JUDE - Apostasy in Old Testament (vs5-8)

Verse 5 Verses 5, 6 and 7 are a trio that give us examples of apostasy. Verse 5 is about Israel, verse 6 is about angels that have sinned, verse 7 is about Sodom and Gomorrah. There are three different groups, Israel are saved men, the angels are angels and verse 7 are the unsaved. “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.” So verse 5 speaks to the saved, it is taking for granted that we have an understanding of God’s word, in particular the Old Testament. This verse is reminding us of a time in the history of the children of Israel, which we all know very well, but he is drawing our attention to it, so we will look at it and refresh our memories. The Children of Israel were being held captive, the story of their miraculous delivery from slavery to the Promised land, can be read in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. God used a series of miracles to persuade the largest empire in the world to release it’s slaves. Then we have the pillar of fire by night, the cloud by day,then they were trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea and the waters part for them to go through and close again on the Egyptians as they attempt to follow. But, remember it was only an 11 day journey from there to Kadesh-barnea, according to Deuteronomy chapter 2, but it took them 38 years. It is estimated that there were approximately 1 million people that left Egypt, of those over the age of 20, only 2 of those original people entered the Promised Land. This is what Jude is talking about here in verse 5. The people had lost their faith in God, they did not believe that God would see them through the difficulties that lay ahead. Numbers 13 & 14 tells us of the story of the 12 spies that are sent into Canaan, they return with stories of giants and strong walled cities. Caleb and Joshua held their faith that God would see them through, but 10 said that they could not go up against such a land. The people listened to the report of the 10 and started to murmur against Moses and Aaron. “And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!” Numbers 14;2 Gods response to this unfaithfulness can be found in verse 27 - 33. If we look at Corinthians chapter 10 we see Paul referring to this event, with verse 11 giving us a reason why these things happened to them. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” The Israelites had seen the miracles of God, they seen first hand how God delivered them from Egypt, but still they lost their faith. If thy can loose their faith, how much more careful must we be.

Verse 6 “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” This verse has caused controversy over time. There is another passage that is comparable to this - 2 Peter 2;4. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;” Peter here also makes reference to an event that he assumes we know about. There are 2 views of this passage. 1) The belief that we are not to know any more than what it tells us in this passage. - This verse stands between verse 5 and 7 which are well known, so it is assumed we must know about this. 2) That these angels are something to do with the fall of Lucifer. In Isaiah 14;12-17, Isaiah starts talking about the king of Babylon but then in verse 12 continues on to Lucifer and we read about his fall and the five ‘I will’s’ that caused it. Some believe that this event happened between Genesis 1;1 and Genesis 1;2, which can lead into ‘The Gap Theory’. Another mention of this can be found in Ezekiel 28;11-19, where Ezekiel is speaking about the true King of Tyre, Satan himself. Here it tells us that Lucifer was in Eden and that he was created. The Eden described in this passage is different from the one we imagine, but does tie in with descriptions from Revelation 21 & 22. Acts chapter 3 speaks of the second coming of Jesus Christ as the time of the restoration of all things back to what it use to be, back like Eden? A different one than we think of, because it will be pre-fall, so beyond probably what we can imagine. He is not equal to God in any way, he was created by God. It tells us that he was a very powerful angel - a cherub - and he was in charge of all, ‘cherub that covereth’ Ezekiel 28:14. We know from Isaiah and Revelation that there are 4 Cherubim around the Throne of God, there descriptions are very strange to us, Satan was apparently one of those. Revelation 12;3-4 tells us that 1/3 of the angels were thrown out of Heaven with Lucifer. 3) We see how in 2 Peter 2;4 that these angels that sinned were cast into hell and restrained there in chains. This is strange because Satan has all kinds of fallen angels that do all kinds of things, but they are not bound, they are under restraint. So Jude gives us the example that apostasy is a serious thing. These angels, who are of a higher order than ourselves, fell into apostasy and God treated them very severely. Verse 7 “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” This the third reference that Jude makes of punishment for apostasy. We all know about Sodom and Gormorrha and what they got up to and how they were punished, but we have to firstly ask ourselves who Jude was writing to. He is writing to a group of believers. Why would he write about the sins of these cities, to believers. We note that these cities are being associated with apostasy, so therefore they must, at some time in the past, have known the truth, but fell away from it. The event of their destruction happened about 450 years after the flood. Shem ( one of Noah’s sons ) would have been still alive.

