“THE DAY OF VISITATION”
“THE
DAY OF
VISITATION”
“Having your conversation
honest among
the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they
may by
your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in THE
DAY OF
VISITATION.” (1 Peter 2:12)
Various interpretations
include from …
the gospel coming to the Gentiles to get saved … to the Jews keeping
the
commandments in the tribulation … and so on … and all of them
miss the
point.
As usual … we let the
scriptures speak
for themselves … comparing scripture with scripture (1 Corinthians
2:13).
The background:
Peter writes
to Jews who had become Christians (1
Pet 2:10, 12; 4:3, 16, 17) from physical Babylon
(not Rome which is called spiritual Babylon) around 65-66AD
just before
Paul’s 2nd Roman imprisonment in 66AD.
Persecution of Christians was very
severe … and Nero
blamed the Christians for burning Rome … and had captured Paul and put
him in
prison.
The church was about 35
years old and
was undergoing a world trial … and for Christians in Rome it was a
literal “firey
trial” (1 Peter 4:12) from Emperor Nero in AD 64-67 …
taking
Christians and burning them nightly in his gardens.
Peter’s
epistle was born in an atmosphere of suffering … and shortly
before
Peter’s martyrdom.
Christians
were being burnt in Nero’s gardens and it looked like ‘the
devil as a roaring
lion’ (1 Peter 5:8) was about to devour the church.
But
some Messianic Jews … attending Christian meetings … were showing good
works by
supporting the persecuted Christians.
CHOICE
OF WORDS
Having
a ministry to the Jews, Peter, now a Christian … but formerly a Jew …
had an
ingrained familiarity with Jewish words and terms, when he writes to
Christians
… as follows …
sprinkling of the blood (Heb 9:13; 1Pet 1:2); prophets (1Pet 1:10); oracles of God
(1Pet 4:11; Acts 7:38;
Heb 5:12); tabernacle (2Pet 1:14;Ex
25:9); priesthood (1Pet 2:5,9;Ex
40:15); stone of stumbling (1Pet
2:8; Is 8:14); rock of offence (1Pet
2:8; Is 8:14); mount (2Pet 1:18; Ex
19:11); angels (1Pet 1:12, 1Peter 3:22;
2Pet 2:4, 11); stones (1Pet 2:5; Ex
25:7); astray sheep (1Pet 2:25; Is
53:6-7); precious (1Pet 1:7, over 50
times in the OT); Sarah and Abraham
(1Pet 3:6; Gen 17:15); Noah (Gen
7:1; 1Pet 3:20); pilgrims (1Pet
2:11; Heb 11:13) …
…
and in particular the word “VISITATION” (1Peter 2:12;
Jeremiah
8:12; 10:15; 11:23; 23:12; 46:21; 48:44; 50:27; 51:18; Hosea 9:7; Micah
7:4).
The
word “visitation” in the OT speaks of calamity and disaster
and
can be understood by referring to Paul’s Book of Hebrews.
THE BOOK OF
HEBREWS
In his Epistle to the
Hebrews, if Paul is
writing to backslidden Christians … which he is not … all he
has to do
is to refer them to his other books he has written to the churches,
where there
is more than enough correction for sins and sin mentioned.
Take your pick - there’s
lust, idolatry,
fornication, tempting, murmuring, factions within the church and so on.
If
their sin was drifting away from their love of Jesus, we have the
epistle to
the Ephesians, where supposedly there was no major doctrinal error or
major
sin.
The Hebrews to which Paul
writes were not
Christians. They were not saved. They were not in
Christ.
They were simply Messianics
… Messiah believing
Jews who needed to be saved.
Before Christ went to the
cross, the Hebrews to
which Paul writes, believed Christ was
fulfilling the law on
their
behalf, and in addition, they were more than happy attending the temple
for animal
blood sacrifices to cover their sins, and Christ had endorsed this.
Yes, they believed that
Christ was their Messiah
and that he would eventually establish some sort of earthly kingdom. As
to the
how, when, where or why, they weren’t quite sure.
But after 30 years, it is
now late in the 60’s,
around 65AD, when Paul writes to them, things hadn’t much changed.
In fact, persecution from
the Romans was on the
increase as Emperor Nero was burning the Christians.
They were feeling mightily
insecure and unsafe,
because although they themselves weren’t Christians, they had a lot of
sympathy
for them.
They liked Paul and the
other Christians as they
were friendly, nice and welcoming … and were assembling with the
Christians
(Hebrews 10:25).
But what if Paul was just
deluded?
They were starting to
question whether Christ was
the Messiah at all, and have serious doubts as to his promises.
Their hearts began to grow
cold to the idea of
Christ. In fact, they were becoming like the many who walked away when
Jesus
was alive on earth (John 6:66)
They were thinking about
going back under Moses,
where at least there was security with the animal sacrifices for sin.
But they had been warned by
Peter and Paul that
this type of on-going and daily blood atoning for sin had finished (Heb
10:29).
They now had to trust on the shed blood of Christ.
“It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call
to
remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated (believing that Christ was
the
Messiah), ye endured a great fight of afflictions (but not
resisting yet
to blood Hebrews 12:4); Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock
both by
reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of
them
that were so used. For ye had compassion of me (Paul) in
my
bonds (in prison), and took joyfully the spoiling of
your goods,
knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring
substance
(salvation in Christ).” (Hebrews 10:31-33,34)
Peter
refers to the Jewish dilemma of some being Christians and some simply
being
Messiah believing … but not Christians.
So back to our headline
scripture …“Having
your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak
against
you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall
behold,
glorify God in THE DAY OF VISITATION.” (1 Peter 2:12)
And so the meaning
of the day
of visitation is this ….
1. Their good works was
helping Paul …
and other Christians … in prison with their compassion and their goods.
2. Paul was telling them
not to avoid
the assembling of themselves with Christians but to keep attending
Christian
meetings and so on (Hebrews 10:25)
3. Christians were being persecuted
by Nero and Rome … and this was the Christians’ day of visitation.
Christians were being
visited with not
just one day of calamity and violence but many days.
The term ‘day” is simply a
representative term for the Christians’ period of oppression, violence
and
disaster.
In this “day of visitation”
upon the
Christians … Messianic Jews … and indeed Jews who were now Christians …
had
shown their love to Paul and other Christians … by the spoiling of
their goods
… as a demonstration of their good works.
“Having your (Messianic Jews) conversation
honest among the Gentiles (mainly Christians): that, whereas
they speak
against you as evildoers (some Gentiles spoke evil of Jews),
they may by
your good works (Messianic Jews) spoiling their goods and
supporting
the Christians), which they (Christians) shall behold,
glorify God in
THE DAY OF VISITATION (deadly persecutions by Nero).” (1 Peter 2:12)
Summary:
The day of
visitation
for Christians … were the Nero’s days of visiting
persecution
upon the Christians.
Harley
Hitchcock
January
2026
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“Hebrews…
Doctrine
for which
Dispensation?”
