2 Peter 2:5, commentary and pictures

God did not spare the old world but sent the flood upon the world of the ungodly, while saving Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, as an example of His judgment on the ungodly and His deliverance of the righteous and godly. Noah was made God's messenger and faithful preacher of righteousness to the corrupt old world, warning more than a hundred years beforehand during a 120-year probation that God would send a flood to destroy the wicked, urging all to repent, reform, and find pardon and refuge. His building of the ark on dry land was a public witness that he believed his own warning, for his faith was joined with action and his obedient works and holy character condemned the unbelieving world even apart from his voice. The people mocked and scorned the warning as impossible, reasoning that nature was unchanging, yet their unbelief did not hinder the event, for God Himself shut Noah and seven others inside the ark and destroyed every living being outside. God does not bring judgment without first giving warning by His servants so people may repent and escape, and as Noah warned the world before the flood, so chosen messengers now warn of the nearness of the final judgment and Christ's second appearing.

Words and Context

God did not spare the old world but brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly, while saving Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. The destruction of the ungodly and the rescue of the righteous stand as examples of God's judgment and deliverance. Noah's deliverance alongside the world's destruction is an example that God judges ungodliness but preserves the godly and the righteous.

The verse proves that the judgment of those who bring in damnable heresies lingers not and their damnation slumbers not, and that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. This is fulfilled in one who departs from the faith, gives heed to seducing spirits, exalts himself against light and warning, and with feigned words makes merchandise of God's people.

The passage belongs to the account in 2 Peter 2 that presents the true condition of the world at this time and gives admonitions of the Lord that are to be heeded. The passage in 2 Peter 2:1-9 shows the work to be done and means everything, and must be understood with heaven's light to know the Lord's will. This requires circumspect earnest seeking with all the heart and understanding rather than heedlessness, making a business of seeking heaven, with grace revealing precious light so mistakes are not made and with confession and overcoming when mistakes are made. It requires refusing to practice the sayings and customs of the world and living as a peculiar people showing forth the praises of Him who called out of darkness into marvelous light. It requires keeping Scripture in view and searching the Scriptures to understand duty and find eternal life in Christ, leaving no excuse for being found deficient at last, because coming into sacred relation to Jesus Christ is possible and by beholding His life and character brings partaking of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust.

The chapter describes men who caused much trouble in the early church by holding their own opinions and refusing to give them up, thinking their judgment infallible. They received pleasing sophistries from deceiving angels and sought to immortalize injurious theories. Similar men and conditions must be met today, so all must be on guard lest the church be spoiled through their plans.

Noah's Preaching Mission

Noah was made and preserved to be God's messenger and faithful preacher of righteousness to the corrupt old world, warning of coming destruction and judgment more than a hundred years beforehand during a 120-year probation in which God bore long with wickedness and gave ample opportunity to repent. He faithfully sounded that warning for 120 years despite ridicule and widespread corruption, urging the people to repent and turn to God, and his preaching gave the world light so that people could believe. Only Noah and his family — eight persons — received the message, while the rest mocked the warnings, did not believe, and were increasingly led into sin until they lost holy character, so their rejection brought condemnation and ruin.

He was instructed to build the ark to save himself and his family, and his building on dry land was a public example and continuing witness showing he believed his warning. His faith was joined with action, for believing God's warning of coming judgment he prepared the ark and saved his household, acting every sermon through consistent works, holy character, childlike trust, obedience under hardship and mockery, and prayers for power to do God's commandments. That obedience and example condemned the unbelieving world even apart from his voice, and the delay of judgment did not prevent it from coming.

His preaching declared God would send a flood of waters to destroy the wicked and wash the earth of moral pollution caused by growing wickedness. He urged hearers to repent, believe, reform, turn from disobedience and transgression of God's law to obedience, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters, and find pardon, protection, and refuge in the ark. Pardon was offered to all who would put away sin by repentance toward God and faith in Christ, for God did not want them to perish but wanted them to have life and benefit from His mercy. He stood obediently for God amid a wicked generation with holy integrity, unwavering faithfulness, courage, and divine authority through connection with God, remaining righteous in his generation and firm under the test of faith without wavering.

