by Dr. Lehman Strauss (1911-1997)
Every human life is a commentary upon the presence and power of evil in the world. Every biography is a warning signal to the coming generation of the subtle attacks of man’s universal enemy, the devil. The life story of Simon Peter is such a biography. No thoughtful reader could fail to see in it a solemn warning of the approach and attack of our infernal foe. Lest we belittle the enemy’s presence, we have our Lord’s own words to one of His followers: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Lk. 22:31).
The Possibility of the Sifting
These words of our Lord point out the possibility of a believer being caught in Satan’s riddle. Satan, knowing that he is permitted to sift the winnowed wheat that is in God’s granary, actively seeks to entrap the saints in his screen, that he might shake them violently. That Satan may do this is one of the divine mysteries; nevertheless it is true. Satan being a created being, both his power and knowledge are limited. Yet he is permitted to have access to God’s elect.
When the Lord Jesus warned Peter of the possibility of being sifted, He was borrowing a figure of speech from the Old Testament. In His warning of divine judgment to come upon Assyria, God said that He would “sift the nations with the sieve of vanity” (Isa. 30:28). The metaphor that God uses here is that of a “sieve.” He calls it a “sieve of vanity,” which means “a sieve of emptiness” or “a useless sieve.” The sifting here is not to preserve but to destroy. The Assyrians and their generals were sifted by God; and inasmuch as they were but unbelieving chaff, they were annihilated (Isa. 37:6-7). This sifting was a type of a greater one that will take place on a larger scale when the Son of Man comes again in power and glory, “taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:5-10; 2:8-12). In this one instance, the sifting is not for the good of those being tried but rather for the vindication of the righteousness of God.
But let us look further into the possibility of the sifting of the saints in the devil’s sieve. The aim of Satan’s sifting is contrary to the aim of divine sifting. Satan purposes to get rid of the grain; God purposes to get rid of the chaff. The devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8), but God gathers His wheat into the garner and burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12).
Satan, by the permissive will of God, shook Job violently in his sieve (Job 1:6-12). The patriarch Job was a wealthy man, but he was a good man whose trust was in the Lord. Satan accused Job, before the Lord, of serving God for the material profit he derived from doing so. God gave Satan the privilege of sifting His servant, and while Job was in the devil’s sieve, his possessions and family were taken away. The enemy’s desire is to sift all of God’s children, and there is no promise given to us from God that we shall escape a sifting of the devil similar to that which Job experienced. Death, destruction, or poverty might strike at any time in any of our lives. And while at first, all might appear to be a gloomy mystery, the sifting always results in a glorious manifestation. Some of the blessed results of the sifting of the saints we shall observe later.
In the prophecy of Amos, we see God sifting His children, Israel: “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos 9:9). A careful reading of this entire book will show that Israel had exposed herself to many sinful practices and departures from the Lord. Her thanklessness, idolatry, and wantonness resulted in her being sifted.
In the early church, an incestuous person took one of his father’s wives into his home. Instead of heeding the Christian message, this guilty person had followed a false religious philosophy that legalized polygamy. The apostle Paul sternly reproved him and commanded the church at Corinth to deliver him into Satan’s hands for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5). Here, indeed, is another case of a saint in Satan’s sieve.
Finally, the possibility of sifting is seen in the experience of the great apostle himself. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, wrote of his rapture into Paradise. That any carnal boasting might be bridled, the apostle was given “a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet” (2 Cor. 12:7).
These six references will suffice to show the possibility of being sifted by the permissive will of God.
The Protection for the Sifting
With each sifting of a saint there is the blessed assurance of divine protection. While Satan is permitted to sift us, God makes certain that the enemy goes so far, and there he meets the restraining hand. In the case of Job, the Lord said to Satan: “All that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand” (Job 1:12). The hedge God placed about Job (Job 1:10) shows that the child of God is safe from the worst the enemy can do.
In our text, the protection of the Christian in this present dispensation is clearly stated. Jesus said to Peter: “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Lk. 22:32). The saint in Satan’s sieve is assured that the Lord Jesus, the Master in the art of prayer, is his advocate and intercessor. Before we are attacked by the enemy, our Lord has protected us by exercising His function as our Great High Priest. During the process of the sifting we might receive comfort from the prayers of our friends, but none of these intercessions can compare with the praying of our Lord. The secret of unfailing faith is with Him.
Our Lord has entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24), “seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for [us]” (Heb. 7:25). His praying is our protection. What Christ did for Peter, He is doing daily, night and day, for us. When He was yet upon the earth, our Lord prayed to His Father in heaven: “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil [one]” (Jn. 17:15). This proves that no true child of God can be lost in Satan’s sieve. The fact that Jesus lives to manage my affairs shows that I, too, live forever. He has committed Himself as my bondman. Therefore, my faith cannot fail.
