DEFILING DREAMERS ARE IN STARK CONTRAST WITH MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL - Jude 1 v 8-9
Jude 1:8 “Yet in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties, Jude 1:9 but Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
[A]. WHO ARE THE DEFILING DREAMERS?
Verse 8 begins with the expression, “Yet in the same manner as these men”, which means we must look to the previous verse, verse 7, to get the context. Note as well, verse 7 begins with, “In the same way as these” taking us back to verse 6. We need to understand verses 6 and 7 to see where verse 7 comes from. Verse 6 exposes pride and arrogance and rebellion. Verse 7 features gross immorality and the pursuit of what is prohibited. Then we arrive at verse 8 which sets before us men of corruption who will exhibit those traits highlighted in verses 6 and 7, and they include pride and arrogance and rebellion and gross immorality and the pursuit of what is prohibited. These are evil men being spoken of, ones who defile the flesh, reject authority and revile angelic majesties. These ungodly men were like the unbelievers in the wilderness in denying Christ and scoffing at His promises; they were like the impure angels in leaving that “foundation which is in heaven” for the base pleasures of earth; they were like the people of Sodom in seeking even these base pleasures by unnatural choices.
These men are dreamers, dreaming up schemes and wickedness in order to entertain the flesh so as to defile it. They sin against their own bodies. These men are in Christian churches, or better to say, they are in the churches of Christendom. They reject authority, that is they reject the heavenly authority, and they themselves have become their own authority. Jude has more to say about then men who are false teachers and wolves in the churches later on, but we leave those later verses for another time.
The word for dreaming in verse 8 is in connection with the wrong kind of dreaming. This hoping (self-desiring) of these false ones, opposes God's kingdom, and then they expect such personal aspirations and fantasies to be granted by Him! This shows someone who is completely out of touch with the principles of God's kingdom. Large tracks of the Pentecostal movement are founded on this dreaming, in what is called “the word of faith” where you speak prosperity and perfect health into being, among other strange behaviours. Fantasy dreamers. This is the only place in the NT where the word “dreamers” is used but there is one other reference in the bible, in the LXX translation in {{Isaiah 56 v 10 – “His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.”}} (ESV)
It says of these men that they do three things originating from their evil dreaming – They defile the flesh like the inhabitants of the cities of the plain AND they despise the dominion and authority of Almighty God, meaning they reject it by setting it aside. The one, the next phrase here (the last part of verse 8) is a more difficult one. The NASB says “revile angelic majesties” and the NIV says “heap abuse on celestial beings” and the ESV says “blaspheme the glorious ones”. The Greek word is rare, used only by Jude and Peter. It means these ungodly men murmur against, and oppose unseen powers worthy of reverence (God, the angels, heavenly beings). The word does not apply to earthly dignitaries whether church leaders or civil leaders.
[B]. THE ERROR OF ANTINOMIANISM:-
Jude has raised this teaching in verses 4, 7 and 8 so I thought we’d look at it just briefly. (I am going to quote from an answer on a site called GotQuestions.org that I thought was a good one). (start of quote) “In the NT times, a movement sprang up known as antinomianism. It comes from the Greek “against law”, and these people believe there are no moral laws that God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes a biblical teaching to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching on the Law of Moses, is that Christians are not required to observe the Old Testament Law as a means of salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament Law. The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey.
The apostle Paul dealt with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it.” The most frequent attack on the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, is that it encourages sin. People may wonder, “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?” That thinking is not the result of true conversion because true conversion yields a greater desire to obey, not a lesser one. God’s desire - and our desire when we are regenerated by His Spirit - is that we strive not to sin. Out of gratitude for His grace and forgiveness, we want to please Him. God has given us His infinitely gracious gift in salvation through Jesus. Our response is to consecrate our lives to Him out of love, worship, and gratitude for what He has done for us. Antinomianism is unbiblical in that it misapplies the meaning of God’s gracious favour.” ( End of quote)
[C]. THE TESTIMONY OF PETER:-
We have noted before the closeness of subject material in Jude and 2 Peter chapter 2. In the equivalent thought in Peter’s mind, to this verse 8 in Jude, Peter wrote this that followed on from his speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah – {{2Peter 2:9 “then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgement, 2Pet 2:10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. They are daring, self-willed, and do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, 2Pet 2:11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power, do not bring a reviling judgement against them before the Lord.”}} Note the words that parallel the statements in Jude and here are some from these 3 verses from Peter - (quote the underlined).
[D]. VERSE 9 – MICHAEL’S DISPUTE WITH THE DEVIL OVER THE BODY OF MOSES.
We now come to possibly the most difficult verse in the bible to reconcile, as we look at the verse and its background. No one has the answers but I have looked into the writings of several good biblical scholars, and hope to draw all that together for you. Michael means, “Who is like God?”
Verse 9 refers to an event which is found nowhere else in Scripture. Jude says that Michael had to struggle in dispute with Satan about the body of Moses, but the details of that event are not given. To gain some insight of the overall picture, let us look at {{Daniel 9:21 “while I was still speaking in prayer then the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering,”}} and then Gabriel revealed the prophecy of the 70 weeks to Daniel.
