-4-
What is God Really Like?
Jude says that God is very upset with so-called Bible teachers who “turn the grace of God in permissiveness”. This is a teaching that claims God’s grace covers everything, so you can enjoy all the pleasures and indulgences of life. This teaching says that you can make life a party, doing all of the things that make you feel good … and God allows it all.
Jude says that these people are:
12 ... hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
He also said that these men were, 16 grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
And I will perhaps comment on these verses at a later point but for now I want to talk about a side of God that we don’t think of a lot. Maybe it is a side of God that we would rather not dwell on.
God is good. God is love. God is merciful. God is Holy. But God is also the ultimate in justice. And that can show up in a way that God-haters would like to twist to make God look like a mean and vengeful God.
Jude gives us three examples of how God responded to disobedience in the past. Jude’s (God’s) purpose in relaying God’s past actions is to affirm that God has not changed. What He has done before, He will do again, if necessary.
So, let’s go back to verse 5. 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.
This is illustration number one that will show a side of God that any present day false bible teachers need to be aware of.
These believers to whom Jude is writing have heard this before. And so it is with us. There are a lot of things we have heard and read in the scriptures, but for reasons unknown, we have not really dwelt on them or let them sink in.
Jude reminds us that the Lord had saved the Israelites out of the bondage in Egypt and was bringing them through the desert. Every day was a miracle. A huge pillar of cloud hovered over their tent of worship (also called the tabernacle). When it was time to move, the cloud lifted up and started moving out. The camp of Israel followed in an orderly manner. If their travel that day went on into the evening, the cloud turned to a huge pillar of fire, lighting the way before them. A daily miracle!
So, Jude says that God destroyed some of them, and, he says, it was for the sake of not ‘believing’ God. What exactly did they do? How bad was it? Paul gives a summary in I Corinthians. 10 1-7 For I should like to remind you, my brothers, that our ancestors all had the experience of being guided by the cloud in the desert and of crossing the sea dry-shod. They were all, so to speak, “baptised” into Moses by these experiences. They all shared the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink (for they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ). Yet in spite of all these wonderful experiences many of them failed to please God, and left their bones in the desert. Now in these events our ancestors stand as examples to us, warning us not to crave after evil things as they did. Nor are you to worship false gods as they did. The scripture says—‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ What false god is being worshipped? That would be the god of self.
The ‘self-cult’ is probably the biggest form of idol worship in the world today. It is not an ‘organized’ religion, or formal religion. But it is real. We have been taught by advertisers to take care of ourselves. And how easy it is to eat, drink and play!
8-10 Neither should we give way to sexual immorality as did some of them, for we read that twenty-three thousand fell in a single day!
23,000 is hard to imagine. God, in our own vernacular, was incensed! How did they die? We know nothing other than that it was called a plague, and that it came by the hand of God. If you were to read the account in Numbers 25 you will notice it was 24000 who died that day. Why the difference of 1000? An additional 1000 ‘leaders’ did not die of the plague, but were executed. These leaders were held accountable for what the people were led to believe.
What is God like? Were these measures justified? Well, first of all, who are we to judge God! God hates sin. He is especially angry when leaders who know better, lead others astray. These Israelites allowed themselves to be connected with the outside world and began worshipping their way. It involved offering sacrifices to Baal. It involved a sexual element in their worship. So for allowing ‘worldliness’ to draw them away from God, He took out all the offending parties.
In our New Testament era, here is what God tells us through the Apostle Paul. He compares the church to a lump of dough. 1Co 5:7 ¶ Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
In actual ‘dough’ it is impossible to remove the leaven, the yeast. But apparently it is possible to remove it from a church body. How much of the world do we have in the church of today? I think we are so accustomed to our style of western living that we have no idea really … just how much of it is ‘leaven’, and really does not belong in our lives.
God took the leaven out of the first church in the book of Acts. Let’s read about it. (Remember, this is New Testament)
Acts 4:32 ¶ Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold
35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus,
37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
1 ¶ But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God."
5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.
6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much."
9 But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."
10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
We don’t usually associate this kind of discipline of God’s people in our New Testament era. But there it is. God, who is rich in mercy, took Ananias and Saphira out of the church. He called them home to heaven. How did Peter describe their sin … You have not lied to man but to God.
What is God like? He is loving, kind and gracious. He is also firm and just and means what He says.
