To Encourage You

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

Do you wonder what heaven is like?  Do you ever think about it?  The Bible says that it’s an awesome place.  Read the book of Revelation. It says that there is no hunger there. It’s a place where there is no thirst, no sickness, no tears, and no death.  It’s a glorious place. It’s a place that doesn’t need a sun for the glory of the Lord fills the place with light.  It’s a place with thousands upon thousands of angels glorifying God with their voices.  What heaven must look like! What it must sound like!  It’s a place that’s beyond anything we might be able to imagine.   

But do you realize that there’s something on earth that the angels in heaven view as awesome?  These beings that stand in the presence of God day after day wonder at something that’s going on right here and right now all around us.  The verse above speaks about this.  It says that it’s something that the angels “long to look” at.  In the Greek language in which this verse was originally written, the word “look” means “to stoop down and look.” Isn’t that an awesome picture?  It’s the same idea that God was giving to us in the construction of the mercy seat in Exodus 25. The mercy seat is a structure that was to be created to cover the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle per the instructions God gave Moses on Mount Sinai.  The ark of the covenant was to contain the Law of God.  The mercy seat was to be constructed of pure gold and two cherubim, also made of pure gold, were to be made a part of it. They were to face each other toward the mercy seat.  It’s a picture of the same thing written about in 1 Peter 1 above.  You see, the mercy seat is a picture of the mercy of God towards those who have broken His law.  The seat was to be sprinkled with blood, which is a shadow of the blood of Christ, whose death on the cross is the only reason any of us is shown mercy. 

What an awesome thing this is, that the God of heaven, the awesome One Whom the angels of heaven glorify and serve day after day, should come to earth as a babe, be subjected to the abuse of those who hated Him, and while we were yet sinners, die for us.  Day after day, as one by one the incredible mercy of God dawns on the hearts of rebels who at long last repent and bow to Him in submission and reverence, the angels stoop down and look on in wonder. It’s an incredible thing.  It’s something that is so awesome that as even one sinner repents, there is rejoicing among the angels in heaven over it (Luke 15:10).

And to think that you and I can have a role in this.  It is only as we preach the good news of the mercy of God that those who don’t know God come to know Him.  It’s a wonder in heaven, and we get to be a part of it.  As God’s Word says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation” (Isaiah 52:7).  And to think that this beauty is not just beautiful to those who believe and those who preach the Word, but beautiful to the angels that stand in the glorious beauty of God day after day in the glory of heaven. 

One day we will know as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12), and what a glorious day that will be.  But for now, although we see as through a glass darkly, God has given us some glimpses in His Word of the awesome things that we can be a part of.  May God help us to actually be a part of all this, as we obey His command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It’s an awesome thing to the angels as they stoop down to look at this very moment from heaven.