Time after time, by the chief priests, but failed;
Common people listened to Him with zest,
The guards, also entranced, could not assail!
The priests dared not in public Jesus take,
For fear the crowds would riot in His defense;
They needed His friend Jesus to forsake,
Who’d lead guards to His night-time residence!
They found Him; or rather, Judas found them;
He would lead them for thirty silver coins,
Betraying the Savior by kissing Him,
As if in vesper prayers he rejoins!
Never was betrayal more wicked done,
Than Judas the apostle, to the Son!
Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added] Prophecy Made: Psalm 41:9—“Even my [Jesus’] close friend whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.)
Prophecy Fulfilled: John 13:18, 21––“I [Jesus speaking to His apostles] am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ “… “ After He said this, Jesus was troubled in Spirit and testified, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.’” (Written in 95 A.D.)
Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: “Betrayed By His Friend” Here we see God’s Master Plan, prepared before creation, at work—chosen as an apostle by Jesus Himself, having knowledge ahead of time that when the time came for Him to be arrested and a traitor was needed to guide the arresting party to the garden where Jesus spent the night before His crucifixion, the apostle Judas was the man. We see from this that Jesus knew He was to be arrested, given a false trial, and crucified; He intended to die from the beginning. His primary mission was to die as a sacrificial lamb which paid the sin-debt incurred by humanity. Judas was an instrument used by God in His ingenious redemption plan, without which the race was doomed. Although the Sanhedrin had sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus while He was teaching to large crowds in the temple, they were unable to bring themselves to confront Him for He spoke with such authority and assurance. He was becoming so popular with the common Jews that they feared to arrest Him in public for fear of inciting a riot. The Romans fiercely reacted to Jewish riots, which could result in a Roman governor’s losing his position. That same fear helped persuade Pontius Pilate to deliver Jesus to the riotous priests and Pharisees for crucifixion. With possibly one million Jews in the ordinarily small city of Jerusalem, the priests needed to take Jesus into custody quietly, try Him quickly in a “kangaroo” court in the night, and crucify Him without the knowledge of most of the people. Judas Iscariot was not held in high esteem by the other disciples. In writing the Gospel of John, the author made several disparaging remarks about him. However, no event described by the other gospel writers recounted anything that would seem to cast doubt on his sincerity. Many of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah are confusing by commingling prophecies about Christ’s first coming with His Second coming. This led a majority of Jews to expect that Jesus in His initial advent to be vastly different from the gentle lamb that He actually was. In His Second coming He will rule the world from the throne of David with an iron scepter, but He came to be crucified His First visit. A great many people believe that Judas was disappointed to find that He had first come to win the world by love and not by force.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
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