This is the 12th lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Jude. In this lesson I do an exposition of Jude 1:9.
Watch the video or scroll down to read a transcript.
Transcript:
Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This is the 12th lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Jude. In this lesson, I’m going to do an exposition of verse 9.
The first four verses of Jude are the introduction in which Jude tells us why he wrote the book of Jude. Jude recognized that people had crept into the church who were turning the grace of God into sensuality and denying Jesus.
In verses 5 through 7 Jude reminded us that Jesus is also a judge. That was one of the things he wrote to refute those who were turning the grace of God into sensuality.
Verses 8 through 16 is where Jude further described the problem he was writing about. In this lesson I’m focusing on verse 9 which is the second verse of this section. I’m going to start by reading verses 3 and 4, which remind us why this was written. Then I’ll skip to verses 8 and 9.
Jude 3
Beloveds,
making every effort to write to you
about our common salvation,
I felt the necessity to write to you
urging you to contend for the faith
which has been delivered over
once for all to the saints.
Jude 4
For certain people crept in secretly,
those who were long ago
designated into this judgment,
ungodly people
turning the grace of our God into sensuality
and denying our only Master and Lord
Jesus Christ.
Now let’s jump to verse 8. This is where Jude began to further describe these people who had crept into the church.
Jude 8
Nevertheless, likewise also
these men,
dreaming,
indeed
are defiling flesh,
rejecting authority,
and blaspheming majesties.
In the previous lesson, I talked in depth about this verse. I mentioned that if you narrow this sentence down to the essential words, you have “these men are defiling flesh, rejecting authority, and blaspheming majesties”. This is a description of the people who had crept into the church. The last thing Jude mentioned is that these men were blaspheming majesties. Now let’s look at verse 9.
Jude 9
But
Michael the Archangel,
when arguing with the devil,
was disputing about the body of Moses.
He did not dare to pronounce
an abusive judgment;
rather,
he said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
The first word of verse 9 is “but”. The word “but” draws a contrast. I’ll talk about that more in a minute.
The next several lines tell us about Michael the archangel. Apparently, there was a point in time when he was arguing with the devil about the body of Moses. Michael, even though he was an archangel, did not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil.
Then we have the word “rather”. The word “rather” draws a contrast between what Michael the Archangel did not do and what he did do. What he did do was he said to the devil, “The Lord rebuke you”. Instead of rebuking the devil himself, Michael the Archangel relied on the authority of the Lord to rebuke the devil.
Let’s go back and take a closer look at all this. Again, the first word of verse 9 is the word “but”. That draws a contrast between verse 9 and what came before verse 9. What came before verse 9 is verse 8 where Jude had mentioned that these men were blaspheming majesties.
Jude 8
Nevertheless, likewise also
these men,
dreaming,
indeed
are defiling flesh,
rejecting authority,
and blaspheming majesties.
We see from the context that blaspheming majesties is something we should not do. Jude illustrated that by pointing out that even Michael the Archangel did not do that. That’s essentially what verse 9 is about.
Jude 9
But
Michael the Archangel,
when arguing with the devil,
was disputing about the body of Moses.
He did not dare to pronounce
an abusive judgment;
rather,
he said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
This verse is specifically about Michael the Archangel. Let’s take a look at some other verses about Michael.
Dan. 10:13 “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Dan. 10:21 “However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince.
Dan. 12:1 “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.
Rev. 12:7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,
There are multiple references throughout the Bible to Michael the Archangel and they indicate to us that Michael is a significant entity. Michael the Archangel did not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil. That’s a pretty good indication to you and me that no human should dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil either.
Jude 9
But
Michael the Archangel,
when arguing with the devil,
was disputing about the body of Moses.
He did not dare to pronounce
an abusive judgment;
rather,
he said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
Verse 9 tells us that Michael the Archangel was arguing with the devil, and they were disputing about the body of Moses. I’m not aware of any other verse in the Bible that gives us any information about this. Then the verse tells us very clearly that Michael the Archangel, even though he was an archangel, even though he was a very significant entity in heaven, did not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil.
Think about that phrase “did not dare”. That is a very strong statement of what Michael the Archangel did not do. Rebuking the devil, bringing an abusive judgment against the devil was something that Michael the Archangel was not willing to do. He did not dare to do it. This is a lesson to you and me that we should not even think about doing that.
Then we have the word “rather”. This word draws a contrast between what comes before the word “rather” and what comes after it. Before the word “rather”, we are told that Michael the Archangel did not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil. After the word “rather”, we see that instead, Michael the Archangel said, “The Lord rebuke you.” Michael the Archangel, even though he was a significant entity in heaven, gave way to the Lord and allowed the Lord to rebuke the devil instead of doing it himself.
As I mentioned earlier, the reason verse 9 is in the book of Jude is to further illustrate what we see in verse 8. Jude made it clear in verse 8 that it is wrong to blaspheme majesties. He reinforced that in verse 9 by pointing out that Michael the Archangel did not even do that.
Let’s review.
Jude 4
For certain people crept in secretly,
those who were long ago
designated into this judgment,
ungodly people
turning the grace of our God into sensuality
and denying our only Master and Lord
Jesus Christ.
In Jude 4 Jude told us that certain people had crept in secretly. They were turning the grace of God into sensuality and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 8
Nevertheless, likewise also
these men,
dreaming,
indeed
are defiling flesh,
rejecting authority,
and blaspheming majesties.
In Jude 8 Jude wrote that those men were defiling flesh, rejecting authority, and blaspheming majesties.
Jude 9
But
Michael the Archangel,
when arguing with the devil,
was disputing about the body of Moses.
He did not dare to pronounce
an abusive judgment;
rather,
he said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
In Jude 9 Jude started off with the word “but” to point out that Michael the Archangel did not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil.
Jude 3
Beloveds,
making every effort to write to you
about our common salvation,
I felt the necessity to write to you
urging you to contend for the faith
which has been delivered over
once for all to the saints.
Keep in mind that in Jude 3 Jude urged us to contend for the faith. It’s very important that you and I contend for the faith, fight for the faith, fight for the truth, and stand up for the truth.
Let me close by urging us to be cautious in how we think about Satan, talk about Satan, or even talk to Satan. At various times in my life different people have mentioned things like feeling like they were being persecuted by Satan. There have been other times where I’ve heard stories from people claiming that they witnessed or saw people who were demon-possessed and they dealt with that in a certain way.
I’m not going to get into whether or not any of that is true. I would simply say that, based on Jude 9, we should be very careful how we think about Satan, how we talk about Satan, or even how we interact with Satan. If indeed we are ever in a scenario where we think we are dealing with a demon-possessed person, we need to be very careful with that. Satan and his demons are very powerful. They are more powerful than you and me.
Michael the Archangel did not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil. That is a warning to us. We should be very careful about how we talk to Satan. You and I should not dare to pronounce an abusive judgment against the devil either because the devil is very powerful. We should learn a lesson from Michael the Archangel and be sure that if we are in a scenario like that, that we stand back and let the Lord take control of that situation because He’s the only one that has the power to control Satan.
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