Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		July 12, 2018
2 Peter 1 / Prophecy

Introduction

This study will cover verses 12-21 of 2^nd Peter 1, but will focus on only 3 verses, 19-21. In these verses, God speaks through Peter and makes some important points about the authenticity of what he and other apostles have said in their epistles. He also speaks about the authenticity of the Old Testament, why we can trust it. He also speaks about prophecy and, as the apostles frequently did, he speaks about the Second Coming. Not bad for three verses.

Of course it benefits us to understand what he says but there is a problem - some of the verses are not well understood for reasons we'll discuss later. We'll also use some techniques to reveal the meaning of these verses. These can be useful to everyone when they encounter difficult passages.

This study will spend a good part of the time digging out the depth of what Peter says and then we'll look at the Bible as prophecy and specifically the value of prophecy to the Gospel message.

Study

2 Peter 1:13-18

… I do not weary of reminding you concerning this, truly, even though you know these things well and are established on this truth. ¹³ But it seemed good to me, that as long as I am in this body, to awaken your memory, ¹⁴ as I know that the departure from my body is soon, just as our Lord Yeshua the Messiah has informed me. ¹⁵ But I take pains that you may also constantly have a record by which to do these things after my departure. ¹⁶ For we have not gone after craftily made fables to inform you of the power and the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, but we were eyewitnesses of his Majesty. ¹⁷ For when he received from God the Father honor and glory, when this voice came to him from the splendid glory in his Majesty: "This is my Son, the Beloved, he in whom I delight", ¹⁸ We also heard this voice from Heaven, which came to him when we were with him in the Holy Mountain. (2 Peter 1:13-18)

Peter's words here are straightforward. He says he doesn't get tired of reminding them of these things, even though he knows they already know them and their faith is built on them. He finds himself at a point, though, where he will no longer be able to remind them in person. Jesus has informed him that he will die soon. So he is committing these things to paper so there will be a permanent record.

In the same position we might do something else with our remaining time, like work on our bucket lists. He doesn't stop his work though. His concern is always for the faithful.

He says he works on this record that will outlive him because he is not like false teachers who were only in it to benefit themselves. At that time there were lots of traveling religious men who loved the attention and the food and the money but they had no concern for what would happen when they died, no desire to see the work carried on. That's because it was always about them. This was not so with Peter.

He says the apostles did not use carefully crafted stories they had made up to glorify themselves. Instead it was always first in their minds to tell them about the Messiah and give him the glory as they talked about his power and that he will come again.

This statement that he will come again is an important hint of what is to come in a few verses. Knowing this now will help us understand it when we get there.

So far Peter has been asking them to look at how they have delivered the message, how there was no benefit in it for them. Now he will begin to give them a list of reasons why they should believe the message.

He says they saw and heard these things themselves. Again, he goes back to the point that these were not stories that were made up but were actual events that they experienced. He says that they saw his glory and power and they heard the voice of God speaking at the baptism of Jesus and on the mountain where he was transfigured.

A summary of these verses would be:

• 12. I never grow tired of reminding you of these things even though you know them and believe
• 13. It seems right to keep reminding you as long as I live
• 14. I know that I am going to die soon
• 15. Even so, I'm recording these things because I want you to have them when I'm gone
• 16. So the work will go on and you will know we didn't make up this stuff - that we saw it with our own eyes and heard with our ears
  • (Peter says "we" here to indicate it wasn't just him)
• 17. When Jesus was baptized, we heard the voice from Heaven say "This is my beloved son, he in whom I delight"
• 18. On the mountain where he was transfigured, we heard this voice from Heaven again

Peter is going to speak about prophecy next and we need some background to understand what he will say.

What Is Prophecy?

Most people think that prophecy is about what is going to happen in the future. That's only part of the story. Prophecy can also be a warning or instruction to do something. Dictionary.com defines prophecy, for our purposes, as: "something that is declared by a prophet, especially a divinely inspired prediction, instruction, or exhortation."

Therefore all of the Bible is prophecy. It was all given by God to prophets who spoke it and wrote it down.

So prophecy is not always about the future, in the sense of a prediction, but prophecy is always about the future, in the sense that its goal is to bring people into the future fullness of the Kingdom of God. Instruction directs us; prophetic predictions that have been fulfilled strengthen our faith; unfulfilled prophecy gives us hope and direction.

But there is also false prophecy. Some people claim to be speaking for God when they are not. Instead the words are coming from the mind of a person. That will come up later.

2 Peter 1:19-21

And we have also the true word of prophecy, upon which you do well to gaze, as at a lamp that shines in a dark place, until the day will shine and the Sun will rise in your hearts, ²⁰ While you first know this: No prophecy is its own exposition of the Scriptures. ²¹ The prophecy came not by the will of man in the ancient times, but when holy men of God spoke, being compelled by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21)

A lot of commentators have trouble with these verses. God, speaking through Peter (which is prophecy), is probably intentionally being vague. It's also given in a metaphor, which doesn't help.

To get the best understanding, we need to keep them in their context, which includes verses 13 through 18. Peter has been listing some reasons they should continue to believe after he is gone. The first two were what they saw and heard at his baptism and again at the mountain where he was transfigured. Verse 19 begins the third reason.

And we have also the true word of prophecy, upon which you do well to gaze … (2 Peter 1:19)

This third reason is, they have the Bible (Old Testament) which prophesied these things that Peter is now telling them he and others saw.

He says they would do well to gaze at the Bible, by which he means "study the Bible, which is prophecy." We are doing that in this study.

The metaphor begins now - remember he was talking about the Bible.

