SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2024 7:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Disciples Ignorance”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
25:33-35
Message of the verses: “33 But Peter said
to Him, "Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never
fall away." 34 Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you that this very
night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 35 Peter said
to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." All
the disciples said the same thing too.”
This is the second time that Jesus said "Truly
I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny
Me three times.” The trouble is that
Peter did not believe the Lord any more this time than the second time, and
this was only a few hours later that He said this to Peter. MacArthur writes “With amazing brashness and
pride, he obviously thought that, wise as Jesus was, He was mistaken about the
dependability and courage of His foremost disciple.”
In
the times when Jesus was on the earth the Jews divided the night into four
parts: evening, which was from six to
nine; midnight, which from nine to twelve; cock crow, which was from twelve to
three; and then morning which was from three to six. MacArthur adds “The third period gained its
name from the fact that roosters began to crow about the end of that period and
continued to crow periodically until after daybreak.”
We
can speculate that by the time that Jesus and His disciples made it to the
Mount of Olives it was about midnight.
So Jesus prediction about Peter would happen within a very few hours,
Peter would deny the Lord three times—before three in the morning, when a cock would
normally begin to crow. Peter should
have realized that Jesus would not say this was going to happen to Him unless
it was certain that it would, and no sooner had this third denial, which was augmented
with a curse, come out of Peter’s mouth than “immediately a cock crowed” (v.
74).
I could be said that Peter was a very prideful man
and so that pride did not allow him to think such a thing was conceivable, as
that is what pride will do to a man.
Peter’s pride on this occasion was manifested in at least three ways,
MacArthur writes: “In the first place he
contradicted the Lord, as he had done at other times. Shortly after Peter confessed that Jesus was ‘the
Christ, the Son of the living God,’ he ‘took Him aside and began to rebuke Him’
for predicting His suffering and death, ‘saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This
shall never happen to You’’ (Matthew 16:16, 22).
“Second, Peter’s pride was manifested in his considering
himself better than all the other disciples, claiming that, although they might
desert Jesus, he would never do so.
Third, he trusted in his own streingh, foolishly declaring, ‘I will
never fall away’ ad a few moments later adding, ‘Even if I have to die with
You, I will not deny You.’ Sharing Peter’s
misguided self-confidence, through perhaps to less extreme degrees, ‘All the
disciples said the same thing too.’” 5/12/2024
8:13 AM
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