Shadows In Denial
April 26th, 2009 I was looking at Peter’s denial of Jesus three times the night Jesus was arrested in relationship to the verbal interchange between Peter and Jesus after His resurrection. Let’s read that final conversation below:
“When Jesus and the disciples had finished eating, Jesus spoke to Simon Peter. He asked, ‘Simon, son of John, do you really love me more than these others do?”
‘Yes, Lord,’ he answered. ‘You know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’
Again Jesus asked, ‘Simon, son of John, do you really love me?’
He answered, ‘Yes, Lord. You know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’
Jesus spoke to him a third time. He asked, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’
Peter felt bad because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He answered, ‘Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep. What I’m about to tell you is true. When you were younger, you dressed yourself. You went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands. Someone else will dress you. Someone else will lead you where you do not want to go.’ John 21:15-19
Notice that Peter had denied Jesus three times the night of the arrest, and in these scriptures Jesus makes Peter tell Him that he loves him three times. Obviously there is a shadow here. In fact, there may be several, but what I see is a picture of the three big denials of God by Israel. First, when Israel leaves the promised land and goes into Egypt (The World), God shows His love and brings them out in the whole story of Moses. Second, Israel turns to idols and God has to send them into captivity in Babylon, from which he eventually brings them out. Third, Israel denies Jesus as their Messiah when He comes the first time. Their eyes are then blinded (as Jesus tells Peter his eyes will be), but of course He will again save them at His second coming.
An interesting side note and the point that strikes me is that the three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, there were actually two different Greek words used for love. The first one was more like a friendship love, or being fond of. It was “phileo.” The second word for love was more like a Godly love or divine love. It is “agape.” The first two times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him He used the word “agape” and Peter answered with “phileo.” The last time Jesus used the word “phileo,” not “agape,” and Peter also answered with “Phileo.”
Could it be that since Jesus used phileo the last time, it was a shadow of His coming back at the end of the tribulation as King instead of Savior, with the true salvation of the Jewish nation being at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, the seventh day? Remember, this was foreshadowed in the Feast of Tabernacles in which the Jews are instructed to live in tents or booths for seven days and then they get to go to their real home on the eighth day (The end of the Millennial Kingdom when they will enter heaven). This again seems to make sense to me in line with the prophecy that the animal sacrifices will continue to be so important during the Millennial Kingdom, as we are told that they will be in the last chapters of Ezekiel.
It may not be an extremely important point for us, the church, but it is an interesting point to ponder.