His warning reached his family and others, for Methuselah his grandfather listened, and with relatives, sons, descendants, and others heard instruction and helped build the immense ark as a boat on dry land to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and hold back moral evil. That work built on what Enoch had already told his children about the coming flood, and Noah did his work together with Methuselah and others with increasing earnestness in proportion to the universal scorn and ridicule heaped on God's law. Many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the end, while others who appeared converted later gave up the truth, until in the end Noah and his sons remained to carry the final warning. Christ appealed to people in Noah's day through a human messenger and agent, calling those enslaved and held in bondage to sin to recognize God's mercy and accept His righteousness. Christ was the Way for the antediluvian church just as for the patriarchs, prophets, and Christian church, and Noah as prophet of righteousness perfected in his day shows earlier generations depended on faith in Christ.

Rejection and Deliverance

The warning was despised, ridiculed, scorned and mocked as fear and superstition, as an idle tale and as highly improbable parables unworthy of notice, while Noah was derided as a wild enthusiast, a crazy fanatic, and a presumptuous single man standing against all the great men and wisdom of thousands. The people made light of his entreaties, laughed him to scorn with ridiculing, caricaturing and criticizing, yet their unbelief, mockery and rejection did not hinder the predicted event, did not stay the showers nor prevent the waters of the great deep from submerging a scoffing world, and did not make the message of none effect. The offer of mercy stood that repentance and a reformed life could have brought forgiveness, pardon and God's protection, but persistent iniquity and chosen sin brought darkness and destruction.

They reasoned from science and the laws controlling nature that the flood could not occur because nature appeared unchanging. They pointed to the unvarying succession of seasons, to blue skies that had never poured rain, and to green fields refreshed by night dews, arguing that God could not alter nature's course or destroy the beautiful world He had made. Many knew God and His law yet rejected the message and labored to keep others from believing and obeying, accepting Satan's false assurance that they would not die and continuing in disobedience and wickedness. Professed acknowledgers of God who honored Him through grand images made by human hands, worshiped those images and forgot the Creator, took the lead in rejecting Noah and by their influence led others to reject him, choosing Satan's falsehood over saving truth.

During the probation many were tested and proved, and some initially appeared to accept and were affected and awakened, including carpenters and others who helped build the ark, but they did not truly repent, turn to God, complete the character change needed to fear and worship Him, or stand as witnesses for the message. They made only partial changes, failed the test, were overcome by widespread corruption, continued in polygamy and indulgence of corrupt passions and sinful practices, joined the corrupt in mocking Noah, and eventually apostatized and gave up the truth, while others who believed kept the faith and died triumphant before the end. In the end Noah and his sons and family remained to carry the final warning as the only ones left who were called righteous.

The flood was God's judgment in wrath and retributive justice upon a world corrupted by evil, in which waters bursting from the earth joined waters from heaven to bring destruction. God Himself shut Noah inside the only door of the ark and shut the ungodly out, and He alone could open it, so late repentance, pleading for admittance, trying to break in, and clinging to the ark were useless. After the obedient entered, a further week passed without rain before the flood destroyed every living being outside, coming in forty days and forty nights of violent storm. Amid that storm the ark was severely rocked and tossed yet rode safely, preserved every moment by a miracle of almighty power with angels excelling in strength guiding and keeping it from harm, and God remembered mercy so the righteous and faithful did not perish with the wicked.

Only Noah and his family, eight souls including Noah and seven others, believed, obeyed, accepted the warning, turned from unrighteousness, entered the ark, and were saved and spared when ruin came on the ungodly. Of the vast population and the many hearers then living on earth only eight were saved, but the small number does not mean the warning failed; it illustrates that many may hear a message and few follow it. The warning gave the world light so people could believe, leaving them without excuse, and their rejection brought condemnation and ruin. The flood washed the earth of moral pollution caused by growing wickedness and cleansed the earth of its pollution, and each blow struck in building the ark had also been a warning while Noah, Methuselah and others proclaimed mercy for 120 years.

