But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
The words of our Master Yeshua in this well-known verse struck me during one of my morning devotions a few days ago. I have never before noticed the reason why our Master rebuked the Apostle Peter with in such harsh terms.
"Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me",the King James Version says.
Why is Peter called "Satan" by the Master in this account? In what way is he an offence to Yeshua the Anointed One? It was just a while ago that he was called "Blessed" by the Master Yeshua for identifying correctly that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. It was also a while ago that the Master had told him in verses 18 and 19,
"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."How then did Peter suddenly become an offence to the Anointed One?
The answer lies in the second part of verse 23, "you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men", the Master Yeshua says.
Peter couldn't accept the sudden revelation from the Master Yeshua that He must soon suffer at the hands of His enemies and be killed by them in Jerusalem and then to be raised by God on the third day. The thought of seeing his Master captured, ill-treated and killed by His Master's adversaries, also the adversaries of all the disciples, is unimaginable.
Such an eventuality dashes the hope of Peter seeing His Master lead his disciples, along with many more of his fellow countrymen, to victory over the enemies and to become their new ruler. Peter was concerned with an earthly mission, an earthly accomplishment and an earthly success. He instinctively, perhaps even impulsively, pulled his Master aside and started to rebuke his Master in verse 22,“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”Perhaps Peter wasn't paying enough attention to His Master's words. He had apparently not noticed the last statement of the Master Yeshua, that He would be raised from death on the third day. Well, after all, this had never happened to anyone before. It didn't make sense to Peter.
It was this very last statement of the Master Yeshua that made the difference between being mindful of the things of God versus the things of men. Had Peter been mindful of the eternal Kingdom of God, then he would have welcomed the revelation of this marvellous plan of God: that His Anointed One, the Messiah who is to be the everlasting King over Israel, would first have to die and then to BE RAISED on the third day - to rule eternally over all nations.
Today, I am reminded of the words in Colossians 3:2, "Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.". Have we also fallen into the same error like Peter did in Matthew 16:23?
The things of God. That, is what Peter should have been mindful of.
