When Jesus had finished His fasting in the wilderness, satan turned up at the opportune time to tempt Him saying, ‘If You are the Son of God change the stone to bread’. The reason satan challenged the sonship of Jesus was because he heard God the Father commend Him in the waters of Baptism as His beloved Son!

Secondly, when Jesus made the statement that He would use Peter as the chief spokesman among the twelve to build His church, satan turned up again, asking permission from Jesus to sift Peter (Luke 22:31). From the words of Jesus, we can infer that He never commanded satan to take his hands off Peter, but instead assured him that He would pray that his faith would not fail.

The term used for the process of sifting in the Old Testament was winnowing, which was normally carried out on a threshing floor (Ruth 3:2). It was accomplished by tossing the grains into the air when there was good breeze, which blew away the dust, chaff, stones and all impure matter, while the grain fell back on the floor. When the winnowing (sifting) was over, the farmer had pure and clean grain, ready for use.

This meant that satan was going to give Peter a rough time, after which Jesus added, that when Peter was sifted and made pure, He would be able to strengthen and guide the other brethren (Luke 22:32). History records that after the sifting process, Peter turned out to be an authentic, pure and trusted servant of Jesus Christ. This was probably the reason why Paul handed over the sexual offender in 1 Corinthians 5:5; Hymenaus and Alexander in 1 Timothy 1:20 to satan, so that the sinful nature of these men be destroyed and their spirit saved on the day of the Lord (1 Cor 5:5).

Thought for the day: God allows us to be sifted, that we might be able to bless and strengthen others in a better way.