S150P6 – This precious Earth: changed by a word
2 Pet 3:3-7
[K]nowing 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.” 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.
When I was a kid, it was not too much of a stretch for me to believe that a tiny little baby could one day grow into a full sized adult. There was not that much difference between a baby and an adult other than their size and abilities. When I learned in school of some other transformations in nature, I was more skeptical. At face value, a caterpillar does not resemble a butterfly. They appear to be two completely different creatures. It took a lot for me to understand that something could change so differently from what it was. That kind of metamorphosis seemed so unreal. Still, it is nothing compared to the changes our planet has endured and will endure still at God’s spoken word.
This world was only water before any land appeared, and the appearance of that land came by the simple spoken word of God. [Gen. 1:1, 9-10] Then, the word of God brought a great flood of water. [Gen. 7] As a result of that flood, every living thing on land died. We did not merely go from the conditions in the garden of Eden to what we see now. As God has spoken, the world was created then changed then caused to perish and spring forth with life again. All of this is the result of his word, but that is not all. His word will bring a fire that will burn this Earth and renew it. God is still speaking change over this world. He will command another metamorphosis which will transform not only the Earth but the heavens as well.
It is a testament to God’s power and might that his word alone can bring such change to creation. That change can be so great as to cause us not to recognize what was there in the first place. Like the butterfly who now looks nothing like the caterpillar it once was, we cannot imagine the magnitude of change God’s word will bring to this Earth on that day. We cannot know how different perfect creation will be from this fallen place. We can, however, guess that it would be akin to the difference between our earthly bodies and our glorified bodies. The difference will be like night and day, and it will come at the word of the Lord. Father, we await with anticipation the perfection that will come to this world by your spoken word.