THERE ARE POWERFUL BATTLES IN THE SPIRIT RELEAM
Daniel chapter 10 is a powerful chapter. Daniel was by the bank of the Tigris River when he saw the great vision of the Lord that left him physically undone, after which he fell into a deep sleep. Then a hand woke him and set him trembling on his hands and knees. It was Gabriel who said – {{Daniel 10:11 “and he said to me, “O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you,” and when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Dan 10:12 Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words, Dan 10:13 but the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days, (Daniel was waiting for an answer to his prayer for 21 days but it did not come) then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Dan 10:14 Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days for the vision pertains to the days yet future.”}} Gabriel is the angel who is the messenger for God’s people Israel. He came to convey the prophecies to Daniel for the nation of Israel. Remember, he also came to Zacharias and to Mary in the New Testament. That encounter with Gabriel knocked the stuffing out of Daniel. He had no strength, no breath, but Gabriel strengthened him and then said – {{Daniel 10:20 “Then he said, “Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. 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.”}}
I want to fill in what those verses are saying. Gabriel was not fighting against a Persian man of flesh and blood (just two angels destroyed all of Sodom and Gomorrah). There is a spiritual battle going on that is way beyond our comprehension. Satan is the prince and power of the air and all his demons are in the atmosphere. Paul calls him the prince of the power of the air. He also talks about the ranking in the evil demonic world in {{Ephesians 6:12 “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”}}
Satan’s forces are in ranking, and there are some very powerful, evil, demonic princes who have control over nations. This is not being fanciful. Gabriel had to battle the evil demonic prince of Persia for 3 weeks until he could reach Daniel with the answer to his prayer. After a 3 week battle, the Archangel Michael came to assist Gabriel. After that, Gabriel had to oppose the prince of Greece who was coming. This is not a flesh and blood battle. It is warfare in the spirit realm. Both Gabriel and Michael are special angels assigned to God’s own people Israel.
Michael will be present at the Rapture when his voice will be heard. Some years after that, he will have a personal battle with Satan, the great serpent as recorded in Revelation chapter 12 when Satan tries to destroy all the Jewish Tribulation saints.
THE BODY OF MOSES
We must look at the body of Moses as mentioned in {{Deuteronomy 34 v 5 “Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, Deut. 34 v 6 and He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor, but no man knows his burial place to this day.”}} All that scripture has mentioned is that Moses died and God buried him. Michael was sent by God to deal with the body of Moses in some way. Several conjectures have been forwarded as to what the argument was about. We don’t know. One school says Satan wanted to use Moses' body as a object of worship to lead Israel astray into idolatry, while others have thought that Satan wanted to desecrate the body of Moses, and claimed a right to it, because Moses had murdered an Egyptian.
It is also said that Jude took his material from an apocryphal book that contained this account, and that Jude meant to confirm that the account is true. Origen (c.185–254), an early Christian scholar and theologian, mentions the book “The Assumption of Moses” as extant in his time, containing this very account of the contest between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. That book, now lost, was a Jewish Greek book, and Origen supposed that this was the source of the account in Jude.
That really raises a problem. There are those who think Jude should be eliminated from the Bible because of the use of use of an apocryphal book, (he quotes from the Book of Enoch also), but Paul quoted a pagan poet, a Greek dramatist and a Cretan prophet in his own letters and used Jewish tradition to give the names of Jannes and Jambres in 2 Timothy. Jude was quickly adopted as part of the canon of scripture by the early Christian fathers. This book was not written by man, but God spoke through a man who was carried along by the Holy Spirit, no matter how peculiar that bit about Michael disputing with the body of Moses is, and the quotes from the Book of Enoch.
I am now going to quote from a written answer found on “GotQuestions.org” – [[“The only valid question, then, is whether the story is “true.” Whatever the origin of the account, Jude does, in fact, seem to refer to the contest between Michael and the devil, as true. He speaks of it in the same way in which he would have done if he had spoken of the death of Moses or of his smiting the rock. And who can prove that it is not true? What evidence is there that it is not? There are many allusions in the Bible to angels. We know that the archangel Michael is real; there is frequent mention of the devil; and there are numerous affirmations that both bad and good angels are employed in important transactions on the earth. As the nature of this particular dispute over Moses’ body is wholly unknown, conjecture is useless. We do not know whether there was an argument over possession of the body, burial of the body, or anything else.
These two things we do know, however: first, Scripture is inerrant. The inerrancy of Scripture is one of the pillars of the Christian faith. As Christians, our goal is to approach Scripture reverently and prayerfully, and when we find something we do not understand, we pray harder, study more, and - if the answer still eludes us - humbly acknowledge our own limitations in the face of the perfect Word of God.
Second, Jude 9 is the supreme illustration of how Christians are to deal with Satan and demons. The example of Michael refusing to pronounce a curse upon Satan should be a lesson to Christians in how to relate to demonic forces. Believers are not to address them, but rather to seek the Lord’s intervening power against them. If a being, as powerful as Michael, deferred (handed it over) to the Lord in dealing with Satan, who are we to attempt to reproach, cast out, or command demons?”}} (end of quote)
[E]. CLOSING COMMENTS.
There are lessons for us to learn here in our spiritual warfare as we consider this incident. (a). We see it is Michael who is doing the battling. God has put us in the middle of a spiritual battle. We don’t have to go trying to find a battle. We are already in it. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are to put on the full armour of God. Some might remember in Thessalonians we spoke on the breastplate and the helmet (briefly revise). (b). We notice that Michael, in the battle, battles with the authority of God on his side – “The Lord rebuke you!”. Some Christians get drunk on the doctrine of "the believer's authority" and think that they can order the devil around like a lap dog - or speak of him in mocking terms, or go around trying to engage demons. (c). God hasn't called us to judge the devil, or to condemn the devil, or to mock him or accuse him, but to battle against him and his demons in the name of the Lord, taking up the full armour of God!
The world is becoming increasingly evil as man’s wickedness is increasing because godly restraints have been removed. The human race is placing itself into the hands of the occult, and demonic plans to undermine what is good are well under way. Drugs and sexuality (homosexuality), computer games and Satanism in conventional music, increasing hatred for the things of God and the increase of terrorism and destabilisation in the world, are all factors pushing the growing ungodliness in our world. The Christian must not become discouraged, but lift up his eyes to the hills. From where comes his help? His help comes from God.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
