"Welcome to the Club!"

Scripture Passage

Hebrews 13:1-25 1 Peter 1:1-2:3

Scripture Focus

This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. … They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. (1 Peter 1:10, 12 NLT)

Observation

There are two things I find fascinating about 1 Peter 1:10-12. First—just like yesterday’s “Scripture Focus” on Hebrews 11:40—again today the Bible records that great people of faith longed for something significant which was held in reserve for us! It’s not that they were kept forever from receiving what we now enjoy, but that they were given something that was not theirs to understand in full. Complete clarity regarding the prophetic messages that they themselves delivered was kept from them. “They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for [us]” (1 Peter 1:12 NLT). What a privileged people we are to know what others had only wondered about!

Second, I would never put myself on the same level as those who prophesied regarding Christ’s appearing, but I do share a sense of affinity with them after reading these verses. I, too, have stood up and attempted to proclaim things I don’t fully understand—things I cannot fully articulate. It’s terribly frustrating! There are days that something stirs in my soul…days there’s some perception—some minimal understanding—but not nearly enough clarity to either feel like I understand it myself or that I could possibly explain it to anyone else. Still, the call is there to speak that word. And so, with fear and trembling—and an utter sense of inadequacy—I do.

But that’s the place of the servant of God, isn’t it? I don’t mean only “preachers.” I mean you, too. It is—at times—the role of God’s man or woman to speak what’s in his or her heart, even if full understanding has not yet come.

We read the prophets and assume, I think, that these spokespersons for God understood in full what we’re so challenged to sort out. 1 Peter 1 declares otherwise, announcing that they, themselves, often spoke with the same kind of limited understanding and trembling heart that all people of faith throughout the ages have known. So if you’ve been there like I have—and like they were—Welcome to the Club!

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