For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

2 Peter 2: 4-6

I’ve heard the following quote slightly rephrased and attributed to a number of influential people including Winston Churchill, but it appears to have originated with the philosopher, George Santayana.

Peter points to the past to remind us the end result of those who follow a false teacher beginning with fallen angels, the entire civilization of people in Noah’s day and the example found in the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Yet, there was mercy for some. God saved Noah and his family and even though he was a resident of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, was rescued before those cities were condemned. Peter reminds us “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials” (2 Peter 2:9).

Peter’s warning for us is that we should seek the good things of God so that there is no room for the rebellion of our hearts and lives like those who have gone before us.

Contrast the lives of Noah and Lot. Both men lived in difficult times. One man is described as a preacher of righteousness, the other was described as living among those who tormented “his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard” (2 Peter 2: 8).

Do we really think we can absorb so much of the culture around us and not be affected? Let’s choose to follow the pattern of Noah.