The Prophecy in Thirty Silver Coins

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Judas Iscariot agreed to betray Jesus for thirty silver coins. This was not a random number or a coincidence. Thirty pieces of silver was significant. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. (Tweet that!)

"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 hand him over to you?' So they counted out for him thirty silver coins," (Matthew 26:14-15).

Zechariah was among the exiles who returned to Israel from Babylon in 583 B.C. Zechariah wrote to the people of Israel that they were not following their shepherd, God, and this was the reason for their exile. He said, in effect, if you are not willing to follow "me," meaning God the good shepherd, then pay me my wages—thirty pieces of silver—and the relationship between shepherd and the sheep will be severed.

You can find Zechariah's words in Zechariah 11:12:

"I told them, 'If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.' So they paid me thirty pieces of silver."

Furthermore, in the next verse (v. 13), Zechariah said:

"And the LORD said to me, 'Throw it to the potter'—the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter."

Judas Iscariot agreed to betray Jesus to the hands of the Romans and the leaders of Israel for thirty pieces of silver, paid by the Jewish leaders.

Afterwards, however, Judas felt remorse and wanted to the return the money. He took it back to the Jewish leaders but they would not take it back. This is what Matthew tells us happened next. Look for the prophetic parallels in these verses below to Zechariah 11:13 above:

"So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. 

"The chief priests picked up the coins and said, 'It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.' So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah* the prophet was fulfilled: 'They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me,' " (Matthew 27:5-10).

*Jeremiah also gave a prophetic object lesson in Jeremiah 19:1-13 (see also 18:2-12 and 32:6-9) which is why Matthew points to Jeremiah, the more "major" prophet in his passage, instead of Zechariah.

When God knows such details such as the prophecy in the thirty pieces of silver hundreds of years in advance, and then is able to see to it that those details play out in perfection at the proper time, what does this tell you about God? (Tweet that!)

How does this prophecy given and fulfilled give you confidence in God today?