Study of the Letter of Jude Part 5 - Verses 8-16

Last week, we heard Jude’s continued description of the false, “ungodly people” who had “crept into” the church “unnoticed,” (Jude, v.4) yet were a great danger to God’s faithful people, because of their “dreams,” “rejection of authority,” “blasphemy,” “defiling the flesh… by following their own sinful desires,” and on and on (Jude, v.8,10,12-13,16).

We skipped over additional passages in which Jude described parallels in other places to such evil and the judgment that God sometimes brought upon such sinfulness. We want to go back to those passages now to see Jude’s emphasis upon the seriousness of rebellion against God and His will and how God does care about such evil and can bring judgement for such sin.

Turn to Jude, v.11. The first example is Cain, in Genesis 4:1-16, and how some, in the churches to whom Jude wrote, were “walking in the way of Cain.” Cain had given an offering which was not acceptable to God, and he became “very angry” at God and jealous of his brother. God pointed out his sin and called him to repentance and to battle that sin. Cain became even more angry and went and killed his brother, claiming that he had no responsibility for him. When God brought judgment upon him, Cain could only complain about the situation he had brought on himself. Even when God showed some mercy, Cain simply “went away from the presence of the Lord,” with no sign of repentance. (See the comments about Cain, also in Hebrews 11:4 and I John 3:12.)

The second example Jude gave (Jude, v.11) was of of Balaam (Numbers 22-24). False people in Jude’s day were also “abandoning” God’s way “for the sake of (personal) gain” and “Balaam’s error.” Balaam was a non-Jewish “seer” who had some ability to bless or curse people - which he would do for personal gain. He also had some contact with the one true God. King Balak of Moab tried three times to get Balaam to curse the people of Israel, headed his way from Egypt. The Lord kept telling Balaam to bless the Israelites instead. Balaam kept talking with King Balak, though, as if he still thought he could get some personal gain from him. The Lord even allowed a donkey to talk to Balaam and block his way as he tried to reach King Balak. Eventually Balaam was killed by Israelites because of these incidents and because he was involved in getting Moabite women to have immoral activity with Israelites and even to worship their false god, Baal. (See also Numbers 25:1-3 and 31:8,16.)

This small story of “Balaam’s error” and greediness may not seem like a big deal, but it is often mentioned as the Old and New Testaments go on, because it eventually led to people falling away from the one true God into unbelief - the ultimate reason for judgment from God. (See mention of Balaam in Deuteronomy 23:4-5, Joshua 13:22 and 24:9-10, Nehemiah 13:2, Micah 6:5, 2 Peter 2:15-16, Revelation 2:14, and this passage in Jude, v.11.) In the same way, Jude did not want any of God’s people in these churches led astray by the false people. 

The third example given by Jude (still in Jude, v.11) was “Korah’s rebellion” (Numbers 16:1-35). Korah and two other Levites, along with their families and others, rose up against Moses and Aaron. They challenged their leadership and thought they had failed since the Israelites were not yet in the promised land. They thought they were all “holy” and that they should also have the right to be priests like Aaron. Just helping in some ways in the tabernacle wasn’t enough for them. By the next day, even more people had been led to support these rebels. God told Moses and Aaron and those who supported them to separate themselves from the rebels, and all of the rebels would be destroyed. Moses and Aaron pleaded for God’s mercy for those who had just been misled. God gave them a chance to separate from Korah and the others leaders of the rebellion. Many did, and then the earth opened up and swallowed up Korah and all the remaining rebels. This made it clear that these rebels had “despised the Lord,” and were receiving just punishments from the Lord Himself for their rejection of the Lord and His will and plans.

Some think that Jude was led to choose this event from the Old Testament also because the false people who had crept into the churches to whom he wrote were creating many problems just like Korah and the others who despised God long ago. Just judgment would come for them, too, if they continued in this way, the Lord was saying, through Jude. At the same time, in the story of Korah’s rebellion, God had shown mercy to some who were straying. That suggests that Jude may have also been reminding that there was still hope for people in these churches to whom he writes, through repentance and renewed faith in Christ. He said that even more clearly in verses we will look at, next week.