Cause and Justice

God did not spare the old world but destroyed it by the flood because its people continually transgressed His law in disobedience, lost His favor, and became incurably wicked, corrupt and violent. They cast off the restraint of righteousness to indulge their desires, while talented, skillful and knowledgeable men left God out of their plans and counsels, became lifted up in their own imaginations, and became wise to do evil that God never told them to do, a wisdom that would have worked destruction to future generations. Noah believed God and stood as a faithful preacher of righteousness, warning them with peculiar earnestness and intense feeling to turn from disobedience to obedience and foretelling sure coming judgment. In mercy and forbearance God gave that generation 120 years of probation while His Spirit strove to bring them back to purity and loyalty, with Noah, Methuselah and others warning them and each blow struck in building the ark sounding as a warning. The warning went unheeded by all but Noah's family, whom God saved, and its history is placed on record as a warning that God will punish those who break and disregard His law and that those who refuse to repent will perish when His judgments come.

Their sins that called down wrath and vengeance in retributive justice were defiling sins of impurity and carnal indulgence, of the same character as impure solicitations and advances that tempt people away from holiness and away from God now. They continued in polygamy and indulgence of corrupt passions, yielding to the corruption around them instead of truly repenting. They sank into idolatry, mirth and revelry and feasting and drunkenness, and unrestrained vilest and most brutal passions, delighting in deeds of violence. Their example warns that internal corruption and failure to practice purity and truth bring divine judgment.

God judged the ungodly practices of the old world with a flood and later judged Sodom with fire, manifesting His wrath against ungodliness. The destruction of the antediluvian world stood as a known example before Sodom, yet Sodom followed the same course in open defiance of God and His law. The practices that brought those judgments are increasing again, warning that moral corruption brings certain judgment. The earth is nearing its end and will be purified by fire.

After rejecting Noah's message of righteousness the antediluvians gave themselves over to even greater sin and plunged more deeply into sin and revolt. God's judgment by the flood declared that world incurable in rebellion. Those who refuse reform through Christ find no reform in sin but persist in revolt.

Noah had no right to drown the scoffers who harassed him, for authority to punish belongs to God who governs and executes His laws in just punishment while saving the righteous. Those who belittle God's law will be dealt with as the inhabitants of the old world were when God brought the flood upon the ungodly.

Mercy Before Judgment

God never brings judgment upon the earth without first giving warning by the mouth of His servants. He sent Noah as His messenger and faithful preacher of righteousness to the old world of the ungodly, to make known His purpose to bring a flood of waters upon the earth, that they might have opportunity to turn from evil ways, repent, and escape threatened destruction. He sent him with peculiar earnestness and intense feeling to declare that God would fulfill His word of sure coming judgment. That warning was a merciful call to obey God's sacred precepts, with pardon offered to all who would put away sin by repentance toward God and faith in Christ.

In mercy and forbearance God bore long with the wickedness of transgressors, giving ample opportunity for repentance. He bore long with the perversity and iniquity of that long-lived race who trampled His law underfoot and worshiped the creature instead of the Creator, while the descendants of Seth acknowledged the power and government and right of the living God to govern. Through angels He told Noah His purpose for the inhabitants of the old world, declaring that one hundred and twenty years would be the end of their probation. The warning was that if evildoers did not repent they would be swept from the face of the earth by a flood of waters. Noah and his helpers constantly worked preparing the immense ark, a boat on dry land, while he and those who believed preached righteousness all the more earnestly in proportion to the universal scorn and ridicule heaped on God's law and on them. After the believers entered the ark a further week passed without rain, then the Flood destroyed every living being outside it, showing that God bears long with sin but finally intervenes when people persistently reject His warnings and transgress His law.

That generation had an offer of mercy in which repentance and a reformed life could have brought forgiveness, pardon, and God's protection, and judgment could have been averted if they had repented and turned to the Lord. God did not want them to perish but wanted them to have life and to benefit from His mercy. Some were at first affected by the message, and many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the end. But as year after year passed and the earth remained the same, unbelief entered their minds. They spent that probation ridiculing, caricaturing, criticizing, and laughing Noah to scorn as a crazy fanatic, until mercy was exhausted, the day of probation ended, and the Flood was brought upon the world of the ungodly.

Noah's faithful witness continued long after the Flood, for he lived three hundred and fifty years after the Flood and Shem lived five hundred years. Their descendants going forth to found nations in different parts of the earth therefore had direct opportunity to become acquainted with the requirements of God and the history of His dealings with their fathers. God's purpose was that they should carry with them a knowledge of His will, that the light of truth might shine undimmed to succeeding generations. But those who set themselves against God were unwilling to listen to these unpalatable truths and had no desire to retain God in their knowledge. By the confusion of tongues at Babel they were in great measure shut out from intercourse with those who might have given them light, to their great loss.

