Luke 22:1-6 Plotting Before the Feast of Unleavened Bread
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: November 28, 2018 Luke 22:1-6
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.
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
(Understanding the Text) It was almost Passover time. This was the feast which celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. It pointed towards Jesus’ death. We always say that the spring feasts point towards the first coming and the fall feasts point towards the second coming, and that is true but also somewhat limiting. Passover is also a symbol of the final judgment when the humans of earth will die for their defiance of God, but those who have accepted the sacrifice of the Lamb will be spared. All were in Egypt, but only those who obeyed God were spared the judgment of God. They were protected when everyone else received the punishment of disobedience. All the plagues before were inconvenient, but did not end in death. They were to point the people of Egypt away from their false gods to the true God. If the Spirit speaking to their hearts was listened to, they too could have followed the instructions of Moses and been spared the loss of their firstborn. They were given plenty of warning, and maybe some of them did as Moses instructed. I think so because we are told that a large multitude of non-Jews came out of Egypt with the Israelites.
Jesus had been in the temple every day and every attempt that they had made to discredit Him had failed. The numbers of people who came to listen to Him seemed to be increasing day by day. The Jewish leaders wanted Him gone forever, i.e. they wanted Him dead in a way which would not cause them more problems. Originally, they had wanted to wait until after Passover, but they were open to any opportunity, so when Judas came to them, they decided that this opportunity was God’s providence and made arrangements for getting a group of Roman soldiers to come with them whenever Judas communicated with them. Judas was to find a time and place when Jesus would be alone without the crowds of people who followed Him. Then Judas was to lead a group of Roman soldiers, as well as, priests, to where Jesus would be.
As far as I know the chief priests did not approach Judas. I believe that they would never have thought that one of Jesus’ inner circle would betray Him. On the other hand, maybe some of those spies that they sent out to watch Jesus had subtly approached each of the twelve at one time with offers of money. All twelve had rejected them, but maybe this is why there are several references throughout the gospels of the priests and Pharisees wanting to kill Jesus. The disciples had first-hand experience at rejecting offers to betray their Master. Maybe not though.
Judas approached the priests with his offer. He was well aware of how much the priests hated Jesus. The wily Judas thought that he was acting with a double betrayal. He thought that he could get money out of the priests while at the same time setting them up to be defeated. He thought that Jesus would be forced to defend Himself with his miraculous powers and prove that the priests were cowards secretly acting against the Messiah. Peter also got in trouble when he tried to play both sides of the game acting as a spy in the midst of enemies instead of the open disciple that he was supposed to be.
(Revelation of God) God’s ways are ways of love, not deceit. He is not interested in how we can trick our way or steal our way into positions of authority. God has all the authority we need. He acts subtly and unexpectedly, but He does not act deceitfully. There is no playing a secret game of Christianity. The only way to follow Jesus is to openly follow Him with no guile or deceit involved. It is only in simple sincerity that I can be safe from falling. Otherwise, I will be caught in Satan’s trap and either barely escape through Jesus’ power or more likely not escape and be condemned because I cannot bring myself to believe in Jesus’ love for a worm like me. The difference between the Peter and Judas was not whether one acted worse than the other. Both actions were betrayals. The difference was that Judas did not believe in Jesus’ character and love, but Peter trusted in that love, even though He had doubted Jesus’ power.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that there might be someone I trust and believe is a follower of Jesus who will betray Him and me. I should not lose my trust in Jesus even if I lose my trust in someone else. I should go to Jesus in prayer with my feelings of hurt and betrayal and self-condemnation for trusting someone unworthy. Jesus understands the feelings and can heal me. O Lord, let me always remember Your love and mercy.