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It was a most powerful moment in the narrative of the Son of God’s mortal journey to that day; a moment of fight, flight or forfeit the first two options for Him and His eleven disciples. Hours earlier He had already forewarned His disciples they would all “be made to stumble (fall away) because of” Him as with Him, they were all about to experience the fulfillment of just over a 500 year-old Bible prophecy He quoted to them (Matthew 26:31-32, NKJV). They heard His words and the prophecy loud and clear. As a result, Peter in the full splendor of his natural manhood and earnest devotion immediately locked in on the possibility he would desert Christ and denied it (Matthew 26:33).
In the face of Peter’s heartfelt, testosterone driven confidence, the Lord gave him his own personal prophecy about what his actions would be. Again, Peter denied any such thing would happen with him (never mind, it was God in the flesh telling him so) and the other disciples asserted the same for themselves also; all missing the Lord’s prophecy of His resurrection in the process (Matthew 26:34-35). It was after His time in prayer alone that the moment of the Lord’s betrayal and arrest came (Luke 22:47-48; John 18:1-9). True to their loyalty, the eleven all seeing what was happening and coming next queried the Lord for His command to draw swords to fight (Luke 22:49).
Perhaps anxious to prove just how deadly serious he had been hours before, Peter sprung into action ahead of any word from the Lord and struck a blow to the head of the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear (Luke 22:50; John 18:10). All four Gospels record this part of the event; three, the response of the Lord Jesus to Peter directly and all of the disciples indirectly which are telling. He commands Peter to put his sword back in its place admonishing “for all who take the sword will perish by the sword,” (Matthew 26:52; John 18:11, NKJV). Having already proven He alone could have fought weaponless, the Lord further instructs Peter His Father had His back too (Matthew 26:53).
While healing the severed ear of the high priest’s servant, the Lord Jesus also commanded Peter and all of His disciples to “Permit even this” (His arrest and all that would follow) because it was fulfilling God’s foreordained plan written in Scripture (Matthew 26:54; Luke 22:51, NKJV). This truth according to Matthew, He also asserted to those that were arresting Him, Luke adding very importantly for us in this post: “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” “Then,” as He had prophesied to them, “all the disciples forsook Him and fled,” (Matthew 26:55-56; Luke 22:52-53, NKJV); there being no fight and surrender to certain harm completely out of the question.
As the Lord leads, I write this post to the glory of God and for our encouragement in follow up to last week’s sober word from Bible prophecy and current events concerning the intensifying persecution of Christians abroad and at home.1 In that post, I also quoted Luke 22:53 to answer why persecution is intensifying and here to stay until the Lord returns. Truly, as the permitted hour for the world of fallen humanity that included those who were religious, but without God and the kingdom of darkness that governs it came upon our Lord Jesus Christ, so, as He repeatedly warned, it has come and comes upon those of us who faithfully follow Him (Matthew 10:24-25; John 13:16, 15:20).
Indeed, the persecution of Christians is not new. What is different about now, though, is that the widening scope and intensity in the earth is a prophetic sign we have come into the latter weeks of the final spiritual trimester of pregnancy before the manifest birth of God’s Kingdom on earth. This is Satan and the world’s last hooray and they will make the most of it; suffering the birth pains God brings on them in judgment and inflicting the same to the extent they can on Jews and Christians as His elect (Matthew 10:16-23; Revelation 12:7-17). Not what you signed up for when you decided to become a Christian? Then, you did not take the terms Christ plainly lays out for all that will follow Him as a disciple seriously or fear has gripped you (Luke 9:18-26, 57-62, 12:49-53, 14:25-35).
You would not be alone dealing with fear in the face of harm since it is a part of our natural design as human beings. In the natural, Peter and the other disciples fled the scene when they saw that the Lord’s plan was not to fight. In fairness to them, though He had been telling them He was about to suffer at the hands of Israel’s religious leaders and Roman authorities representing the Gentiles, His disciples had not understood why this hour of darkness had to come. His cause at that moment was not yet one for them to die for. But even as they watched His suffering from afar, He was still teaching and modeling for them His way as God’s Son, the Messiah; still shining as the “light of the world” and hope in darkness to those of us who believe on Him (John 8:12, 9:1-5, NKJV).
1 See the November 29, 2020 post, Persecution Of American Christians Intensifying, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
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