SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2024 11:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The
Preparation of Betraying Hypocrisy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
26:14-16
Message of the verses: “14 Then one of the
twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, "What
are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out
thirty pieces of silver to him. 16 From then on he began looking for a
good opportunity to betray Jesus.”
I have to begin this SD by staying that this will be
a very short one, but the subject is probably known to most people who have
read this section as it has to do with the betraying of Jesus by Judas
Iscariot.
In
our last couple of SD’s we have written about the wonderful act of love that
Mary did for the Lord Jesus Christ as she anointed His body for His burial,
something that as we learned that she did not realize that she was doing
this. Now contrast this wonderful act of
love with this despicable act that Judas Iscariot does as seen in these three
verses, as Judas was not getting all he wanted out of his relationship with the
Lord and so because of his love for money and his displeasure with Jesus he
goes to the high priest to betray Jesus to them.
This
act was probably done while the chief priests were still assembled in Caiaphas’s
house, as Judas asked callously, “What are you willing to give me to deliver
Him up to you?” This no doubt brought surprise
to those assembled there as one of Jesus’ own disciples would be the means of
their destroying Him, the religious leaders eagerly did the following as they
weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.
Now I want to look at Exodus 21:32 to show that this was the price of a
slave, as Judas not only sole out his teacher and leader and friend but
betrayed the very Son of God, who had come to be his Savior, and did it for the
price of a slave. “"If the ox gores
a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty
shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned (Ex. 21:32).
MacArthur concludes this short section by writing “Having
irrevocably committed himself to the treachery, from then on, Judas began
looking for a good opportunity to betray the Lord. In the eyes of Jesus’ enemies, the good
opportunity would be when He was ‘apart from the multitude’ (Luke 22:6), as He
soon would be in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In the greatest example of forsaken opportunity the world has ever
known, Judas forever turned his back on the Lord and on his own salvation. And the Lord forever turned His back on
Judas.”
Let
me just say that although it was prophesied that someone would betray Jesus,
and Judas was the one who did this, I truly believe that it was in his heart to
do this betrayal and because of his walking with the Lord for those three
years, and then betraying Him to be killed, Judas knew a great deal about the
Lord, thus will receive one of, if not the greatest punishment in hell.
4/16/2024 12:18 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment