Guarding Against The Enemy Within

 When the enemy is close, like your family, sometimes you don’t know how to fight. The first dysfunctional family started with the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Then we had two children, one becoming the enemy of the other due to envy. Any one of you that have accomplished anything in life, or are beautiful or attractive or talented, you know what it means to have people envy you for some gift that you have, and then hate you for your gift and then seek to destroy you because of your gift. Joseph had brothers who hated him because the father gave Joseph a coat of many colors; and because the son had a vision that the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed to him, and the corn stalk of his brothers bowed, which meant that they would one day bow to him. Joseph’s father told him not to tell of his vision. But Joseph was so excited over what he saw that he told it, and telling it inspired envy; envy inspired hatred; hatred inspired murder. The brothers decided to put Joseph in a pit after one of the brothers persuaded the others not to kill Joseph.

Judas was a different type of character. He came out from the table of his Master. He knew that Jesus was a good man. He had benefited from the goodness of Jesus. Judas was a real revolutionary, and when he heard the preaching of Jesus, he knew that Jesus was a true revolutionary and was attracted to Jesus. But when Jesus began showing not the militant side that he felt Jesus was going to lead him to, he felt that Jesus had betrayed him and betrayed the revolution, and that led Judas to betray his Master.

Judas sat with his Master and they ate together, but Jesus knew what his student was going to do. After supper, Jesus said, “I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil.” Here is an exalted assembly of men following a man that the world had been looking for, but Jesus disappointed Judas. And in that disappointment Judas felt ease in betraying Jesus to the Pharisees and to those who killed him. It seemed as though Jesus didn’t guard himself against Judas, but he knew that Judas was the means of the glorification of God and the glorification of Jesus, because it could not happen until he was betrayed. No matter how bitter the cup was, Jesus had to drink from that cup.