Called Across Time

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-things into which angels long to look! (1 Peter 1:12)

This is one of those multi-pronoun sentences that drive English teachers a little batty.  Who is what and whom in a sentence like this?  “Them”, “they”, and “themselves” refer back to the prophets from the last sentence, those who had done careful searches and inquiries after the person and work of Jesus. 

They were not serving themselves.  I think that means that they were not simply writing what was given them to prophets for their own benefit and the benefit of the moment, but that their writings were going to have an impact in the future.  It talks about how the Spirit of Christ was at work in them.  I believe Peter is telling us that the prophets knew they were writing things down that were going to be for the future audience after the person and work of Jesus had come to pass.

Now, they did not know the specifics.  The various prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament do not lay out the days and weeks of his life, but they lay out themes, they lay out direction, they lay out patterns in the life of Jesus as the Messiah.  I think Peter is trying to tell us that the prophets were conscious of the fact that their words were forward-looking and would affect the lives and views of future generations.

Why does it matter?  It matters to the Jews of the Diaspora, to Peter’s audience, because the message of Jesus is personal for them.  It is coming to THEM.  It went to others as well, we have only to read the other letters of the New Testament, but there is an expectation that the prophets were reaching out to Jews who were exiled and living out and beyond the land of Israel.

Being outside the land of Israel did not condemn them to a second-class citizenship, where they had to pilgrimage back to the Holy Land to maintain some faith connection.  There is a broad liberation in the word and work of Jesus that Peter is presenting.  It is a gift meant for them from the mouths of the prophets themselves.