2 Peter 3:5
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
Truth to Learn
The world system today chooses to ignore God’s truth.
Behind the Words
“Deliberately” is translated from a form of thelō, which means “to wish or to will.” But it implies more than simple desire because it carries an intention with it. Hence, it is often translated as “to determine.”
The word “forget” is translated from the Greek word lanthanō, which is from a primitive root lath, meaning “to escape notice.” The word lanthanō means “to lie hidden” or “to be unaware of.”
The words “long ago” are from ekpalai, meaning “from a long time ago.”
Meaning Explained
Today’s verse is a very difficult one to translate accurately as evidenced by the wide variety of translations that exist. It literally starts out with, “for determining to be unaware of …”
The thing that they are intentionally unaware of is explained in the following phrase: “that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water” This, too, is a difficult phrase to translate, but it appears to mean that the heavens were created a long time ago by the word of God, the earth was once formed by the word of God out of water, and the earth currently exists having come through water.
The first of these is pretty easy to understand. “Long ago by God’s word the heavens existed;” that is, they existed, or came into being, a long time ago, and the instrument which brought the heavens into being was the Word of God. The next phrase, “and the earth was formed out of water and by water,” is literally written “and land out of water and through water.” This is explained in the second verse of Genesis, “And the earth was without form and empty. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.” In this verse from Genesis, the word translated “the deep” can be referring to “surging waves of water.” We can clearly see from Genesis 1:2 that the earth was covered with water, and land was formed from the midst of it. And the phrase “through water” is a reference to the flood of Noah’s time which transformed the face of the earth.
What today’s verse is telling us is that these scoffers have made a conscious decision not to believe reality because they don’t want to admit that God exists. They cannot understand the reality of God’s creation because they willingly ignore the truth. As a result, they have to make up theories that explain all that exists around us apart from a creator God.
Application
Just because all of our public schools teach that all matter spontaneously came into being at the Big Bang doesn’t make it so. Just because they teach that life spontaneously came into being and evolved into all life forms we see today, without God, doesn’t make it so. People don’t have to believe these lies, but they choose to because they reject God. Do you choose to believe the Word of God or humanistic lies?
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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