A. Peter makes an interesting observation when he writes that “we have the word of the prophets made more certain.” Our first thought might be: “How can it be any more certain than it already is? It’s given and inspired by God! You cannot get any more certain than that!”

But if that is our first thought, we think it because God has given us faith to do so. With God-given faith we trust God to tell us the truth and to mean what He says. It was really the same for the Old Testament prophets and the people who listened to them. They didn’t actually see happening what the prophets wrote about. By faith they had to look forward in time and believe that God would do what He said, to fulfill His prophecies and to keep His promises. The only difference for us New Testament era believers is that we are looking back in time, rather than forward in time. But it’s still a matter of simply trusting God to tell us the truth.

But for the Apostles and others (i.e. Simeon and Anna, the Shepherds, etc.) it was entirely different. They saw God’s prophecies actually being fulfilled right before their very eyes. They did not have to live only by faith. Real life events which fulfilled the prophecies and promises of God made the Apostles and other contemporaries of Jesus “more certain” that God meant exactly what He said in His Word.

To us, it might seem like those contemporaries of Jesus had an unfair advantage over us, by having first hand experience with events from Jesus’ life on earth. But let's remember Jesus' own words of blessing for us and others like us: “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29b)

In addition, we have an advantage that the Apostles and others did not have for most of their lives. We have the entire account of Scripture in front of us. In one handy volume, we have everything from the prophecies through the fulfillments. We can see the entire puzzle-picture of salvation put together before our eyes. The Apostles and others had to wait as one piece of the puzzle after another fell into place while Jesus lived out His life on earth. But whether one is certain by means of God-given faith, or certain because of seeing something actually happening to Jesus, it is still a certainty which is given by God to us. With that kind of certainty in mind, Peter goes on to tell us what we should do with these messages: “You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place.”