God's Perfect Timing

# 711 Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 14:41b-43, “The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 "Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand." 43 And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

This was not the first time these leaders had sought the arrest of Jesus. In Jn 7:30 we read, “Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.”

Well, guess what, now, here in the garden, His hour had come. It was God's timing that mattered, not the timing of the religious leaders of the day. And as the arresting party comes to the entrance of the Garden Jesus singles out Judas as His betrayer.

Why single out Judas here? Because it was going to be necessary for the disciples to remember this incident later on. It was this incident that the Holy Spirit would use to trigger the action of the Apostles to find a replacement for Judas.

In Ac 1:16 we read, "Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus;”

What was going on here? Peter recalled that Judas had become the guide to those who arrested Jesus. The Holy Spirit brought the incident to Peter's mind and this caused the disciples to see the necessity of choosing a replacement according to the OT prophecies. “ may another take his office “ (Ps 109:8)

Why was this replacement important? Because twelve is the number of the church, and it wouldn't do to have a partial Pentecost on eleven. The Holy Spirit was to be given to the whole church. Look what happened!

Once the twelfth Apostle was in place, the NT church was ready for the gifting of the Holy Spirit, and that's exactly what occurred on Pentecost. Once again we see God's sovereignty, in action through His perfect timing.

Beware of Snits

# 689 Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 14:10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.

In John's account of this event, we know it was Judas who said, “Why wasn't the money spent on this perfume given to the poor?” And Jesus replied to him, “leave her alone.”

Isn't it amazing that such a seemingly mild rebuke can trigger such a major snit?

Admit it, there have been times when those closest to you have rebuked you and you went off on your own little snit! “I'll show him!” or “I'll show her!” There's a little bit of Judas in all of us.

Never forget that Judas was a thief. Money was the most important thing in his life, and this money spent on perfume could've been in the treasury where he could've gotten his greedy little hands on it. And in the mind of a thief, he believes he is now owed some re-imbursement. And he had an idea where he might get it.

Why not turn Jesus over to the authorities? Surely they would be willing to pay him to turn Jesus over to them in such a way that the arrest would be done quietly without stirring up the masses!

I don't think Judas believed the situation would get that far out of hand. Well, it did, and you know what?

We should all think about that before we go off in our little snits.

Father, guard my heart, from this mindset. Let me be open to rebuke, lest my mind and heart become a playground for the devil,