Read with Me
Jude 5-7 (HCSB)
Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord first saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe; and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling. In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions, just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
Listen with Me
Jude is taking his argument here in a logical direction, but one which many Christians hesitate to go. He has been warning against those in the Church, largely Gnostics and those who have been influenced by gnostic philosophy, who deny the divinity of Jesus, and who teach that sin is unavoidable as long as a person is in a physical body, and that it is thus acceptable, or at least excusable, in God’s sight.
In these three verses, Jude gives his first strong warnings to these people, and to those who are tempted to follow them. These warnings take the form of a brief retelling of three historical events that most of his readers would be familiar with.
His first example is that of the Israelites after they were delivered from their bondage in Egypt. Even though all of them were delivered by God’s strong arm and were counted by Him as His people; even though He provided water and manna for them in the wilderness; even though He guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night; and even though He blessed them, defended them, and upheld them; nearly all of them rebelled against God and against the righteous requirements of His law.
When these people sinned, God did not excuse it as unavoidable, because it wasn’t. He did not simply forgive their sins and move on. Instead, He punished that sin every time, because it was not rooted in simple human weakness but in rebellion. All but two of those over twenty who were delivered from Egypt, Joshua and Caleb, were killed by God in the wilderness. Even Moses and Aaron did not escape the penalty for their sin of rebellion. These false teachers should take warning!
The second example is those angels who rebelled against God. These did not escape judgment but were bound in darkness in eternal chains where they will stay until the final judgment, at which time their punishment will be pronounced eternal as they themselves are. If even angels suffer eternal punishment for rebellion, those who lead God’s people astray should take notice.
The final example in this section is Sodom and Gomorrah. These two great cities, as well as two smaller cities nearby, were completely destroyed in a moment for their immorality and perversion, which were ultimately rebellion against God’s standards for sexual and interpersonal behavior. Those who allow and even encourage others to believe that sin, including sexual sin, won’t affect a person’s eternal destiny should know that this punishment is hanging over the heads of not only those who sin, but also of those who don’t warn them away from such sin.
Pray with Me
Father, these warnings really couldn’t be any clearer, or any more urgent. It calls me back to Paul’s warning to the Galatians (Galatians 6:7-8): “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” Clearly, we cannot play fast and loose with Your commands and plead weakness or mere humanity. You make completely adequate wisdom and power available to us which can enable us to live a holy life in line with your righteous requirements (Ezekiel 36:26-27) if we simply avail ourselves of it. And for us to turn away from that wisdom and power and claim an inability to obey your commands is in itself rebellion. Lord, help me to take these terrifying warnings to heart, so that I can live a genuinely holy life in your power, today and every day. Amen.