost everyone sees these two verses, as I found very little commentary written on them, and even some commentators said nothing at all.

But to me these two little verses are jewels to sit and ponder, literally overflowing with very, very helpful truth for people who want to live for God in a real world, and especially in the real workplace.

Here are Daniel and his friends. Their entire lives have been blasted upside down. Just three or four years before they were normal teenage boys in Jerusalem thinking about what careers they might embark on and which of their little Jewish girlfriends they might marry. Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army appeared on the scene and nothing has been the same since. The boys were ripped away from their families, and the future they had imagined was shattered to dust as they were carried far away to Babylon and placed in the service of that king.

Ever since then, they have modeled for us how to live for Christ in a godless, pagan world. And as I have said before, what I find enormously encouraging and instructive about the book of Daniel is to realize that what we’re reading about is believers in the workplace – believers at their jobs. Babylon is no “Christian” workplace for the boys to thrive in, but then neither are most of our jobs. For 99% of God’s people, we spend all day every day in a world that could care less what God thinks of their practices. As we try to be people of integrity, we’re not in danger of being thrown into a fiery furnace, but we all know our workplaces can dole out some pretty miserable consequences when somehow our faith runs against the grain of their intentions. We also know that our work assignments often seem impossible, just like the boys and the interpretation of this dream of the king’s, and there too our faith is challenged. Finally, as we plod away day after day we are (or should be) very aware that these people we work with desperately need to know this God they apparently don’t care about.

Once again, here we are. Another day in the real world lives of our Daniel and his friends. Once again, they were just minding their own business, doing a good job at whatever they were given to do, when suddenly the decree has gone out they are to be executed because the other wise men can’t do what the king is asking.    Executed.    Dead.    At that point, they didn’t know “the rest of the story.” For all they knew, their heads would soon be in baskets. And how did they respond? In faith. In real, living faith. They continued to be men of integrity; they continued to be polite and make requests properly … and threw themselves into the arms of the Lord. Like Jesus, “When threatened, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.”

Our friends did exactly what we all should do all day every day at our jobs – be people of integrity and entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly.

It is worthwhile to note, in the very next chapter, they will do exactly that and get themselves thrown into a furnace. Today, it gets them promoted higher than any of them could have ever imagined! Think about it – all Daniel has done is live his faith. All he has done is be humble, pray, invite his friends to pray, and sincerely try to do what his boss has asked, and, in this case, the Lord has honored that faith and, instead of being executed, suddenly Daniel and his friends are promoted to the very highest positions in the king’s service. And what does that mean? It means no doubt very high salaries, palatial mansions to live in, the most expensive chariots to drive – practically everything a young man could ask for.

I take from this the realization that, whenever I am faced with one of these crises at work (and really we face at least small versions of it all day every day), I need to be like Daniel and just be a person of integrity, try to do my best, and trust God with the outcome. I may be successful and be greatly honored. Or I might get thrown in a furnace. But no matter, I can live in the quiet confidence that my God is the Most High and He rules in the lives of men and nations. My job is to serve Him. His job is to run the universe. And I know He’ll do it well – whatever that may mean for me.

That alone is enormously helpful truth for living in a real world. But there is way more in these two little verses. We can ponder why the Lord is doing this. Why promote these young fellows so high? On the one hand, it is no doubt a blessing of the Lord for their faithfulness. Like Solomon they did not ask for riches or long lives but simply wisdom to live today, and the Lord says, “Then I’ll give you both.” But there is a much bigger picture going on here than just some young men and their lives. God has just raised four Jewish boys to the very highest levels of power in the government of Babylon, the ruling power of the known world, and the very place where their fellow Jews have been carried captive. God is no doubt show-casing to the world His greatness and also placing the boys in positions where they can do good to their own captive people. Our good God can accomplish all of that in one miraculous event.

