Jannes and Jambres

2 Timothy 3:1-9 (NLT)

The Dangers of the Last Days

"You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.) These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres."

Paul in his epistles did not only write by the power of the Holy Spirit to instruct churches, but he also wrote to  individuals, such as to young and "timid" Timothy, who was kind of like his right hand man. Paul here is not only instructing his spiritual son on how to lead his church but he is also prophetically speaking about the "dangers" awaiting all believers in the last days.

People have been talking about the last days for a long time now, but really, it isn't hard to notice that the "last days" Paul was describing in his writings is pretty much the days we have been living in for some time now. It is a little hard to believe that someone from 2000 years ago can accurately foresee and put down in writing all the unthinkably sacrilegious things that are to happen without divine intervention.

And as far as those depraved-minded duo Jannes and Jambres, he tells young Timothy to stay away from the likes of them. Old Jewish tradition says these two were Egyptian magicians who did a showdown with Moses in the courts of Pharoah -- challenging the miracles that God was performing through Moses by trying to make snakes appear out of thin air, just as Moses was doing. These are the kinds of people who thumb their noses at God and at His leaders. These are people who are openly flaunting their contempt by showing they do not believe in their God, they can do without Him, and they can just as well perform so-called miracles that God can do through His people all on their own.

These people can be found everywhere and church leaders can do well to have nothing to do with them. Because these kinds of people have a knack for deceiving people, exploiting them and worst leading them astray.