It will be good for us if we refresh our minds on this subject of our Lord’s present intercessory ministry in our behalf. Perhaps the most formal discussion of the priestly work of Christ appears in the epistle to the Hebrews. What those persecuted and suffering Jewish Christians needed to know was that Jesus was a sympathetic High Priest, better than Aaron. Forty days after His resurrection He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9), and there are abundant evidences as to exactly where He is and what He is doing now.
Paul tells us that Christ is at the right hand of God and that He “maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:34). His position in heaven is one of dignity and authority, and it serves to stress the efficacy of His intercessory work. Why does our Lord intercede for us? Because there is someone with power who comes before the throne of God that he might condemn the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. That slanderer is Satan, or the devil, the malignant accuser and worst enemy of man. Whenever he brings his false charge against a child of God, our Great High Priest in heaven silences him by the marks of crucifixion in His hands, feet, and side, proof sufficient that the believer is justified by the blood of Christ. “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).
Before every Christian lies a pilgrim path beset by our great foe, Satan. We need to know that we have a Great High Priest who protects us from the worst our enemy can do. Our Lord is infinitely sympathetic, and He is able to carry us straight through to the end of our pilgrimage. “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:17-18). The ministry of our High Priest is not confined to His atonement but continues in intercession and succour. To know Him in this present ministry for us will strengthen our hearts when the enemy comes in like a flood. He is our faithful Priest, always near to give the victory.
In view of the fact that we have such an High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, “let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15-16). He helps in the hour of temptation, giving grace and mercy to preserve us blameless and to keep us from falling. When Satan would buffet us and sift us in his sieve, we may draw near with boldness to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our loving High Priest. He provides grace for both present and future spiritual needs.
The Purpose of the Sifting
God never acts without reason, and His purposes He makes plain to those who desire to know them. Some of the purposes of sifting we shall examine now.
Sometimes the sifting is permitted in order to silence Satan. The enemy of God’s Word, the accuser of the brethren, is often silenced even as he sifts the saints. Again, probably the best example of this in the Old Testament is the patriarch Job. Satan accused Job of serving God for gain (Job 1:9-11). Then God gave Satan the privilege to take away Job’s possessions and family. This only resulted in the silencing of the evil one, for instead of complaining against God, Job testified: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
The devil sows the seeds of doubt and distrust in the minds of many people by persuading them that Christians can serve God only in the sunshine, but our common enemy has been silenced in many a sickroom and poverty-stricken home where trial and testing have brought forth praise to God, even in the midst of physical and mental suffering. There is a ministry in suffering that produces greater victories over Satan than much present-day preaching and religious activity. Certainly Job, and all other saints in Satan’s sieve, can rejoice in having a part in the ministry which silences the enemy.
Sometimes the sifting is permitted that we might have sympathy for others. Often the greatest sufferers become the greatest sympathizers. Having been in the place where we ourselves needed sympathy, we become more sympathetic toward others. Job’s three “friends” knew nothing of his sufferings, so he called them “miserable comforters.” The Scripture teaches us that God “comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1:4).
The greatest sympathizer of all time is our Lord Jesus Christ. For forty days He was sifted in Satan’s sieve (Matt. 4:1-11). At the end of that time He had silenced Satan. All the while He knew what it was to be hungry and to spend sleepless nights as He wrestled with the enemy. “For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). Our Lord did not fail to instruct Peter in this, for He said: “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Lk. 22:32). O weary one, look now to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive His comfort. There is a ministry awaiting you.
Then, too, the sifting might come to us to fill up that which is lacking in Christian experience. Peter needed the sifting. He had been boastful (Mk. 14:29), self-confident (Lk. 22:33), prayerless (Lk. 22:45), hasty (Lk. 22:50), and had warmed himself at the fire of the enemy (Lk. 22:56), denying his Lord (Lk. 22:57-60). He needed the sifting to get rid of the chaff. If Christ had not prayed for Peter, Satan would have destroyed him and not the chaff. But God was making no mistake in permitting His child to be sifted in Satan’s sieve. He was purging away the chaff that He might polish the pure grain. The sifting makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes the trial and the test are God’s method of producing Christlikeness in His children. The Lord is not concerned merely with providing our salvation to keep us out of hell. He longs to conform us to the image of His Son. And if we are to be like the Lord Jesus, there must be sifting, suffering, and sorrow. We can never be like Christ without these things. So when we are passing through the sifting process, we can say: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” and the reason is that we might “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:28-29). These are but a few of the glorious purposes of God in permitting His children to get caught in Satan’s sieve.
One final word should serve as a warning to the unsaved. God Himself will execute the final sifting of the unrighteous from the righteous. Today, while the devil is sowing his tares among the wheat, many unbelievers are ranked among the redeemed. But, at the end of the age, the grim reapers will separate the tares from the wheat, and the unbelievers will be cast into a furnace of fire where there will be “wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:33-43). In that day of judgment, “the nations … shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind” (Isa. 17:13). Man’s day will have come to its close, and of him it is written: “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away” (Psa. 1:4).
He is a wise man who acknowledges the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, thereby escaping the final sifting when the unsaved will be cast into hell forever.
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