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Under Satan’s Power, November 2
Matthew 16:21-25
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art
an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but
those that be of men.
Matthew 16:23
.
Satan is ever intruding himself between the soul of man and God.... This
lesson in regard to Peter needs to be studied carefully
Peter did not desire to see the cross in the work of Christ. The impression
which his words would make was directly opposed to that which Christ desired
to make on the minds of His followers, and the Saviour was moved to utter one
of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips....
Satan was trying to discourage Jesus, and turn Him from His mission; and
Peter, in his blind love, was giving voice to the temptation. The prince of evil
was the author of the thought. His instigation was behind that impulsive appeal....
He was seeking to fix Peter’s gaze upon the earthly glory, that he might not
behold the cross to which Jesus desired to turn his eyes. And through Peter,
Satan was again pressing the temptation upon Jesus. But the Saviour heeded it
not; His thought was for His disciple. Satan had interposed between Peter and
his Master, that the heart of the disciple might not be touched at the vision of
Christ’s humiliation for him. The words of Christ were spoken, not to Peter, but
to the one who was trying to separate him from his Redeemer. “Get thee behind
Me, Satan.” No longer interpose between Me and My erring servant. Let Me
come face to face with Peter, that I may reveal to him the mystery of My love.
It was to Peter a bitter lesson, and one which he learned but slowly, that
the path of Christ on earth lay through agony and humiliation. The disciple
shrank from fellowship with his Lord in suffering. But in the heat of the furnace
fire he was to learn its blessing. Long afterward, when his active form was
bowed with the burden of years and labors, he wrote, “Beloved, think it not
strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange
thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s
sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with
exceeding joy” (
1 Peter 4:12, 13
)
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2
Letter 65, 1894
.
3
The Desire of Ages, 415, 416
.
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