Matthew 26:34, “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”

Ever wonder about a rooster crowing? Why does he crow in the morning or at dawn?  Why does he crow at all.  According to the National Geographic magazine, a rooster feeds in the morning.  He has an internal clock that alerts him to the dawn.  Scientist found that if you keep a rooster in a darkened place, he will still crow at dawn indicating that it is not the light that causes him to crow but some internal clock.  Roosters do not all crow at the same time.  Scientist again believe that there is a social rank among roosters.  According the Takashi Yoshimura of the Nagoya University: “Crowing is a warning signal advertising territorial claims. Our preliminary data suggest that the highest ranked rooster has priority in breaking the dawn, and the lower (ranking) roosters are patient enough to wait and follow the highest ranked rooster each morning.”

The Talmud teaches that the third hour is the hour of the rooster’s crow. The sixth hour is the time of the crow of the second rooster. Mark 14:72 says that before the cock crows twice. In the Greek and the Aramaic there is no article before the word cock suggesting two different birds crowing.  Thus,  between 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM  Peter denied Christ three times. What this suggest is that this denial was not done in a heat of passion, a weak moment when he just gave off a knee jerk reaction. This was done over a three hour period indicating that it was pre-meditative. Peter had three hours to think over his act and he repeated the denial three times.

The word deny in Greek is aparnese which means to look back or to reject or forsake.  Peter was not just denying he knew Jesus, he was rejecting Him.  The word in the Aramaic is kaphar which is to refuse or renounce. It comes from a Persian word for a cyprus flower known as an alhenna by the Arabs.  It is a bush or shrub that has fragrant white flowers growing in clusters like grapes. Women will dry these flowers and mesh them into a powder that the will apply as make up to their faces to cover blemishes. The word kaphar is identical in Hebrew and is used for the word atonement which is a covering for our sins. In fact in the Hebrew the word literally means a covering.

I believe a better understanding of what Peter did was to cover up his relationship with Jesus.  In that I believe Jesus was making a little play on words here with Peter when he said that Peter would deny or cover up his so called blemish (his relationship with Jesus)  three times where Jesus would perform three acts for an atonement or to cover up for Peter’s sin (His death, resurrection and ascension to declare to the Father that the penalty for his sin is paid).

So what could have driven Peter to reject Jesus, the Jesus that he dearly loved and devoted his life to. Was his own skin that important to him?  Perhaps.  Perhaps he could not believe that Jesus would allow Himself to be taken into captivity. Surely Jesus would have called lightning from heaven to strike his captors or even send angels to fight them off. Maybe he began to question that after three years he was actually hoodwinked into believing Jesus was the Messiah when he was just an ordinary man like anyone else who had a lot of charisma and was able to build a large platform. Or maybe something else caused him to deny his Lord.

I was reading about an ancient Jewish belief in the Jewish commentary The Midrash Rabbah in Leviticus Rabbah 5  that when the cock crows announcing the approaching dawn of day, the power of the demons diminishes, their power being for the most part confined to night only.  I don’t think any of us will deny that nighttime can be a frightening time.  All your horror stories take place at night, stories of ghosts appearing in haunted houses only appear at night. Even Dracula sleeps during the day and awakens only at night.  Why are we so vulnerable at night?  The Talmud teaches that when we sleep our bodies and minds are at rest and unconscious.

Why did God create man to live just a short 120 years and then design him to waste forty of those years in an unconscious state?  I think the Talmud is hitting on something here.  During the day our minds and bodies are always getting into the way with the cares of this world always pushing aside our spirits, which is that part of us that is in direct link to God.   Even when we worship in church our minds are on what other people are thinking wondering if they are watching us and if we are appear spiritual enough. Our bodies are getting tired of standing for a half hour or forty five minutes while we endure the I like God songs with the same third chords droning on and on off the guitars and keyboards.  The mind is crying out, “I hate this music” and the body is crying out, “Ok, Ok, I give up, I am ready to listen to a forty five minute sermon on a topic I have heard a dozen times before on the radio, TV, and podcasts. Just let me sit down and rest.”  All that time your old spirit is just buried under the entire mind and bodies belly aching it can’t get in a praisealleluia edgewise. Ah, but when you are asleep, the mind and body have clunked out after all that ranting and raving. That is the moment your spirit has been waiting for.  That is your spirits time to rise up and say, “Ok body and mind, it’s my turn to rule the roost. I am in charge now and God and I are going to get together for some intimate time together.” So your spirit joins with the Spirit of God in an intimacy that is just not possible when the body and mind are nagging you to death.  That intimacy may be so deep, that you mind and body cannot handle it.  In fact it is so deep that if God knows the past, present and future you too will see the past, present and future and you may not be able to handle even that.  Dr. Ben Carson the world renowned neurosurgeon said that if he were to touch one part of your brain with a sensor you would recall every word of a book you read twenty years ago. Sometimes it is best not to remember things in the past and not know the future and when our spirits are joined intimately with God we know what He knows and He must cause us to forget it or mess it in the symbolism of a dream lest it drives our already neurotic body and mind into insanity.

Perhaps the ancient rabbis are right, are spirit is free at night and that is why the enemy sends his henchmen on an all our assault during the night to keep us from having that intimate time with God. Try it, before you go to sleep tonight, command you spirit to praise God, fill your mind with the Word of God.  Place flowers or diffuse sweet smelling fragrances that your bodies will enjoy and not punish it with pizza and soft drinks that will keep you awake.  In other words invite the Spirit of God to join with your Spirit and you may wake up in the middle of the night singing worships songs or if you are charismatic speaking in tongues whichever way your spirit enjoys its time with the Spirit of God.  But if you go to sleep watching a vampire or zombie movie or reading a racy book then guess who you are inviting to your spirit’s door and that dream may turn into a nightmare.

I believe Peter was assaulted by demonic spirits that early morning when they were at their peak performance and because Peter fell asleep rather than pray with Jesus in the garden, the wrong spirit came knocking at his door and he kaphar rejected or denied his Lord.