Daily Devotional: 6/9/2018 - BLOOD MONEY

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Matthew 6:24

Judas, oh Judas. Judas the man, the myth, the legend; the man that led Jesus to his death. The Benedict Arnold of the Bible. Matthew 25:14-16 tells of how Judas accepted to hand over Jesus, "Then one of the Twelve-the one called Judas Iscariot-went to the chief priests and asked, 'What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?' So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over." The funny thing is that Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him. Jesus let it happen, in order for Scripture to be fulfilled and for people to believe that he was the One. Matthew 26:21, 23-25 says, "And while they were eating, he said, 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.' … Jesus replied, 'The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.' Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, 'Surely you don't mean me, Rabbi?' Jesus answered, 'You have said so.'" Matthew 26:46-50 tells of how Jesus was arrested saying, "'Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!' While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayed had arranged a signal with them: 'The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.' Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, 'Greetings, Rabbi!' and kissed him. Jesus replied, 'Do what you came for, friend.' Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him." Just want to mention the verse 50 quote of "my friend". Like what!!! This is the man that brought the people to arrest you and lead you to your death and you still call him your friend. I know if I was in Jesus's shoes I would not be calling him my friend, probably going to be saying some not nice things. But that quote and point is for another time and another devotional or something, so I will let you sit there and ponder on that on your own if you want. Matthew 27:3-10 says, "When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.' 'What is that to us?' they replied. 'That's your responsibility.' So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, 'it is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.' So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 'They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me.'" Judas was filled with remorse, he hated himself after he saw Jesus being tortured and killed. He could not take life any longer and he hung himself. This also fulfilled some Scripture from the Old Testament prophets of Jeremiah and Zechariah (Jeremiah 19:1-13, Zechariah 11:12-13). Judas literally chose money over God. Choosing money (or other gods) over God, it leads you to sin. Sin leads to death. Judas choosing money literally led to his death. The thing is money comes and goes, but God is always here and will always be there. God outlasts any form of currency. 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20 says, "You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor god with your bodies." There at a point is good "blood money". We are bought, we are bought by Jesus. He bought us with his blood. This is the blood that paid for all our sins. We are paid in full, there is no money owed on our sins. We sin daily, and thanks to the death of Jesus we are forgiven. Our life is no longer ours, we serve the Ultimate Master. He is the King of Kings. He knows all good and all bad. He is able to do anything and he wants to see us prosper. He will stop at nothing for this to happen. Our God is jealous God. It is mentioned several times that our God is a jealous God and that we should not be worshipping anything other than him (Exodus 20:5, 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24, 6:15; Nahum 1:2). We have even seen throughout the Old Testament what God did to his people, the Israelites, when he found out that they were worshipping other gods; he destroyed them. As a world today we are extremely guilty of this. We serve many gods, this includes but is not limited to, technology, money, sports, entertainment, sexual immortality, approval, and more. We live and die by these. The thing is none of us are perfect and we all at least at once have "worshipped" one or more of these gods. It may not be a physical and intentional form of worship, but you have done it. Money is a big one, money is what makes the world go around. We live in a greedy culture. Take the song "Gimmie" by Derek Minor. The hook goes, "All I hear is, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme, Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme, Ahhhhhh ahhhhhh Yeeah, Mo' money, Mo' cars, Bigger house (Mo' mo' yard), More fame, More applause, Why settle for that, When you could have it all." Derek talks about how we are an extremely greedy culture, especially in the second verse. We flip through channels and are unsatisfied, we are obsessed with what is next and what else we can get our hands on, we do not care how we get it and who we hurt. "To sell hope for broke promise 'em all a mansion, To Turn God into a genie, And you Aladdin, Makin a fool out of the church while the world laughin." We want, want, want; but we do not give, give, give. We have to check ourselves. We have to see where we are spending most of our time and most of our energy. We have to check our hearts, that is where everything flows from. If your heart is not set on Jesus and he is not your main focus, you are probably worshipping and focusing on other gods. We have to make time for Jesus. We have to talk and hear from our God. His ears are always open and he wants to hear from us. Another perfect song to listen to is NF's "Remember This". "The real you is not defined by the size of your office, The real you is who you are when ain't nobody watchin', You spend your whole life worried about what’s in your wallet, For what? That money won't show up in your coffin, woo!"

Lord, thank you for sacrificing yourself for us. Thank you for buying our souls and paying off our sins. Thank you for all you do. You are the one true and only God. Make sure that we are not worshipping other gods and only you. Help us focus on you and you only. Allow us to hear and be with you at all times. This is no one above you and there will never be anyone above you. I pray all this in your son's glorious awesome name, Amen.

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