THE CONSEQUENCES OF SCHEMING

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

A fool finds pleasure in wicked schemes, but a person of understanding delights in wisdom.

Good people obtain favor from the Lord, but He condemns those who devise wicked schemes.

A quick-tempered person does foolish things, and the one who devises evil schemes is hated.

Proverbs 10:23, 12:2, 14:17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

NOTE: From Proverbs, Chapter 10 through Chapter 22:16, Solomon writes a series of individual proverbs for us to consider. I will try and group similar proverbs in my devotions as I cover what Solomon wrote over these chapters.

NOTE 2: My oldest daughter Stephanie has premiered her own blog titled, “Live By Philippians 4:13”. Her first post is “Lighting the Way” and I invite you to check it out and leave her encouragement as she answers the call of the Lord on her heart and follows in Dad’s footsteps which is indescribably exciting for me. Here’s the link: http://livebyphillipians413.blogspot.com/

Have you ever been experienced someone who was a schemer? I know I have.

The schemer is skilled at showing a person one side while deep inside they are quite another, playing on a person’s trust while waiting for the right time to stab them in the back. They plot against a person with evil in secret while smiling at them in person, all the while knowing they are up to no good. They are deceivers of the highest degree and if successful, they wreak destruction and devastation in their wake.

No one is immune from the work of a schemer and if we look at the story of Jesus, we see that He wasn’t either. In fact, if we study His life enough as we should, we’ll discover that He went through almost every situation we’ll go through in life.

In Jesus’ case, there were several players involved in the master scheme against Him. In the 12th Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we find Jesus challenging the Pharisees, the Jewish religious authority of the day. It was the Sabbath and after the Pharisees had protested about Jesus’ disciples eating grain on the Sabbath, an act they called unlawful. In response, Jesus challenged them by asking what King David and his companions had done on the Sabbath when they were hungry. David reminded the Pharisees that David and his men had eaten the consecrated bread in the temple, an act that was also unlawful. He then went onto tell them that He, the Son of Man was the Lord of the Sabbath; that is, Jesus ruled over the holy day and He alone would dictate what was right and wrong on that day.

Jesus wasn’t done showing up the Pharisees for He then went into the synagogue where He encountered a man with a shriveled hand. The Pharisees were only looking to find something to charge Jesus with and so they asked whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus told them it was lawful and then proceeded to heal the man.

How did the Pharisees respond to this?

They didn’t say another word to Jesus. They just went out and plotted how they were going to kill Him (Matthew 12:1-14). The Pharisees were evil schemers but they needed some help to accomplish what they wanted to do. They needed someone who was willing to be a part of their wicked plans, someone Jesus trusted, someone who was close enough to Jesus that they would be able to easily betray Him. This someone had a name and it was Judas. Look at how it happened:

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over (Matthew 26:14-16).

Thirty pieces of silver. That was the price to betray the Son of God, the Messiah and Savior who had come to save all of mankind. The Pharisees had to think they were getting a bargain.

Well, Judas did what he said he would. While Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas appeared with a group of armed men who had been told to arrest whoever Judas kissed. And with that, Judas kissed Jesus and He was promptly arrested and hauled before the Sanhedrin, the first step to His false conviction and sentencing of death through crucifixion (Matthew 12:47-57).

Jesus had been betrayed by one of His own disciples who willing chose to be a part of the Pharisees’ wicked scheme.  

So what can the schemer expect in the way of consequences?

You see, evil scheming is just sin, plain and simple, and God is not going to allow sin to go unpunished. These proverbs of Solomon assure us of it:

Good people obtain favor from the Lord, but He condemns those who devise wicked schemes. Proverbs 12:2

The one who devises evil schemes is hated. Proverbs 14:17b

The scriptures are clear. Devise wicked schemes and you will find yourself hated and under the Lord’s condemnation and that’s a place no one should ever want to be.

So what happened to Judas?

Well, things didn’t work out so well for him. He bought a field with the money he took from the Pharisees for betraying Jesus and there he fell headlong, his body bursting open and his intestines spilling out. The place this happened was named the “field of blood” (Acts 1:18-19). All and all, not a very pleasant way to go but then again, Judas was involved in sending Jesus to a suffering death on the cross of Calvary.

Friends, wicked schemers will never go unpunished. God’s word promises His judgment will come and as we see in the example of Judas, this can be quite sudden and terminal. It’s far easier and better to just be the good and righteous people the Lord wants us to be, seeking His plans and His plans alone and His will for us within those plans.

For this approach, the approach that consistently and persistently seeks to be a part of the Lord’s scheme in life, will bring us to where we should want to be, living in the Lord’s favor.

Amen. 

In Christ,

Mark

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