In my opinion, one of the most rewarding parts of studying the Bible is when you discover a connection between the Old and New Testaments. You’ve read a passage dozens or possibly even hundreds of times, but then one day you read it again, and suddenly a lightbulb goes off, and everything just seems to click. I’ve always loved to solve puzzles and decipher mysteries, so when I feel like I’ve made sense of some mysterious verse in the Bible—whether I discover how an Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in the New or I recognize when the New Testament is clearly quoting or referring to the Old—I get really excited.
This happened to me a few months ago as I was studying 1 Peter using a Bible study written by Lydia Brownback. I read a pair of verses that I had no doubt read countless times before. All of a sudden, the lightbulb went off, and the passage now had a much deeper and richer meaning than before.
The verses I had read that day were 1 Peter 2:9-10—
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (ESV)
If you’ve spent any length of time in church (or you’ve listened to Passion music)[1], these verses probably sound familiar to you. To give you some context, 1 Peter is the first of two letters we have in Scripture written by (you guessed it) Peter, one of Jesus’s closest apostles. The letter was written to Gentile Christians residing in Asia Minor, which is now known as the country of Turkey. During the time when this letter was written, Christians were facing great persecution for what they believed, and Peter was encouraging them to persevere and hope in Christ despite their suffering.
In the letter’s second chapter, Peter is reminding the weary believers of how they are supposed to live and act. They are not to follow the ways of the world, giving into sin and temptation (v. 1). On the contrary, they are to imitate Christ (vv. 4-5) and live honorably (vv. 11-12). Why are they called to such a higher standard? Because they had been set apart by God.
Peter describes Christ followers in verse nine as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession. This verbiage appears to be a reference to a passage in the Old Testament book of Exodus—
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” Exodus 19:5-6
Thousands of years ago, God had chosen Israel to be His people—to follow and worship Him. He set Israel apart from the nations surrounding her and charged the people to be His representatives on earth. In return, He would show them love, kindness, and mercy, and He would protect them from harm and danger.
God has done the same thing for us who are Christians. He chose us and predestined us before the foundation of the world to be His people (Ephesians 1:4). God set us apart as holy, charging us not to live as the world does but to imitate Christ in all of our thoughts, words, and deeds (John 15:19, Ephesians 5:1-2). In return, God showers us with abundant love, kindness, and mercy, and He protects and provides for us more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:17-21).
After comparing believers to Israel, Peter goes on in verse ten to say that the Christians were now God’s people, even though they had once not been a people. They were recipients of God’s mercy, although that has not always been the case. At face value, it may just seem that Peter is reiterating what he just said in verse nine. Christians are the people of God because they’ve received His mercy. But this verse actually has a much deeper spiritual meaning when you go back to the Old Testament.
Do you remember Hosea—the prophet who was commanded to marry a prostitute, or depending on your interpretation of the book, a woman who would become a prostitute? In case you haven’t read that minor prophet in a while, Hosea was a prophet in Israel, and he was told by God to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him and prostitute herself out to other men. After she left him and did this, God told Hosea to redeem her and bring her back home. This all was done to reveal God’s relationship with Israel. Though the nation of Israel was essentially prostituting herself and going after other gods, God still loved His people and would remain faithful to them and redeem them from their sins.
During Hosea’s marriage, his wife gave birth to three children, and God told Hosea what to name each of them. One of their names was “Not My People.” Another child was named “No Mercy.” (Some scholars believe that these two children were not Hosea’s biological children.) These names were symbolic for Israel at the time. The nation was disobedient to God in worshipping other idols. They were not faithful to the covenant God had set up between them. They had essentially become not His people, and they would not receive His mercy.
Has the lightbulb gone off yet? First Peter 2:10 is a reference to the book of Hosea. Over and over again, Israel rebelled against God and disobeyed His commands. They were unable to be faithful to Him. They could not be His people, and they would receive no mercy. Yet, God still loved them. Despite their unfaithfulness, He remained faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). And He would provide a way for His people to receive mercy and become His people again.
Several hundred years later, God sent His Son, Jesus, to the earth. Knowing that His people would never be able to be righteous enough on their own, Jesus came to live a perfectly righteous life, give His life as a sacrifice for our sins, and resurrect to defeat sin and give us new life. Through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, we received mercy. Jesus reconciled us to the Father so that we might become His people. And because our status as people of God, as people of mercy lies on Christ’s shoulders rather than ours, we can trust that it is something we can never lose no matter what we do.
Isn’t this something to be thankful for! We are God’s chosen people, adopted into His family. When we couldn’t save ourselves, He mercifully provided a way for us to be made righteous. We were not His people, but now we are. We had received no mercy, but now we have. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s possession. Let us thank God for these truths and glorify Him, proclaiming the excellencies of Him who calls us out of our darkness and into His marvelous light.
“And you will say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 12:4-6
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[1] “Glorious Day,” Worship Together, accessed October 4, 2022, https://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/glorious-day-passion/.
