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2 Peter 3:12
12 Looking for [prosdokao] and [kai] hasting [speudo] unto the coming [parousia] of the day [hemera] of God [theos], wherein [dia] [hos] the heavens [ouranos] being on fire [puroo] shall be dissolved [luo], and [kai] the elements [stoicheion] shall melt [teko] with fervent heat [kausoo]? KJV-Interlinear
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! NASB
Looking for, means to watch with a watchful eye in preparation for that wonderful event. Looking for, means to get prepared, to get ready, to dress up and be prepared, equipped, completed. Kind of like going out on a big date and you are getting ready and all dressed up, waiting for your ride to arrive to pick you up.
The hasten or hastening, means to watch with a deep desire, to want with restless impatience, as a child desires Christmas and the coming of Santa and the presents and so forth.
At times in your life there have been events that you couldn’t wait until they happened. Whether it was a weekend social event, a graduation, a new job, the delivery of something you just purchased, or whatever. There have been times when you have been anxiously wanting the ‘thing’ to come quickly.
This is the meaning of ‘hasting.’
Both of these look to your attitude toward God, Christ, doctrine, your spiritual life with respect to your getting yourself ready for that big moment in history, and the biggest moment of your entire life. Preparation means growing up and advancing toward spiritual maturity, to be living a life that generates spiritual production or spiritual results with which you will receive high marks when you come before the Lord for your evaluation.
This life is characterized with evil, burdens, bias, prejudice, unfair treatment, anxieties, pressures and so forth. There is no one who enjoys having to look over their shoulder all of their life, just wondering if they will lose their home, or job, or business, or loved ones, or health, or whatever it is that you have and fear losing.
Life in this world is characterized by these many stresses and beyond. To look beyond this life and hope for something better is normal, more than normal, it is expected by God, as we herein see from our verse.
We have this life to live in and in which to prepare for the next life. But also, we look to the next life in which Gods promises, all of them, will become a reality, and will be with us forever.
The next life is characterized as being with no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, no more anything that is represented by the pressures of this world. There will be eternal happiness and eternal provision. All of the limitations of this life will be erased.
From the resurrection body which will not have any aches and pains, but will have phenomenal abilities, to the many rewards, privileges, abilities, blessings, gifts, and so forth, is it any wonder that a person looks to the hopes of heaven, over the burdens of this world.
In the time of the great flood of Noah, it is said that the Lord was long suffering (120 years), while He was patient with humanity and patient while Noah constructed the Ark. Noah and his family were patient in their steady building project, not knowing what was to come after the population of the world was destroyed. They themselves did not even know the extent of the judgment until it occurred. They had never seen rain or even a flood prior to this. Before the flood, the earth was watered by means of mists and springs.
But now, Peter describes our wait as a hastening, a yearning desire. This is a totally different approach toward the expectations of the promises to come. Now the Lord is hurrying (His timetable, not ours) through the generations, in order that all who will believe, will believe, and all who will grow up spiritually, will grow up in their spiritual life.
In ancient times, Satan had the time he needed to build up and see fail, all of the empires of his choosing. Now, the implication is that in our Church Age, operation footstool, etc., the plan of the Father is preparing the peoples, nations, and circumstances for the next great event of Christs rule, are taking place at an accelerated rate.
This is probably something that we cannot fully appreciate until we get to heaven and then have the ability to comprehend all of the ingredients for history, and then understand it all.
But regardless of what we understand, or don’t understand, we are herein informed that our role in life is to pursue and make first in our life, Bible doctrine and our spiritual growth. In so doing we pray all of the right prayers, hope for all the right things, and wait patiently without complaint, without frustration, for Gods plan to come together, because it will.
Acts 3:19-21
19 ‘Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. NASB
Isa. 34:4
4 And all the host of heaven will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree. NASB
Jer. 48:10
10 ‘Cursed be the one who does the Lord's work negligently, And cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood [responsibility]. NASB
