12 Why the Future Matters for Today (2 Peter 3:1–7)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome back to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. This is the podcast where we explain not only what scripture means, but how we figure it out. This is our 12th talk in our series on the book of 2 Peter, and today we'll be starting chapter 3, looking at verses 1 through 7. The lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below the podcast, or you can find them on wednesdayintheword.com slash 2 Peter 12. Thanks so much for joining me today. As always, we're going to start with a little bit of review. Peter is writing to churches who are troubled by false teachers, and these false teachers are distorting the apostolic gospel and deceiving people into thinking that they can live immoral lives. In chapter one, Peter insisted that the apostolic gospel is a revelation from God, while the message of the false teachers is a message of their own invention and their own imagination. Then in chapter two, Peter strongly denounced the false teachers, warning that when judgment comes they will be destroyed, as will everyone who follows them. Now as he begins chapter three, he's starting to close the letter and to summarize the themes that he has discussed so far. We're going to start with the first two verses. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Peter tells us this is the second letter he's written, and we have two letters attributed to him in Scripture, the ones we call first and second Peter. Some scholars have suggested that there is a third letter that didn't survive, and that Peter is referring to that letter here. But I tend to go with tradition and think the two letters we have are the two he wrote and the two he's referring to. He says his purpose in writing these two letters is the same, and that makes sense with the letters we have. We're going to look at that in a minute. They are not identical, but they do share a lot of common themes. So as he nears the end of his letter, Peter begins to summarize his main points, and the ideas we see here are ones we saw earlier in the letter. For example, he says in three one and two that he wants to stir up their minds by way of reminder, and he said something similar in chapter one. This is chapter one of Second Peter verses twelve through fifteen. Therefore I intend to always remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me, and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. Peter is aware that his earthly life is coming to a close and he wants to write down the ideas that he considers most important so that after he is gone people will remember them. He realizes it's very easy to fall asleep spiritually, to become complacent and forget the bigger picture of what life is all about and to lose perspective on what's really important. And he wants them to remember what is true and right. As we've seen, this reminder is especially timely for his readers because they have false teachers in their midst who are trying to entice them to follow a different gospel. So Peter is writing to them to keep them alert and discerning so that they're not taken in by these wrong ideas. What does it mean to stay awake and be focused on what is true? Well, he tells us in three two that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. He tells us he wants them to know and embrace the words of the prophets and the apostles of Jesus Christ. Again, this isn't a new idea, he's made this point earlier in the letter. Look at one sixteen through twenty one. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word to which you would do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So here in chapter one we see these two sources of knowledge he's been referring to all along. He refers to himself as an eyewitness to the identity of Jesus, and he refers to the words of the prophets. Now we might ask what things does Peter want them to remember? Is he talking generally about every idea contained in Scripture or does he have something specific in mind? Well, since he's nearing the end of his letter and he appears to be ending with a summary, that suggests to me that Peter has something specific in mind. When he tells them he wants them to remember these things, he's referring to something definite. There's a unity to what he's been saying, and as good Bible students we want to stop and think about the picture he's been painting. Reviewing the first two chapters, I think we can see three themes that Peter wants them to remember. So first, the prophets and the apostles agreeing. Peter has insisted that the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of Jesus Christ preach the same gospel. The prophets were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, predicting what the Messiah would accomplish, and the apostles can testify as eyewitnesses that this man Jesus of Nazareth is that promised Messiah. We see that from the passage we just read in chapter one. Christ came, Peter and the other apostles saw and heard him, and they can testify as to what he said, what he did, and what he taught. And the Old Testament prophets talked about the coming of the Messiah, and now the apostles can say, Yes, he came, and this is what he said and did. So the apostles then confirm the message of the prophets. They can testify as eyewitnesses that the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament prophets did in fact come. Now unity between the Old Testament and the New Testament is not something we think about much today. Many Christians barely read the Old Testament, we aren't familiar with it, and in some sense we feel justified because, well, we're not Jews anymore, we're Christians, we don't have to eat kosher or celebrate the feasts, and so we toss out the Old Testament. But Peter doesn't see a gap or a chasm between the two testaments. He sees a unified teaching running from one to the other. The prophets were pointing to the same person that Peter and the other apostles are pointing to. It's just that the prophets were looking forward to his coming and the apostles are looking back on it. The message of the prophets and the message of the apostles are two aspects of the same faith, the same hope and the same gospel, and Peter has emphasized that in this letter. So that's the first theme. The second one is Peter has also emphasized a unity between the past