Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

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7 May 2010
Passage:   2 Peter 2
Focus:  “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials.”  2 Peter 2:9

            I’m not so sure that Peter got things quite straight in his judgment of Lot as recorded in Genesis 19.  Quite frankly, I can’t read that account without getting real ticked at Lot.  I think he was a jerk.  Any father who would offer his daughters to rapists…here I am getting angry again…  My hunch is that Peter is speaking “evangelistically,” stretching the clear and reasonable facts of a situation, as some preachers like to do, to fit with a sermon illustration.  I think that Lot’s only cause for being rescued was the intercession of his Uncle Abraham and not because of his own moral integrity and righteousness.  I know there are those who would judge me as bordering on heresy to even suggest the idea that Peter might be a little bit wrong.  (However, Paul did.  Remember Galatians 2?)
            But I will not venture any argument against the point Peter makes with his illustration of Lot:  “The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials.”  A parallel thought is 1 Corinthians 10:13:  “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”  Blending into this Peter’s assessment of the value of sufferings, trials, and temptations, it is not just a matter of squeaking by so as to stand up under the force of these pressures without falling, but understanding that we cannot truly be properly purged and developed in our faith by any other means.  And may I also suggest this:  The escape route that God so faithfully provides when you are being tried is almost always THE WORD …getting its principles and precepts mounted and installed into your dirty little heart so that you become “transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then (and only then) you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2).