<p>3:9 <i>The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should came to repentance</i>- &quot;The Lord... is longsuffering to us-ward&quot; (AV) of the last days. This longsuffering of Jesus suggests the parable of the persistent widow, whose continued requests should match our prayers for the second coming (the vengeance of our adversaries which she requested will only come then). &quot;Though he bear long&quot; (s.w. 'longsuffering') with us, &quot;God shall avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him&quot; (Lk. 18:7). The &quot;us&quot; whom Peter refers to as experiencing the Lord's longsuffering ('bearing long') are therefore to be equated with &quot;the elect&quot; in their fervent prayers for the second coming. The days being shortened for the elect's sake therefore refers to the hastening of the second coming on account of the elect's prayers (Mt. 24:22). In view of the later references to Mt. 24, it is not unreasonable to think that Peter is consciously alluding to Mt. 24:22 concerning the shortening of the days for the sake of the elect's prayers, through his allusion to the parable of the persistent widow of Lk. 18:7.</p><p>Peter presses home the point: &quot;The Lord (Jesus- :15,18) is not slack concerning his promise (to return- of Jn. 14:3,18,28), as some men (in the ecclesia) count slackness&quot;, but is longsuffering (:9). The Greek for &quot;slack&quot; here means 'delay'; this is assurance that God is not 'delaying' as men dilly-dally in the execution of their plans, but is rather postponing this for a good reason.</p><p>This kind of postponement, misinterpreted as &quot;delay&quot;, was a major feature of God's dealings with natural Israel previously. So it is not surprising that there are a number of instructive Old Testament allusions here. Is. 30:17-19 records how Israel would suffer for their sins, but then God would wait for a certain time until they cried to Him in repentance, before bringing about a time of blessing on the earth based around the Lord's presence in Jerusalem. &quot;One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one (Dt. 28 language)... till ye be left as a tree bereft of branches (how Paul describes what happened to Israel in the first century, Rom. 11)... and therefore (i.e. because you are such sinners) will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted (through your repentance), that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more (the language of Is. 65:17-25, quoted in 2 Pet. 3:13): He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry (of repentance): <i>when</i> He shall hear it, He will answer thee&quot;. Not only is God delaying the Kingdom until there is repentance in Israel, but such is His <i>mercy </i>that He will not bring it about until such repentance. His purpose should not be seen, therefore, just in terms of the cold equation 'Repentance in Israel= second coming', but the supreme <i>mercy</i> and <i>love </i>which this arrangement shows should be appreciated. &quot;And <i>therefore</i> will He be exalted&quot; Isaiah comments- by those who understand these things. Rom. 11:32-36 is a marvellous example of this.</p><p>Peter's stress on how the word of God would bring about the day of the Lord shows his realization of how the false teachers were really trying to say that the word of God was untrue, and that <i>it</i> was delaying. Perhaps he had Hab. 2:3 in mind: &quot;The vision (of the word) is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry&quot;. The context is a prophecy concerning the coming Babylonian desolation of Jerusalem. Evidently there were some in Israel who felt that the fulfilment of these words of God was 'tarrying' so long that it would never come. The next verse continues &quot;But the just shall live by his faith&quot;, i.e. in the eventual fulfilment of the word of God. This is twice quoted in the New Testament concerning the first century believers (Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38). It is therefore in order that verse 3 concerning the coming 'day of the Lord' in the Babylonian invasion should have relevance to the same period. If 2 Peter 3 refers here, then this is indeed the case. It is noteworthy that prophecies like Jer. 17:27 speak of this Babylonian invasion as a &quot;fire&quot; in both literal and spiritual terms- as 2 Peter 3 also employs &quot;fire&quot;. Reading between the lines of the New Testament epistles, it is evident that Paul often phrased things in such a way as to warn against what was presumably a common temptation- in this case, to think that the day of the Lord had been delayed so long that effectively the brethren felt that it would never come. Thus Heb. 10:37 quotes Hab. 2:3 which we have been considering with reference to the second coming: &quot;He that shall come <i>will</i> come (cp. 'I am that I am'), and will <i>not</i> tarry&quot;.</p><p>The key to overcoming this temptation was to remember that the delay in the Lord's coming was a sign of God's mercy in granting sinners time to repent. Rather than leading to slackness of service, the delay should lead to greater diligence.