Spiritual Ostriches

“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” (v5-6).

Don’t be an ostrich. Don’t simply stick your head in the sand to escape the truth. It just won’t work. You may not acknowledge the facts, but that doesn’t mean you escape them. Just because you say something long enough doesn’t make it true. Peter says that knuckleheads like the false teachers intentionally ignore the facts of history. They laugh at the idea of creation. They make fun of folks who believe in the flood. Just because they make it a convenient punchline doesn’t mean it’s not true. Don’t ignore the facts. Don’t be an ostrich.

Here’s the deal. Pete says we need remember the promises God made through His prophets (3:2) and toss the trash taught by these hucksters. These con artists are tearing apart local churches from the inside out with the crap they’re selling (2:1-3). They go so far as to talk smack about anyone who believes Jesus is coming back (3:3-4). According to them, you would have to be an idiot to believe the fairy tales of the Bible. These false teachers conveniently ignore history. They turn a blind eye to creation. They snub the the fact of the flood. MacArthur points out that the hucksters conveniently look the other way when it comes to the two previous worldwide cataclysms: creation and the flood. “They deliberately overlook” both of them. Call it willful ignorance. Call it tactical stupidity. Pete says they’re making a big mistake. A VERY big mistake.

The former fisherman flips back to the opening pages of the Bible to make his point. In the first chapter of Genesis, God creates everything out of nothing. The entire joint out of zilch. When it came time to make the third rock from the sun, He used water (Gen 1:6-10). The guy Jesus calls Rocky confirms that. “The earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God” (v5). While He used the power of water to get it done, don’t miss the fact that God got the whole project going through the power of His word. He said it. It happened. The writer of Hebrews says that since there were no eyewitnesses, we should trust that this is what went down. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God” (Heb 11:2). God said it. It happened. When you’re the almighty sovereign God of the universe, this is how you roll. 

God used water as an important tool in the creation of the planet. And He used water as His tool of the destruction of the planet. The world He created “was deluged with water and perished” (v6). The word we translate as “deluged,” Pete originally uses the Greek verb katakluzo. It means to overwhelm with water, flood with destructive force, inundate, and submerge. It’s where we get our word cataclysm. We’re not talking about turning on the sprinkler. This isn’t localized flash flooding. This is tsunami stuff. Worldwide. Global inundation.

Just in case your a little fuzzy on the flood, let’s do a little review.  “On that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (Gen 7:11-12). God promised to kill and destroy everything on the earth that wasn’t on the ark through the worldwide flood (Gen 6:13, 17). Just in case you wondering, the writer of Genesis goes out of his way to let us know no critter slipped through the cracks. If it didn’t swim or have one of the eight reservations on the first cruise ship, it was a goner (Gen 7:21-23).

But come on, it’s crazy enough to buy into creation. Do you really expect me to believe in some cockamamy myth about a ridiculous global flood? There’s no way Jesus talked about that, right? Wrong. Actually, Christ compared His big comeback to what went down during the worldwide deluge. “For as were the days of Noah so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mt 24:37). Our Savior said folks ignored all the warnings. And that’s going to happen all over again before He makes His encore. It seems Jesus not believed in the flood but knew all about folks who would ignore the warnings of His return. 

Maybe you’re not buying this whole creation deal. Maybe you can’t swallow this goofy story of the global flood. I get that. I really do. But let’s focus on Jesus for just a moment. Here’s a Dude that predicted His own death. He called His own resurrection. Not once. But several times. With lots of details. His followers weren’t willing to die for their belief in creation. They weren’t going to face death because they thought there was a flood. No, they put their lives on the line because Jesus walked out of the cemetery three days after His burial. He called it ahead of time. And then He promised to return. 

You might not swallow creation or the flood. But don’t look overlook the resurrected Jesus. Please, don’t be an ostrich.