The cities were located in the valley of Siddim and located under the southern end of the Dead Sea. The only city to survive, out of the five cities in this area, was Zoar, this was because Lot pleaded to be allowed to go there and stay. In Genesis 13 we see how Abraham and Lot parted company and how Lot chose to go down to the plains of Siddim. Lot eventually decided to dwell in the city of Sodom. Then we have an event in Genesis 18, where Abraham was visited by 3 people, one of which was the Lord Jesus Christ. We see how Abram negotiated with the Lord over the destruction of the cities. He started with 50 righteous and ended up at ten. The city of Sodom is thought to have had about 1 million people in it. The Lord would not destroy the city if only ten were found there. In fact Lot was the only one found and he was removed before the judgement could fall. We can look at this as a guide when looking at the wrath of God that is to fall upon the earth in the last days. The righteous had to be removed in Sodom, likewise they will have to be removed in the last days. In chapter 14 we get an idea of exactly how bad the city was. When the two angels wanted to sleep in the street, Lot would not let them, because it was too dangerous. When the men of the city came to the house to get the angels, Lot even offered his daughters, but this was not acceptable, it shows how the perversion of sin had taken a great hold on them.

The angels physically took him and led him from the city. He was told to escape to the mountain, but Lot was not willing to leave the plain, he asked to go to one of the cities that was to be destroyed. They let him go to the city of Zoar, and it was not destroyed. The ruins of Zoar have been found, so it was not destroyed. We know, of course, what happened to Lot’s wife. She was turned into a pillar of salt. She looked back, not only physically, but also in her heart, she was not willing to give up Sodom, the ties of her earthly life. Some would say that Lot could not be considered righteous but 2 Peter 2 vs 6-8 tell us that he was regarded in the New Testament as one who was saved. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) Here it tells us that Lot was vexed with the sin that was around him. It uses him as an example of how God can deliver his children from temptations. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:” verse 9 We can question if Sodom should have been destroyed, did they know that they were doing wrong, should they have been warned first. Romans 1 vs 18 - 20 tells us that everyone is held accountable because God uses creation itself to give them no excuse. Verse 21 tells us how they went wrong. They once knew God but failed to glorify Him and were not thankful. This led them into false worship and pride vs 22-23. God’s response to this is to give them up, vs 24-27, to their own ungodly lusts. These verses show us that there is a link between sexual sins and perversions, and a denial of God. Verses 28-31 tells us of more sins that result from and are signs of our lack of love and faith in God. And then we are left in no doubt about the results of these sins in verse 32. It is not just physical death that he is talking about, but also spiritual death. Verse 8 “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.” This verse summarises the previous 3 verses - defiling the flesh - despising dominions - speak evil of dignities “Filthy dreamers” - Jude has just went through the 3 examples from history, but now is bringing us back to the present, and shows that these 3 things emerge from these ancient sins “Defiling the flesh” - 2 Peter 3;3 says “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts” and then goes on to tie this in with evolution in verse 5. “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:” willingly ignorant - stupid on purpose! The classic list linked with defiling the flesh can be found in Galatians 5 vs 19-21 “Despise dominion” - deny authority. We seen in verse 4 where it is stated that apostates deny “the only Lord God”, of course Philippians 2 vs 10 where it tells us “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”, but peoples pride won’t let them do that. Of course this is the spiritual aspect of it, but we also must remember that God sets up authorities and governments and this ties in with the next items mentioned. “Speak evil of dignities” - one of the characteristics of these apostates is that they will speak evil or in judgement of those in authority, but even Daniel in Babylon was subject to King Nebuchadnezzar. If we speak in judgement of authority we run huge risks, Revelation 12 vs 10 we have one of the 50 titles of Satan “ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”, So when we accuse ‘the brethren’ are we doing his work? So we need to be careful what we say, who we say it to, and who we say it about. Titus Ch3 vs 2 tell us - “To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” When we read this we think, OK, that makes sense, but would we think of applying this to Satan?