THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Thursday, May 6. Matt. 27:1-10.
Saturday, May 8. Matt. 27:19-23.
When Judas “repented himself” he did not truly repent of his sin. The word trans lated “repent” is an entirely different word from the word ordinarily translated “re pent.” He suffered remorse but remorse is not godly repentance. If he had truly repented, he would not have committed suicide, and he would have been saved. Every sinner will some day suffer remorse, but alas! many will not repent. The ac count here given of his end is that he “hanged himself.” In Acts 1 :18, we are told that he “fell headlong and burst asunder” in the field purchased by the money brought back to the priests. Many have imagined that they saw a flat contra diction between the two accounts | and a conclusive proof that the Bible was not inerrant in its historical statements; but if we' will stop to think, we will see that there is really no contradiction in the two accounts, if he hanged himself in the field of blood and the rope broke, the facts given in Acts 1 :18 would naturally follow. All the other seeming contradictions in the Bible would also disappear if we knew all the facts in the case. Matt. 27:11-18. Pilate’s question, “Art thou the king of the Jews,” was one of great importance. Pilate, however, did not ask the question intelligently (John 18:33-38). Jesus first brought out the true meaning and import of the question and then answers that He is the King of the Jews (v. 11 cf. account in John). But the Jews as a people have not acknowledged Him as such, and from that fact all their sorrows have come. They have rejected their Divinely-appointed and Divinely-anointed King, and have for the time being been set aside by God. But Jesus is not only Israel’s rightful King, He is also the rightful King of every man. Happy is the man who makes Jesus King (1 John S:l, S). Friday, May 7.
Pilate’s question, “Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ?” seems strange and unnecessary. If men have choice between the Holy One and Just and a murderer, surely they will choose the Holy One and Just. So it would seem,-but so it did not turn out'. “They denied the Holy One and Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto them (Acts 3:14). Mark, Luke and John give us details about Barabbas that bring out more vividly the awfulness of the choice they made (Mark 15:7; Luke 23:18, 19, 25; John 18:40). Strange choice it seems and yet it is no stranger, nor ^s awful, as the choice that tens of thousands are making today. Men and women, old and young, have their choice between the “Prince of Life” and him who "was a mur derer from the beginning” (John 8:44), between Jesus and Satan, and the vast ma jority are crying, “Give us Barabbas,” “We will not have, this man to rule over us, give us Satan.” Do we need any further proof of the deceitfulness and desperate wicked ness of the human heart (Jer. 17:9), and of the enmity of the natural heart against God (Rom. 8:7), than that given in this incident ? i If we do, we will find it in the treatment of Jesus Christ, our great Friend, and Satan, our great foe, by all unregener ate men. The substance of the scene re corded here is being re-enacted every day. Sunday, May 9. Matt. 27:24-33. Pilate was very loath to crucify the One he knew to be innocent, he made attempt after attempt to secure his release if it could be done without too'much cost to himself; but ultimately “their voices pre vailed” and he wished “to content the mul titude (Mark 15:15). This is the usual path to ruin and disgrace trodden by poli ticians. Moreover, investigation was threatened (John 19:12-16) and he knew his record would not bear investigation, so he ended by “being a party to the awful
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