Last-Days Parallel

Noah's preaching warned the people before the flood destroyed the ungodly, testing and proving them, and the truth of God for the last days does the same work of warning, testing, and proving the world. That last-day message with its publications is to reach every nation, so that all may see its light and turn from transgression to obedience to God's law. How people respond to that light decides their destiny.

The wickedness of Noah's time is being repeated in the present age, and both times stand as times of great danger and moral decline. As God sent messages then He sends messages now, while calamities increase. The practices that brought the flood upon the old world are increasing again, together with the practices that brought fire upon Sodom, warning that moral corruption brings certain judgment and that the earth nearing its end will be purified by fire.

As Noah as preacher of righteousness warned the old world of coming destruction, so chosen messengers warn of the nearness of the final judgment and of Christ's second appearing to prepare people and bring them into harmony with every precept of God's law. Their warnings are mocked and despised as William Miller's warnings were mocked. The flood came suddenly upon those who did not heed while absorbed in worldly life and expecting continued prosperity, and so Christ's coming will bring the end.

The people had 120 years to repent, turn from sin, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters, and find refuge in the ark, but they mocked the warning and persisted in sin until ruin came. Their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event, stay the showers, or prevent the waters of the great deep from submerging a scoffing world. That warning and judgment stand as the pattern for those who reject the warning of Christ's coming and for conditions before the coming of the Son of man, when people will likewise mock the warning, remain absorbed in worldly pursuits, and scorn the ark of refuge. Those who refuse to repent will perish when God's judgments come, for with the majority the warnings to repent and return to allegiance will be in vain.

Noah's warning of the coming flood is the example for God's people today, who are to warn others that Christ is soon coming. God sends people a warning message now as He did then. Many who helped build the ark did not believe the message, cleanse themselves from wrong principles, turn from wrongdoing, or overcome temptations to act against God's will.

Faithful Application Today

Noah stands as the pattern for the faithful now, who occupy the same place of duty unmoved on the Rock as God's agents in defense of truth, warning and entreating the ungodly and showing faith by works in noble whole-souled fidelity with untarnished moral character. They warn, entreat and rebuke sin and pleasure-lovers by moral rectitude and circumspect conduct, constantly ministering as heroic ministers of righteousness even when not preaching from the desk, loyal to God's claims at any loss to themselves.

To be called a preacher of righteousness belongs also to Christians who are to be lights in the world, refusing to join opposers of God's work or to reveal the counsels of God's people to its enemies. The same calling embraces the work of teaching health reform by making good food and good bread and imparting the knowledge of healthful cookery. That labor blesses body and soul, removes prejudice and unbelief arising from deranged stomachs, counterworks the influence that brought health reform into disrepute, reflects light, and accomplishes grand results whose greatness has not been comprehended or appreciated.

As Noah warned the ungodly world before the Flood, God has given the world a definite warning message for the present, urging repentance and obedience to His law because the Lord is at the door. The call is to remain loyal to God's commands, to stay distinct from the world and not compromise the faith. Obedience leads to eternal life, while disobedience places the disobedient on Satan's side.

Noah delivered God's warning for one hundred and twenty years even when people might refuse to hear, and like Christ he had many hearers but few followers, with only eight saved out of the multitudes on earth. God's messengers must therefore deliver the warning whether men listen or not, sowing beside all waters in cities and villages without discouragement when results are not at once seen. They must be faithful as Noah was faithful and not shrink from presenting heaven's truth despite scoffers and traducers on every side, with every soul standing in his own integrity, for unbelief did not stay the showers nor prevent the waters of the great deep from submerging a scoffing world.

Noah's warning was despised and treated with scorn as fear and superstition, yet the unbelief and mockery of his hearers did not prevent the Flood, and his generation's offer of mercy through repentance and reformed life unto forgiveness and divine protection was lost through persistent iniquity unto destruction. So now people may likewise reject warnings of judgment and ridicule those who teach God's word, paralleling that scorn of solemn warnings, yet God's word will be fulfilled despite unbelief. The judgment that swept the antediluvian world for continual transgression of God's law, when only Noah's family accepted his call to turn from disobedience to obedience and was saved, stands on record as evidence and warning that God will punish lawbreakers who remain on Satan's side despite light and refuse reform.