“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)

In the Lord’s first sentence the word translated “you” is plural, but He changed to the singular in the second and third.  This means that all the disciples would be sifted when the Lord was arrested, in fulfillment of Zechariah 13:7, “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.”  But He was choosing Peter to keep the group together and focused after He was gone.

From watching him throughout the 3 ½ years he spent with the Lord, we can tell that Peter was a fearless, decisive guy, used to taking charge and making things happen.  These are qualities we admire in a man and are necessary for success as an independent businessman such as Peter.  Some have even described him as head strong, and a bit of a loose cannon.  Luke’s account of Peter’s calling shows him to be a man given to strong and immediate reactions.  After Jesus borrowed Peter’s boat to use as a speaker’s platform, He had Peter go out and let down his nets for a catch. Complaining that they hadn’t caught anything all the previous night, Peter said he would do it, but only because Jesus told him to.  Of course, they came up with a net full.  Peter’s immediate reaction was to say, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.” This after hearing one teaching. (Luke 5:1-8)

When Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water, Peter was the one who got out of the boat to try it too, and almost drowned. (Matt. 14:25-31) Peter was the first to declare that Jesus was the son of God.  (Matt. 16:16)  When Jesus said they were going to Jerusalem where He would be arrested and put to death, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matt. 16 :22-24)

At the Last Supper, when Jesus tried to wash Peter’s feet, he at first refused to allow it, then asked for a complete bath.  With Peter it was all or nothing. (John 13:6-9)

And finally, in the Garden later that evening, he drew a sword and stepped between Jesus and the armed soldiers who had come to arrest Him. Swinging his sword at them, he cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, Malchus.  He was clearly ready to take them all on in defense of the Lord. (John 18:10)

But the Lord rebuked him and with the touch of His hand, healed the servants’ ear. (Luke 22:51)  Then He said,  “Do you think I cannot call on My Father and He will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels?  But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?  (Matt. 26:53-54) Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? (John 18:11)

When you read all the accounts of the Lord’s arrest, you get a glimpse of both His power and His resolve.  John records that simply by identifying Himself, He put all the soldiers on their backs, (John 18:4-6) and from Matthew we learn that at His command the angelic host would rush to his defense.  A Roman legion consisted of 6,000 soldiers, and while it was a formidable force, it was merely a human one.  Imagine what 72,000 angelic warriors could do.  He could have easily subdued the arresting party and thrown the Romans out of His land in the bargain, but that’s not what He came to do.  When I consider the power available to Him and yet the meekness with which He submitted to those comparatively puny leaders I’m driven to my knees in awe and gratitude.

As Paul would later write, here was One who was in His very nature God.  And yet He made Himself nothing, adopting instead the nature of a humble, obedient servant.  As such, He agreed to be executed in the manner reserved for the basest of criminals. (Phil 2:6-8)  And Peter would add, it was not for any crime He had committed, but to pay the penalty for ours. (1 Peter 1:18-19 & 3:18)

But something had to be done about Peter.  So accustomed was he to coming to the rescue that he couldn’t imagine just standing by, doing nothing, while the Lord surrendered His perfect life.  And it’s my guess that even the Lord’s prediction of his denial served to strengthen Peter’s resolve that as long as he could prevent it, the Lord would not fall into any danger.  Earlier the Lord had rebuked him for not seeing the big picture, not having in mind the things of God but the things of man, but it hadn’t been enough. The Lord’s second rebuke, in the garden, had backed Peter down temporarily, but more had to be done.

It wasn’t as if Peter could thwart the will of God, but he could make accomplishing it a lot messier, perhaps even wasting his own life in the process. The Lord had more in store for Peter that required keeping him alive, but his self determining ways would not be helpful with that either.  Peter had to be brought to the end of himself, in order to be useful to God. He had to be made weak in order for the Lord to show Himself strong, and so Satan got permission to sift him as wheat. And like it is with wheat, the sifting of a man is designed to remove his impurities.

Peter’s sifting came in the form of his public denial of the Lord.  I can’t begin to imagine how humiliating it must have been for him when he heard that rooster crow, and remembered the Lord’s earlier prophecy of his denial.  He’d always been so brave, so dauntless, but suddenly even the accusation of a servant girl, the least powerful of all people, had intimidated him into denial, and just at the moment of what he perceived to be the Lord’s greatest need.  I can even see him blaming himself for the Lord’s death, much as you and I have done when we finally came to the gut level realization that it was our sin that put Him on the cross, not just humanity’s, but ours.  Peter had always been the one the others looked to for strength, but when it really counted he’d been weak, even cowardly.  For the rest of his life and through out the entire Church Age when people thought of Peter, they’d remember that moment.  It would define his life.

But Romans 8:28 does apply to all the situations in our lives.  God is working everything together for the good of those who love Him.  For at that moment Peter was born again, made new in the attitude of his mind. The fact becomes achingly clear in the passage we call Peter’s reinstatement.  It’s found in John 21:15-19.  You really have to consult your Greek lexicon to understand it because the English translations miss the point entirely. Here’s the conversation.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.  I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

The key to understanding is in the word “love”.  In the Greek John used a different word in the Lord’s questions than he did in Peters’ responses.  In his first two questions, the Lord’s word for love is agapeo, which describes an all encompassing love that puts the needs and well being of the object of one’s love above everything, including one’s own needs, and does so irrespective of the object’s response.  It’s the love he has for us, demonstrated on the cross.

But in response, Peter used a different word, phileo, which means the affection one brother would have for another.  Finally, in His third question, the Lord substituted Peter’s word for his and they were able to agree.  Both knew that Peter’s new understanding of himself would not permit him to brashly proclaim the extreme love that Jesus had asked for, and the Lord agreed that the level of love Peter could offer was sufficient.  Peter’s re-birth was successful and he could now be restored to his leadership role.

