Peter reminds his readers that they are living in a blessed age, an age the prophets longed to see come to pass. A means of salvation has been promised since the beginning, a Deliverer has been expected, and both His suffering and His glory have been foretold by the prophets. The people of Peter's day (and our day) are living in a time when these things have been fulfilled.
"Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow." (1 Peter 1:10-11) The prophets longed to see the days of the Messiah. They dearly wanted to know when He was coming. They puzzled over the information given to them by God about a Messiah who would be a suffering servant and a conquering king. In their day they could not put the whole puzzle together because they didn't have all the pieces, but Peter says to his readers, "You know the outcome of all the things the prophets longed to understand. You have all the pieces of the puzzle. You understand how the Messiah can be both a suffering servant and a conquering king. At His first advent He came into the world in human weakness so He could offer Himself for our sins. At His second advent He will come in power to claim His rightful place on the throne of David and will rule the whole earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. Oh, the prophets would have given anything to know what you know and to have seen what you have seen!"
Time doesn't permit us to take a look at the hundreds of prophecies regarding the Messiah, His suffering, and His kingdom. But a great deal of the prophets' own messages must have puzzled them greatly, such as the Messiah being born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), Him being born in Judah's smallest town of Bethlehem and not in a king's palace (Micah 5:2), Him living outside of Israel in Egypt for a time (Hosea 11:1), that His ministry would begin in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-2), that He would perform great miracles of healing (Isaiah 35:5-6), that He would be rejected (Isaiah 53:3), that He would feel forsaken by God (Psalm 22:1), that He would be mocked and insulted (Psalm 22:6-8), that His bones would be pulled out of joint and that He would be thirsty while He is surrounded by enemies (Psalm 22:12-17), that He would be given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21a), that the soldiers would cast lots for His garments (Psalm 22:18), that He would be beaten and His hands and feet would be pierced (Isaiah 53:5) (Psalm 22:18), that He would die with transgressors and be buried with the wealthy (Isaiah 53:5), and that He would rise from the dead (Isaiah 53:11).
No wonder Peter says the prophets studied intently and with the greatest of care to try and figure out just how and when these things were going to take place. But Peter's listeners already know what the prophets did not know. They know that Jesus of Nazareth was born of a virgin, that He was born in Bethlehem, that He had to be hidden from Herod in Egypt for a time, that He began His ministry in Galilee, that He performed great miracles, that He was rejected by the chief priests and elders, that His hands and feet were pierced by crucifixion, that He quoted the words of David as He hung on the cross, that He was mocked as He hung there, that He was given vinegar to drink, that the soldiers gambled for His cloak, that His hands and feet were pierced, that He was crucified with transgressors, that He was buried in a rich man's tomb, and that He rose from the dead.
The prophets longed to see the days of the Messiah, but they knew in their spirits that the time was not yet. "It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven." (1 Peter 1:12a) The prophet Baalam said of the Messiah's time, which seemed far off to him: "I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel." (Numbers 24:17a)
The prophets of old could not picture exactly how all these prophecies would come together. They couldn't have predicted the census that led Joseph and Mary down to Bethlehem just at the time Jesus was about to be born. They knew nothing of a wicked and paranoid king named Herod who would want all the baby boys of Bethlehem slaughtered so that he would have no rival to the throne. They would not have known what to make of the Messiah, also called God's Son, being called out of the land of Egypt. Crucifixion had not even been invented when some of the prophecies describing the suffering of the cross were written down. And who could make sense of the Lord's anointed one suffering with transgressors, or for transgressors?
The angels themselves were fascinated with knowing exactly how God intended to work out His plan of salvation. "Even angels long to look into these things." (1 Peter 1:12b) In the Greek this passage could be translated as: "Even the angels stoop down to watch intently as God carries out His plans on the earth."
How must it have felt when the angels got an even closer glimpse of Christ's suffering than the prophets received? Did they weep as their King suffered? Or did they maintain an awestruck silence as the Creator of all things took His last breath on the cross? When He cried out, "It is finished!" were they both thrilled and heartbroken---thrilled because He perfectly accomplished His purpose, heartbroken because it took His blood to save mankind? If the angels and the prophets intently studied the purpose and plans of God, how much more should we study our Bibles and be awestruck by what our Savior sacrificed for us?
Our study today reminds me of a particular worship song, so in closing I'm going to post the link to it below. It speaks of the mourning of all creation as the Savior hung on the cross.
Forever
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