But when he had turned about
Upon Peter, and showed quick resentment at what he said:
and looked on his disciples;
he cast his eye toward, them at the same time, and expressed to
them the same displeasure in his countenance, they being of the
same mind:
he rebuked Peter, saying, get thee behind me, Satan: for
thou
savourest not the things that be of God;
things which were according to the will of God, as the sufferings
of Christ were: they were according to the determinate counsel of
his will; what he had determined in his purposes and council
should be; and what he had declared in the Scriptures of truth,
the revelation of his will, would be; and in which, according to
them, he should have a great concern himself, ( Isaiah 53:6 Isaiah 53:10
) , and whereby all his divine perfections would be glorified,
and therefore may well be said to be the things of God; and which
ought to be savoured, minded, and attended to, as things of the
greatest moment and importance: and which, though the apostle had
often read of in the books of the Old Testament; yet either had
not a clear understanding of them, as being the will of God; or
however, they were greatly out of his view at this time, his mind
being possessed with notions of a temporal kingdom, and of
worldly honour and grandeur: wherefore it follows,
but the things that be of men;
as were the notions of Christ's being a temporal prince, that
would set up a worldly kingdom, and deliver the Jews from the
Roman yoke, and make his subjects happy, with an affluence of all
worldly things; and particularly his favourites, as the disciples
were: these were schemes of men's devising, and were suited to
the corrupt nature, and carnal inclinations of men; and these
things at present too much possessed Peter's mind: wherefore the
Lord rebuked him in a very severe, though just manner; being
touched in his most tender part, and dissuaded from that which
his heart was set upon, and he came into the world for; whose
keen resentment is seen by using a phrase he never did but to the
devil himself, ( Matthew 4:10
) ; (See Gill on Matthew
16:23).