But, are you thinking, I can’t remember God ever doing something like that in my lifetime. You know what? Neither can I. And why do suppose that is? I am thinking that when God’s body, the church is so spotless except for one blot … How easy is it for God to clean up the church? Just one blot. God takes out the blot. But when the church is so spotted and spoiled all over the body, He could not remove the spots without getting rid of the whole garment.
So does that mean we get away with it? I realise that many christians have espoused the idea that the coming judgment seat of Christ is mostly an awards banquet. I don’t see it that way. Just because we are getting away with having a huge percentage of the world’s values in our churches, that is not the end of it. The apostle Paul said, Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. 1Ti 5:24
That is … some of us get corrected here and now. But some of us will face our deeds later when we meet up with Jesus. How wonderful it will be for some or many of us to appear at the judgment seat of Christ, and hear the words, “Well done, faithful servant!” What an honor. But how dis-honorable to appear at the judgment … and not hear those words, and instead have to face the fact that we were ‘called home’ in a dis-honorable manner.
The end result of God’s removing Annanias and Sapphira was this; 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
Before we continue in Jude, Paul has more to say about God’s ‘discipline’ of Israel while they traveled in the desert grumbling and complaining. Paul said, Nor should we dare to exploit the goodness of God as some of them did, and fell victims to poisonous snakes. Nor yet must you curse the lot that God has appointed to you as they did, and met their end at the hand of the angel of death.
11 Now these things which happened to our ancestors are illustrations of the way in which God works, and they were written down to be a warning to us who are the heirs of the ages which have gone before us.
Let’s not allow our view of God’s grace to cloud our thinking to the extent that we think that God is not like that anymore. One last verse from Paul and it is a warning.
12 So let the man who feels sure of his standing today be careful that he does not fall tomorrow.
And now back to Jude.
6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
When God created this earth and the universe He made a simple remark at the end of each day. He said, It is good. Then he created man and said, It is very good. He had fellowship with Adam daily. Then he created a help-meet for him by opening the flesh of Adam’s body, removing the ‘spare’ rib, and with it, creating a woman.
Everything was perfect and good. The angels had been created prior to any of the Genesis creations. God spoke to his servant, Job in chapter 38 of that book, and asked Job some questions. It was impossible for Job to answer any of these questions. Here is one of them. 4 ¶ "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? But it is because of the questions that God asked Job that day, that we learn something about God’s creative acts. In chapter 38 verse 7, after God had reminded Job of various aspects of creation, God added this comment; 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
What we learn from that, is that the ‘sons of God’, the angels, were already existing when God did His instantaneous creating. They literally shouted for joy. That must have been some tremendous, Wow!
But Adam and Eve were together in the garden when Satan appeared. Genesis has no prior mention of how Lucifer got to become satan. He just appears. But we have a reference to Lucifer … walking around on this created earth … and he is not yet called Satan or the Devil. He was a perfect angel, walking around on this planet. Here is the reference. Ezekiel 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.
Lucifer, having been filled with his own pride, led a rebellion against God. As a result, God cast him down to earth, along with about one third of all the angels. Lucifer was a ‘covering’ angel of creation. This includes the entire universe. But from that day onward, his sphere of operation has been from earth to heaven. He still appears before God as our ‘accuser’. Very shortly he will be limited entirely to this earth with no travel privileges whatever.
But is this what Jude is talking about when he says, ‘the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day’?
I don’t think so, for this reason. Satan’s fallen angels are on the loose. They are not chained up somewhere, waiting for judgment day. So what other angels could Jude be talking about?
I believe Jude is specifically referring to some of the angels who sinned so grossly in the days and years just before the universal, global flood. Whether their sin was to cohabit with women, as some teach, or their sin was to ‘possess’ certain men, so that they could in some way vicariously enjoy the human sex act, or whatever else may have happened at the time, it was so gross, so sinful that God has literally chained up those angels. They are no longer on the loose.
They are still there, in a prison … just waiting for judgment day. This, too, shows an aspect of God. There are certain things that He does not put up with. God has not changed. Full of mercy … but also full of justice.
Here is Jude’s third example of what God is like when it comes to God’s justice. (From the Philips Translation) 7a Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent cities who, in the same way as these men today, gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion, stand in their punishment as a permanent warning of the fire of judgment.
We have little or no knowledge of the city of Gomorrah. We believe it was a city adjacent to Sodom. These two cities were punished … literally taken out completely, for their perversion. They existed in the geographical region at the bottom of the Jordan River. This river does not flow into the sea, as most do. The water comes from the north and flows southward into the Dead Sea. From there it simply evaporates. But at one time in history there was no Dead Sea.
