Who Is Really In Control?

“And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.” (Mt 26:15 KJB)

Obviously, Judas never read James 4:15, “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”  It is ironic that an evil man believed he could control the events surrounding the son of God.  When he went to the Pharisees to arrange a deal, he had this crazy idea that somehow he could control the whole event.  Jesus is God.  Nothing happens without His approval.  If Judas does betray God, it is only because God allowed it.  This idea of perfect and complete self-determination is erroneous.  If we have any freedom of choice or movement, it is because the sovereign God of creation has purposed or allowed it.  We think Judas a bit irrational with rebellion.  Yet we often live the same way.  Perhaps not to the degree of evil, but we do make choices believing God is required to accept those choices.  We often think we are the captain of our own ships, when in reality, the God who created all things also controls all things.  How silly to live any other way!

Many years ago, we went on a trip to Ireland.  We took a group of teenagers on a missions trip.  The first week was spent with a little church helping them conduct a VBS.  My son and his good friend, Oscar, loved the game of chess.  They had brought a set and were playing a match.  The pastor came over and asked what they were doing.  They said they were playing chess.  He asked if he could watch.  They agreed.  The pastor said he had never heard of the game and wanted to know how to play.  They taught him the rules and then played another match.  Along the way, they explained why they had made certain moves.  He asked more questions.  Then he asked to play.  So, he started out with my son.  The first match went as you would expect.  My son won that match rather quickly.  They played a second match, and this time my son won but took a bit more time.  The pastor said he thought he had learned quite well and wanted to play one more time.  So, my son set up the board, and within two minutes the pastor won the match.  My son sat there, stunned.  He had no idea what had just happened.  Then the pastor announced he was the chess champion of his county.  The pastor gave the illusion that my son was in control of the matches he played.  In reality, the chess master knew what he was doing all along.

This is not to suggest that life is a game and God is a player.  This is not to suggest that God does not take our lives any more seriously than a board game.  This is not true.  Rather, the point is that we think we are in far more control of our lives than we actually are.  Judas thought that he was in control of Jesus’ life.  He thought he could make a deal and that by his actions Jesus was destined to die.  And for no other reason that by his hand.  How ludicrous.  Judas was merely part of God’s divine plan.  This was planned, known, and decreed before Adam and Eve were created.  In fact, the book of psalms predicted it hundreds of years before Judas was a small little boy growing up in Israel.  For some, this can be aggravating and an insult to our egos.  But for the saint, it is a comfort.  What we need to remember is that any freedom of self-determination is given to us by a God who will hold us accountable for it.