Lookahead: A few weeks ago, a young woman in our church gave us several powerful scriptural references prior to the members taking communion. She spoke about how Judas Iscariot was present during pivotal moments of the Last Supper. Jesus knew exactly what Judas was going to say and do as soon as he left the Last Supper…at the earliest opportunity. And yet Jesus gave him a chance to accept the New Covenant. It didn’t matter how utterly prideful and self-absorbed, mutinous, murderous, even demonized Judas was. Jesus washed his feet and offered him salvation—because He loved Judas and pre-forgave him.
But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 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 1:10,11
Verse 10 now directly addresses the topic of the sinners in “Jude’s church.” We know that he is no longer referring to the men of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the contravening conjunction, “But.” This conjunction is used in most of the Bible Hub translations. So in addition to polluting their bodies, rejecting God’s authority, and heaping abuse on celestial beings, the sinners in Jude’s church blaspheme (or slander) whatever they do not understand. Also, they are very animalistic in their behavior—acting on primal impulses. I’m not sure what that would look like in today’s world. Suffice it to say that they were party animals who acted like moral degenerates and they were unknowingly/increasingly begging for judgement.
Jude then goes on to compare these sinners with three people of questionable reps in the Old Testament and if we look at the characteristics of these three, this gives us further insight into the offensive behavior. One additional thing that I noticed was that although these three people obviously were introduced in the Old Testament, the New Testament epistle writers (Paul, Peter and John) also referred directly—or indirectly—to their offensive behavior. So we actually have more details on the wrongdoings, that Jude was observing in the church of his day. This also gives us insight into other types of behavior that we might encounter—in those “difficult people” that we see in our 2020 lives. And, later, we can depend on Jude to provide further insight on how we should handle this behavior.
- CAIN – OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR: MURDER
Genesis 4:8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
It is a well-known theory that Cain murdered his brother, in cold blood, out of envy and also possibly out of a desire to eliminate the competition who was setting the bar higher than Cain wanted to go.
But here is what the LORD identified as Cain’s primary sin diagnosis (unfortunately right before the murder):
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:8
Among other reasons, I believe that Cain got angry at God because he thought the LORD had favorites! And then when God said, “I don’t have favorites—and here’s a simple way of demonstrating that,” Cain didn’t believe Him—and stayed angry. How dumb was that?!
John later contemporizes the sin diagnosis in 1 John 3:12: Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous.
So this explains why Cain got and stayed angry on a root cause level. The devil was in the details, as the expression goes. Cain believed the devil’s lies about being more deserving of God’s favor than his brother—and disbelieved God Himself when He said He didn’t have favorites, but just don’t sin! And that is an absolute tragedy!
Fast forwarding to 2020, I’m sure all of us have observed competition and vying for favor in our workplaces, social settings, and even churches. We’re typically not going to see Cain’s murderous behavior as a result of it; but what about the human victims of the blaspheming (slander) that’s referenced in verse 1:9? That can equate to amp’d stress or even health probs on their part; people have died of strokes or suicide over less. 🙂
- KORAH – OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR: REBELLION/INCITING MUTINY AGAINST GOD’S CHOSEN LEADERS (MOTIVATED BY PRIDE)
Numbers 16:1 Now Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath son of Levi, along with some Reubenites— Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth— conducted rebellion against Moses, along with 250 men of Israel renowned as leaders of the congregation and representatives in the assembly.…
Korah is singled out in Jude although he had three other Reubenite partners in crime. They were claiming to be holier than the two men that God had appointed as leaders (Korah’s great uncle and grandfather!). So in addition to youthful rebellion, we have religiosity in the mix as well.
They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?” Numbers 16:3
Other than Jude’s, there isn’t a direct reference to Korah’s rebellion in the New Testament, but we do know what part religiosity played in the crucifixion. And Paul gives us insight into the generational damage that disobedience did:
But concerning Israel He says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” Result: “…eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.” Romans 10:21,22
In my years in industry, I’ve actually seen (and even experienced) many challenges to leadership—and have even witnessed a couple of takedowns in the workplace—in which managers were there one day, and gone the next—basically due to mutinous subordinates. I’ve also seen a start-up division go belly up because everybody thought they were the boss. And in this era of delayered organizations with amorphous reporting relationships, and all kinds of high school course material on how to become a CEO in five minutes, I’m sure mutinous behavior is alive and well in 2020. The only difference is that four thousand years ago, mutineers didn’t simply get gigged on their yearly performance evaluations: the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. Numbers 16:31,32
A few weeks ago, a young woman in our church gave us several powerful scriptural references prior to the members taking communion. She spoke about how Judas Iscariot was present during pivotal moments of the Last Supper. Jesus knew exactly what Judas was going to say and do as soon as he left the Last Supper…at the earliest opportunity. And yet Jesus gave him a chance to accept the New Covenant. It didn’t matter how utterly prideful and self-absorbed, mutinous, murderous, even demonized Judas was. Jesus washed his feet and offered him salvation—because He loved Judas and pre-forgave him. Why would we think that He would love the difficult “heathens” who are currently in our lives any less. And if we can do anything in our humble spheres of influence to position them for a 2nd/3rd/4th/nth chance, I think that would please God. I know it would please the angels: Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Luke 15:10 KJV
Passion Translation : “(In words of the woman who trashed her house looking for one lost coin out of ten) ‘Come and celebrate with me! I had lost my precious silver coin, but now I’ve found it.’ That’s the way God responds every time one lost sinner repents and turns to Him. He says to all his angels, ‘Let’s have a joyous celebration, for that one who was lost I have found!’”
To be continued….
Cross-Denominational Bible Study 