The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 68

the sin of _the angels was. Jnde is more informing, and sugg,sts tha.t the? did not 11lace t.!_10 nght value on their own principality, ou theit· proper habitation. 'fhere was ~ometlnn_g cl_se that they plac~d _befo_re what they had, and, reaching after it, they fell from their high estate.. God, 1t 1s said here, spai·ed them not when they sinned, nem· though they_ were to him, but cast them ~own to 'l'artarus. 'l'his is, strangely, a word connected with heathen mythology, and 1s to be understood of that division of Hades which is the place of preliminary punishment, as distiuguished from Gehenna which is the plRce of final punishments. In 'l'artarus God" committed them to 'pits of darkness." There was an irony iu the appointment. They loved not the brightness in which there was no feeling of being walled in; and so they were cast down to be, walled in_ on _every s!de by gloom. I_n 'l'artarus they are waiting judgment ; and if they are 1mpnsoned m gloom before Judgment, what must their state after judument be I 'l'bere is no relieving of the picture here as in the other two example: that follow. (2) The Flood. The dark ba,cl~ground. "And spared not the ancient world." This ancient example comes home to us, as relatinu to our own flesh and blood. It is the most disastrous thing that bas bappeued in °the history of the race; it was so extensive and overwhelming in its sweep. God spared not the ancient world. Men multiplied on the earth for sixteen or seventeen centuries, and then the Flood swept them away as though they bad never been. The darkness relieved. "But preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly." The antediluvians were ttngodly, i.e. had lost a salutary impression even of the existence of God, and had cast off Divine restraints. They did· eat and dlink; they lived a life within the world of sense. There was one notable exception. This was Noah, who is here st)' led "a preacher of righteousness," i.e. in the midst of the prevailing ungodliness he had so much of the fear of God on his mind as to credit and proclaim, by word and act, that, if they did not repent of their unuod- line.<s, the righteousness of God would be manifested against them in their destruction by water. And so God preserved Noah, and seven others on account of their cori-' uection with him, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. (3) The overthrow of Sodoin and Gomorrah. The dark background. "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly." The description in Genesis is; "The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and tire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities." Peter marks punitiveness in the com- pleteness of the work of destruction. God turned the cities into ashes, and thus puni- tively overthrew them, i.e. so tha.t they were obliterated as cities. Nor was this an exceptional procedure. God dealt thus with the cities because of their ungodliness, and he dealt thus with them that the ungodly of after-times might know what to expect from ungodliness. TM darkness relieved. "And delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their lawless deeds)." '!'here is uot brought into view the fact that Lot made choice of Sodom from considerations of worldly advantage, and without considering religious privileges. He was to blame for being in Sodom, and yet, though he should never have been there, he is called righteous Lot, i.e. one who strived to live according to Divine rule. He was righteous in the midst of those who had no regard for law either human or Di,,ine, as seen especially in their sensual bchaviom·. 'l'his bad a wearin 5- down or wearing-out effect on righteous Lot. 'l'hat righteous man, dwelling among them, was forced to see and hear thing,; which tormented his righteous soul, and so he was worn out. When one has put himself in a. wrong position, H is often difficult to get out of it. But because Lot did not allow his godly sensibilitieB to be, blnnted, God, with a certain sharpness, effected for him a deliverance. 2. Conclusion drawn. (1) The b;•ight side. "'l'be Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." Peter has been dwelling on the bright side, so as to throw the thought out of form; he now puts the bright side into the conclusion. Noah an<l Lot were godly; their ternp- tatiou lay in their being in the neighbourhood of the ungodly. But the Lord found ways and means of deliverin;; them; the one deliverance involving the preservation of. the human family, aud the other deliverance si~nifying rectification of position. 'l.'he Lord that delivered Noah and Lot out of their temptation ..,.ill delivor all th11t1 like 011. u, 1-22.J 'l'HE SECOND EPlS'l'LE GENERAL OF PETER. 63