From that point on the change in Peter is remarkable.  His sermons in Acts 2 & 3 could never have been possible had he not become submissive to the leading of the Holy Spirit within him, and throughout the Book of Acts it’s obvious that he was a changed man.  And perhaps most important of all is the example his life provides for those of us who have experienced similar humbling and even humiliating failures on our way to becoming useful to the Lord.

Many great men have undergone trials designed to mold them for service to the Lord.  Abraham was asked to send Ishmael away, and then to sacrifice Isaac. Moses endured 40 years in the desert while the reputation he had built in Pharaoh’s court as a Prince of Egypt was forgotten.  After defeating the 400 prophets of Baal in one of the Bible’s greatest public displays of faith, Elijah was chased into the desert by the Phoenician woman Jezebel.   Paul suffered through and was healed from regular beatings.

But as dramatic as their stories are, it’s Peter who showed us that the very personality traits most admired by the world can be a great handicap when we undertake the Lord’s work, and often our only hope  in becoming effective is to be divested of them.  It’s a painful experience.  Some are defeated by it and leave the ministry, but those who survive learn that the Lord’s response to Paul’s complaint is true for all of us, “My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

Hezbollah says that Israel’s disappearance after the next war is an established fact.  Iran’s President calls Israel a dirty microbe and a savage animal that will soon disappear in a flash.  The commander in chief of Iran’s army predicts that millions will soon receive the joyous news of Israel’s destruction.  Israel’s chief of staff warns of a “tough ordeal” coming soon.   Israels’ ambassador asks the UN to condemn Iran.  With all the rhetoric flying around the Middle East following the death of arch terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, a closer look at Psalm 83 could reveal some details of a coming attack against the Jewish state.

Psalm 83 was probably written some time after the reign of King Solomon but before Assyria’s march through the Middle East, but the Bible contains no account of such a coordinated effort by all of Israel’s neighbors to destroy them during that time.  A partial fulfillment may be in view in 2 Chron 20 when Moab, Ammon, and Edom invaded Judah during King Jehosophat’s reign (872-848 BC)  Interestingly, Jahaziel, a Levite who prophesied Judah’s victory in that battle was a descendant of Asaph, who wrote Psalm 83.  Applying one of his favorite tactics, the Lord set Israel’s enemies against each other and they defeated themselves.  Ezekiel 38:21 tells of a future use of this same tactic.

But as we’ll see, the Battle of 2 Chron. 20 doesn’t fully meet meet the requirements of Psalm 83, so on that basis we’ll assume its fulfillment is still in the future, perhaps the very near future. If so, it could be the bridge between the current state of affairs in Israel and the conditions necessary for the Battle of Ezekiel 38.  Let’s find out.

Psalm 83

O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still.  See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads.  With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.

“Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

With one mind they plot together;  they form an alliance against you- the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. (Ps. 83:1-8)

The language is out of today’s headlines and the countries lined up against Israel inhabited the lands of Israel’s current neighbors.  Edom and the Ishmaelites were in land occupied by southern Jordan today while the territories of Moab and Ammon make up the rest of that country.  (While the government of Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, we should remember that some 70% of Jordan’s population is “Palestinian” and in fact the country was formed to be the Palestinian home land.)

The Hagrites were part of Aram, whose capitol was Damascus in modern Syria. Gebal, also called Byblos, and Tyre can still be found in present day Lebanon. The Amalekites lived in Israel’s southern desert and Philistia settled in Gaza on Israel’s southern border.  Assyria would conquer Aram shortly after Psalm 83was written and the descendants of Lot is another way of saying Moab and Ammon, who were the sons of an incestuous union between Lot and his two daughters.

So here we have all of Israel’s next door neighbors, all of them sworn to Israel’s demise, all of them hopping mad over the death of their hero Imad Mughniyeh for which they blame Israel, and all of them being whipped into a frenzy by Iran.
Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground.  Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.  As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.   Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O LORD.  May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace.  Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth. (Psalm 83:9-18)

Asaph, the Psalm’s writer, can’t resist telling the Lord exactly how he’d like Israel’s enemies to be dealt with.  In that sense he’s just like you and me.

Midian was defeated by a vastly outnumbered force under the command of Gideon. It was another case of the Lord turning Israel’s enemies against each other and defeating themselves. (Judges 7)

Jabin was a king of the Canaanites and Sisera was the commander of his army. The Lord lured the Canaanite army into a trap and the Israelites destroyed them.(Judges 4) The commander of Israel’s army was named Barak, just like Israel’s current defense Minister.  Probably a coincidence.

Oreb, Zeeb Zebah, and Zalmunna were all leaders of the Midianite army defeated by Gideon.

Asaph’s prayer was that Israel’s current enemies will be just as soundly defeated as were the Midianites and the Canaanites, their armies scattered and their leaders executed.  Should this be the case, Israel will become larger, not smaller, with the contention over the ownership of Gaza, the West bank and the Golan put to an end.  Israel will become stronger, not weaker, its military reputation restored and even enhanced.  The divided land will be divided no more, and Jerusalem will remain a unified city.  The controversial security fence will come down, since the borders on all sides will be safe and the threat of terrorist attacks eliminated.  60 years of war will have finally ended.  It will be the perfect opportunity for the enemy to bring about a false sense of security and turn Israel into a peaceful and unsuspecting people living in a land of unwalled villages.

Meanwhile, the Russians and Iranians, who will have fought this battle only by proxy will study their defeat and learn from their mistakes, lying in wait for the next opportunity to strike. It won’t be long in coming.  You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah.