“Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray Him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray Him”— Mark 14:10, 11.
JUDAS was the treasurer of the apostolic company (John 12:6), trusted by the rest, but all the time unrenewed in heart and life (John 6:70). Professing to be a son of God (Acts 1:17) he was really the son of perdition (John 17:12), destined, because of his own sins, to a lost eternity in endless woe. This was “his own place”. (Acts 1:25). Though so highly privileged, it would have been better for him had he never been born (Matt. 26:24). He was, apparently, the only one of the Twelve not a Galilean. Iscariot (Ish-Kerioth) means “man of Kerioth,” a city of Judah.
It was covetousness, the love of money, a root from which every form of evil may spring (1 Tim. 6:10), that led Judas to betray his Master to those who sought His death. What a solemn warning to all who profess to be Christ’s disciples!
“It may not be for silver,
It may not be for gold.
But still by tens of thousands
Is this precious Saviour sold,
Sold for a godless friendship,
Sold for a selfish aim,
Sold for a fleeting trifle,
Sold for an empty name,
Sold in the mart of Science.
Sold in the seat of Power,
Sold at the shrine of Fortune,
Sold in Pleasure’s bower,
Sold where the awful bargain
None but God’s eye can see!
Ponder, my soul, the question:
Shall He be sold by thee?
Sold! O God, what a moment!
Stifled is conscience’ voice!
Sold! And a weeping angel
Records the fatal choice!
Sold! But the price of the Saviour
To a living coal shall turn,
With the pangs of Remorse forever
Deep in the soul to burn.”
―W. Blane.