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the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres

2 Timothy 3:1-9 (JDV)

2 Timothy 3:1 But you should know this: Hard seasons {καιρός} will be present in the last days
2 Timothy 3:2 because humans will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2 Timothy 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, with no love for what is good,
2 Timothy 3:4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2 Timothy 3:5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people
2 Timothy 3:6 because among them are those who slip their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a various passions,
2 Timothy 3:7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:8 Just like Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, this is how these also resist the truth. They are humans whose minds are corrupt their faith is worthless.
2 Timothy 3:9 But they will not further progress much further, because their foolishness will become clear to all, as was the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres.

the foolishness of Jannes and Jambres

These two names identified Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses and what God was doing among the Israelites. Their names became symbols of those who appear to be skilled and intelligent, but oppose God’s word, his will and his mission.

Do you know anyone like that? Paul warns Timothy that such people will not be moved by the gentle instruction he had talked about earlier (2:25). Instead, they will resist the truth, because their “brilliant” minds are corrupt and their “faith” is worthless.

So, if gentle conversation will not succeed, what will? Waiting. Paul tells Timothy to wait for the other shoe to drop. Sooner or later “their foolishness will become clear to all.” I have seen examples of this. There have been some powerful people I have met, whose bully atheism I could not begin to counter by biblical instruction. Every one of those people is dead now — some at their own hands. God is not mocked. Whoever opposes him will be silenced.

Lord, give us the wisdom to wait on you to answer the fool in his foolishness.