There was something strange about Judas Iscariot. He had had all the opportunities ever given anyone that preceded him and threw then all away. At the Last Passover Judas had been the successful hypocrite Had the other disciples known what he was about, they would have killed him. He had had in his heart to betray our Lord for reasons all of us speculate to be power and grandeur in the new Kingdom, yet, in the final analysis, Judas was the ultimate hypocrite. His story is the worst of the worst. His name sends cold shudders up and down the back bone when we think of his treachery. Some have suggested that God rejected him and that is why he betrayed Jesus. This makes God human and He is not!! God does not think or act like man, if this were one of us, Judas would have not made it alive to meet the priest that night!! In listing the apostles, the Scriptures always name Peter first and Judas last.
In the Garden when Judas was making his final approach to the Lord, God allowed Judas to kiss Him. Luke 22:47-48 No one but God could have been so kind. It is as if with every step in His direction, Jesus was trying to plead with Judas to think—as if He were crying to him “run, Judas, run, this is far too dreadful for you, the ramifications of your act man can not understand.” Jesus had chosen Judas, and Judas had chosen to be a disciple of Jesus and all the while Jesus knew that Judas “was a devil”. John 6:70-71 John said of Judas, the trusted treasurer, that he was a crook who stole from the apostles’ money gag. John 12:1-6 This was surely something that had not passed the attention of the Master. Judas had never been confronted about it. Was it the stealing that finally got through his last defenses and destroyed him? Some have let the “bottle” do the same thing to them!! Finally, there is nothing left to save!!
At the last Passover, Judas was playing “religious” while having all those thoughts in his head. It seemed as yet he had not completely made up his mind when “Satan entered” him. John 13:26-30 While the other disciples were crying, “Is it I”, Judas was playing the part. If the disciples had cried “Is it Judas? “, would it have shaken him up enough to wake him up?? Matthew 26:21-25 “Of what a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage”, Peter writes. 2 Peter 2:19 I have seen many saints partake of their own destruction by drinking alcohol, missing services, not giving, and not praying—when someone tried to wake them out of their slide to Hell, they turned on them and “rended” their friend. Even when Christ told Judas he was the murderer, it did not seem to shake him!! A saint who has become a child of God can be used by Satan!! Jesus told him; “what thou doest, do quickly”.
“He went to the priest”. As a disciple, he was disloyal to his teacher. He betrayed Jesus for only a few dollars. Notice—he did not go to the Pharisees, he went to the priests. The heart of Judas that had at one time been obedient to the plan of God was now destroying the God he had obeyed!! He had spent three years with Jesus but had not benefited from them. He had failed to admit error in his thinking and could not repent. To be blunt, Judas could not bring himself to allow the plan of God to be successful—he had to stop it, he thought!! There are some who will NOT allow God’s will to be done with their mates or their children—they and the bottle have to have its way!! He could be trusted and when he was finally awakened, he could not regret what he had done; his pride would not allow it. No man was ever warned as was Judas. Jesus had said; “Did I Myself not choose you, yet one of you is a devil”?
