RUSSELL SANDERS
5-25-2021
JUDAS ISCARIOT – LESSON 7
THE DASTARDLY DEED
It was shortly after the dinner at Bethany, six days before Passover, when Judas Iscariot began to plot his dastardly deed.
They knew that the leaders of the Temple had been out to get Jesus for quite some time. At this very time, they had already been discussing among themselves how they could capture and execute Jesus during this Passover week, but in Matthew 26:5 they said, “Not on a feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.” Passover began a feast period of several days, so they hoped to get it done before then, but they weren’t sure just how to accomplish it.
Satan knew the timing was right to put it into Judas’ heart and mind. In John 13:27 it says, “Satan entered into him.” Judas went to the chief priests and asked what they would give him to deliver Jesus into their hands (Matthew 26:14-16.) They offered him thirty pieces of silver just as the prophet Zechariah had written in Zechariah 11:13. He made the deal. Judas then began to figure out a plan of how to do it.
The betrayal took place five days after the dinner at Bethany and about two or three hours or so after the “Last Supper.” It was at the Last Supper that Jesus revealed to the twelve that one of them would betray him. They all began to question Jesus, each asking, “Lord, is it I?” Jesus said that the answer was the one who would dip his “sop” in the bowl together with Him. Even though Judas did it, they still did not fully grasp the significance of it. Jesus even verbally confirmed to Judas that he was the one in Matthew 26:25. Judas promptly left the group after Jesus dismissed him (John 13:27), but they thought he was running an errand for Jesus. They were still clueless.
Judas went to the priests and told them the plan he had devised. He knew that Jesus, as was His manner, would be seeking a secluded place to pray after the supper. He would take several of the armed temple guards with him to where Jesus would be praying. The quiet solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane was the only logical place to do it.
Since Judas did not wish to appear hostile to Jesus and any disciples that might be with him, he chose a cowardly method of approaching Jesus with the customary kiss of a friend. This would show the guards who it was they were to arrest and seize. That is the exact definition of a “dastardly” deed, both evil and cowardly. It took place exactly as Judas had planned and just as Jesus finished His prayer time in the garden. In fact, I suspect Jesus had finished His prayer because He knew they were already on the way to capture Him. He was not surprised by any of this. He knew it all before it happened.
Isn’t that just like God to know all before it comes to pass? He knows your outcomes too. He knows that if you trust Him, He will bring you through it. He knows that if you choose instead to “trust the arm of flesh” that you may have chosen failure; it would be your own fault, not His.
Always keep your trust on Him.