… upon which you do well to gaze, as at a lamp that shines in a dark place, until the day will shine and the Sun will rise in your hearts. (2 Peter 1:19)

His meaning is that the Bible, which is prophecy, is like a light. It can't be an accident that he has said "word" and now says "lamp." The reader should immediately recall at least one of these verses.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life (Proverbs 6:23)

Peter extends it farther than these verses do, and that is where commentators start to have trouble. The translation is even a source of trouble. Some translations say "morning star" and others say "day-star" where my favorite translation says "Sun".

The key elements are, I believe, "until the day" and the substitution of "Sun" for the much less bright "lamp." When understood that way, he is talking about a future day when that "lamp" we have, the Bible, will be replaced by something much greater.

Peter describes the lamp as being in a dark place and we are probably familiar with that. At night a lamp appears as a point of light because it only lights the area around it. If it's a flashlight it only lights where it is pointed. The contrast with the Sun is that the Sun's brightness totally drives out darkness.

In saying "until the day" he refers to a specific future day. From the description of the lesser light, the lamp, and the future greater light, the Sun, we know this refers to the Second Coming.

He also refers to this change from lamp to Sun occurring within our hearts, which would be a reference to the change from our current bodies, which desire to do evil, to our future bodies.

In verse 16 he said their relentless message included the "coming of our Lord Yeshua" so we should be expecting more on that topic. So we have three reasons he accept that this is an end-times / Second Coming reference. He foreshadowed it a few verses before, he speaks of the day, and there is a change from a small light in darkness to a light that overwhelms darkness. Also, all of this fits well with other Bible verses about the Second Coming.

Now we see as in a mirror, in an allegory, but then face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I shall know as I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

So the message is this: now we are guided by what we understand from reading the Bible, but we are hindered from doing what is right by the sinful nature of our bodies. After the Second Coming we will be guided by a complete understanding of God and our bodies will desire to do his will.

All of the apostles make frequent references to the end times and especially the Second Coming. This is the hope of Christians. In this case the reference is subtle. Instead of using words like "the return of our Lord", he refers only to the change in our bodies that occurs at that time.

We have another reason to study end-time prophecies - it helps us to understand other parts of the Bible that are not directly linked to the end-times. Every Christian should have an understanding of the basic framework of end-times prophecy.

You can see how the word "Sun" makes sense here. If we had used the translation "Day-star", which is just confusing, or "morning star", we would have lost the meaning.

Peter's words here are similar to a proverb but different, "the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day." (Proverbs 4:18) There are New Testament references that make the same point about growing. In this case, though he is not speaking of a lamp that grows brighter but of a sudden change from a lamp in darkness being replaced by the Sun.

Going back to the last two verses from 2 Peter, we see Peter returning to the theme "you can believe this because … ." But this time he is talking about the trust that can be placed in the Bible.

While you first know this: No prophecy is its own exposition of the Scriptures. ²¹ The prophecy came not by the will of man in the ancient times, but when holy men of God spoke, being compelled by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

Verse 20 is unclear in the original and therefore translations have only made it worse. My favorite translation also has a problem in the first verse. But these two verses are directly related so we can check that we understand the first verse by seeing if it fits with the second verse. Once again context helps us put the pieces together.

First we need to understand that the word translated as exposition here comes from the word "expose", to show something not seen before, and comes from a root word meaning "reveal." Rewriting the verse that way it becomes "No prophecy, on its own, reveals new Scripture."

At first that sounds wrong. If prophecy is the words of God given to his people through a person, then of course prophecy is scripture. That's pretty much what the Bible is - prophecy.

Notice, though, that Peter hasn't said "true prophecy" as he did in verse 19. He is including false prophecy here. So his message is that it isn't scripture just because people said they were speaking the word of God.

We can test this understanding against verse 21. It says prophecy that is scripture did not come by the will of man. Therefore he is expanding on what he said in verse 20, not all prophecy is scripture. This understanding of verse 20 fits perfectly with verse 21.

Now we can tie verses 19-21 together with the earlier verses. Remember that verse 19 is the third reason for trusting what Peter says.

• 19. We have the true prophecy that is the Bible
  • which is good for you to read, because
  • it will serve as a light in your darkness
  • until the day when the light overwhelms you.
• 20. BTW, you can trust the Bible because it is not the words of men who did not speak for God
  • 21. it was not written by the will of men long ago, but
  • by holy men who were compelled by the Holy Spirit to speak

Summarizing verses 13-21 we see that Peter is presenting his main them, why they should continue to believe. He provides a set of reasons. Woven through all of it is prophecy, the word of God, and the voice of God. Prophecy, he makes clear, is at the root of why you should believe.

While covering his main theme, he takes a moment to mention the prophecy of the return of the Messiah.

We also seen how three different techniques were used to help us understand difficult passages in the Bible. We used a larger context to make sure our understanding fits within that context. We used a smaller context, adjacent verses, to make sure there wasn't a sudden change in the meaning. We also used multiple translations to find the one that gave the best understanding.

Fulfilled Prophecies About the Messiah

Fulfilled prophecy is a strong support for the gospel message. The Old Testament was plainly incomplete due to all the unfulfilled prophecies. Many of those were about the coming Messiah, Jesus, and were fulfilled during his time.

Some of these were not even recognized as prophecies at that time. For example, the feast days described and gave dates for the major events of the first coming, his sacrifice, the time in the grave, his resurrection, and the giving of a new law (Holy Spirit).

Below is a list of many of the prophecies that were fulfilled.

"Some of these prophecies are very clear and easy to understand. However, if you are new to reading the Bible, other prophecies will not be easy to understand. Therefore, we have taken the liberty of highlighting those prophecies that are easier to understand by a person who is not familiar with "prophetic language." This does not imply that these passages are more important than the others."¹

¹ http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/m_prophecies.shtml