Tag Archives: Betrayal

Devotional

God’s People, part 37: Delilah

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Read Judges 16:1-22

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray [Jesus] to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.” (Mark 14:10-11 NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

 Part 37: Delilah. Who was Delilah? Was she a Philistine woman who turned on her lover to help her own people out? Or was she a Hebrew woman who was bribed to sell her people’s leader out? These questions and more have plagued scholars and religious thinkers through the last 2-3 millenia. The Bible offers little to no hints as to who Delilah was and what her true motivation was for what she did.

Delilah is the only woman in Samson’s story who was named; however, it is questionable whether that was her real name or whether that name was merely given to her to fit her character. Professor, J. Cheryl Exum, writes, “Whatever its etymology, her name is a wordplay on Hebrew layla, ‘night,’ for as the night overcomes the mighty sun (the name Samson, Shimshon, is related to ‘sun,’ shemesh), so Delilah overcomes the apparently invincible strong man, Samson” (Exum, https://goo.gl/N5yeZr).

Most people have tended to see Delilah as a Philistine woman. This is certainly understandable, as Samson seemed to have a thing for Philistine women. As a warrior, nothing symbolized his dominance over the Philistines than taking their woman as his own and mating with them. This may sound messed up in our time period, but would not have been uncommon for warriors to do back in that time period. Add in the fact that Delilah betrays Samson to the Philistines, and it is easy to understand why people would view her as one of the Philistines.

With that said, that theory is not conclusive by any stretch of the imagination. Would a Philistine need to be bribed by her own people to give up an enemy of her people she was not even married to? Her name, as mentioned before, was Hebrew (provided that was actually her name). So, it is possible that Delilah was a Hebrew who sold out her lover for Philistine money. Neither theory is conclusive and, therefore, this is all speculation.

What is conclusive is that, for whatever reason, Delilah sold out her lover. She made ongoing attempts to figure out Samson’s weakness, not even hiding the fact that she was trying to do so. Samson, the big lug, never even suspected anything and, eventually, gave her the information she was looking for. That proved to be fatal for Samson, who was delivered to the Philistines and had his eyes pushed into his skull.

The question for us is simple. What is our buying price? What is the price that we are willing to forfeit righteousness for. Whether she was Hebrew or not, Delilah was a child of God as we all are. Whether or not she was Philistine, she had the chance to serve God by not betraying Samson, yet she was bought out. As we’ve seen, she was not the first to have a selling price, and she was not the last.

It is important we ask ourselves this question: have we sold ourselves out and betrayed God? Perhaps it is over our political views, or over our view of “country first”, or over our business practices, or over our desire to please people. Whatever the case may be, what is our selling point? What will we take in order to “feel okay” with selling out? If we discover what that is, and how we might have sold out in the past, such awareness will hopefully prevent us from committing such an egregious sin and betraying the one who loves us, literally, to death.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Tragedy in life normally comes with betrayal and compromise, and trading on your integrity and not having dignity in life. That’s really where failure comes.” – Tom Cochrane

PRAYER
Lord, help me to become aware of me selling point, so that I can resist against being bought out by anyone or anything looking to take me away from your righteousness. Amen.

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JOURNEY WITH JESUS: Holy Wednesday

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Wow, can you believe Holy Week is here already? Lent has flown right on by and we now find ourselves in the midst of the holiest week in the Christian calendar. Take this time to reflect on this day within holy week as you read through a devotion I wrote during holy week a few years ago. Click here to begin today’s deovtion.

Devotional

SON OF GOD: Maundy Thursday

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Read John 13:21-30

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays Him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!” (Mark 14:21 NLT)

Have you ever read the story of Jesus’ betrayal in the Gospels? Have you ever noticed the sentiment conveyed about Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus? Have you ever noticed that as you read through the Gospels chronologically in the order they were written (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John), that there is a progression from cold to seething despise in the representation of Judas and his final act of betrayal? In Mark and Matthew, Judas’ actions are more or less presented in a very “matter of fact” way. Judas decides to betray Jesus, for which no reason is given, and he gets paid for the betrayal. In Luke, the author writes that “Satan entered Judas Iscariot” which led him to go to the high priests. In John, Jesus calls Judas “a devil” (John 6:70) and Judas was possessed by Satan, who entered him following eating the bread at the Last Supper (John 13:26).

Since the moment he decided to betray Jesus, Judas has certainly gone down in infamy. He has been forever remembered as the man who betrayed the prince of peace. What sort of man would do such a thing? How could he have possibly even thought that betraying Jesus is a good thing? These questions, and more, to this day remain unanswered. We’ll never know why Judas did what he did. It is easy to understand why a growing number of Christians, from the Gospel writers onward, came to despise him for betraying our Lord. Yet, the ironic part is while we hold Judas accountable (perhaps more than accountable) for his actions, we give the other disciples a complete pass. After all, while Judas actively betrayed Jesus, didn’t the others betray him too? Which one of them stood by Jesus’ side in his time of need? They all deserted, they all fled, they all abandoned him…and in some sense…they all betrayed him.

