9. Yea. Here is the climax of the sufferer’s woe,
and he places before it the emphatic affirmation, as if he thought that such
villainy would scarcely be believed. Mine own familiar friend. “The man of my peace,” so runs
the original, with whom I had no differences, with whom I was in league, who
had before ministered to my peace and comfort. This was Iscariot with our Lord:
an apostle, admitted to the privacy of the great Teacher. The kiss of the
traitor wounded our Lord’s heart as much as the nail wounded his hand. Inwhom I trusted. Judas was the treasurer. Where we place great confidence an
unkind act is the more severely felt. Which did eat of my bread. Not
only as a guest but as a dependent. Hath lifted up his heel against me.
Not merely turned his back on me, but left me with a heavy kick such as a
vicious horse might give. The Redeemer applied only the last words of this
verse to Judas, perhaps because, knowing his duplicity, he had never made a
familiar friend of him in the fullest sense, and had not placed implicit trust
in him. We are indeed wretched when all the rites of hospitality are perverted,
and ingratitude is the only return for kindness; yet we may cast ourselves on
the faithfulness of God who, having delivered our Covenant Head, is engaged to
be the very present help of all for whom that covenant was made.
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