Weighed Beforehand
“And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.”Zechariah 11:12–13 (KJV)
Long before Judas went to the chief priests, the prophet Zechariah was given a strange scene to act out. “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them.”
The words drip with irony. A goodly price. That was all the Shepherd of Israel was worth to them.
Centuries later the money changed hands again. When it came back to the chief priests, they would not put it in the treasury, and they bought the potter’s field with it. Matthew records it: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued… And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.”
Nothing about the cross caught God by surprise. Even the price was written down beforehand. The one who was valued so cheaply was the one who would pay the highest price of all for us.
Count it yourself
“thirty pieces of silver” appears 5 times in the King James Bible: Zechariah 11:12, 13 and Matthew 26:15, 27:3, 27:9.
How does it steady you to know that God wrote the details of the cross down beforehand?
Lord Jesus, they valued you at thirty pieces of silver, and you gave everything for me. Thank you. Amen.