"Verily I say unto thee, Before the COCK crow _twice_, thou shalt deny
Me thrice" (Mark xiv. 30). But why twice? There is no mention of this
detail in the other three gospels. No; but Mark got his information
from Peter himself. The pain of the degradation had sunk so deeply into
Peter's soul that he had no difficulty in recalling each separate
particular. His self-confidence had been so great that he would _not_
deny his Lord, and his subsequent profanity had been so awful after he
had once entered on the downward course, that not one warning was
sufficient to show him his danger, but a warning repeated and repeated
again, before he was rudely awakened from the terrible stupor of his
sin. The first crowing of the cock at midnight, and the second
crowing-time about three o'clock, were both alike needed to arouse and
humble him in the dust; and thus with painful accuracy he was able to
recall the very words of the Master, "Before the cock crow _twice_, thou
shalt deny Me thrice."
On the other hand, his self-confidence was a measure of his sincerity.
Matthew Henry has well said, that Judas said nothing when Christ told
_him_ he would betray Him. There was no protesting on his part. "He
sinned by contrivance, Peter by surprise: he devised the wickedness,
Peter was overtaken in this fault." In the language of "Baxter's Second
Innings," "It was a _swift_ that bowled out Peter, the night the cock
crowed." And the same author adds, "The best of boys are sometimes
taken by swifts." But, swift or slow, it was clearly Peter's duty not
to wait even for the first crowing of the cock, before he laid to heart
the solemn warning of the Master. It would have been his wisdom to say,
"Lord, Thou knowest my nature better than I do; and if Satan desires to
have me, that he may sift me as wheat, take Thou charge of my life, lead
me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil." That would have been
Peter's wisdom and safety. But this he didn't do. He planted his feet
on the shifting sand of his own self-confidence, and fell into the awful
quagmire of denying his Lord. He would not believe the pointed warning
of his Master, and therefore he was left to start up at the voice of the
bird, and to go out and weep bitterly. The cock-crowing may come to one
man as the summons to praise and prayer; but it comes to another as the
very trump of God, calling him to penitence or--judgment.