Escape Plan

07.27.14

2 Peter 1.19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. (NIV)

Completely reliable is one thing – completely understandable is another. I’ve been reading the majestic prophecy of Isaiah these days. Isaiah was called by God in a pivotal time in Israel’s history. One author I’ve read compares the days of Isaiah to those of the Kennedy presidency and the times that befell our nation during and after those days. What a difference fifty years can make. We’ve never recovered.

In Isaiah’s day the northern tribes were carried off into captivity and the territories of the northern tribes were resettled by pagan peoples from the east. There was great turmoil in the nation and a desperate sense of self-preservation; a fearful grabbing at whatever they thought would restore some semblance of what was lost. It didn’t work; things were changed forever. To the two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin, God sent His prophet, Isaiah to help them to do what was necessary to return to some kind of normalcy: to return to God; even that didn’t work. The people were too far gone by that time.

Peter, in his second letter, makes this statement: “We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it…” It is worth our while to look at Isaiah and the other prophets who answered God’s call to go to an apathetic and uncaring people and try to get them to reconnect with God. Our nation’s biggest need today is to do precisely that. The prophetic message contains the truth and the truth will set us free. Congress won’t. The president won’t. Americanism won’t. Isaiah (and his fellow prophets) called them to repent; and that call to repentance is still active and viable today: we might call it completely reliable.

Living for God, in part, means living by His word. That doesn’t mean making it a set of rules but it does mean understanding that its message is completely reliable – we can count on it in our everyday living. We use God’s word to learn about His interactions with the peoples of long ago and, because He never changes, how He interacts with us today. We read God’s word and hopefully learn to avoid the mistakes they made; and when we do, we’ll find that everything we learn in His word is completely reliable and relevant to our lives today.

Peter reminded the believers of his day to rely on the reliability of God’s word; and I suppose I must heed his advice today: God is completely reliable yesterday, today, and forever. Those who believe that will find God’s peace and provision in the worst of times, which if allowed to do their perfect work, will become the best of times that draw us closer to Him… I’m in.

Father, today I realize how much I long for an escape plan. I look here and there for safety and shelter amid the storms around me and I’m reminded today – through Your word, Your completely reliable word – that the escape plan is not fleeing from the storms but finding You within them. May I be strong to believe that You are in the storms, and that I am safe because You are – Amen.