WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

Matt 16v22: 'From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save their lifef will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?'

This shall never happen to you!" (Matt 16v22). Those very words were spoken by Peter to the Lord Jesus when the Lord told him that he must suffer many things and be killed. While, no doubt, Peter had good intentions in mind, the Lord didn't empathise with these, He didn't congratulate Peter for them or even recognise these intentions, rather he rebuked Peter sharply (v23). He even went so far as to let Peter know that in that instance, he was in fact doing exactly what the enemy wanted him to do, in trying to stop the will of God for Jesus' life (and essentially what God wanted to provide for His people in the long run in Salvation). Peter had short-term concerns in mind, that being the physical well-being of the Lord, while the Lord had long-term considerations in mind, that being the Salvation that the Father was wanting to provide through the sacrifice of His Son. Our concerns are often the same; we want a happy life now and to live in comfort and security every day, while the Lord is more concerned with our eternal destination and our eternal joy and life, and those things for others that we come in contact with. Our concern is to want a blessed Kingdom now (just like the disciples wanted), while the Lord's concern is a blessed Kingdom to come (Luke 9v58).

With the best intentions, we can often be as damaging to ourselves and to others as Peter was. We too can reason with ourselves that we should not have gone through the trials that we have, or that we should not go through the ones we are going through now. We too, can say the same for others, reasoning with ourselves that it is out of love that we are doing this! Notice how wrong we are to do that! If we do that, we in fact align ourselves with what the enemy desires, for the enemy would gladly preserve our flesh and our feelings if it means that he can corrupt our walk with God and attack our souls! We are often far too quick to want to live a happy life and one that is merely focused on 'human concerns' (v23), when God desires that we live a life after the path that His Son has trodden and one that follows after His Spirit. We are far too quick to want to live a life that is happy, rather than Godly. Notice what our Lord says about the path of life:

Matt 7v13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Luke 9v23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.24For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

As soon as trouble comes, we are apt to think that it's just the devil, the world, a certain man who brings it or a certain sin, and we rebuke the trial and the trouble without giving it a second thought. Did the enemy attack Christ through the elders and chief priests at the cross? Of course he did! Did that mean that Christ should've rebuked the way His Father was leading Him? Of course not! Were evil men attacking God's chosen when they attacked Jesus? Of course they were! Was it sin and the ways of the world that motivated men to crucify Christ? Of course it was! But did that mean that Christ should've avoided the cross? All of us would've been doomed if He had of! We prove ourselves extremely childish and even evil in our spiritual thinking if we believe that we should avoid every trial in this life, particularly the most difficult ones. God has His way in the whirlwind and the storm, and even amongst evil men in order to bring about acts of grace and judgment. Hardly any of the disciples of Jesus understood exactly what the Father was doing with Jesus when He went to the cross, but this didn't mean that the Father wasn't sovereign over it, and that He didn't have a plan for it. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts not our thoughts! We must be careful not to dismiss the ways and acts of God that we don't understand, for we may inadvertently find ourselves coming against the will of God and we may find that Jesus rebukes us for it.

And so, just unlike what Peter did to Jesus, we must be careful not to censure or stand opposed to what the Lord may allow or do to His own people for His good reasons. Job thought he was justified in saying that what happened to him was wrong, and as extreme as his trials were, he repented in dust and ashes when He saw the Lord and heard His voice:

Job 42:

1Then Job replied to the Lord:

2“I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."

The Lord never told Job why He had allowed Satan and even His own hand to do against Job what He desired (Job 2v4-6), but that wasn't for Job to know (not while on the earth anyway). It was for Job just to trust that in all things, God is God, and we must trust Him and trust to His ways no matter what. That doesn't mean that we can't pray for certain things, but we must do so with an open heart, being willing to be led by the Spirit in all things and we must always, at the end of all our requests, leave our desires at the feet of His sovereignty. We mustn't presume to know what is best for ourselves or others, but in all things we must entrust ourselves to His way, no matter if that way is understandable to our human reasoning or not. For He has His own and our best concerns in mind; the only kind of concerns that are truly important.