Should Judas Be Known As A Betrayer, Or As A Fulfiller Of God’s Prophecy?
If God prophesied the death of Jesus, and, If Jesus himself prophesied that he must be betrayed as a premise to the fulfillment of scripture in ISAIAH, then how can Judas be declared as a betrayer?
To betray someone or be a traitor toward someone or something, it must be done without their knowledge and or approval, and this is not the case between Jesus and Judas.
I know that most everyone believes that Jesus is betrayed by his nearest and best apostle Judas Iscariot. I understand that if you read the biblical account of what happened, it might appear as if it was Judas who was the betrayer, at least at first glance, but several things must need be taken into consideration before we can accuse Judas of such a thing.
The Prophet Isaiah tells us at ISAIAH: 53: 3-12; of the sufferings that Jesus must face for the redemption of man’s sins. Since God through his Prophet declares this, since God cannot and does not lie it must be truth, it must be fact, and in fulfillment of the scriptures it must happen.
In MATTHEW: 17: 22; Jesus tells his apostles; “The Son of man shall be betrayed, into the hands of men:” This tells us that it was pre-destined by God that in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah as written in ISAIAH: 53: 2-12; that someone would betray the Messiah, but it names nobody in particular.
In MATTHEW: 26: 21; Just before Jesus enters into Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus again prophesied his betrayal. “Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.”
In JOHN: 13: 18; Jesus drops a clue to his being handed over to Caiaphas. “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted his heel against me.”
Here in JOHN: 13: 18 Jesus has chosen the one who will ultimately turn him over to Caiaphas to be crucified. Jesus admits to choosing Judas that Judas did not go behind Jesus back but carried out God’s plan with Jesus full knowledge.
JOHN: 13: 26-27; He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he dipped the sop he gave it to Judas Iscariot. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, “That thou doest, do quickly.”
In verse 26, Jesus tells the apostles that he will dip a piece of bread into the sop and whomsoever he gives the piece of bread to is the one, but the apostles don’t get it, they are all too busy defending their own innocence.
As we can see at the end of verse 27, Jesus actually dispatches Judas to do what he had to do, knowing fully that what Judas was about to do was in fulfillment of God’s prophecy and had to be carried out.
The fact remains though, that if God’s prophecy through Isaiah is to be fulfilled, then Jesus, prophecy too must be fulfilled and someone must hand Jesus over to the Jewish authorities.
There is no other known word in the English language to describe handing over one’s friend to his enemy than betrayer, but: If it is an act that was foretold to happen by God through His prophet, if it was supposed to happen, had to happen, to fulfill the scripture, with the full knowledge of the one betrayed and nothing was done to stop it to prevent it, just the opposite encouraged by the victim, then how can it be considered a betrayal?
Furthermore, Judas after he discovered that Caiaphas intended to have Jesus killed, Judas repents his actions and gives back the thirty pieces of silver paid him for turning Jesus over to Caiaphas.
It is the opinion of this writer, that the true “Betrayer” is Satan the devil himself, and as Christian we all know where he will end up, hurled into the “Lake of Fire”.