There are always a couple of verses people pull out whenever you proclaim that God does not allow sickness, suffering or bad things to happen. The favourite of course being the whole book of Job. We have all heard the easy arguments like Job had a different covenant, Jesus is our example not Job etc. But let’s put Job aside for a moment and look at this interesting conundrum over in Luke.

Luk 22:31-32 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (NKJV)

This sounds pretty much like satan has asked to sift Simon Peter and has been given the go ahead. Jesus’ response to Peter is not, ‘I am not allowing it, don’t worry.’ His response is actually more like ‘I am praying for you that you will pass this test satan has planned.’ Did Jesus really allow Peter to go through some evil sifting trial thought up by satan? If He allowed Peter to go through it, will He allow us to go through siftings too?

Before we go into that, what is this sifting? Well, the Greek word used (siniazo) means to inwardly agitate a person to where they are on the verge of overthrowing their faith. How did satan do this to Peter? We know it wasn’t through sickness or disease (so don’t even go there) because we all know it was through merely asking him directly to acknowledge his association with Jesus, which Peter proceeded to deny 3 times. Did Peter pass or fail the test? Most people would probably lean towards epic fail. I am not one of them.

How does denying Jesus 3 times not constitute a faith-test fail? Well, look at the rest of what Jesus said to Peter. ‘I have prayed’ – Not I am praying or will pray. I have prayed, already, done it, past tense. ‘That your faith should not fail’ – Did Jesus get what He prayed for? Well, if you stop reading at the end of Luke 22, then no, He didn’t. If you only read up until Peter denies Jesus, then yes, Peter failed the test. Satan probably thought to himself, ‘Yes! Got another one! 2 down, 10 to go!’ But lo and behold the story doesn’t end in Chapter 22. So maybe if the story didn’t end there, maybe the test didn’t either?

What else did Jesus pray? ‘And when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brothers.’ Jesus doesn’t say, ‘if’, He says ‘WHEN’. Jesus had no doubt that Peter’s faith would stand. ‘But Peter denied Jesus, how can you say his faith stood the test?’ Because he came back, just like Jesus said he would. The test wasn’t over yet. Satan thought he had won but he ended up losing, again. He thought he was messing with Peter when in fact Jesus was messing with him the whole time. And not just with Peter, every time the devil attempts to test and sift us, Jesus is right there messing with him and yet he never learns!

In Part 2 I will look into this a little more as well as how to actually pass when you are being tested… Stay tuned!

Cornel

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