I am fairly new reading your site and enjoying it tremendously. Have a question that intrigues me. Why did Jesus choose Judas Iscariot to be His disciple? The word tells me that Jesus does nothing unless the Father does, and so I would presume that it had the Father’s okay in choosing Judas as a disciple. Having said that, and that God knows everything about each one of us, past, present and future, why? I know that the Father and Jesus do not make mistakes, so there has to be a good reason for having chosen him. Was it necessary to have him in the position to identify Jesus prior to the crucifixion? Thanks for your thoughts on this.
1000 years before the cross the Lord had David prophesy that the Messiah would be betrayed by a close friend (Psalm 41:9). 500 years before the cross Zechariah said that the cost of betrayal would be 30 pieces of silver and that the money would be used to purchase a potter’s field. (Zech. 11:12-13) Judas was fulfilling prophecy so it wasn’t a surprise to God. It was one more sign that Jesus really was Israel’s Messiah.