Now Jude wants to remind people of something they once fully knew. Like telephone numbers. Or directions. Or cursive. Or waiting. Or spelling.

And here’s the thing that people once fully knew – – – > that Jesus of Nazareth saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Eh?!

Jesus of Nazareth did this?

But Jesus wasn’t even born in the days of the Exodus!?

Nevertheless, it’s true!

Do you believe that?

I do. And so did Blaise Pascal, Sir Isaac Newton, C.S. Lewis, Johannes Kepler, Leonhard Euler, Max Planck, and G.K. Chesterton.

And another thing that people used to fully know is that the angels – who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling – Jesus has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day (just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire).

This is NOT the picture of Jesus of Nazareth that people are used to!

And then Jude says that the people who have crept in unnoticed (who long ago were designated for condemnation) – these people – in a manner similar to the fallen angels and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah – these people, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

Who is Jude talking about (specifically)?

Like I said before, if you ask me – Jude is talking about people who have a primary commitment to control over connection. There is an inescapable link between the uptight, controlling, stuffy Pharisees and the debauchery of the false prophets and their puppeteers (a.k.a. the fathers of the Pharisees) found all throughout the Old Testament (see Matthew 23:32; and Luke 11:47-48).

Then Jude mentions the the archangel Michael, and how when Michael was contending with the devil, when they were disputing about the body of Moses, Michael did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

Did you ever know about this? …This story about the archangel Michael disputing with the devil about the body of Moses???

I never knew about this!

But here Jude’s talking about it!

But let’s not get distracted by the fact that we don’t really know anything about this story of Michael and the devil disputing about the body of Moses.

Jude, is referencing Michael because he’s an example of meekness and wise reserve. Michael did not resort to personally insult or adjudication of the Devil. Instead, Michael defers to God’s authority. And Jude’s saying, “Pay attention people! Be like Mike!”

Then Jude says, “But these people (the people who have crept in unnoticed, who were long ago designated for condemnation) blaspheme all that they do not understand (specifically because they proudly took things so personally and they presumptuously appointed themselves arbitrators and adjudicators). And these people are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Jude says “Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.”

Jude says, “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

More to come. Stay tuned.