There are two more references that Jude makes to the past that I need to speak about, which are “controversial.” I can’t go into great detail, but some have thought that Jude was quoting from non-Biblical sources, The Assumption of Moses or The Testament of Moses, in Jude, v.9, and from the Book of Enoch, in Jude, v.14-15. For that reason, some have spoken against this letter being included in the New Testament. However, the early Christian leaders accepted and widely used this letter, and it was recognized as Scripture by most, though they knew of but rejected the writing listed above as being actual Scripture from the Lord.

How can we understand this? Why would Jude refer to events from such materials? Inspired by God, Paul quoted things that were true, even from non-Christian writers. See 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Bad company ruins good morals” - probably from a familiar play from Menander. See also Titus 1:12, and a quote from the pagan Cretan, Epimenides. Jesus spoke of events of His own day that were familiar to people - the fall of a tower in Siloam, for example, in Luke 13:4. Pastors still today quote from current events or songs or other materials to connect with what people know and to make a truthful point. It does nor mean that everything said by Menander or anyone else, or what is said about them, is always true or correct.

Jude wrote as God inspired him, and God must have revealed to him what he said about the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, in Jude, v. 9. We know from Scripture that the Lord took care of the burial of Moses in Moab, as recorded in Deuteronomy 34:4-6. The Lord often used angels to accomplish His purposes, though, and this must have been one of those circumstances.

There is a mysterious vision that Daniel sees and hears in Daniel 10, in which Daniel is told that the angel Michael struggled with an evil angel for 21 days in Persia. Such things happened. In Zechariah 3:1-6ff, the angel of the Lord defended Joshua the high priest, while Satan accused him, and it is the Lord Himself who said, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan.”

This is exactly the point Jude was making, when referring to the archangel Michael. When he disputed with Satan over the body of Jesus, Michael spoke only as an angel, and left the final judgment to the Lord. He did not pronounce a judgment in his own power. That would be blasphemous. That is what Satan and the evil angels did when they rebelled against God, wanting to be equal to Him. Michael was content to be an angel, serving God, and would only say, “The Lord rebuke you” to Satan. The Lord, as God, was left to make the final judgment.

This ties in with what the false people who had crept into the churches to whom Jude writes were doing. Jude, v.10, says “These people blaspheme.” They were contradicting God and His Word and will and acting on instinct, not Scripture, like unreasoning animals, and like Satanic angels, attacking what was actually true and right. How dangerous that was!

Again, in Jude, v.14-15, God inspired Jude to use only words similar to what was in the Book of Enoch, words that were true, that predicted the Lord Himself coming with His holy angels to bring judgment on the ungodly on the last day. Four times ungodliness is mentioned in these verses, with the seriousness of “deeds of ungodliness that they have committed” as “ungodly sinners” and the things they “have spoken against Him,” the Lord. These are predictions that are found in plenty of other Old Testament and New Testament passages, as well, of the judgment of God for sin. This is exactly what those false people in the churches needed to hear, who seemed to think that God did not care what they did - that they could “follow their own sinful desires” in whatever way they pleased, while calling themselves faithful Christians (Jude, v.16).

Again, Jude, as inspired by God, only referred to what is true, in mentioning Enoch. That does not mean that Jude agreed, as Martin Franzmann said, “with the whole non-Biblical books” about Enoch or Moses, “with all their strange and bizarre features, as authoritative or inspired.“ They were not.

(Enoch is another mysterious person in the Scriptures. He is seventh in line from Adam. See Genesis 5:22-24: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” See the comment about Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, too. Enoch was clearly one who lived by faith and sought to please God and was not like those false people described by Jude.)

This has been a difficult section of Jude. If I have lost you in this explanation or you have questions, let me know. Next week we will finally see the application of all this to the faithful people in these churches to whom Jude wrote and how they are to carry on in living by faith in very difficult circumstances.