Promise: Zechariah 11:12-13Fulfillment: Matthew 26:14-15
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:14, 15 ESV)
Prophecy can be a tricky thing. Some people start to get really weird and strange when they talk about it. But the cool thing that Biblical prophecy does over and over again through both the Old and New Testament, is confirm that Jesus was exactly who he claimed to be.
Sometime around 500 B.C. the Old Testament prophet Zechariah foretold that the one who betrayed the Messiah would be paid thirty pieces of silver for handing him over to the authorities. Zechariah wrote about things that he could not have possibly understood or imagined without divine inspiration. It was more than an educated guess. It was foreknowledge granted by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' disciple Judas was the guy who handled the money for the ministry. He mist have been in love with money in order to betray Jesus like he did. Thirty pieces of silver was the price he got for betraying Jesus. But Jesus paid far more than that for you and I.
If there is one thing that I can take away from this story beyond the confirmation that prophecy brings—it is that you and I have value to God. Yes, Jesus was betrayed for what seems like a paltry amount of money. But that isn't the point. The point is that through his cheap betrayal, he was willing to sacrifice something of an incalculable value for a people that he believed was worth it.
God thinks you were worth it. That's pretty cool. To Him you are far more important than some silver. You are even more important to Him than His own life.