2 Peter 3:10

‘But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (or ‘will be laid bare').'

However, even though the Lord is merciful and longsuffering, that does not mean that ‘His Day' will be delayed for ever. And they would therefore do well to recognise that, as Jesus Himself had emphasised, His Day will come suddenly like a thief. The idea of Jesus coming ‘like a thief' is found in Jesus' own words in Matthew 24:23; Luke 12:39 (compare Revelation 3:3; Revelation 16:3). Compare also 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:4 for a parallel of the coming of the Day of the Lord like a thief. The stress on the idea of the Day of the Lord coming like a thief is of suddenness, stealth and catastrophe.

This Day of the Lord is the time of the Lord's final judgment. It is the time when the Lord ‘has His day', and is in contrast to ‘man's day' (1 Corinthians 4:3). It was a Day regularly spoken of by the prophets.

Note on The Day of the Lord.

The term was used in Isaiah 13:9 of God's visitation in judgment. Firstly judgment would come on His faithless people through Babylon, and then through the Medes God would bring judgment on Babylon (Isaiah 13:17). The whole is depicted in apocalyptic language (Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 13:13) and is described as the wrath of the Lord (Isaiah 13:13). It also has a far view for it depicts the final desolation of Babylon (Isaiah 13:19). In the judgments of God near and far were part of one whole, especially as regards Babylon which was the symbol from the beginning of rebellion against God (Genesis 10:9; Genesis 11:1). The earlier judgment was a foretaste of the later one.

Again the day of the Lord was to come on Edom and its allies, its surrounding nations (Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 34:8). ‘All the nations' refers to these for other nations are called on to witness the event (Isaiah 34:1). But it is on Edom that the main judgment comes (Isaiah 34:6). Again it is represented in apocalyptic language (Isaiah 34:9), and such judgment did finally come upon them.

Jeremiah also prophesied a day of the Lord on Egypt and Pharaoh Neco (Jeremiah 46:2, repeated in Jeremiah 46:13), this time at the hands of Babylon (Jeremiah 46:10; Jeremiah 46:26). Thus ‘the day of the Lord' began to indicate the day of the Lord's judgments whenever they were.

It could be called ‘the day of the Lord of hosts' (Isaiah 2:12), ‘the day of the Lord's vengeance' (Isaiah 34:8 - on Edom), ‘the day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts, a day of vengeance' (on Egypt - Jeremiah 46:10), ‘the day of the Lord's anger' (on Judah - Lamentations 2:22; on Judah and surrounding nations - Zephaniah 1:18; Zephaniah 2:2), ‘the day of the Lord's sacrifice' (on Judah - Zephaniah 1:8), ‘the great day of the Lord' (on Judah - Zephaniah 1:14), ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord' (Malachi 4:5), which referred to the first coming of Jesus as the beginning of ‘the end days' (Matthew 11:14 with Acts 2:17; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:2; 1 Peter 1:20; 1 Peter 4:7).

But the basic term behind it all was ‘the day of the Lord', the time when God had His day. In Isaiah 13:6; Isaiah 13:9 - it was on Babylon through the Medes; in Ezekiel 13:5 - it was on Judah through Nebuchadnezzar; in Ezekiel 30:3 - it was on Egypt through Nebuchadnezzar; in Joel 1:15 - it was on Judah through Nebuchadnezzar; in Joel 2:1; Joel 2:11 - it was on Judah through Nebuchadnezzar; Joel 2:31; in Joel 3:14 - it was in the end days at the time of restoration; in Amos 5:18; Amos 5:20 - it was on Israel through Assyria; in Obadiah 1:15 - it was on Edom and their allies (for ‘all the nations' compare Isaiah 34:1); in Zephaniah 1:7 - it was on Judah; in Zechariah 14:1 - it was in the end days at the time of restoration, and as the prophets began to look forward to the day when God would set all things right, establish His people and deal with their enemies, it began to be applied especially to that day (Joel 2:31; Joel 3:14; Zechariah 14:1).

In the New Testament the phrase appears four times (Acts 2:20 quoting Joel 2:31, fulfilled, partially at least, at the resurrection and Pentecost; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2. Here it is quite definitive. It is the time when ‘the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works in it will be discovered' (or in some manuscripts ‘burned up'), that is the time when it will be revealed in God's eyes and judged. It thus refers to God's final judgments in the end days including the final Judgment itself.

End of Note.

Interestingly we can see how, by combining this verse with the first half of 2 Peter 3:8 (and ignoring the second half), and by connecting it with Revelation 20, the idea could be obtained of a one thousand year Day of the Lord, a view which became part of the heresy of Chiliasm in the second century AD. (They believed that history was split into seven epochs of a thousand years each, of which the seventh was yet to come). This is not, however what Peter was saying. He is simply saying, ‘recognise that to God time-scales are not as we see them'.

This would, however, explain why anti-Chiliasts might have frowned on 2 Peter, thus for them casting doubts on its authorship and thus preventing it coming into prominence. On the other hand it might also have been cited by anti-Chiliasts as an antidote to Chiliastic teaching. Thus both sides may have been set against it, with both parties therefore being suspicious of 2 Peter on doctrinal grounds it would be thrust into the background. But clearly the strength of testimony to its having been written by Peter was sufficient for it to finally survive as an Apostolic writing.

“In the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (or ‘will be laid bare' - in Aleph, B, K).” Here is Peter's description of the Day of the Lord. In his eyes it clearly refers to the final consummation before the new heavens and the new earth (2 Peter 3:13).

The description is vivid and awesome. The ‘heavens' need only signify the sky (Genesis 1:8), but it may also be intended to include heavenly bodies which are regularly connected with the idea of the Day of the Lord (Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 34:4; Joel 2:10; Joel 3:15). Furthermore, in view of his continual stress on ‘the heavens and the earth', it is very probable that Peter also intended it to indicate that at the same time as earth was to be judged, so were spiritual beings in heavenly places (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Romans 8:38; Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1:16).

‘Will pass away.' Compare here Revelation 6:14; compare Isaiah 34:4.

‘A great noise' can indicate the crackling of a forest fire. ‘The elements' (which parallel ‘the works' of earth) may indicate the atmosphere of air and clouds of water, or may indicate the heavenly bodies, or may simply indicate ‘what the heavens contain'. It would be foolish to be dogmatic. Peter is simply indicating everything to do with the heavens as man sees them. What is central is the destructive heat. In recent days men's thoughts have turned towards hydrogen bombs and global warming. It might even result from a massive explosion in space, or the arrival of a huge asteroid. But only the future will reveal the truth.

The equally certain destruction of the earth and the works that are in it (which as in Noah's day are the cause of its downfall) will be accomplished by it being ‘laid bare' (the reading of the best MSS). But fire lays bare which may explain why the copyist changed the text to ‘burned up' in order to tie in with the context. The meaning of the whole is the total destruction of the heavens and the earth as man knows it by fire.

‘Laid bare.' While this could refer to the effects of fire (see 2 Peter 3:11) some see this as referring to the fact that man's works will be laid bare at the judgment. Compare Revelation 20:11. Both will, of course, be true. And thus the false teachers who have proclaimed that nothing of the kind will happen will be rather dramatically proved wrong.