You know what? Judas Iscariot did not do the betrayal all alone; he was influenced by someone. Who influenced Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus? Answer –
Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. (Luke 22:3-5.)
Satan influenced Judas Iscariot. The devil, also called Satan, is a master of exploiting our weaknesses or flaws to his advantage but to our disadvantage – he is very good at it. Judas Iscariot was a victim of spiritual warfare between God and the devil – an age-old war. Of course, the devil has always opposed the will and purpose of God as much as he could. Right from the very day Jesus was born, the devil had plans afoot to destroy Him.
Certainly, the devil needed helpers. He sought and gathered many helpers for himself from among the Jewish leaders – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the High Priest, the chief priests, etc. Yet all of them did not appear to be enough. He needed something extra; that is, he needed a traitor – a traitor close to Jesus among His disciples. Who would the devil make a traitor of? The devil certainly has a criterion for selecting a good traitor for his plan because not just anybody at all can serve perfectly as a traitor.
After having sought carefully among the disciples of Jesus, he discovered in Judas Iscariot the weakness he could exploit to his advantage to make his plans of killing Jesus come to completion. Having the weakness of greed for money, what a great vessel Judas Iscariot proved to be. So the devil proceeded to make use of him to play the role of a traitor to accomplish his plans. The Bible categorically stated how Satan used Judas Iscariot –
Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot … So he (Judas Iscariot) went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him (Jesus) to them. (Luke 22:3-5.)
Judas Iscariot was victimized by the devil. He could be victimized because he was susceptible. He was susceptible because he had a weakness, which he could not check; the unchecked weakness delivered him up to the devil’s manipulation.
You know what? Satan did not exercise Judas Iscariot to go to the religious leaders. Satan used money as an incentive to manipulate him. When Judas Iscariot was on his way to make a deal with Jesus’ enemies, all that he had in mind was that he was doing something to earn extra cash, aside from what he had been stealing, to enrich himself. Little did he know that the very idea of betraying his master and the boldness he had mustered to do so were inspired by none but the devil.