At the time that Lot left his uncle Abraham and moved down toward Sodom, the entire area next to Sodom was a ‘well-watered’ plain. The Jordan river actually split up and into many rivulets and watered that large area of land. Today it flows into the Dead Sea. We are told that the surface of the Dead Sea is presently 1400 hundred feet below sea level. The depth of the sea at its lowest point is 997 additional feet below sea level. So what happened? God literally burned a ‘hole’ in the earth when he removed Sodom and Gomorrah. Does this give us a small picture of what God is like when it comes to perversion?
God’s creation was perfect in every way. Lucifer's anger with God for having demoted him, is expressed by his perverting as much of God’s creation as he possibly can. God showed His displeasure.
Perversion still is going on. Which means God is still displeased. In the case of Sodom, God did not want to show His displeasure upon His own children, so He removed Lot first. Scripture states that we, His children, are not ‘appointed to His wrath’.
When God removed Annanias and Sapphira, that was not His wrath. When God removed the unnamed young prophet mentioned in I Kings 13, that was not His wrath. When God has to call one of His own servants home due to their disobedience here, that is His choice and decision, but it is not His wrath. For the individual it is a dishonorable situation to arrive in heaven that way. And this certainly shows an aspect of what God is like when it comes to His justice.
But in the cases that Jude includes ...Angels who sinned and Sodomites who lived perverted lives, we see God’s judgment and wrath. In the case of the Israelites who sinned … if some of them went to hell … that would be wrath. But if any were believers that God removed and took to heaven, well, that would be the justice of God.
So in these three examples of God’s justice, Jude is setting the stage for what God has in store for present day ‘perverters’ of God’s creative order of things.
What will be their ultimate end? And why do we need to know? Among other things, as children of God we are able to re-learn something that we all learned long ago if we have been a part of a family having multiple siblings. In such a case, assuming that Mom and Dad were consistent in their rules and discipline … when one child REALLY crossed the line, the others stood back and witnessed the result. And we said to ourselves …’Wow. I better watch myself! That could happen to me!’
So, yes, we serve an awesome God. A wonderful Father. A God of grace and mercy. And a God to fear when we cross certain lines!
Let’s try to gain a wholesome and balanced respect for our Father in Heaven.
And just how bad these evil men are who have crept into the church, we will discover in the next verses.
Jude says that these people are:
12 ... hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
He also said that these men were, 16 grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
And I will perhaps comment on these verses at a later point but for now I want to talk about a side of God that we don’t think of a lot. Maybe it is a side of God that we would rather not dwell on.
God is good. God is love. God is merciful. God is Holy. But God is also the ultimate in justice. And that can show up in a way that God-haters would like to twist to make God look like a mean and vengeful God.
Jude gives us three examples of how God responded to disobedience in the past. Jude’s (God’s) purpose in relaying God’s past actions is to affirm that God has not changed. What He has done before, He will do again, if necessary.
So, let’s go back to verse 5. 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.
This is illustration number one that will show a side of God that any present day false bible teachers need to be aware of.
These believers to whom Jude is writing have heard this before. And so it is with us. There are a lot of things we have heard and read in the scriptures, but for reasons unknown, we have not really dwelt on them or let them sink in.
Jude reminds us that the Lord had saved the Israelites out of the bondage in Egypt and was bringing them through the desert. Every day was a miracle. A huge pillar of cloud hovered over their tent of worship (also called the tabernacle). When it was time to move, the cloud lifted up and started moving out. The camp of Israel followed in an orderly manner. If their travel that day went on into the evening, the cloud turned to a huge pillar of fire, lighting the way before them. A daily miracle!
So, Jude says that God destroyed some of them, and, he says, it was for the sake of not ‘believing’ God. What exactly did they do? How bad was it? Paul gives a summary in I Corinthians. 10 1-7 For I should like to remind you, my brothers, that our ancestors all had the experience of being guided by the cloud in the desert and of crossing the sea dry-shod. They were all, so to speak, “baptised” into Moses by these experiences. They all shared the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink (for they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ). Yet in spite of all these wonderful experiences many of them failed to please God, and left their bones in the desert. Now in these events our ancestors stand as examples to us, warning us not to crave after evil things as they did. Nor are you to worship false gods as they did. The scripture says—‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ What false god is being worshipped? That would be the god of self.
