“Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves,” 8-10.
Jude continues to help us understand the ‘thinking’ of the “certain men (who have) crept in unawares”.
1. NOTE THE TERMS JUDE EMPLOYS TO DESCRIBE THESE DECEIVERS.
“These filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.”
1. Please note the explicit language Jude employs. He calls these men for what they were!
* They are filthy dreamers. ‘Dreams’, the strange and fanciful illusions, the outworkings of our own minds during the darkness of the night! Jeremiah met this sort. “Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal,” Jer 23:27. (V. 32)
* They are defilers. Peter uses a similar phrase. This is how they live and influence others. ’Defile” = ‘defile, pollute, sully, contaminate.’ Society today is thus defiled by those, in pulpits, who are of the same character as those Jude was attacking.
* They despise dominion. That means that they “despise government” as Peter puts it. They have no regard for the order that God has constituted! They neither submit to God or the authorities He has established for the good of mankind. That is why those laws that make certain practices illegal have been cast aside by political parties, influenced and led by such deceivers and the very opposite has become law!
* They speak evil of dignities. That is, they mock and deride those sent of God to speak on His behalf. Moses, the prophets, the apostles, even the Saviour Himself — all are mocked by the devil’s agents who had invaded the churches in Jude’s day and who likewise are to be heard today!
2. In like manner, Paul and the other apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit used such terms of evil men. Acts 13:101-11. It must be said that the Lord Jesus led the way in such condemnations! Matthew 23!
II. THEY WERE A CONTRAST TO THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL.
1. The chief of the angels shows us how we should treat eternal matters. Here is an incident that we have little information on — “When contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses.”
(A) The angels carry out a wonderful duty, guarding the people of God. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.
(B) They even safeguarded the mortal remains of Moses. Such is the hatred of the devil toward the people of God he would wish harm to their corpses! We do not know anything about this incident other than what is stated here. But the devil hates the bodies of true believers while are alive and, because of what the Lord plans for our bodies — resurrection to glory (1 Cor 15:52) — he hates them even when life has departed. This helps explain the bitterness that drove evil men to dig up the bones of John Wycliffe and burned them and had the ashes thrown into the River Swift at Lutterworth, in 1428, some 44 years after he died,.
2. Note how Michael addressed the devil. He admonished the devil in the name of the Lord. He invoked the authority of God against the devil. The word ‘rebuke’ is the same as appears in Matthew 8:26. “Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” The Lord can calm any storms the devil creates and this the chief of the angels knew!