47 While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. 48 But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” Luke 22:47-48 (NASB)
When the dogs and swine come to harass and distract, it is not pleasant, but I can bear it. However, when someone approaches this ministry as if a friend only to be discovered later to be a deceiver, it is a difficult pill to swallow….
When one breaks the bread of the Word of God with us then turns on us it is a hard thing to bear. Why? Deceitfulness is as the word suggests, it is the process of deception, for whatever purpose, that causes trusts to be broken and fills us with anguish and grief.
Think of our Lord on the night prior to His crucifixion. God has given Him over to the authority of evil men, but before this no one had authority over Him in any way. Now the wicked men who sought His life have been enabled by God to arrest, try, and execute Him. Even though this was the will of God and the very reason our Lord was born, it still took the deceit of one man to betray Him in order for this to happen. Of course that man was one of our Lord’s own disciples, Judas Iscariot. Judas used a kiss on our Lord’s cheek as a signal that He was the one to be arrested by the mob.