Leadership

The All Too Easy Entry

by Terry Barlow
09/22/17
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How was it that Satan had such a seemingly easy time entering Judas Iscariot to carry out the plot of betraying Jesus. (Luke 22, v.3) I know it was a fulfillment of prophesy (Zechariah 11, v.12, 13) but that doesn’t explain why there is not even a struggle mentioned on the part of Judas. Is it possible he really put up a formidable resistance and it just wasn’t included in the account? Not likely. It is more likely, gleaning from other passages about Judas and his critical, crafty mindset, that he was vulnerable to Satan’s onslaught because he was not meditating on God’s truth or the words of Jesus, he was not in an attitude of praise or thanksgiving, neither was he in close enough fellowship with the other apostles where there would have been safety and wisdom in numbers, and exciting testimony being given before others. There had been no bulwark of defense built up by these kinds of disciplines in the life of Judas. Had he been in tune and in step with Jesus on a more honest moment to moment basis he would not have proven such easy prey for Satan and his minions, nor would the conspiracy have had such swift success.  Is there any sadder phrase, it has been asked, than the phrase “what might have been?” Instead Judas was like the straggler of a flock of sheep picked of by a pack of ravenous wolves.  In Goethe's great dramatic poem,  Mephistopheles (Satan) had the main character Faust by the throat without him even knowing it, without him even feeling the touch, much less the grip of a hand (or a claw).   Don’t think for a moment it can’t happen all at once or over time to any one of us. Yes, that key initial betrayal has already occurred, but each spiritual generation has its own possibility of betrayal. We betray our master Jesus when we live comfortably beneath our calling or fail to walk worthy of the great and grand investment He has made in the lives of each one of us. Therefore let us beware and be ready to put up a fight when our turn comes around, put up a furious fight with the strength and the weapons God provides us! (1 Peter 5, v.8,9)