But I want to remind
you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of
the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 5
Dear Heavenly
Father, help me in my struggle against the world. So many people are hurting and have denied
themselves the light. My heart breaks
for them - how they've been blinded and don't even know. Open my heart Lord to your Word so I can be
obedient to you. In Jesus' name I pray,
Amen.
We're still at the
beginning of Jude's letter today. Jude
has just started to warn against false teachers. In the next few verses, Jude is going to
provide examples from the past of how people have failed and were judged. To bring deeper understanding to today's
text, let's examine some key words and their companion or similar verses.
"Remind"
in the Greek is hupomimnesko which means
to call to mind, to cause one to remember, bring remembrance, admonish. It is made of the word, hypo, which means "under" and mimnesko which means
"remember." "Remind"
in the Greek gives a sense of remembering because of prompting. 2 Peter 1:12 states "For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of
these things, though you know and are
established in the present truth."
2 Peter 3:17 states "You
therefore, beloved, since you know this
beforehand, beware lest you also fall
from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the
wicked." Jude is telling them
something that they already know but had forgotten or ignored. Jude is warning of something not to repeat.
"Knew" in
the Greek is eido which means remember,
appreciate, see with physical eyes, (in the metaphorical sense means mental
seeing such as "I see what you mean"), grasp spiritual truth, seeing
that becomes knowing, perceive, discern.
Jude is about to describe an example that is well known to them that
they have actual seen it to believe it.
"Lord" in
the Greek is kurios which means master,
person exercising absolute ownership rights, owner, the title given to
God. 1 Corinthians 10:4,5,9 states
"and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well
pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. . . . nor let us
tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by
serpents." These verses in 1st
Corinthians is identifying the "Lord" referenced in Jude as
Jesus. Furthermore, the verse hints at
what Jude is about to discuss. The
perpetual falling from grace, asking for forgiveness, being forgiven, blessed,
falling for grace, and so on.
This particular
event is in Numbers 21:4-9 which states "Then they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of
the people became very discouraged on the way.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses: 'Why have you
brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and
no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.' So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the
people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses, and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and
against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.' So Moses
prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and
set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at
it, shall live.' So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so
it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent,
he lived."
"Saved" in
the Greek is sozo which means heal,
preserve, rescue, deliver out of danger to safety, restore to health. Sozo
is the root word for savior and salvation.
God had delivered the people out of the danger of Egypt to the safety of
His presence, but how quickly the people forgot.
"Afterward"
in the Greek is dueteros which means for
the second time, in the second place, second, subsequently, twice, again. There are several companion verses at this
point of the Scripture. Numbers 14:29,37
states "The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in
this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number,
from twenty years old and above. . . .
those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the
plague before the Lord." Moses sent
spies into the promised land to scout.
Fearful men gave a bad report and said that Israel could not take the
land. Therefore, God punished that
generation for their lack of trust and obedience. That generation could not enter the promised
land and the scouts who gave the bad report perished.
Numbers 26: 64,65
states "But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by
Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the
Wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had
said of them, 'They shall surely die in the wilderness.' So there was not left
a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of
Nun." Just before they were to
enter the promised land, God repeated the judgement. Only two spies didn't give a bad report and
were spared, Caleb and Joshua.
Hebrews 3:17-19
summarizes the Scripture in Numbers " Now with whom was He angry forty
years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who
did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of
unbelief." Jude is using the very
central story to the Jewish belief to demonstrate what will happen who don't
choose Christ - the way, the truth, the light.
Once you know, you have no excuse.
"Destroyed"
in the Greek is apollumi which means
destroy, use, perish (death is certain), cutting off entirely, to die (ruin and
destruction), cause to be lost (utterly perish), miserable end, blotted out,
abolish, become death, loss of eternal life.
Not only was this Jewish generation not going into the promised land but
also they would be lost to God. That
generation met a miserable end.
"Believed"
in the Greek is pisteuo which means have
faith in, entrusted, trust, confidence.
The word is made up of pistis
which is faith and peitho which is
persuaded. Depending on the context of
the passage, pisteuo gives a sense of
either human or faith believing whether we are self-serving or of God. The reason that generation met a miserable
end is that didn't believe or trust God.
The people were focused on themselves alone.
Jude is prompting
the Hebrews to remember that they once grasped this truth, God delivered the
people from danger in Egypt to safety
and security with God, but for the second time (fear with spies caused them to
lose the promised land, impatience got them death by serpents) God utterly destroyed them
and they lost eternal life because they refused to trust, obey, and rely on
God. These failures are central to the
Jewish story, so they know them well.
Even so, they let "little" things dissuade them from
Christ. Don't forget all that God has
done for you. Stay faithful and
obedient.
Now I want to remind
you, although you are fully informed once for all, that the Lord, after saving
a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not
believe [who refused to trust and obey and rely on Him].
Amplified Bible
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