and the future. In Peter's past, the prophets predicted the coming of Christ, and then indeed Christ came. Peter knew him, Peter heard him teach, Peter saw him perform miracles that confirmed his identity. Peter saw him die on the cross and rise again. And now as Peter writes this letter, it's about thirty years later. But these past actions have strong implications for the future because they are all part of the story of redemption that God is telling in creation. The prophets and the apostles both say that Christ has not yet finished his work. His ultimate purpose was to establish the kingdom of God and God's sovereign rule over all of creation. He defeated death at the cross and his resurrection, but his victory is not yet complete. He intends to completely banish death, sin and corruption, and to establish justice and righteousness. As Peter has been saying in this letter, the goal of Christ's work is to give God's people life and godliness. First Christ had to pay the price for our sins through his life, death, and resurrection, but his work is not done. He still has to come back and establish his rule over a new creation. Jesus is coming again to finish the job, and Peter wants us to remain focused on this future hope. The prophet's predictions of Christ and then Peter's eyewitness testimony of what Christ did in fact do are tied to this future hope of what Christ will do. It's all part of the same package. And then finally, the third theme is Peter has emphasized the unity between the future and the present. When the prophets and the apostles tell us about the promises of God for the future, they are also telling us something about how we should live our life now, today. The fact that we now understand that we are sinful and that God is holy, the fact that we now understand that we can be freed from slavery to sin by trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ, the fact that we now want to be freed from our sin and that we repent of our sins all means we will live differently today. We will strive to live a different sort of life than we lived as pagans before we understood the gospel. And notice Peter ties these ideas together in three, two, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior. Those predictions and commandments are related concepts. They're connected, they are predictions for the future, but they have implications for today. The prophets predicted the Messiah would come and the Messiah didn't did indeed come. And if we claim to follow him, it will change the way we live. We will pay attention to and strive to follow His commandments. The prophets and the apostles tell us that God has promised to solve our problems as human beings, but those problems are not the temporal problems of this earthly life. Those problems are the fact that we are sinners and that God is holy, and one day we will stand before Him as a criminal stands before a judge who has the authority to hand out a death sentence. We are sinful, we do not love God as we should, we do not love our neighbors as we should, and this has made the world a corrupt and terrible place. But worse, we will be judged by God and be destroyed if we have rebelled against Him. We are corrupted and stained by sin and we will not survive His judgment because we are guilty. The promise of the gospel is that there is a way to escape. There is a way to find grace and mercy when God comes back to judge, and that way is through trusting in the blood of God's Messiah, Jesus Christ. Both the prophets and the apostles pointed to the solution. Because of Jesus, we will find forgiveness, and then God will make us into the kind of people who fully love God and our neighbors as we should, and we will find life. Life will finally be everything it was meant to be. That's the problem, and that's the solution. And once we recognize that the point of this life is to give us a strong, mature, saving faith such that we can be forgiven and saved on that day of judgment, that gives us perspective on our daily lives now. It gives us a clue as to what we are to learn through suffering, it gives us a perspective on how to react when we're treated unfairly, and it gives us a window on what we should value, what things are eternal and what things are temporal. If the point of everything is to be forgiven and healed of our sin, then that tells us what the point of our lives is today. What we need more than anything else is to find life through forgiveness and to find fulfillment through righteousness. Today is about believing those promises, longing and setting our hope on that life and righteousness. Our lives will then reflect the fact that we have set our hope on life and righteousness. We will live like people who long to be holy. We will be people who see our primary goal as sharing the goodness of God and being like Him because that's the end of our journey. Of course we'll still struggle with sin, but the course, the destination, and the goal of our life has been set. That's the picture Peter has been painting. The prophets and the apostles speak of this unified need for salvation. It starts in our past with predictions of the Messiah. It was confirmed by the eyewitness of the apostles. It changes the way we live today and it gives us a hope for the future. And our future hope sets the course for our lives now. We are urged to seek godliness because godliness is our destiny. And I think this is what Peter wants them to remember, this unified, coherent picture of life. This is what the prophets and the apostles said, this is what their message means for the future, and this is how knowing that future changes my life today. Now if the letter we call first Peter was in fact the first letter and this is the second, and they were written with the same purpose, we should expect to see these three themes in first Peter, and indeed we do. There are a number of passages we could look at in first Peter, and I have a teaching series on that book which I'll link to in the lecture notes if you're interested, but let me just look at one of them here. This is first Peter chapter one verses ten through sixteen. