Luke 22:31 … At the last supper, Jesus tells Peter and His disciples that Satan has asked, "… that all of you be given up to him, out of the power and keeping of God, that he (Satan) might sift all of you like grain." (Amplified Bible)
K.J.V. puts it this way … "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat …"
"Satan hath desired" … This word "desired" is used only here in the New Testament. It sometimes means to obtain by asking. Jesus is telling Peter that Satan wants to "obtain you by asking." Later, the end result proved that Satan had obtained him for a time.
"Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you" … not only Peter, but all the apostles. By using the plural pronoun, "you" … proves that these words were not addressed to Peter alone. Satan had already acquired one of them, Judas; he had nearly succeeded in his goal with another, Peter; for he wished to have them all.
Satan desired, and asked God for them … for he can do nothing without permission … not even tempt a man. Satan desires to do all the evil he can; but he is only permitted to do some.
Satan desired to have these disciples under his power and in his hand … just as he got permission to have Job in his hand, and would have taken Job's life and soul too, if he could have obtained God's permission. Now he had an eye upon the apostles and wanted an opportunity to sift them all as wheat … not to separate the chaff from the wheat, but to make them look like … all chaff.
Satan is the prince of evil. One of his works is to "try the faith" of believers and to place temptations and trials in their way that they may be tested. God gave Job into Satan's hands, to see whether he would be found faithful. Satan desired to have Peter and the others in his hands that he might also try them.
Up to this night and thru the last supper … the disciples had followed Jesus as closely as they could. But now with the coming death of Jesus, Satan thought all those belonging to Jesus would be completely overthrown and would scatter in different directions. Satan now would have an opportunity to sift them since they could no longer follow Him as they had.
Jesus does not seek to spare His disciples this sifting. It was not possible, for He must pass through death; He is leaving them and their hope was in Him. They cannot escape "the test" of His death. But He prays for them, that their faith may not fail.
So this brings me to ask this question …
If God did not spare His disciples, then are not we … also subject … to this kind of sifting? Do not each one of us need to prove to ourselves (not to God for He already knows) that we do have what it takes to continue trusting and living for God through times of testing, whether directly from God, or indirectly through Satan.
Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth century Carmelite monk from French Lorraine, says … "God often permits that we should suffer a little to purify our souls and oblige us to continue with Him."
What happens when grain is sifted? Sifting separates the chaff from the grain and also exposes things in the grain, by bringing up all the stems, dirt, rodent droppings and dead things like bugs, etc. It's one way to get all the bad stuff out that’s not supposed to be there.
Satan wanted to expose all the bad things in Peter’s life, to destroy Peter’s witness and testimony to others, and at the same time so disillusion Peter with what’s left, that Peter would give up following Jesus. But as it turned out, Peter even followed Him … to his death.
The following statement is a discourse by Albert Barnes on the testing or "sifting" of Job. The same could also be said of the other disciples and of the sifting of Peter.
"Satan is a malignant being; an accuser; one delighting in the opportunity of charging a holy man with hypocrisy, and in the permission to inflict tortures on him, and who goes as far in producing misery as he is allowed … restrained from destroying him only by the express command of God.
It is to be observed, that Satan, no less than the other celestial spirits, is subject to the government of God, and dependent on his commands. But Satan, although incensed against the race of mortals, and desirous of injuring, is yet described as bound with a chain, and never dares to touch the pious unless God relaxes the reins. Satan, in walking round the earth, could certainly attentively consider Job, but to injure him he could not, unless permission had been given him."
Do I believe that God uses Satan to sift us today? That's like asking me if I believe in backsliding. Do I believe in doing it; or do I believe it is possible.
Do I want Satan to sift me? No. Do I believe he can? Yes, I do now; for I feel like he already has.
I guess my question is … how do you know which one is doing the sifting? Does it matter? Won't the end result be the same? Do we trust Him?
We need to say as Brother Lawrence has said about Jesus … "I abandon myself in His hands that He may do with me what He pleases."
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2 comments:
I was just wondering, if it is satan doing the sifting, does he know the end result? Or does he have to keep trying to see if his schemes and tactics are working? And when does he know when to give up? That God's child is not letting go but will continue to cling to Him until the sifting is over? Does satan finally give up or does God put a stop to it Himself?
Teresa …
Your questions will take a little time to answer fully … but I'll try. I am going to use some material from my resource list.
There are two verses I want to tie together … Luke 22:31 …"Satan has asked … that all of you be given up to him out of the power and keeping of God, that he might sift all of you like grain …" Amp.
and also …
Amos 9:9 …"For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations and cause it to move to and fro (shaken) as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth and be lost." Amp.
