“With many other words did Peter testify and exhort, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this perverse generation'” (Acts 2:40).

Save (Gr.): Sozo: Deliver, Protect, Preserve, Make Whole

Perverse (Gr.): Skolio from Skelos: Warped, Crooked, Winding, Perverse

The Apostle Peter rose and spoke on the Day of Pentecost to the masses assembled for the Feast in Jerusalem, fifty days after the Passover Lamb was crucified under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire.

The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians, wrote:

“Do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked (Skolio) and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14-15).

The exhortation to “save yourselves” in the midst of a warped, crooked and perverse generation is no small task, but the wise will find a way. One such wise was a woman in the City of Jericho when she read the “writing on the wall” in her day. Indeed, the very wall itself would come tumbling down. Her name was Rahab.

Where did Rahab find her salvation? Her faith. Hear her own testimony when she declared to the spies:

“I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when you came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we had heard these things our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you; for the Lord, your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now, therefore, I pray you, swear to me by the Lord since I have shown you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father’s house and give me a true token, that you will save alive my father and my mother and my brethren, and my sisters and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death” (Joshua 2:9-13).

The spies honored the pledge, saw Rahab’s faith in Jehovah; and saved her family alive. Rahab dwelled in Israel (Joshua 6:25) and was given in marriage to Salmon by whom she bore a son and called his name, Boaz.  Boaz, the kinsman redeemer for Naomi, the Moabitess.  Boaz, husband to Ruth.  Yes, through the lineage of Rahab, came the son of Jesse, David (Beloved), by whose lineage came forth the Lord of Glory, the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God. All this in the order of the all-wise God.

By the wisdom of God, the wise discern the signs of the times. They see the hand of God moving throughout the earth. They see also the tidal wave of wickedness rising to overflow the nations. “Kingdom against kingdom” (cf. Matthew 24:7) with “famines, pandemics, and earthquakes in many places”. The signs of the times beg us to “save yourselves” in your generation.

There was another witness to salvation in the City of Philippi, a jail keeper. Here is his story:

“And the multitude rose up together against Paul and Silas and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded that they be beaten. When they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely. The jailor having received such a charge thrust them in the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, ‘Do yourself no harm for we are all here’. Then the jailor called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas. After he brought them out, he said to them, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ Then Paul said to him, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your household'” (Acts 16:22-31).

Beloved, the message has not changed. Save yourselves from this crooked, twisted and perverse generation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ even as the Apostle Peter also declared, “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

_________________________