{"id":426,"date":"2008-10-15T20:22:19","date_gmt":"2008-10-16T02:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2008-10-15T20:22:19","modified_gmt":"2008-10-16T02:22:19","slug":"1-peter-112-heavenly-observation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/1-peter-112-heavenly-observation\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 1:12 – Heavenly Observation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 Peter 1:12<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven\u2014things which angels desire to look into.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Angels are watching us to learn about salvation.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The words \u201cthey were ministering<\/span>\u201d are translated from the Greek verb diakone\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto serve\u201d or \u201cto wait on\u201d just as a waiter does at a restaurant. It is the word from which we get our English word deacon; a position of servanthood within the church. The verb is expressed here in the imperfect tense indicating past, ongoing action.<\/p>\n

At the end of this verse, the word \u201cdesire<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek verb epithume\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cextremely strong desire.\u201d It is the word used of the prodigal son\u2019s desire to satisfy his hunger with the husks in Luke 15:16<\/span><\/strong> and of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes in 1 John 2:16<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cto look<\/span>\u201d is the Greek verb parakupt\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto bend down\u201d or \u201cto stoop down\u201d or \u201cto peer into.\u201d The implication here, as with the prophets, is that the angels are intently looking into these things. James uses this same word in James 1:25<\/span><\/strong>, \u201cbut whoever looks intently into the perfect law of liberty \u2026\u201d<\/span> and it also is used of Peter himself in Luke 24:12 <\/span><\/strong>when he had arrived at the empty tomb and stooped down looking in to see the grave clothes.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of Peter\u2019s message in these verses is to impress upon those to whom he was writing in the 1st<\/sup> century (and to us who read these words today) not only the value of the message contained in the scriptures, but also our very privileged position in being able to understand what was written in a way that saints of old were not permitted. The prophets of the Old Testament searched with effort for the true meaning of the message, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit, in order to understand the things of the Messiah and this salvation that we have. Now Peter tells us that the angelic beings have an intense desire to know more about these things as well.<\/p>\n

An angel cannot experience salvation as we can. Each angelic being is a separate creation and is responsible to God for his own actions. It is because of the procreation of mankind from a single created being that Christ was able to atone for the sins of Adam\u2019s entire race. Since angels can\u2019t experience salvation themselves, they have to understand it by studying those of us who are experiencing it.<\/p>\n

So, the next time you feel like someone is watching you (other than the omnipresent God we serve) it may well be that it is an angel, trying to better understand more about the salvation so freely offered to us, even though we don\u2019t deserve it.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s give praise to God for our salvation, and let\u2019s be a witness of His grace to those around us who we can see, as well as to those who we can\u2019t see. Be a witness to an angel today!<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2008 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

All of our daily verse studies are available on the Ministry of Grace Church blog at http:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test<\/a><\/p>\n

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1 Peter 1:12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven\u2014things which angels desire to look into. Truth to Learn Angels are watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-6S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}