</p><p>This &quot;longsuffering&quot; is because God is &quot;not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance&quot; (AV). The &quot;any&quot; and &quot;all&quot; here evidently refer to those whom God has called- the responsible. The fact that millions of people throughout history have lived and died with no chance of repenting or avoiding 'perishing' through response to the Gospel, is proof enough that God is perfectly willing that many should perish and not come to repentance, as far as the world in general is concerned. But such is His desire for the <i>responsible</i> to live up to their spiritual potential, that He has delayed the coming of the Lord. Doubtless Israel deserved immediate punishment for their crucifixion of Christ- a human 'God' would certainly have reacted straight away- but judgment was deferred until AD70 in order to give them every opportunity to repent. God's judgments in the OT were often deferred because people repented (e.g. Is. 48:9; Nineveh); yet such is His supreme grace to Israel that when they unrepentantly crucified His Son, He <i>still</i> deferred judgment. The same is true in our days. What pain it must give our Father to see this time which has been allowed as extra opportunity being used irresponsibly The bridegroom of the parable &quot;tarried&quot;, the same Greek word translated &quot;delay&quot; in &quot;my Lord <i>delayeth</i> his coming&quot;. Tragically, this resulted in the spiritual slumbering of all of the virgins rather than their greater eagerness and expectancy.</p><p>That this passage is indeed concerning the responsible is confirmed by the allusion it makes to Ez. 18:23: &quot;Have I any pleasure (Heb. &quot;will&quot;) at all that the wicked should die... and not that He should return from His ways, and live?&quot;. The context is concerning a Jew (i.e. responsible) who had been wicked but now had repented. The 'perishing' of 2 Peter 3:9 must refer to destruction at the judgment, God is not willing that any of us (&quot;longsuffering to<i> us</i>ward&quot;) should be condemned then, therefore that day is delayed. Perhaps we can infer that it is because of God's particular love for our very last generation of believers that the day is delayed- perhaps by 40 years, as in the case of Israel in AD70? It is possible that there may be a &quot;generation&quot; of 40 years after the blossoming of the fig tree- i.e. the first signs of Jewish repentance (cp. the Jews for Jesus movement?).</p><p>The way this worked out in the first century is demonstrated by the judgment of the false teachers in the Thyatira ecclesia.&nbsp; &quot;I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold... I will cast her into great tribulation... I will give unto every one of you according to your works&quot; (Rev. 2:21-23). This latter phrase clearly refers to the second coming (Mt. 16:27; Rev. 20:12; 22:12); but in addition to their judgment then, they were also punished in the &quot;great tribulation&quot; of AD70 referred to in Mt. 24:21,29. As explained in 2 Pet. 3, these people were 'given space to repent', but did not. Therefore judgment came. Sadly, there must be similarities with the last days. But it must ever be appreciated that God is doing all things possible to bring about that repentance; and we should likewise help these people to repent, so that the Lord's coming will be hastened. The idea of God being unwilling that any should perish but that all should repent must have some connection with the parable of the lost sheep. The efforts of the good shepherd should be replicated, so the context of the parable indicates, by the believers. Thus the parable is summarized: &quot;It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish&quot; (Mt. 18:17 cp. 2 Pet. 3:9). The fact that there is / will be a delay in the second coming indicates that there will be a distinct stubbornness by some to repent in the last days- perhaps the last Christian generation is the lost sheep generation, whose repentance will bring the Lord's return? &quot;<i>When</i> the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come&quot; (Mk. 4:29).</p><p>But what exactly does 'coming to repentance' imply? &quot;Longsuffering&quot; on the Lord's part takes us back to 1 Pet. 3:20, where we learn that God's longsuffering resulted in a delay in the flood coming, so that people had the maximum opportunity to repent and enter the ark, representing entry into Christ by baptism. The Greek for &quot;come to&quot; repentance has the idea of a one off act. A glance down a concordance under &quot;repentance&quot; shows that this word is associated with only two things- baptism, or a major repentance by a completely apostate believer. The delay in the second coming is for these two reasons- so that a seriously apostate group within the ecclesia can repent, and so that there can be the maximum possible allowance of time for the encouragement of people to be baptized. In addition to our prayers being able to speed the Lord's return, these two reasons for the delay involve our own effort speeding it. By repentance and encouragement of our weak brethren to repent, this really will happen; and the quicker we spread the Gospel world-wide, &quot;baptizing all nations&quot;, the quicker the delay will end and the Lord will come (Mt. 24:14). The latter day Elijah ministry will presumably be after the pattern of John the Baptist- with an emphasis, therefore, on the baptism of Jesus as a means of preparing them for Christ's coming.</p>