"JUDAS - A HANGING THAT DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN"

Good Evening to All!

Then Judas, which has betrayed him, (Jesus) when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, (4) Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. (5) And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for a price equivalent of about $17.00. Before tonight, I had heard this story MANY, MANY times, but tonight was different. Our visiting Pastor came at it from a different direction. When we think of Judas, we think of that "horrible person" who betrayed our Lord and Savior. The thing is Jesus knew all along that this was going to happen. It was for THIS PURPOSE, that He (God) robed Himself in flesh and came to earth as a human, to shed His blood for our sins.

For some reason, I never looked at this scripture in this way. I never paid attention to the fact that Judas actually REPENTED. I guess I was just so caught up in the actual deed, the betrayal, that I didn't look at his returning the money and trying to right this wrong as Repentance.

The truly sad part of his debacle was his action after he left the Priests. What he did next was proof that he doubted Jesus.

Jesus had told his disciples, Judas included, that He would be killed to save us from our sins, so Judas knew this, yet he allowed Satan to sneak doubt or criticism in on him and Judas let Satan's deceptions get the best of him, so riddled with guilt and unable to handle it, he hanged himself.

Now, If I may be so bold, I would like to use my imagination a bit and imagine a
conversation between Jesus and Judas after Judas died. Yes, Judas and Jesus met. I say this because in God's Word (Ecclesiastes 12:7) it says that when we die our bodies turn back to dust, and our soul returns to God. In my mind's "ear", I can just hear Jesus asking Judas why did you kill yourself? Why did you give up on Me? Give up on you, Jesus? I didn't give up on You. I betrayed you. I tried to take it back but it was too late! I just couldn't handle the thought of what I had done to my beloved Jesus. Jesus tells him, I told you that in three days I would rise from the dead and all sins could be forgiven for the asking, including being betrayed by you, but you gave up. You just couldn't wait those three days. If you had waited for Me to come back, then you would have been completely forgiven. You could still be alive and ministering to others, but you made the wrong choice. Now because of that choice, you have not been forgiven, so you cannot be in heaven with me.

I can't help but wonder how many of us give us as easily as Judas did.
The difference is we don't have to wait three days. Our forgiveness can be instantaneous if we will repent. He has already shed His blood for our sins, so there is no waiting required as in Judas' case. He just allowed Satan to get the best of him, just as we sometimes do.

That devil has a way of twisting words and manipulation that unless we are prayed up, and have strong faith he can whip us around til we don't know what's true and what's Satan's deceptions. This is why we must be vigilant in our prayer life, and be in His Word studying to know the truth. Judas cut his life short for no reason. If he would have just had more faith in what Jesus was telling them as the truth, the devil would not have had a chance at deceiving him into beating himself down.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!