When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin
Because the sinless Saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
. – Charitie Lees Bancroft
Recently I have been enjoying reading through again the Epistle of Jude, appreciating especially the comments by Christopher Green.
Green refers to the writer as “Jude the Obscure”, and there certainly seem to be more obscure references per square mile in this epistle than in most other books in the Bible.
But one such reference that I found (eventually) really encouraging is in verses 8-10:
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Background
In this epistle Jude is battling “certain men [who] have crept in unnoticed” into the church, “who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v 4)
Peter refers to these same ones in 2 Pet 2:19: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”
To quote Mme. Roland yet again: “O Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name.”
As John Benton explains it:
“What these false teachers are doing, according to [Jude] verse 4, is changing the grace of God into a licence for immorality. In other words, they are saying God’s law doesn’t matter once we have been converted. ‘We are under grace; we can live as we like. The law of Moses is irrelevant.’ The technical term for such teaching is antinomianism – against the law.”
Christopher Green expands on this:
“The problems in Jude’s church were coming from people who refused to accept that ‘law’ and ‘obedience’ were appropriate ideas for a Christian. ‘Surely,’ they would say, ‘when we were converted we were moved from the sphere where the law controlled and constrained us into one where the themes are freedom and grace’…
“[But] although these people no doubt mouthed Christian phrases, quoted the Bible and knew all the new songs, they were not to be taken at face value…
“They had sat under patient explanations of the fact that a Christian is free and yet under God’s law, and of the fact that although sin no longer controls our destiny, we still have to do daily battle with it. But they had found this teaching too subtle, and unnecessary.
“They would proclaim the big, bright slogan, ‘Christians are not legalists’, and would march off with their plain and simple message. No wonder some Christians were finding their no-nonsense statements appealing, with no need carefully to define precisely what they meant. The false teachers probably thought that orthodox Christian teachers were fudging the issue, and that they were Pharisees at heart.”
But what has all this to do with the celestial battle over the body of Moses?
Assumptions, assumptions…
1. The Assumption of the Commentators
“Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.”
It is not hard to grasp what Jude means when he condemns these antinomians as those who “defile the flesh”.
But whose “authority” is he referring to? And who are these “dignitaries”?
The older commentators assumed he was condemning those who resist human “authority” and human “dignitaries”.
Some recent commentators, however, note that the word “authority” is actually “lordship” (Gk. kyriotes) and refer it to Christ, the Lord (kyrios, as in v 4).
Also, “dignitaries” is literally “glories” (Gk. doxai), which most more recent commentators take as referring to “angelic beings”.
“Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject [Christ’s] lordship, and speak evil of angelic magesties.”
More controversial, though, is what follows: “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring [against him] a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’”
Against “him”? Against whom did Michael dare not bring this “reviling accusation”?
(There is no “him” in the Greek text; but presumably Michael had someone in mind.)
The more usual interpretation given by commentators assumes it was the devil against whom Michael refuses to bring “a reviling accusation” and that Jude is saying we should speak respectfully of all authority, even the devil’s.
But these leaders, who have “crept into” the church, rubbish those in authority – presumably because they don’t want to hear them teach that the Christian has an ongoing responsibility to live according to God’s law.
By way of contrast, Michael, though an archangel, spoke respectfully even to the devil; he left it to the Lord to rebuke him.
But there are problems with this interpretation.
For one thing, Jude himself doesn’t speak particularly respectfully of these false shepherds (note v 12: “…shepherds who feed only themselves”, NIV, ESV etc).
Jude calls them: “spots in your love feasts, clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”
Jude goes on to say they will be judged as “ungodly” for “all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way,” and for “all the harsh things” which they as “ungodly sinners have spoken” against the Lord.
Further, he condemns them as “grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts”; and that “they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” (vv 12-16)
Nor do other Biblical writers always speak politely of those in authority when they are seen to be leading God’s people astray (see eg. Matt 23:13-26, Acts 13:10, Rom 16:17-18, 2 Cor 11:13, Gal 1:6-9, Phil 3:18-19, 2 Pet 2:12-17, 3 John 9-10).
Nor is the devil himself accorded polite respect by these writers (see eg. Rom 16:20, 2 Cor 11:14, Eph 6:11, Jas 4:7, 1 Pet 5:8, 1 Joh 3:8, Rev 12:9, Rev 20:10).
2. The Assumption of Moses
There is no record of Michael’s battle with Satan over Moses’ body in Holy Scripture. All we know is in Deut 34:5-6:
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.
However, a number of early Christian writers, such as Origen in the 3rd C., understood that Jude here drew upon an extra-Biblical book, “The Assumption of Moses.” (Here “Assumption” has the meaning “Ascension”.)
There is no reason why Biblical authors cannot draw upon extra-Biblical sources such as this as long as the information is accurate; it doesn’t mean such books should be included in the Bible, or even that everything else in the book is accurate.
Old Testament writers reference extra-Biblical sources at times; as do New Testament authors – such as Luke, Paul on a number of occasions, and Jude again (in v 14).
We now only have a poor translation of parts of this book dating from the 6th C. But the gist of what Jude is referring to probably runs something like this:
After Moses dies, Satan wants to claim his body, and presumably his soul, for himself.