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in these things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. I think we see these same ideas in this passage. We see this same unity of themes we just talked about in Second Peter. In first Peter one, ten through eleven, he talks about the message of the prophets and the apostles as one unified whole. He speaks of the prophets who prophesized of the coming of Christ and how they longed to see more clearly what Christ would do. Then in one twelve he connects the message of the prophets with the message of the apostles as those who have now announced the good news. This is one twelve again of first Peter. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in these things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. What the prophets were talking about has now found its fulfillment in what the apostles are proclaiming. The apostles proclaim the message of Christ, who is the fulfillment of these Old Testament promises and predictions. The prophets talked about this grace that would come, and those who preach the gospel to you, the apostles, announce that very same grace. We saw Peter make this same connection in his second letter that the apostles confirmed the predictions of the Old Testament prophets. And we also see this connection between the past and the future. Look again at first Peter 111, inquiring what person or time the Spirit in Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. So the sufferings of Christ are in our past, the glories that are going to follow are in our future. Those two things are separated by the present. The sufferings of Christ, I think, is his first coming, how he lived as a man, fulfilled the covenant, died in our place on the cross, and rose again. The glories of Christ, I would argue, refers to his second coming when he comes in judgment to finally and fully establish his rule over the earth and all creation, and to gather his children to himself in this new glorious kingdom. Again, we see the connection between what Christ did in the past and the hope we have for what he will do in the future. And then finally, we see Peter connecting our hope for the future with how we live today. Notice again first Peter one thirteen and fourteen. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And then in fifteen and sixteen, but as he who called you is holy, you also shall be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. We gird our minds, we stay sober, we stay awake and alert, and we fix our hope on the grace that is coming. This is language about how we live now. We are to be ready for action. We are to avoid things that would distract and dull us and pull us away from our hope. We are to stop being fools and live in accordance with the truth. We're to repent and turn away from our former ignorant passions and strive to be holy. Focusing on our future hope has moral implications for our lives today. Now we could look at more examples from 1 Peter, but I think you can see the similarities between the letters. Now each letter is addressing a different problem. Second Peter is addressing the problem of false teachers presenting themselves as fellow believers. First Peter is addressing the suffering and the persecutions people are facing at the hands of those outside the church or unbelievers. The first letter deals with those outside the faith who are giving us grief, while the second letter is about those who claim to be inside the faith but are leading us astray. But he's applying the same truth to both situations. He's bringing the same foundational perspective to each of these specific problems. As we talked about, that perspective is that the prophets and the apostles tell one unified story about the grace that is brought through Jesus Christ. That grace is coming to us through the past work of Christ at His first coming and the future work of Christ at His second coming, and our hope for the future tells us how we ought to live now. In that sense, the message of the two letters is the same. He just applies it to two different problems. The coherence between the letters make me think that 1 Peter is in fact the letter Peter's referring to in 3 1 of 2 Peter. He says the letters provide the same sort of reminder, and it seems to me they do. Now scholars who disagree with me on that focus on the differences between the two letters, and there are differences, but I would argue those differences arise not from a different purpose or a different message, but from applying the same foundational perspective to different situations. Moving on then, for our future hope to influence how we live today, we have to be actually convinced that Jesus is returning, and that's the issue that Peter takes up next. He has said, Remember the words of the prophets and the commandments of Christ because and then going on to Second Peter three, three and four, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires. They will say where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Now remember, Peter is telling them why it is so important that they remember the words of the prophets and the apostles. Why do they need to remember them? Because mockers are coming who will deny what they said. Peter has argued that the words of the prophets and the apostles give us this great hope for the future, but mockers are going to come who scoff and tell us that hope is in vain and we need to be prepared for their challenges. Peter says, in the last days these mockers will come. Now I think all he means by that is the period of time between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. This is the last age, the last days. You could talk about the age of the patriarchs, the age of the monarchy, the age of the exile, and so forth. And from the grand story of redemptive history, the last days are the days until Jesus comes back. Jesus has come and started the process of establishing his kingdom, and these are the last days before he finishes, the last redemptive age. While Jesus is gone, mockers are going to make fun of the fact that we believe he is coming back. That began in Peter's time and it continues to this day. I think it was probably a characteristic of the false teachers. They probably said something like, Hey, you know what? It's been thirty years and Jesus is not coming back, so eat, drink, and be merry. And Peter's warning his readers, it doesn't matter if it takes two thousand more years, Jesus is coming back. There will always be mockers. What you're to do is to remember the words of the prophets and the apostles. He says in three three, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires. We've talked about this phrase before, following their own sinful desires, and how this is characteristic of the false teachers. How they refuse to submit to what God says is right and wrong and refuse to obey what he says, they want what they want when they want it and they don't care who gets taken down with them. Here Peter is tying their scoffing to these same sinful desires. As we've talked about, if we are firmly grounded in this hope that Jesus is returning, that changes the way we live now. So if they believe that Jesus is in fact returning to judge and establish his righteous kingdom, that would say something about how the teachers should live now. But they're not living that way. They want to follow their own sinful desires now, and they aren't interested in godliness and holiness, so they have to discourage the belief that Jesus is coming back. What are they saying? 