I rarely, if ever to tell the truth, have any idea whatsoever what is going to be placed on the paper in these letters to you when I sit down to write, the Lord God has decided to make me a writer of letters, and so I write. They are not automatic letters in the terminology of what is called spiritualism by the world today, I study to show myself approved, and I write what He leads me to write, once or twice a day. But I must confess, in this particular letter that I am at a loss, so to speak, for the subject matter of Matthew 16:23, “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men,” is not one that I have ever heard preached beyond the fact of Peter’s part in it, how easily it was in just a moment for the strong fisherman to be deceived by Satan.
He must have had quite a befuddled look upon his face when Jesus called him Satan, it was, if the verse is kept in context, as all verses of Scripture should, the Lord speaking directly to our adversary, who at that moment was using Peter as a tool, for as usual, his own personal devices. The part of the verse though I am to write about tonight though does not so much concern the first two individuals represented, but the third, and the statement that our Lord made to Satan is to say the least, for me at this point in my walk with Christ, difficult to explain much less comprehend. “For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matt. 16:23)
The question is simple, the answer is not, what things of men? What things would the most powerful creature ever made by the Lord God desire to savor that simple man has? Lucifer gave up all of heaven, he gave up his position above the throne of God Himself, (Eze. 28:14) for what? What do we have that Satan wants, what character traits does man exhibit and employ that this incredibly powerful being desires?
In context we can see that the things of God that he detests are directly opposite of the things of man, for one cannot detest one thing while at the same time desire it, save in the case of our own lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life. (1 John 2:16) Is that what he savors, lust and pride? It would seem to be the obvious answer, for they are the direct opposites of contentment and service, or humility if you like.
We know that Satan was perfect until iniquity was found in him, (Eze. 28:15) but what that first thought was we are not told, we know that pride is what caused him to speak the words that embodied “I will” (Isaiah 14:14) but what caused the pride, was it envy, jealousy, what brought the raw anger to the forefront of his thoughts that caused him to rebel instead of running to the Almighty and pleading for help. What do we as mere mortals have that he would seek above the things of God, what does he see in us and this small little world that he could not find contentment with in all of the kingdom of heaven.
Unless you know your enemy, you will be defeated by him, and we my friends have absolutely no power whatsoever to stand against our adversary, we can rebuke him, and he will flee, (James 4:7) but that is all we have, and that is not even of us without the power of the Holy Spirit. The one place we desire above all others to be in is the one place that he was cast out of by actions that he knew would do so, and for what, what are the things of man that he savors? We can do nothing of ourselves, (John 5:30) all our works are as filthy rags, (Isaiah 64:6) we are all like sheep, (Isaiah 53:6) there is not one true wolf amongst us, what could he possibly desire that we have?
I am going to be contemplating this subject for quite some time I think, although it will not consume me, it is indeed a very debatable subject, and any contemplation that we seek to have that will glorify the Lord God is worth our time, as long as that contemplation remains based in the Scriptures and does not fall prey to conjecture. Many have lost their way on that road.
