God’S Certain Care
GOD’S CERTAIN CARE
1 PETER 5:6-14
We can turn all our worries over to God, because he cares for us. No problem is too big or small for him.
“Humble yourselves” (5:6) contains the thought “Allow yourselves to be humbled; accept your humiliations.” “The mighty hand of God,” whether acting directly, or through people and things around us, brings us down. There are few things so disgusting or, perhaps, ludicrous, as a person looking for opportunities to be humble. Where God does it, it should be a cause of praise, for we know we will be exalted, when we can stand the testing involved. We can turn all our worries over to God, because he cares for us. No problem is too big or small for him.The fact that God has a concern for us comes not merely from our being his children, but from our being involved in the rearguard action that Satan still wages against him (5:8-9). The lion is at its least dangerous, when it roars. The hunting lion can be amazingly quiet; the roaring lion (Amos 3:4) comes when the prey has been secured.
So the picture is of a lion trying to do by bluff and intimidation what it cannot do by stealth and strength.
For the idea behind “the God of all grace” (5:10) see Philippians 4:19. Peter does not minimize the power of persecution—after all, he had collapsed at the jeers of a servant girl—but he promises that even if we are shaken by it, God will “restore” (make good what has gone wrong), “establish” (set us more firmly on our true foundation), and “strengthen” (provide the strength where weakness has been revealed).
Papias, as early as the second century, understood Babylon to mean Rome. It is not likely that Babylon in Mesopotamia or the one in Egypt would have been suggested, if some had not wished to weaken the tradition linking Peter with Rome. The mention of “Mark,” who is linked both with Peter and Rome, supports the traditional view. “She who is at Babylon” is the church there; see also 2 John 1,13.