II Peter 2: 4-9
For if God did not spare Angels when they sinned,
These were either the Angels who followed Lucifer in his rebellion against God, before God made Mankind, or maybe Angelic beings who took on bodies and cohabited with women and produced children who were giants, the Nephilim.
but cast them into Hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
They were thrown into Hell, that God designed for them (Matthew 25:41), tied up in chains of darkness, to hold them until the Day of Judgment.
And did not spare the ancient World, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a Flood upon the World of the ungodly;
Noah was not a clerical pastor, but his moral and obedient lifestyle "preached" to the ungodly masses in showing them up as the violent and immoral people they were. And God Deluged the World that was, so that every living thing that breathed air died. A total annihilation of all life, to start over with this man and his little family who believed God and were not genetically contaminated (Genesis 6:9).
And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;
Sodom and Gomorrah have become a fable that is not believed as fact but as teaching the moral degradation that plumbs the depths of depravity. But what's so amazing about this story is that "truth is stranger than fiction," and it really is true, it really happened.
And if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
Lot was a godly man, but he was a "city boy" who would rather live in an urban neighborhood even when his neighbors were disgusting.
(For by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),
Lot really hated how his neighbors acted, but it apparently wasn't enough for him to move out. He preferred urban living over the nomadic pastoral life he had with his Uncle Abraham.
Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment.
God knows how to rescue the godly out of the destruction of the wicked, even when they are embedded in the mass of the ungodly. The angels took Lot by the hand and dragged him out of the city, practically kicking and screaming. And he still didn't consent to go into the mountains, but begged to be allowed to go to even a small town. He craved community.
And God destroyed that whole plain where those two major cities were located, because they had infected the whole region. So the whole region was flattened, burned up, completely wiped out. Except that tiny town where Lot went. Right in the middle of it all! Those townspeople didn't realize that they were still alive because Lot was there with them, and instead probably blamed him for the loss of all their neighbors and source of wealth. So he ended up in the mountains, anyway.
God is amazing! He destroys the wicked, reserving them in punishment until the Day of Judgment; and He saves the godly from that wrath, and delivers them out of the troubles and devastation reserved for the wicked.
What I find really noteworthy is that God rained down fire and brimstone over that whole region of that plain, destroying everything; but He put a kind of dome over that one tiny village, so that all the burning rain would not blow into it, too, just because Lot was there! This is incredible! This is our God!
O Father, You always are the Best! You have outshone Hollywood at every turn. What You have done is more dramatic, more theatrical, more entertaining than anything Hollywood has been able to come up with. Because no one else is anything like our God. The best stories they have come up with to make blockbuster movies of have been Bible Stories! (Charlton Heston was great, but the real Noah was Real!) And the best is yet to come!
Father, You will always punish the wicked, and reserve them for the Day of Judgment. And You will never fail to protect and reward the righteous, Your children who are obedient to Your ways and walk hand in hand with You.
There is never any discrepancy between the disposition of the evil, whether human or angelic, and the righteous, whether human or angelic.
There are no gray areas with You, Father; everything is black or white, evil or good. And what is good is perfect. What is not good is evil, wicked, not up to Your standard of perfection.
Thank You that You sent Your own Son to wash us pristine clean, so we will be perfect, and able to live in Your presence without burning up. And that You granted us to give us Your own Holy Spirit into our human spirits, to make them Alive with Your Divine Life; not so we would be gods, but that we would have Divine Power to overcome temptation and defeat the devil.
O my Father, You are Good, and everything You do is good. You are Love, and all You do comes from Your Love. It is Your Love that put order into our Universe, and it will put order in our societies when we do things Your way in our Nations.
You made this Earth to operate in an orderly manner, and when we have disrupted that order by disobeying Your laws, we have suffered the consequences. Help us to do better, to follow Your ways.
Father, when Your children obey You and walk and govern in obedience to Your Laws, then our whole society is lifted up into higher levels of prosperity, not just believers, but everybody in that Nation. Please help the citizens to see this, and support Your good in our intentions and in our relationships with one another.
Father, You are letting the tares grow up with the wheat in the fields of this World. Send out Your workers to find those who are seeking You, Father, to show them the Way, and to draw them into relationship with You.
And You will settle all accounts. You will even all the odds. You will apportion all the rewards and punishments. And You will be praised and honored for Your justice and mercy, Your judgments and grace, and Your generosity and Your just wrath.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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