Sifting

Luke 22:31-32 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

I can remember as a kid making cookies with my mom. (Not those pre-fab Nestle Tollhouse cookies that you buy at the grocery store.) We made them from scratch. I’m talking homemade from separate ingredients, the main ingredient being flour. Before the flour was added to the other ingredients, it had to be sifted with a sieve. Those not familiar with a sieve, it looks like an oversized soup can that surrounded mesh with a turn handle. The sieve would grind the flour against the mesh to separate the large particles from the small, what was left on the mesh was thrown away. There would always be some flour left that didn’t make it through the mesh. For more information on sifting, check your local T.V. listings for Martha Stewarts special on “Prison made utensils”.

1 Peter 5:8 “Satan prowls around like a roaring lion”.

So caught up in the notion that he was on the fast track to defeat, Satan went as far as to beg for permission to “sift Peter like wheat”. Not Peter. Not the one who cut the temple guards ear off in Matt. 26:51 when they tried to take Jesus to Caiaphas (High Priest of the Temple), or the one along with the other eleven disciples who said “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." Though Peter was sincere when he told Jesus this, it could not prevent the sifting of Satan. Peter was already dead in his transgressions.

“Simon, Simon, behold” Not once but twice did Jesus call him Simon (called name twice to get his attention; called Simon because Jesus was referring to Peters former self; i.e. Old Man, his will) in a warning that Satan was gunning for him. The warning did not stick because Peter (Simon; Old Man) had already rejected the truth. When Jesus told the disciples of the things that would happen to Him in Jerusalem, Peter took Him aside and rebuked Him (Matt. 16: 21-23). Can you picture the sieve handle starting to turn?

Jesus and Satan knew Peter was in rejection (“Simon, Simon”). He suppressed the warning from Him so He gave Peter a sign to bring him back to the reality of truth. It took one rooster, two crowings, and three denials. The first crowing he didn’t hear because of the defense mode he was in after being twice pointed out. He reacted with fear and flight instead of faith and standing his ground. The second crowing could have been missed because of his fear while making an oath in order to confirm that he was telling the truth to the people in the courtyard; though he was lying. If not for Jesus looking eye to eye, led out of the courtyard, at Peter while at that very moment in the background the rooster’s crow was revealing what Jesus told him, Luke 22:61-62 "The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, "Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly."

Peter’s sense of failure and remorse so over-whelmed him that he wept bitterly. It was the final turn of the sieve by Satan. Peter had been shot by the “flaming arrows of the evil one” Eph 6:16. His faith lapsed but did not fail. “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” was Jesus’ answered prayer for Peter. Even though Peter had lost confidence in Christ by way of aggravated sin (sifting), he still new He was the Messiah. In His prayer, Jesus told Peter “when once you have turned again” or when he confessed his sin (1 John 1:9), then he would be able to walk consistently (Gal 5:16). From his own experiences Peter would be able warn others of the dangers, comfort and keep them from falling victim to continual sifting of Satan by “strengthening your brothers”.

Satan is always in the shadows lurking with his sieve and it is our Spiritual life he is grinding through the mesh looking for the smallest portion. He will not stop and we cannot afford to stop. We have to “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, and be strong” 1 Cor. 16:13