Offence?

When Jesus spoke to his disciples of his suffering that would come, Peter said "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. Matthew 16:22. The next verse Jesus tells 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." First of all Peter did not understand the reason Jesus had come in the first place. That separation man had from God, he was the remedy. He was and is our redeemer. Praise God! But Peter did not see this yet and wanted to protect and keep him from this. Note the mind of man thinks in a way so contrary to the spirit we have to be on our prayer bones continually to relate to the message and receive. Jesus had to go to the cross. He had to suffer for our sins. There was no other way. There was not and never will be a sacrifice great enough to take our sin out of the way, except for the Son of God. Jesus walk on earth in a flesh body but a God spirit. He suffered cold and hunger just as we do. The bible says that he was tempted at all point as we are. He is not a God that cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmities. So with the mind of God he knew what sufferings he would go through. The bible says that he was the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8. So knowing this and feeling what we would feel then the thought of the cross and all that would go with that suffering would be a scary thing. With the authority of all the host of heaven he could have wiped everything clean and started over. At least that is the way we would more than likely feel. When Peter spoke what he did Jesus' response was, he said "get the behind me". The greek words used speak of sinking out of sight. Then he referred to him as "Satan". Which is the adversary to man. Then he said "thou art an offence". This word offence used here is where we get the word scandal. It's meaning here speaks of a trap stick or to bend a sapling. Implying to trick into sin or cause someone the fall. The next word is the word savourest meaning exercise the mind or entertaining thoughts. Jesus was telling Peter that he did not think on the level he was thinking, what he was saying might cause others to back off from their purpose. Words are important to us all. We can encourage or we can choose to make people afraid with our words. We need to pray without ceasing, search the scriptures, and all of us turn from our way and follow Jesus. My prayer is that the Lord help me not to offend. Not to cause someone else to fall or stumble or even quit. I hope that is your prayer and I pray this message blesses you. Leave a comment . Thanks