Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadQuiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 094. The Subtlest Yet
TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 094. The Subtlest Yet
Other Subjects in this Topic:
The Subtlest Yet
The third of these is when our Lord first tells the inner circle of the awful experiences ahead to which He would yield. (Mat_16:21-27.) Peter is startled and strenuously objects. He has the boldness or foolhardiness to "rebuke" our Lord. In impetuous, startled speech he blurts out, "This be far from Thee." His strenuous objection raises the whole question of a kingdom without sacrifice, of victory without suffering. It made the road harder to travel. The awful sharpness of the experiences which the Master plainly sees before Him is made to stand out with more painful clearness. It is hard to have one of the inner circle of His chosen band, dear, impulsive Peter, try to block the way that is clearly the Father's way for Him. And the Master plainly felt all of this.
The sharpness of His reply, the blunt plainness of His "get thee behind me, Satan," reveals at once how real was the struggle of soul, as He unhesitatingly presses on in the way marked out for Him. Here is it plain that the tempter was coming behind the warm heart, and impulsive judgment of Peter, who was quite unconscious of how he was being used. The tempter would make the way just as hard as he could. The very boldness of these disguises is nothing short of startling.
The last of these illustrations is perhaps the most subtle and telling of the four. It came within the last week. It is the story of the Greeks' request. (Joh_12:20-28.) Whether they were actual Greeks, or from a Greek-speaking people of some other nationality, or merely representatives of a non-Jewish people, matters not. They were the outside non-Jewish world coming eagerly and earnestly to our Lord. The Jewish door was in its last stage of shutting against Him. Here was the door into the whole outer world opening. And our Lord had come for a world. He had not come to Palestine merely. That was only the doorway in. These earnest truth-seekers opened to Him the whole outer world. He could go to Athens and Corinth. And how the Greek crowds would have yielded to His sway. But He knew well that only by the red road of Joseph's tomb could He reach Greeks and all the world, in the way His Father had planned.
The language He used shows, with pathetic intensity, how real was the struggle of soul of this Man, now within a few days of the Cross. Listen: "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Shall I say, 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, I cannot say that, for for this cause came I unto this hour. This is what I will say, 'Father, glorify Thy name, even though it mean a cross for me.'" It was a sore hour. It was a real temptation. Saying "no" to these earnest Greek inquirers was one of the hardest things the Master ever did. It is still one of the hardest things for some of His followers to do. The tempter was making one of his subtlest, strongest approaches behind these earnest seekers, with their plea for light and help, all unconscious as they were of how they were being used.
These incidents show up at once how subtle and how bold the tempter is in the disguises behind which he seeks to hide his approaches—a tender-hearted mother, a warm-hearted friend and follower, an enthusiastic admiring clamorous crowd, earnest seekers after truth. How difficult such pleas are to turn aside our own hearts and experiences tell us, in some part.
Our Lord detected the presence of the tempter behind each. With all His tender-heartedness for His mother, His love for dear Peter, His heart-moving compassion for the multitudes, and His quick response at all times to earnest seekers after light, He still saw that the Father's path led Him quite aside from these.