<p>2:9 <em>Therefore the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation- </em>&lsquo;The Lord&rsquo; to Peter meant &lsquo;the Lord Jesus&rsquo;. He comforts them that the Lord Jesus knows how to deliver the Godly out of temptation. Surely he was referring back to how the Lord Jesus had prayed for him, knowing the temptation that was to come upon him in the High Priest&rsquo;s house, knowing Satan&rsquo;s desire to have him. And although it might have seemed that in the short term Peter&rsquo;s weakness rendered that prayer powerless, in fact in the end, his faith didn&rsquo;t fail, just as the Lord had prayed. And so from his own example he could comfort his readers that surely their Lord knew how to deliver from temptation, even if like Lot and like Peter those he delivers may deserve to be left to the outcome of their own words and actions. &nbsp;</p><p>To keep Lot from the great spiritual temptation provoked within him by that city, God destroyed it. Similarly God's abhorrence of this present world which Sodom typifies is largely due to the spiritual temptation it so evidently brings upon His people. And remember that it was thanks to Abraham's prayers that Lot was saved out of Sodom. Perhaps his prayers had been especially for Lot's spiritual deliverance from the situation he was in; and the destruction of Sodom perhaps happened exactly for that reason.</p><p><em>And to keep the unrighteous under punishment to the day of judgment</em>- There is no conscious survival of death. The sentence for sin is passed now (:3), but they only receive it at the day of judgment. They are therefore kept &quot;under&quot; that judgment, although dead, until they are resurrected to face judgment. The idea of keeping or reserving the wicked unto judgment at the last day is quite common with Peter (2:4,9,17; 3:7 all use the same word). Likewise our eternal inheritance and crown is &quot;kept 'reserved' in heaven&quot; for us (1 Pet. 1:4). The judgment has already been made; but the result of the verdict is reserved or kept until the last day. As the Psalms make clear, we can know right now the Lord's judgments; they are revealed to us in His word, which is His judgments.</p>