"We have also the prophetic word more sure, to which ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until its day dawn, and a light-bearer arise in your hearts" (2 Peter 1:19 to 21; 3:17). These are "wholesome words," and the literal rendering of the original. The prophetic word is sure, and the things Peter, James, and John had witnessed on the Mount of Transfiguration confirmed it or made it surer. Thus made doubly sure, it became a shining light, not a feeble, invisible light, such as pure hydrogen burning in day brightness, but a light blazing as the sun in a place otherwise dark, dark as Egyptian night with blackness. We need not wonder at the sure prophetic word being radiant with brightness; for Yahweh who gave it is light, the Light of the Universe, "in whom is no darkness at all." It is "a light that shineth in a dark place." The heart of man is this "dark place." The word auchmeres signifies not only dark, but "squalid and filthy." This is a man's mental and moral condition, squalid, filthy, and dark by nature--a condition before God, if not in the estimation of his fellow-men, in which he continues hopelessly until the sure word, termed by Paul, "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, shines into him" (2 Cor. 4:4). Consider the savage, the semi-barbarian, and the "civilised" man. Not to go beyond "Christendom" for examples, contemplate the man of letters, philosophy, politics, and "religion," not to mention the thoughtless multitude, whose minds embrace no other topics than such as arise spontaneously from their "fleshly lusts that war against the soul." Converse with these several classes of mankind upon "Moses and the prophets," the apostolic testimony, the mission of the Messiah, the future of nations, the destiny of the earth and man upon it, &c., and you will find that "darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people;" and as the necessary consequence of this universal ignorance, or blindness of heart to the sure prophetic word, their works are evil and that continually.
Now to this sure prophetic word or glorious gospel light (for the gospel is still almost wholly a matter of prophecy) the apostle says, "ye do well to take heed to it." Surely he is an authority in the case, and one whose exhortation should be respectfully entertained. Would he tell us to take heed to the sure prophetic word if it were unintelligible? Can we take heed to a thing we do not and cannot understand? Prosechontes, rendered giving or taking heed, signifies having in addition to. This is its derivative signification, and imports that we should have the sure word of prophecy added to our mind; but can this addition be accomplished unless we apply our minds to the word or give heed to it? And what would be the use of studying it if it were essentially enigmatical and insusceptible of rational interpretation? On the contrary, we conclude from the terms of the apostle's exhortation, that it is clear, worthy of diligent study, reasonable, and improving.
But Peter's exhortation was not confined to his contemporaries. What he said to them he says to us. You do well to give heed to it "until its day dawn." The common version has it, "until the day dawn;" but this is not the translation of heos ou hemera diaugasee. Ou is the relative to its antecedent luckno, which is synonymous with "the Word"--ou hemera, whose day; that is, the light's day, or the Word's day--the Day testified of in the light-imparting word of prophecy, in which God will rule the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, whom he raised up from the dead for that very purpose (Acts 17:31). This is the day spoken of by Moses and the prophets --"the acceptable year of the Lord," the year-day or age to come, of a thousand years duration (which with the Lord are but as one day, says Peter -- 2 Peter 3:8), "the rest which remains for the people of God" -- the day when His King shall come in his kingdom and glory: this is the day (Ezek. 39:8) which succeeds "to-day," coeval with the Gentile governments; the gospel-day when Christ shall sit upon his Father's throne in Zion, and "govern the nations upon earth" (Psalm 67:4; 22:27-28). This day has not yet dawned. We are in "the evening time of to-day," when it shall be light (Heb. 3:13; 4:7; Luke 23:43; Zech. 14:7). We are of "to-day," which is "a cloudy and dark day" -- a day of ignorance, superstition, and foolishness; but when to-morrow comes, the day after "to-day," these things will be abolished to the ends of the earth, and we shall no more need the prophetic word to give us light. But till then, the "heirs of the kingdom" can no more do without the shining light of prophecy, than mankind can do without the shining brightness of the firmament. Blot out the light of heaven, and confusion and death would soon pervade the world. The "children of the day" (1 Thess. 5:5) must have daylight, or they would become sickly, and pine away, and die. They respond to the apostle's exhortation, and apply their minds to the sure prophetic word, that in keeping their minds actively engaged upon it, a light-bearer may spring up in their hearts, making their paths "as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The way of the wicked is not so. It is darkness, and they know not at what they stumble (Prov. 4:18,19).
We remark, in conclusion, that prophecy is so intelligible that those who take heed, or apply their minds to it, can tell assuredly what shall come to pass before it happens. This was the case with those to whom Peter wrote. After writing about the coming of the Lord to slay his murderers, and to burn up the city (his second coming, not his second appearing at his third coming) in which he discoursed also of the passing-away of the heavens and the earth, constituted by the old Mosaic covenant then in existence, but since vanished away--he concludes by saying to them, "seeing ye know these things before, beware, &c." They knew what was coming upon Jerusalem and the State; for they were observant of the signs of the times given by the Lord in his prophecy on Mount Olivet. Their presence enabled them to eschew "the error of the wicked," who scoffed at the idea of the Lord's coming to punish his enemies. It enabled them to be steadfast; and at length to escape "the judgment and fiery indignation which devoured the adversaries." To deny that we can know beforehand what is to come to pass, is to affirm that we cannot understand the gospel for the gospel is glad tidings of what is to be to all nations and to the saints. It is the report of good things promised. A promise is a prediction, and a prediction is prophecy. The gospel is a great prophecy of what God intends to do; and they who intelligently believe it, know beforehand what is to be done. The little that has been fulfilled in Jesus is an assurance to the believer that what remains will certainly be accomplished. He foresees the crushing-down of the thrones, the abolition of all kingdoms, empires, and republics, the setting-up of a divine kingdom in Israel's land, the blessedness of all nations under the government of Messiah and his brethren, and the will of God done on the earth as it is in heaven; with many more great and glorious things too numerous to mention at the present time.
(Dr. John Thomas, 1852.)