Grain was agitated or shaken in a kind of fan or sieve. The grain remained in the fan, and the chaff and dust were thrown off. So Christ says that Satan desired to try Peter; to place trials and temptations before him; to agitate him to see whether anything of his faith would remain, to see whether Peter would be found to be mere chaff rather than grain. (Albert Barnes)
Satan, the accuser of the brethren, the tempter, desired and asked God (for he can do nothing without permission); that he might have these disciples under his power, and in his hand; "out of the power and keeping of God" … that he may sift them as wheat; not to separate the chaff from the wheat, but to make them look like all chaff, by covering the wheat with the chaff of sin and corruption; or to destroy the wheat if it was possible; or to toss them to and fro as wheat is in a sieve; that is, to afflict and distress them; by scattering them from Christ and one another; or by filling them with doubts about Jesus being the Messiah and Redeemer. (John Gill)
"Give me leave to try them," saith Satan, "and Peter particularly." He desired to have them, that he might sift them, that he might show them to be chaff, and not wheat. All the troubles that were now to come upon them were sifting, and would try what faith there was in them. But observe … Satan could not sift them unless God gave him permission to try and tempt them as He did with Job. This is why Satan had to ask God first. (Matthew Henry)
Amos 9:9 … "I will sift the house of Israel … as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth and be lost …"
"What is said here of Israel, God does in each of His elect. For they are the wheat of God, which, in order to be laid up in the heavenly storehouse must be pure from chaff and dust. To this end God sifts them by afflictions and troubles, in youth, middle age, old age, whoever they are, and proves them again and again." (Albert Barnes)
As God did with the nation of Israel, He also does today with "Spiritual Israel" … the N.T. Church … the elect. The sifting and testing … are according to the will of God, and this testing or trying is to be understood as the sieve the Lord takes into his hands, and sifts them with; sometimes to be sifted by the temptations of Satan, where they are brought into doubts and fears, and are very wavering and uncomfortable, harassed and buffeted, and in great danger … were it not for the grace of God to make "a way of escape."
"… yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth and be lost"…
The meaning is, that the least true Israelite, or today the child of God, who is the least in the kingdom of heaven, and has the least share of grace and spiritual knowledge, and is even less than the least of all saints, shall not be lost and perish.
Though all fall as Adam, they are yet preserved in Christ; though they fall into actual sins and transgressions, and from a steadfastness in the faith, yet not totally and finally so as to perish for ever; for they are loved of God with an everlasting love, ordained by Him to eternal life, adopted into His family, justified by His grace, and are kept by His power, according to His promise, which never fails.
They are Christ's property, given Him by His Father; are purchased by His blood, and for whom He intercedes; because of this not one of them shall ever perish because He has sifted and proven them. (John Gill)
I wanted to give you this more complete background of the "sifting" of our faith. I feel it is always our "faith" that is sifted; our faith that is tested, tried, assaulted by Satan; if not directly, then indirectly through other means that God allows to be used.
Must each one go through this "sifting" like Peter did? Could be … but I really doubt it.
It might be that it's just the "evil" that Satan has in the world that comes against us and not the power of Satan himself. But that might be splitting hairs.
1.) If it is Satan doing the sifting, does he know the end result?
I would say "no"… for he is not "omniscience" like God is having all knowledge.
2.) Does he have to keep trying to see if his schemes and tactics are working? When does he know when to give up? Does Satan finally give up or does God put a stop to it Himself?
I put these last questions together as one; which you answered yourself when you said, "When Satan sees that God's child is not letting go but will continue to cling to Him until the sifting is over."
If this testing is from the command of God; then Satan will only be allowed to go so far and so long with it. I want to repeat a statement from Albert Barnes.
"Satan is a malignant being; an accuser; one delighting in every opportunity of charging a believer with hypocrisy, and in the permission to inflict tortures on him, and who goes as far in producing misery as he is allowed … restrained from destroying him only by the express command of God.
It is to be observed, that Satan, no less than the other celestial spirits, is subject to the government of God, and dependent on His commands. But Satan, although incensed against the race of mortals, and desirous of injuring, is yet described as bound with a chain, and never dares to touch the believer unless God relaxes the reins."
It looks like God either just "allows" or by command "directs Satan" to bring whatever type of "sifting" to us, for whatever reason God deems appropriate. The Bible isn't really clear about the "how, when and why" tests or trials come; they just do.
Remember, God can use Satan as an instrument for good, even through what we usually think of as evil. This isn't a popular teaching … but I believe it is a true one.
1st Corinthians 10:13 …"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." K.J.V.
God may not stop it; in fact He may ordain it; but in either case He will make a way either out or through it.
1st Peter 1:6-7 "… though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ …" K.J.V.
God will never "temp" anyone to sin … but He can and does "test and try" our faith in many ways; even like gold in the fire … and there is nothing we can do about it.
" … if need be …" This phrase seems to show that there is a necessity for afflictions, or that there is "need" that we should pass through trials. Is there some good to be accomplished by trials, which make it desirable and proper that we should go through them? There might be things in our character which God designs to correct by trials, tests or even the "sifting" of our faith.
Why … I don't know.
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