Our first snow of substance and it is beautiful, Father. The love is in the little things. All praise to You!
Luke 22:1-6 (<<click here to read the passage)
Here’s one you may not have heard before,
Do not allow a camel to put his nose under the edge of your tent, for soon you will have a camel in your tent. – an alleged Arab proverb
How often does this concept play out in our lives? There is not one of us who has not struggled with some temptation or another. And from experience I know that quite often it can be something almost imperceptible…at least to others around us. If we shut it down right away, we can just move forward. But any leeway given, and we have a camel’s nose under our tent!
Yield to one little thing and then it’s easier to yield to that thing again…and again…and again. Then something more impacting comes along – something more damaging – and our defenses are lowered enough that we succumb to that next level of temptation. That impulse conquers us much more readily. It starts with the camel’s nose but then, little by little, we allow other body parts to enter until the camel is entirely inside our tent and at that point, we have to deal with the whole camel!
I don’t think that “Satan entered into Judas Iscariot” out of the blue with no warning bells going off in his heart and mind. It must have been a gradual thing. Jesus had spoken several times of His pending death. There were confrontations with religious leaders. Many things said, many things done but “things” weren’t heading in the right direction – at least to the mindset of an Israelite chafing under the heavy hand of Rome. Especially when hopes had been raised.
So, what was Judas’ motivation for betraying Jesus? The Bible doesn’t clearly spell it out. Satan may have played a part, but as my study Bible* says, it does not remove any of the responsibility from Judas. By his betrayal, Judas may have been trying to force Jesus’ hand and make him use his power to prove he was the Messiah. Or perhaps Judas, not understanding Jesus’ mission, no longer believed that Jesus was God’s chosen one.
Regardless, it is very possible that one single stray thought on Judas’ part led to another then another until eventually, he allowed more than just the camel’s nose under his tent. Satan got his foot in the door and kept nudging and pushing until he had complete control.
But in reality, Satan nor Judas even began to understand what they were messing with. They thought God’s plan would be thwarted but little did they know, their actions set the last parts of His plan into motion.
Lord Jesus, help us to keep that old camel’s nose out of our tent. Fill us with Your presence to the extent that everything that shouldn’t be there can’t even fit in because we are full to overflowing with You! Amen.
