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!”
Jude 9
Dear Heavenly
Father, thank You for Your Son. You are
such a loving Father. You want no one to
perish, but all to know You and life.
Lord, please keep me focused on You.
Help me understand the Scriptures. Help me to understand Your will. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Jude switches gears
with this verse. Up to this point, he
was identifying past and current apostasy.
Now, he is talking about an angel and the devil.
One of the angels
named in the Bible, Michael was considered the protector or patron angel of
Israel. He appears four other times in
the Bible. Daniel 10:13 states "But
the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold,
Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone
there with the kings of Persia."
Daniel 10:21 states "But I will tell you what is noted in the
Scripture of Truth. (No one upholds me against these, except Michael your
prince." Daniel 12:1 is a prophecy
which will also be mentioned in Revelation.
It states "'At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince
who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of
trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at
that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the
book.'" Revelation 12:7 states
" And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the
dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought."
The dragon mentioned
in Revelation is the devil. Isaiah 14:12
states "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How
you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!" Lucifer was a Latin translation of the Hebrew
word, Heyei, which means "shining
one, light bearer." The word in the
Latin was not capitalized and referred to "the morning star, the planet
Venus." Lucifer has been used as
the name of Satan before the angel's fall from heaven. In Ezekiel, the devil is called the King of
Tyre mentioning in Ezekiel 28:13 that he "was in Eden, the garden of
God." Ezekiel 28:16 further states
"By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of
God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery
stones." Cherub is another word for
angel. To bring deeper understanding to
today's text, let's examine some key words and their companion or similar
verses.
"Yet" in
the Greek is de which means on the other
hand, and, but, moreover, indeed now, on top of this, next. The word "yet" is connecting this
sentence to the previous one. Whereas in
Jude 8 I used "God" for dignitaries, with these two sentences
connected and comparing each other, dignitaries may be interpreted as angels of
preeminent dignity. In verse 8, Jude is
stating that these false teachers blaspheme even angels. In verse 9, Jude is stating that angels don't
even blaspheme Satan.
"Michael"
in the Greek is Michael which in the
Hebrew is Mikael which means an
archangel, "Who is like God?", "Who is like the great
God?", patron angel of Israel.
"Archangel" in the Greek is archaggelos
which means ruler of angels, superior angel, angel of the highest rank, chief
of the angels, prince/leader of the angels.
It comes from the word arxon
which means of the first order, chief and aggelos
which means angel. Michael is the leader
of the angels.
"Contending"
in the Greek is diakrino which means
distinguish, discern, doubt, hesitate, waver, separate, decide, to separate
oneself in a hostile spirit, thoroughly back and forth, investigate, judge,
close reasoning or over judging, vacillate, dispute, contend, oppose. The word literally means to separate
throughout or wholly. It's like weighing
both sides of a matter to make a decision.
"Devil" in the Greek is diabolous
which means slanderous, the slanderer, false accuser, criticizing to hurt and
condemn to sever a relationship, backbiter, predictable windup toy playing out
his evil nature, enemy of God, estrange mankind from God enticing them to sin. Michael is opposing the devil over a matter.
"Disputed"
in the Greek is dialegomai which means
converse, preach, lecture, argue, reason.
Michael was fighting with the devil over Moses' body. Now, we know in
Deuteronomy 34:5-6 that God buried Moses where no one could find the body,
"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." Nowhere in the Bible can you find this
dispute. Some scholars point to a Hebrew
apocrypha book called the "Assumption of Moses." Hebrew tradition held that Michael did fight
Satan over the body of Moses. Since
Moses was so well regarded and had done so much for Israel, some scholars
speculate that Satan wanted the body so he could use his body as an idol
against God. Whether the event actually
happened may not matter. Jude is using
the event to make another example, one the people would have remembered
hearing.
"Dared" in
the Greek is tolmao which means endure,
I am bold, have courage, make up the mind, courage necessary for a valid risk,
putting fear behind for risk, not to dread or shun through fear. "Against" in the Greek is epiphero which means bring forward against,
impose, inflict, to bring upon. It is
made of the words epi which means the
basis of and phero which means carry,
bear, make publicly known.
"Reviling" in the Greek is basphemia
which means abusive or scurrilous language, switches right for wrong, exchanges
the truth of God for a lie, detractive speech injurious to one's name. It is composed of two words: blax which means sluggish or slow and pheme which means reputation or fame.
"Accusation" in the Greek is krisis
which means divine judgement, accusation, opinion or decision concerning
anything (right or wrong), condemn, pronounce.
Fearing God, Michael would not risk making publicly known his opinion of
the devil that would injury the devil's reputation.
"Rebuke"
in the Greek is epitimao which means
chide, admonish, warn, warning by instruction, warning to prevent something
from going wrong, censure severely, to curb one's ferocity or violence. It is
made up of the words epi which means
suitably on and timao which means esteem
or place value. Michael won't share his
opinion but asks God to prevent Satan from doing something wrong. The phrase, “The Lord rebuke you!”, is also
found in Zechariah 3:2 which states "And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord
rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a
brand plucked from the fire?'"
I like how the
footnote in the amplified Bible sums up this passage.
In Jewish tradition, Michael claimed to be Moses’
teacher and was present when God put Moses to death (Midrash on Deut 11:10).
Jude’s point is that if the archangel Michael had such respect for Satan’s
power, then mere humans are extremely foolish to insult or show disrespect to
angelic beings. This does not mean that true Christians cannot or should not
engage in spiritual warfare with satanic forces; quite the contrary (Eph 6:12;
James 4:7). But they should follow Michael’s example and act only as legitimate
representatives of Christ who are in good standing with Him.
Ephesians 6:12
states "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." James 4:7 states "Therefore submit to
God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Even Michael respected the enemy. As believers, we should resist the enemy but
respect the enemy. Let God serve the
punishment.
But even the
archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil (Satan), and arguing
about the body of Moses, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against
him, but [simply] said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Amplified Bible
