During the Last Supper Jesus told Simon Peter that Satan asked to sift
you [Peter] as wheat. Peter responded, “Lord,
I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” (Luke 22:33 NIV) I
suppose Peter’s response could have applied to the sifting remark, but it seems
to me that he just skipped over Satan’s request. Had it been me I think I would
have asked Jesus, ‘What exactly does it mean to be sifted as wheat? How long
does it last? Is it anything like what Job went through?’ Scripture tells me
what to do when I’m tempted by Satan (resist), but I’m not quite sure we’ve
been given sifting instructions.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Most of us common folks think of the flour sifter mom used for fluffing up flour to make it more active. From this perspective, understanding what Jesus may have meant is a bit difficult. However, after the ancients winnowed most of the chaff from the wheat, they further processed out the remaining chaff, small pebbles, stem bits, and other debris by sifting. Once the wheat was ground into flour, the Romans used horse-hair sieves to sift it into seven different grades.
-----Except for mom’s sifter, the basic concept of sifting is that of separating. I’ve often heard this expression of “being sifted” used to connote a deleterious effect left upon a person by some event or circumstance. But usually, sifting is done for the good purpose of separating the unwanted from the wanted, even though, as in the case of the Romans, the unwanted is still wanted; it is just wanted separately. The bad connotation of sifting is kind of hard to grasp.
-----If we focus just on sifting’s aspect of separation it becomes easier. God sent His Son into the world to effect combination, not separation. God’s purpose in Christ was to combine with Himself anyone who sincerely desires righteousness and truth. Taking this thought back to the metaphor, it is good to be mixed up with God and not sifted. Several times Peter’s ambition sprung him towards whatever direction his unrefined inclination next aimed, which usually happened to be out of line with Jesus’ aim. Had Peter followed his ambition, Satan would have achieved sifting.
-----But Satan is no dummy. He has remained unable to sift from God those who desire mixture with Father through Jesus Christ. But like the Romans, he has been able to sift them somewhat from one another by taking advantage of their same Peter-like over-ambitions for knowing righteousness and truth. Paying some regard to the prophetic aspect of the letters to the seven churches buys a lot of insight into the tumultuous affairs of church history made by His believers’ having been sifted from one another. If the church at Ephesus did not return to its first love, it's light-giving lampstand wouldn’t be removed from the church, but just from its place. The church fathers in the early centuries became overly ambitious to reconcile the Word of God with earlier Greek philosophy instead of reconciling their ambitions to the Word of God. Their first love was abandoned, and they were sifted from one another.
-----We also are sifted when we attempt reconciliation of the Bible with our thinking. Oh! For sure, God’s mercy is great and His forbearance makes strong attachment to those desiring to be mixed up with Him! But the integrity of our thoughts mixed with His Word suffers unless we continually sift debris from those thoughts. There must be sifting. If His Word does not sift us as by mom‘s sifter, then Satan will sift us as by Roman sieves.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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