To justify his claim, in the presence of Michael, he brings a formal accusation against Moses.
This “reviling accusation” in Jude 9 is not simply a matter of using intemperate language. Christopher Green observes: “It is important to notice that the phrase has nothing to do with being rude or offensive. It is a legal phrase, meaning ‘to pass a judgment or decision about slander’. Satan was apparently accusing Moses of slander.”
Satan accuses Moses of all the sins he committed in his lifetime – from his angry murder of the Egyptian early on, to his angry outburst dishonouring God at the end.
Again Green: “Michael would be expected to share Satan’s view of the impossibility of the presence of sin in heaven, although without Satan’s demonic glee. But he refuses to bring a slanderous accusation against Moses, and instead allows God to remain the lawgiver and judge. Even the condemnation of Satan is one that he could not make on his own authority. Rather, he said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’”
3. The Assumption of the Devil
The only other reference to a battle between Michael and the devil is in Revelation ch 12.
There, war breaks out in heaven: Michael and his angels contend against Satan and his angels (v 7). “But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So [he who is] called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world was cast out.” (vv 8-9)
Satan: his name means “the Adversary”.
He is always on the lookout to bring down God’s servants. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Pet 5:8)
It is this name: “the devil” that is particularly significant in Revelation ch 12, and Jude 9.
The devil: the name/title means “the Accuser”, “the Slanderer”.
It is as “the Accuser”, “the Slanderer” that Satan is defeated by Michael:
Then there was heard a loud voice saying in heaven: “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.” (v 10)
All the hatred and bitterness of the devil, in his battle with Michael, spews forth as “the accuser of our brethren accuses them before our God day and night.”
Long ago, he assumed he could bring down Job this way. He accused Job before God to claim him as his own, even while Job still lived (Job ch 1).
And now, he assumed he could claim Moses as his own after he was dead, by accusing him before God’s representative, Michael.
This is the final battle. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.”(Eph 6:12)
Satan wants your soul, he wants my soul.
He accuses us before our God day and night.
But, in this battle, we will “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 12:11)
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
. – Horatio Spafford
“The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture”
I am not dogmatic that the above is the only way to interpret Jude the Obscure.
But it does seem to make the most sense and is consistent with the rest of Scripture where it “speaks more clearly”.
The Westminster Confession states: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all.” (Ch 1, § VII)
The rule is: “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture, is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it may be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.” (Ch 1, § IX)
As well as Revelation ch 12 (above) there is another passage that supports this interpretation, and that Jude himself seems to reference in Michael’s rebuttal to the devil: “The Lord rebuke you.”
In Zechariah ch 3 the prophet has a vision of Joshua, the High Priest – the one who assisted Zerubbabel after the return from exile.
Joshua “stands before the Angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” (v 1) Satan has a case because Joshua is depicted as one “clothed with filthy garments” (v 3), i.e. filthy in his sin.
But the Lord intervenes and says, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
And He commands: “Take away the filthy garments from him.” “See,” He tells Joshua, “I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
Satan is defeated.
Once more, the sinner prevails “by the blood of the Lamb.”
Christopher Green comments:
“The parallels in Jude’s mind are clear, for here again a man is being accused by Satan of unfitness to perform God’s work (symbolized by his wearing ‘filthy clothes’). Again, a high-ranking angel stands aside and allows God to decide who is fit to serve him, sinner or not. Only ‘the Lord’ has the right to banish Satan’s legally correct accusation.”
The Point of It All
Putting it all together, this is what we can learn.
First, the law of God is not to be taken lightly.
The antinomians Jude had to contend with didn’t want to submit to the law of God.
It would seem that, when reminded that the law was mediated to mankind through no lesser beings than angels, they “spoke evil of these glorious ones” by whom the law came (Acts 7:53, Gal 3:9).
When reprimanded because they were thereby holding Moses himself in contempt, they excused themselves and followed Satan’s lead who accused Moses of being a sinner – so why should they listen to someone who, himself, did not always keep the law.
We are not to treat God’s law lightly. Jesus Himself said: “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:19).
“Consider,” says Jude, “not even Michael can declare Moses innocent, and not even Michael can remove the accusations of the law; he simply did not dare. Only the sovereignly gracious God can do that… But by trivializing what God has done, the false teachers dare to ‘change the grace of God into a licence for immorality’.” (Green)
But secondly: “If God’s own law finds Moses guilty, and Satan is able to quote that law against Moses in the presence of God, only God himself has the right to banish the Accuser and remove the curse of the law.”
And, yes “the sovereignly gracious God can do that, and He will do it on the day of judgment”!
Satan accuses me. The Accuser reminds me of all my sin and tempts me to despair.
I know I have not kept God’s law. As much as I want to keep God’s law (and, I do want to) yet I know I fail miserably.
My own conscience testifies against me.
I cannot argue against Satan’s accusations.
Many of his accusations are false; he is after all the Great Deceiver.
But just as many are true.
But praise God, “God banishes the Accuser and removes the curse of the law.”
I “overcome by the blood of the Lamb”.
Arise, my soul, arise,
Shake off thy guilty fears:
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears:
Before the Throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on his hands.
. – Charles Wesley