3 4 They will say, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. So they're saying, Where's the promise of his coming? He's not coming back. Everything's just going on the same day after day after day. So the mockers are appealing to the fact that life just seems to continue as normal. Day follows day, sunrise, sunset, life goes on, and we would expect the return of Christ to be this cataclysmic change, and the mockers are looking around saying, you know what, look around, there is no big change. The world is just the same. Go back as far as you want, go all the way back to the fathers, and the world is basically the same. It just keeps going on, nothing is ever going to change. And I think that's an argument we can relate to today. It's been almost two thousand years since Peter wrote this letter, and you've probably heard some version of that argument today. If Jesus were coming back, he would have come by now, so obviously he's not coming. So how does Peter respond? Look at three verses five through seven. For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water, and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished, but by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. So what's his point here? He's speaking to the fact that the mockers are appealing to the argument that the world always goes on the same way day after day, and Peter says, Well, let's think about that. Look again at the evidence. In our past we have seen two big cataclysmic changes. First, the world didn't exist at all until God created it, and then one day the world perished in this cataclysmic flood. The end of the world, the second coming of Christ, is just one of three examples of cataclysmic events, and we've already seen two of them, so it seems likely that the third one is coming as well. So he says the first big event was when God created the heavens and earth out of nothing and then transformed the chaos into order. The second was God destroying all of mankind except Noah and his family in the flood, and there's one more coming. God has decreed that this present heavens and earth is marked for destruction at the end of the age. And notice that he emphasizes that each of these events comes about through the Word of God. It is God's decision and God's declaration that bring these things about. In 3 5 he says, For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. It is the word of God that brought this world about and transformed it from chaos to order. The first world-changing event that the mockers ignore was creation itself. And they conveniently overlook that. They don't ask the question, well, how did the earth get here in the first place? Where did all this exquisitely designed system come from and why is it so elegantly designed? And Peter says it came from the Word of God. It's his creation. So Peter is referring back to Genesis one. These are probably verses you're all familiar with. Genesis verses one through three. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light. So Genesis tells us that creation came about because of the Word of God. Creation was characterized by chaos and disorder, as it says, without form and void, and God spoke, and instead of chaos there was order, instead of darkness there was light. So he takes this chaotic, watery void, and through his word creates and shapes the heaven and the earth. That creation, first creating something out of nothing, and then taking the chaos and giving it order and structure, that was the first cataclasmic event, and the emphasis here is God said. It came about through the word of God. And I think Peter emphasizes the water here rather than the like the creation of light or day or land or animals because the next cataclysmic event is the flood and that involves water. In 3.6 he says, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. Well, by means of these, by means of what? By means of what things? Well he just mentioned the water and the word of God. The world was created out of water by the word of God, and I think it is these things he is mentioning again, by water and the word of God. The world that then existed perished in the flood. So in creation, God used the medium of water to shape and give order to the world, and now in Noah's time that same water becomes the means of destroying the world. So here's a second example of cataclysmic change. It may look like life just goes on and on as normal day after day, but one day God intervened to bring about a massive cataclysmic change. It rained and it didn't stop, and that rain was an act of judgment. And then in 3 7 he says, But by that same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire. So again, it is the word of God that has decreed that this present heaven and earth are marked for judgment. This is the cataclysmic event we are still waiting for. We see that each of these three events happened because of the word of God. At creation, God brought the heavens and earth into existence and made it a fit place for human life. At the flood, God judged the rebellion of mankind by flooding the earth, and Peter says, You know what you should learn from that? You should learn that God can and does intervene in history. He has decreed a final judgment is coming. The earth once again will be destroyed, but this time it will be by fire, and it will be an act of judgment. It may look like life is going to go on as normal forever, but God has said otherwise. The creation and the flood involve waters, the final judgment involves fire, and I think Peter intends us to