Then stop and ponder too what the boys have been promoted to – the government of Babylon.  Babylon. Not Judea. This is seriously about like an American POW being promoted to serve in the government of Nazi Germany! This is not the country these boys want to be governing. It is not the people they want to serve. And yet how do they handle it? With integrity and faith, like always. We can take from this that we don’t always get the job we want. We may end up in some places we really don’t want to be. Yet, if that is where the Lord has put us today, how should we deal with it? With integrity and faith – just like Daniel and his friends.

To see what I mean, look closely at the two verses and think about it. Where does Daniel get placed? He’s made the head man over all the wise men of Babylon. “Wise men.” And what are they really? Astrologers. Soothsayers. Necromancers. Conjurors. Wizards. Shamans. Fortune-tellers. Tarot card readers. Think about it! The very profession itself is abhorrent to an Israelite. Back in Israel, such people were to be executed! And where is Daniel? Placed in charge of them! It’s about like one of us being “promoted” to head up all of the king’s royal abortion clinics or all of the king’s royal brothels! The job itself would be not only undesirable to us but actually abhorrent! Can you imagine Daniel sending a letter back home to his parents saying, “Guess what? I’ve been made the head of the necromancers!!!” You would think his Jewish parents’ first response would be horror. This is precisely one of those places where I suspect any one of us as normal evangelical Christians would probably think we need to refuse to work in such a position. But Daniel didn’t.

But Daniel didn’t.

He accepted the position.

As they say, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

It’s bad enough that he has to serve in the court of the very king who will destroy Jerusalem. It’s bad enough he had to attend Babylon U. and learn all the vile methods of the “wise men.” Now Daniel and his friends get promoted to the very highest positions in that pagan, godless world.

Yet they took the jobs and no doubt did them well.

I remember years ago pondering in my mind whether it was even possible for a thinking Christian to be president of the United States. My head was so full of legalistic scruples I just couldn’t imagine how one could occupy that position without almost constant compromises. But then I watched Ronald Reagan and I saw that, even though he went to all the dinners and drank their wine and danced with his wife and served over a country that was aborting babies under his very nose, yet it was an enormous blessing to have such a good Christian man serve as our president. I could see that somehow he could disregard all my scruples and yet do tremendous good to this country and to the world itself. It was quite a mystery to me at the time, but I knew something was “right” about it and longed to understand.

And here I see Daniel doing the very same thing.

Of course, what I have learned over the years is that it all comes down to “Love God, love people.” Christianity isn’t about all the scruples. It’s about loving God and people. And the fact is we can do that from almost any position – even as the head of the necromancers or high up in the court of a pagan king. I will even go so far as to suggest, if we had to, we could do it as head of the king’s royal brothels – if that is where we found ourselves.

Can I inject here that, in America, we think we are basically free to work wherever we want to, that we don’t “have to” work at any job. That is true but only to a point. The fact is it is very expensive to live and I can’t just quit a job if I don’t have another already lined up to go to. Even in America, if you quit your job, you have no idea how long it will take to find another and whether it will be any better than what you left any way. My point is that, in the real world, and to a very large extent, we’re no different than Daniel. We don’t really have a whole lot of choice what we do or do not do at work. We’re given assignments and expected to carry them out. And like Daniel, a good Christian will take most of it with a smile and seek to do their best – no matter where they find themselves. And I know – but, but, but …!!! I’m just saying, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.” I think we can learn a great deal from Daniel, if we only lay aside our traditions and actually listen to what the Lord is telling us through him – and again, especially in our workplaces.

I could say so much more about this, but, in the event anyone stumbles across these feeble scratchings, I hope I’ve challenged you to think very deeply about what it means to be a practicing Christian in a godless, pagan workplace. I will close my thoughts by just suggesting that what the Lord wants of us is very, very different than the impressions we get today. We need to get our truth from the Bible, not from our traditions, and I hope I have at least challenged someone to think that through. Once again, that is precisely why I study the Bible – I find in it a very different “faith” than what we all seem to think it should be. I want to live Jesus’ faith – and that can only come from the Word of God itself.

I want to live a real faith in the real world, in my own very real workplace – just like Daniel.