Yet all of the Gospel accounts are consistent on one thing, if not on their view of Judas himself. They are all consistent on the fact that Judas was welcome at the table of grace, on the fact that Judas was welcome to share in the last supper, but a Jesus who was well aware of his deceit. While we’ll never know what was in Jesus’ mind at the time, it is consistent with his teaching on not judging, and loving even one’s enemies. In fact, Judas wasn’t an enemy at all, he was a friend and he was a trusted confidant of Jesus’. Yet, instead of reacting negatively toward Judas, Jesus pitied him and made room for him at the Last Supper. I would like to believe that Jesus wished that Judas would be able to forgive himself and eventually rejoin the disciples in spreading the Gospel message; however, I also believe that Jesus knew that Judas would never be able to.

The question for us, out of all of this, is how far are you willing to take the Jesus’ command to love? By his very example, Jesus showed us that he wasn’t being hypothetical or theoretical in his calling for us to love our neighbor as ourselves, including our enemies. How far are you willing to go in your love of others? Will you love others, including your enemies, even if it comes at a great personal cost? Today’s challenge, as we approach the Lord’s table of grace at the Last Supper, is to reflect on your call LOVE OTHERS, just as Christ has loved you. Will you follow Jesus in living a life of LOVE, or will you abandon him and his cause for your own comfort and safety? The choice is, ultimately, up to you.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” – Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 5:46-48 NLT)

PRAYER
Lord, help me to open myself up to your love and help me grow to be a person who more fully loves others, even those who I would otherwise consider to be my enemies. Amen.

Devotional

Journey with Jesus: Holy Thursday

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SCRIPTURE

Matthew 26:17-75; Mark 14:12-72; Luke 22:7-71; John 13 – 18:27

AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

Turn, O LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.* O woe this night! Jesus had us prepare for our passover feast together, and so we found this room and had it set aside for us to be together and to celebrate the night the angel of death passed over Egypt. Little did I know that death would be passing over us.

At the table, Jesus began to act very cryptically. He took his robe off and tied it around his waist like a common servant. Then he proceeded to wash everyone’s feet. I tried to protest it, but he wouldn’t let me. He told me that if I didn’t allow him to I would have no share with him in the Kingdom of Heaven! Can you imagine it. So I relented and allowed him to wash me.

Finally, he took the unleavened bread and the wine, blessed them both, and said that they were his body and his blood, broken and poured out for the a new covenant. He said that he was going to die and that we could not follow him, that one of us would betray him and that I would deny him three times! I just couldn’t believe it.

Following the meal we went to the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus asked us to stay up with him and pray. But we were so exhausted that we fell asleep. Jesus woke us up a couple of times but we could not stay awake. But then we heard the soldiers marching toward us and the night was lit up by their torches! They came and arrested Jesus, binding him up like a common criminal! I tried to stop them, but Jesus told me to put away my sword. He said that “Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword.” And with that they took him!

I am so confused, so lost, so fearful for what lies ahead. I am going to the house of the high priest now. I am afraid that people might arrest me, but I just have to go and to find out what happens to our teacher, to my Lord. I just have to know. God help me in this hour of bitter darkness!

*Psalms 90:13-15

REFLECTION

This night, nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples, and arrested like a common criminal. He was taken away in the dark of night, and brought to the house of the high priest. Jesus of Nazareth was to be abandoned by all of his disciples, condemned a blasphemer and was to be handed over to the Romans to be tried for committing treason against the empire.

Even Peter, the rock on which the church would be built, was afraid he would be arrested and denied knowing Jesus. Like Peter, we all have done our share of denying Jesus. Like Judas, we all have had our share of betraying Jesus. In fact, when we live in a way counter to how Jesus calls us to live, we are betraying and denying the very same Christ who lives within us.

But this reflection is not being written to guilt you; rather, it is written to bring you great hope. There is hope in knowing that Jesus shared last supper with the very ones who would betray, deny and abandon him. Even in those painful hours, Jesus extended Grace, Love and Compassion to those who would not extend it back to him. Jesus NEVER stops extending his hope, healing, and wholeness to us. And that is truly Good News.

So, spend this moment now to pause and reflect on the ways that you have betrayed, denied and abandoned Christ and his mission. Take this moment to peer into your soul and search for those moments of fear, confusion and shame. Then shift your focus to the countless blessings, the endless grace God has given you despite those moments. Think of all the times God was present in your life, even in the moments of denial and betrayal. Feel God’s presence with you now and meditate of the endless love God has for you.

PRAYER

Take this time to pray a prayer from your heart.