SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2022 11:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Protest of Christ”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
16:23a
Message of the verse: “23 But He turned
and said to Peter, "Get behind Me,
Satan! You are a stumbling block
to Me;”
I suppose that it would be right to say that Peter
was shocked by what the Lord said to him, for hearing “get behind me Satan!”
surely would have been a great shock to Peter.
I have to say that Peter, on the surface, was saying something that seems
honorable and even loving and compassionate, but that was on the surface and
what we can learn from this is something I guess that most of us know and that
is that Satan is tricky among other harmful things. As we look at Peter’s statement we know that
Peter did not want his Lord and friend to die, but that had to happen and later
on Peter would completely understand it.
Perhaps it was a selfish reason that Peter and the rest of the twelve
did not want Jesus to die as they had dependent on Jesus for almost everything
since they had been walking with Him.
MacArthur writes “As on commentator
has observed, Peter ‘could hardly have understood that by his attempt to
dissuade Jesus from the cross he was placing arrows in the bow of Satan to shot
at his beloved Savior.’”
It
is possible that Peter had put an arm around Jesus before he said what he said
to him, that is "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to
You." It is not hard to imagine
that Jesus was looking straight into the eyes of Peter as we read He turned and
said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!
This statement was surely a stinging, devastating response that must
have shaken Peter to the core of his being.
Peter did not even have a chance to finish his objections as Jesus
abruptly cut him off and accused him of being the mouthpiece for His adversary,
Satan.
Let
us go back to some of the things that Jesus said to Satan just after He had
begun His ministry, and see if they are similar to what He just said to
Peter. “Then Jesus said to him, “Away
with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and
Him only you shall serve’” (Matt. 4:10).
“When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an
opportune time” (Luke 4:13). Perhaps
what we see in Matthew 16:23a show that Satan was using an opportune time to
tempt Jesus through the voice of Peter.
Peter
was basically saying something like this “My way is better than Yours and the
Father’s” which is similar to what Satan was saying to Jesus while he was
tempting Him as we have just looked at.
Here is the sad truth and that is that the one whom the Father had just
inspired to give that confession as seen in verse 17, was now inspired by
Satan.
I
will close this SD by quoting an important paragraph from John MacArthur: “If such a thing could happened to Peter, it
can happen to any believer. The same
Christian who extols the plan of God can be lured into extolling the plan of
Satan. When he follows his own wisdom
instead of the Spirit’s the same one who has strongly taken the side of God can
find himself unwittingly taking the side of Satan.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am reminded once again how tricky Satan is
as it seems that Satan comes after people right after they have climbed on top
of the mountain spiritually that he will then tempt us and then fail the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am reminded of the need of the Spiritual
Armor that I am to use when I am tempted by the evil one.
9/23/2022 11:41 AM
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