Did you know that it wasn’t until the 1500s that the Bible became readily available to the general public? It was with the advent of the printing press, along with the roots of the Reformation beginning to take shape, that the Bible started becoming more commonplace. Did you also know that it wasn’t until the 1950s that we began to have different versions of the Bible? Until the 50s, the King James Version was the only widely known English version that existed. This is to illustrate how people were starved for scriptures in the past and how, compared to then, we’re exceedingly privileged now. We have unlimited access to scriptures that people before 1522 didn’t have. The scriptures are also available in some 3,756 different language groups. It is so widely available that we don’t have to long to look, as those who came before us did.
However, despite its widespread availability, other things consume our time more. The men who fought valiantly to put the Bible into our hands didn’t do so for it to collect dust on our shelves. Yet, there are many whose Bibles have yet to be opened. We have a privilege that many have longed for, and yet we take it for granted. Among those who longed for this privilege we now have are people more esteemed than we in scripture. Using Moses and the Israelites with 1 Peter 1:10-12 as a backdrop, I seek to show that the privilege we take for granted is (was) highly sought after by men more esteemed than us.
Moses Could Only Prepare The Israelites
In the account of Moses’ death in Deuteronomy 34, we read that God took him to the top of a mountain. The purpose of doing so was to show him all the land that the people of Israel were going to possess. We are told it was from Gilead to the plains of the Negeb and the land of Judah (Deuteronomy 34:1-3). However, all that Moses could do was gaze longingly at it since God had told him that he wouldn’t go there (Deuteronomy 34:4).
Moses didn’t enter Canaan due to his sin as Israel’s leader. However, I can’t help but use him as a helpful illustration for 1 Peter 1:10-12. Here is a man with whom God spoke so intimately that it resembled face-to-face conversation (Exodus 33:11). He was a man whose humility was, as scripture reads, ‘more than all people who were on the face of the earth’ (Numbers 12:3). He was the man who acted as the mediator between God and his people (Exodus 32:7-14; 34:8). There is a reason, he is the only man who could offer a ‘worthy’ comparison to Christ in Hebrews 3:1-6. Yet, despite how much he gazed longingly at the rest God was bringing his people into, he couldn’t enter it (Deuteronomy 12:9). He could only help prepare them for it.
Are You Nurturing Your Fruit?
Moses was a man who sought to know God in ways that would have only led to death due to his sinfulness (Exodus 33:18-23). Could you say you have aspired to know God to the point that your life was on the line? Are you willing to serve God even when you know that not everything will go your way? Would you serve him, even if the future that lies ahead isn’t something you’d enjoy? That was the case for the prophets (1 Peter 1:10-12) as recent as John the Baptist. Jesus called him the best of men, yet he didn’t experience the salvation due to God’s people (Matthew 11:11-14).
When you look at Hebrews 11:1-40, we are told of brethren who toiled even though they never got to see the fruit of their toil. Some even died and suffered for their toil (Hebrews 11:35-36). Moses left the pleasures and power that Egypt offered for the sake of Christ (Hebrews 11:23-28). These were those who never got to see the fruit of their toil. What then should be expected of us who have seen the gift of salvation?
Due to the persecution they endured, the recipients of the book of Hebrews had become stagnant in their faith (Hebrews 5:12-14). They had also become a people who were considering an alternative to Christ. Hence, the author of the book of Hebrews reminded them of Christ’s superiority. He also reiterated to them who they were in Christ and thus were not to be weary in doing good. For the joy that lay ahead of them, the author nudged them to strive for maturity and holiness (Hebrews 10:32-39; 12:1-29).
God’s People Took Their Rest for Granted
However, the recipients of the Book of Hebrews aren’t our main subject here. It’s the Israelites who are. The man who didn’t enter Canaan was the closest thing to Christ in their time. The children of Israel, on the other hand, did anything but that which pleased the Lord! Their lives were marred by a sinfulness that confirms the fact that it wasn’t for anything they did that God chose them (Deuteronomy 7:7-11).
How far were they from God, despite entering God’s rest? They were so far off that nearly every prophetic book was about their sin and its consequences. Even before they entered the promised land, Moses knew that they would be a rebellious bunch. Knowing that he tasked them with carrying the Book of the Law so that it might act as a witness against them (Deuteronomy 31:24-29). Despite Moses’ warning, they proceeded to rebel against God. In Judges 2:1-5, just before Joshua’s death, we are told of their disobedience. They had failed to break down the altars that belonged to the Canaanites. After Joshua’s death, they almost immediately abandoned the Lord, who had brought them to the land of rest (Judges 2:11-15). They didn’t long to look or know the God of their salvation.
Are You Longingly Looking Into Your Salvation?
Our tendency is to assume that our sins are not as bad as those of the Israelites. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Going back to 1 Peter 1:10-12, how much time do you set apart to look intently into your salvation? Just like the Israelites, you have a privilege that others, more esteemed than we, never got to enjoy. Do you take that privilege for granted, or do you realize the depths of what is yours in Christ? Do you know that none of the prophets or angels can ever say that they have been crucified with Christ? They can’t also say that, therefore, it is no longer they who live but Christ who lives in them (Galatians 2:20). Does knowing that spur you on, or do you remain stagnated, or worse, go off the deep end like the Israelites?
Long For The Things Above
Imagine this. Beings more powerful than you in every way, in the heavenly places with God, can’t have something you have. To draw it out further, these beings actually wish to know and experience what you have, but they can’t. The closest they can get to the salvation you have is by ministering to you as one of the inheritors of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). Therefore, far be it from you to think of Christianity as dull and boring.
Remember, in our salvation, we don’t just gain good things from God, such as repentance of sin and the newness of life. Ultimately and above all, we gain God. There is a reason the Psalmists called God not just the God of their salvation but their salvation as well (Psalm 27:1; 38:22; 42:5,11; 43:5). Therefore, dear saint, instead of setting your mind on the things of earth, set it on the things above. While at it, savor the privilege you have that is so great that prophets sought to know it, and angels long to look to it.