The ‘self-cult’ is probably the biggest form of idol worship in the world today. It is not an ‘organized’ religion, or formal religion. But it is real. We have been taught by advertisers to take care of ourselves. And how easy it is to eat, drink and play!
8-10 Neither should we give way to sexual immorality as did some of them, for we read that twenty-three thousand fell in a single day!
23,000 is hard to imagine. God, in our own vernacular, was incensed! How did they die? We know nothing other than that it was called a plague, and that it came by the hand of God. If you were to read the account in Numbers 25 you will notice it was 24000 who died that day. Why the difference of 1000? An additional 1000 ‘leaders’ did not die of the plague, but were executed. These leaders were held accountable for what the people were led to believe.
What is God like? Were these measures justified? Well, first of all, who are we to judge God! God hates sin. He is especially angry when leaders who know better, lead others astray. These Israelites allowed themselves to be connected with the outside world and began worshipping their way. It involved offering sacrifices to Baal. It involved a sexual element in their worship. So for allowing ‘worldliness’ to draw them away from God, He took out all the offending parties.
In our New Testament era, here is what God tells us through the Apostle Paul. He compares the church to a lump of dough. 1Co 5:7 ¶ Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
In actual ‘dough’ it is impossible to remove the leaven, the yeast. But apparently it is possible to remove it from a church body. How much of the world do we have in the church of today? I think we are so accustomed to our style of western living that we have no idea really … just how much of it is ‘leaven’, and really does not belong in our lives.
God took the leaven out of the first church in the book of Acts. Let’s read about it. (Remember, this is New Testament)
Acts 4:32 ¶ Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold
35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus,
37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
1 ¶ But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God."
5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.
6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much."
9 But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."
10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
We don’t usually associate this kind of discipline of God’s people in our New Testament era. But there it is. God, who is rich in mercy, took Ananias and Saphira out of the church. He called them home to heaven. How did Peter describe their sin … You have not lied to man but to God.
What is God like? He is loving, kind and gracious. He is also firm and just and means what He says.
But, are you thinking, I can’t remember God ever doing something like that in my lifetime. You know what? Neither can I. And why do suppose that is? I am thinking that when God’s body, the church is so spotless except for one blot … How easy is it for God to clean up the church? Just one blot. God takes out the blot. But when the church is so spotted and spoiled all over the body, He could not remove the spots without getting rid of the whole garment.
So does that mean we get away with it? I realise that many christians have espoused the idea that the coming judgment seat of Christ is mostly an awards banquet. I don’t see it that way. Just because we are getting away with having a huge percentage of the world’s values in our churches, that is not the end of it. The apostle Paul said, Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. 1Ti 5:24
That is … some of us get corrected here and now. But some of us will face our deeds later when we meet up with Jesus. How wonderful it will be for some or many of us to appear at the judgment seat of Christ, and hear the words, “Well done, faithful servant!” What an honor. But how dis-honorable to appear at the judgment … and not hear those words, and instead have to face the fact that we were ‘called home’ in a dis-honorable manner.
The end result of God’s removing Annanias and Sapphira was this; 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
Before we continue in Jude, Paul has more to say about God’s ‘discipline’ of Israel while they traveled in the desert grumbling and complaining. Paul said, Nor should we dare to exploit the goodness of God as some of them did, and fell victims to poisonous snakes. Nor yet must you curse the lot that God has appointed to you as they did, and met their end at the hand of the angel of death.
11 Now these things which happened to our ancestors are illustrations of the way in which God works, and they were written down to be a warning to us who are the heirs of the ages which have gone before us.
Let’s not allow our view of God’s grace to cloud our thinking to the extent that we think that God is not like that anymore. One last verse from Paul and it is a warning.
12 So let the man who feels sure of his standing today be careful that he does not fall tomorrow.
And now back to Jude.
6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
When God created this earth and the universe He made a simple remark at the end of each day. He said, It is good. Then he created man and said, It is very good. He had fellowship with Adam daily. Then he created a help-meet for him by opening the flesh of Adam’s body, removing the ‘spare’ rib, and with it, creating a woman.
Everything was perfect and good. The angels had been created prior to any of the Genesis creations. God spoke to his servant, Job in chapter 38 of that book, and asked Job some questions. It was impossible for Job to answer any of these questions. Here is one of them. 4 ¶ "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? But it is because of the questions that God asked Job that day, that we learn something about God’s creative acts. In chapter 38 verse 7, after God had reminded Job of various aspects of creation, God added this comment; 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
What we learn from that, is that the ‘sons of God’, the angels, were already existing when God did His instantaneous creating. They literally shouted for joy. That must have been some tremendous, Wow!
