Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

 ²⁸  “But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

 ²⁹  But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.”

 ³⁰  And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”

 ³¹  But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also.”  Mark 14:27-31.

At first reading, it may seem strange that God would want to “STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED.’   By reading the full quote in Zechariah 13:7-9, we better understand this phrase and why God would allow this to occur.     

^“7  “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,
         And against the man, My Associate,”
         Declares the LORD of hosts
         “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered;
         And I will turn My hand against the little ones.
    ⁸  “It will come about in all the land,”
         Declares the LORD,
         “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish;
         But the third will be left in it.
    ⁹  “And I will bring the third part through the fire,
         Refine them as silver is refined,
         And test them as gold is tested
         They will call on My name,
         And I will answer them;
         I will say, ‘They are My people,’
         And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.'”  Zechariah 13:7-9.  (Emphasis added.) 

God does refine us, His people, and test us as gold.  God refined and tested Jesus’ disciples, and God will also refine and test us.