Matthew 26:14-16 Thirty Pieces of Silver
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 26, 2019 Matthew 26:14-16
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
(Understanding the Text) Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are desperately wicked. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds'” (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Judas thought that he was being smart, not wicked. He lied to himself about his motives and about his own righteousness. After he was criticized for the alabaster box incident, his pride was hurt, but he did not acknowledge that he was acting out of outraged sensibilities. Instead, he was hedging his bets. Jesus was already saying that He was going to die. Judas didn’t believe that, but if it happened, Judas wanted to be on the winning side. He had lived with Jesus and followed the rules of the kingdom of heaven and even been happy doing it, but he had not embraced the principles that Jesus had been teaching.
Small wrongs can build up to massive betrayal. Judas had started out by taking a little here and there from the money bag. He knew how much was in it down to the last cent, but the other disciples were too focused on other things to keep track of the money. It was easy to let them think that there was less money given than there actually had been. With people giving money to 12 different men and those different men handing it in to Judas, no one knew exactly how much they had been given. John says that Judas had been stealing from those donations. “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein” (John 12:6). To see the potential for having had that much money to pilfer from made his heart sick and set him up to go get some money for himself with the only collateral that he had, his Master.
(Revelation of God) This goes to show that even Jesus’ ministry had cheating and stealing in it. I have to be careful not to judge the total ministry by the actions of one person within it. Jesus let the wheat grow with the tares among His disciples, so He will do the same thing today also. God has His reasons for not weeding out betrayers and greedy users from among His followers. Paul says that the people who fall for them are easily led way by their passions and full of sin already. “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:5-7). I don’t know about that since we are sinful, except maybe they had already chosen a sinful path and were looking for someone to tell them what they wanted to hear, but my point is that God has always allowed these people to mix with His sincere followers and dealt with them with equity and love, so I need to look at them in this perspective also while still trying to protect their potential victims from them.
(Application) My application for myself is that I need to remain humble and not become overconfident that I know better than others. I need to remain faithful and honest in the small duties whether or not I will have bigger duties later on. Only by remaining true to the little duties can I make sure that I do not betray God in the bigger duties.
(Prayer) I do not have the wisdom or the purity to be able to see others clearly and treat them as You do. Guide me so that I do not hurt anyone else and so that I am not hurt by the users who are growing among Your sincere followers.