But Adam and Eve were together in the garden when Satan appeared. Genesis has no prior mention of how Lucifer got to become satan. He just appears. But we have a reference to Lucifer … walking around on this created earth … and he is not yet called Satan or the Devil. He was a perfect angel, walking around on this planet. Here is the reference. Ezekiel 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.
Lucifer, having been filled with his own pride, led a rebellion against God. As a result, God cast him down to earth, along with about one third of all the angels. Lucifer was a ‘covering’ angel of creation. This includes the entire universe. But from that day onward, his sphere of operation has been from earth to heaven. He still appears before God as our ‘accuser’. Very shortly he will be limited entirely to this earth with no travel privileges whatever.
But is this what Jude is talking about when he says, ‘the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day’?
I don’t think so, for this reason. Satan’s fallen angels are on the loose. They are not chained up somewhere, waiting for judgment day. So what other angels could Jude be talking about?
I believe Jude is specifically referring to some of the angels who sinned so grossly in the days and years just before the universal, global flood. Whether their sin was to cohabit with women, as some teach, or their sin was to ‘possess’ certain men, so that they could in some way vicariously enjoy the human sex act, or whatever else may have happened at the time, it was so gross, so sinful that God has literally chained up those angels. They are no longer on the loose.
They are still there, in a prison … just waiting for judgment day. This, too, shows an aspect of God. There are certain things that He does not put up with. God has not changed. Full of mercy … but also full of justice.
Here is Jude’s third example of what God is like when it comes to God’s justice. (From the Philips Translation) 7a Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent cities who, in the same way as these men today, gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion, stand in their punishment as a permanent warning of the fire of judgment.
We have little or no knowledge of the city of Gomorrah. We believe it was a city adjacent to Sodom. These two cities were punished … literally taken out completely, for their perversion. They existed in the geographical region at the bottom of the Jordan River. This river does not flow into the sea, as most do. The water comes from the north and flows southward into the Dead Sea. From there it simply evaporates. But at one time in history there was no Dead Sea.
At the time that Lot left his uncle Abraham and moved down toward Sodom, the entire area next to Sodom was a ‘well-watered’ plain. The Jordan river actually split up and into many rivulets and watered that large area of land. Today it flows into the Dead Sea. We are told that the surface of the Dead Sea is presently 1400 hundred feet below sea level. The depth of the sea at its lowest point is 997 additional feet below sea level. So what happened? God literally burned a ‘hole’ in the earth when he removed Sodom and Gomorrah. Does this give us a small picture of what God is like when it comes to perversion?
God’s creation was perfect in every way. Lucifer's anger with God for having demoted him, is expressed by his perverting as much of God’s creation as he possibly can. God showed His displeasure.
Perversion still is going on. Which means God is still displeased. In the case of Sodom, God did not want to show His displeasure upon His own children, so He removed Lot first. Scripture states that we, His children, are not ‘appointed to His wrath’.
When God removed Annanias and Sapphira, that was not His wrath. When God removed the unnamed young prophet mentioned in I Kings 13, that was not His wrath. When God has to call one of His own servants home due to their disobedience here, that is His choice and decision, but it is not His wrath. For the individual it is a dishonorable situation to arrive in heaven that way. And this certainly shows an aspect of what God is like when it comes to His justice.
But in the cases that Jude includes ...Angels who sinned and Sodomites who lived perverted lives, we see God’s judgment and wrath. In the case of the Israelites who sinned … if some of them went to hell … that would be wrath. But if any were believers that God removed and took to heaven, well, that would be the justice of God.
So in these three examples of God’s justice, Jude is setting the stage for what God has in store for present day ‘perverters’ of God’s creative order of things.
What will be their ultimate end? And why do we need to know? Among other things, as children of God we are able to re-learn something that we all learned long ago if we have been a part of a family having multiple siblings. In such a case, assuming that Mom and Dad were consistent in their rules and discipline … when one child REALLY crossed the line, the others stood back and witnessed the result. And we said to ourselves …’Wow. I better watch myself! That could happen to me!’
So, yes, we serve an awesome God. A wonderful Father. A God of grace and mercy. And a God to fear when we cross certain lines!
Let’s try to gain a wholesome and balanced respect for our Father in Heaven.
And just how bad these evil men are who have crept into the church, we will discover in the next verses.