Mystery (1Peter 1:10-12)"Of this salvation the prophets have sought out and searched diligently... things which angels desire to look into" (vs10,12)
When Adam and Eve sinned, God made a promise of salvation; but the promise was veiled behind symbolism. The "Seed" of the woman. (Gen3:15) An animal was killed, and from Abel's offering, we can see how they were already instructed regarding the "fat" (Gen4:4), as there would later be many mentions when Moses would come along and institute all the temple rituals. (Ex23:18, 29:13, etc) When David cries out, "My Mighty God, My Mighty God, why have You forsaken me?" (Ps22:1) did he fully understand what he was prophesying? When Isaiah prophesied about the "tender plant", "man of pain", "He has borne our sickness", "the chastisement for our peace was upon Him" (Is53) did he fully understand what the Holy Spirit was proclaiming through him? When the coming of Messiah was prophesied, "And you, Bethlehem... out of you shall come One leading Who will shepherd My people Israel." (Mic5:2,6) did Micah understand fully?
If all these prophecies (and others) had been so crystal clear, one would think that Jesus would have been received by the ruling elites and scholars. The scholars were not even privy to the giving of His name, but the angel was sent to Mary and Joseph, His name shall be "Jesus" (Mt1:21, Lk1:31) Except for the visit of the wise men, asking after the new "King of the Jews", and Herod's attempt to obliterate Him, those In-the-Know DID NOT KNOW Him.
According to prophecy, and their own self-absorbed political ambitions (Jn11:48 ), they envisioned a completely different -kind- of Messiah. They were looking for political salvation from Rome. For some reason they didn't see Jesus coming to save the world from sin. After all, they were already (self) righteous, maintaining the "traditions of [their] fathers" (Ga1:14)
Also, the Jews apparently had forgotten the nature of God's call to them, as a "kingdom of priests" (Ex19:6) A priest, by definition, is a go-between between God and man. If they were a "kingdom" of priests, that means God's original desire for them, as a nation, was to be God's representative to the other nations of the world. By definition: being evangelists of God to the Gentiles. They rebelled; and by the time Jesus came they considered Gentiles to be "dogs" (Mt15:26-28 ) And so God sent Jesus to do what Israel failed to do: to be a "a Light to bring revelation to the Gentiles" (Lk2:32, Is42:6)
There were 4000 years of foreshadows of Jesus, even though they didn't understand it. They repeated the animal sacrifices, sabbath after sabbath, year after year. They knew -of- the woman's "Seed"; but did not understand what would actually be happening. Just as we look ahead at prophecy and see the -pieces- of the end-time 'puzzle', but the puzzle hasn't yet been fully assembled, so they did, too. So they continued offering the sacrifices in faith. But -we- have now become the recipients of their prophecies. They continually looked -ahead-. But we, now, look -back- "in remembrance" (Lk22:19, 1Co11:24-25) It is now past-perfect tense. "It has been finished" (Jn19:30) And actually, seeing as how prophecy spoke of it, in God's convention, Jesus had already been offered "before the foundation of the world" (vs20 see also: Jn17:24)
To have questions amongst -people- I understand. The part that puzzles me is the closing phrase, "things which angels desire to look into" (vs12b) Angels have a perspective of creation and man's history that man, himself, does not yet see. They have direct access to God's throne. From Job's account, we know that there are discussions between God and satan regarding people. When Ahab needed to die in battle, an angel suggests a method to get the job done, by being a "lying spirit" in the mouths of the false prophets. (2Ch18:21) Jesus tells Peter that Satan had asked God's permission to "sift [him] as wheat" (Lk22:31)
So, if angels have all this intimate knowledge and understanding of man, why do they not 'understand' (?) Salvation? Or perhaps, it means something a bit different? Perhaps angels don't have opportunity for salvation when they disobeyed...but wish they did? This is a mystery I don't understand. And I don't know that the passage answers it. And the first couple chapters of Hebrews don't really answer it either. John is chided for bowing to the angel (Rev19:10,22:9); and the angel tells John, "I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this Book" And yet, on the other hand, Paul informs us that we will "judge angels" (1Co6:3) Is that -all- angels? ...or just the fallen ones?
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