see this contrast between fire and water. In Noah's time the flood destroyed most of mankind, except for the one family God saved through the Ark, but it left most of creation intact. Once the waters receded, Noah and his family could leave the Ark and rebuild civilization on dry land. But this coming event is going to be different. Fire consumes and destroys entirely. The next and final judgment is going to be different. God is not leaving the earth intact. He plans to destroy it entirely in order to create something new. Now, let me summarize then what we've seen in Second Peter 3 so far. Peter wants to stir up his readers so that they remember and embrace what the prophets and the apostles taught. Both the prophets and the apostles explain how God intended to send a Messiah, and that Messiah is Jesus Christ. He died for our sins to bring life and forgiveness to those who would turn from their sins and trust him, and he will return one day to establish God's kingdom of life and righteousness forever. We will not understand our present lives unless we firmly understand both what Jesus did in the past and what he will do in the future. It's important to remember that because mockers and scoffers are coming. The mockers are focused on this world and its pleasures. They ridicule the idea that this world will ever change, and they say it's better to commit yourself to this world because this world is all there is and it's just going to go on like this forever. But Peter says, remember, this world is not a given. God created it and God can destroy it. Genesis tells us how he created it from nothing. The flood shows us how he can and will come in judgment. So this world is not eternal, it is temporal, and God is the one who is eternal, and he's the one we should commit to. God has decreed that one day this present earth and all the ungodly rebels on it are going to be destroyed and it will be replaced with a new creation. God has decreed this massive cataclysmic change is coming, and so it will come. Now it seems to me that there are times when the church is highly interested in the second coming of Christ, and there are times when we completely ignore it. In the 1970s, Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth, was in every bookstore and in every supermarket. And then following that, the Left Behind series was immensely popular. Around the turn of the century, as the clock ticked near to the year 2000, there was a ridiculous amount of interest in the last days. We had movies about it. People sold all their possessions and waited for the end of the world that New Year's Eve. And then the pendulum seems to swing back, and there is almost a total lack of interest in the return of Christ. The church says, Well, it's gonna be a while, all those books and movies got it wrong, so let's just figure out how to make this world better right now. Forget about that second coming, let's just focus on practical ways to live our lives as Christians today. Well, that's why I think this passage is striking and this is important to us because Peter makes this connection between what you believe is coming in the future and how you live your life today. I don't think he sees a disconnect between those two ideas such that they would be opposite ends of a pendulum swing. I would argue that rather than being totally interested in the end times and then totally ignoring it and swinging back and forth, as a church we ought to see those things as connected. It is what you believe is going to happen in the future that shapes what you do today. And Peter wants us to focus on the promises made by the prophets and the apostles, as he said in first Peter, to fix our hope completely on the grace that will be brought at the second coming. So he wants us to reject the mockers who downplay the importance of the return of Jesus because our great hope lies in the return of Jesus. It is precisely when he returns that our greatest problem is going to be solved, that our longings will be fulfilled, and we will be freed from sin, futility, and corruption. When Jesus returns, we will live forever as righteous godly people, and that is our great hope, and getting to that hope is what this life is all about. What we need more than anything else is to find life through forgiveness and to find fulfillment through righteousness. If we don't keep that firmly in mind, then we live today like fools. We fall asleep, we become distracted, we be we get distracted by the next big thing, and we get swept away like chaff in the wind blowing this way and that if we're not firmly grounded in the hope of the gospel. Christians are sometimes criticized for being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. It depends on what you mean by that. If you're saying you are so ridiculously religious that you've lost any practical sense of reality, okay, maybe there's a sense in which it's true. But fundamentally, I think Peter would find that criticism silly. If by heavenly minded we mean we are focused on the truth of the gospel, the hope it gives us for the future, and its implications for today, then I think Peter would say you can't be heavenly minded enough. Peter thinks you can't live wisely, you can't live well in this present life if you don't understand your hope for the next. The more clearly we have our vision set on what is true, the less likely it is that we will be taken in by mockers, scoffers, and false teachers. This is not just a reminder about how to be a good or nice person. This is a reminder of what life is all about. That's why he wrote this letter, to remind us to fix our mind on the hope we have before us. And we need to be reminded because it's so easy to start thinking this world is all there is and life will go on forever. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. I don't accept advertising on my website and I don't ask for donations, but it really does encourage me to hear from you about what you've learned. So please leave a positive rating on your favorite podcast platform or drop me an email. If you want to find out more or hear previous episodes, you can find that on wednesdayintheword.com. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find more of his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thanks for listening today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I hope you'll join me next week for Wednesday in the Word.