5"Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it." Jude opens the proof of his case with a reminder. The Word Biblical Commentary notes that he is preaching in a form called midrash, which took a text, explained it, and applied it. Verses 5 through 16 contain two three-point sermons, the first using three events and the second three people. The first example is the generation that left Egypt, rescued by the hand of God and then dead in the wilderness because they did not believe. The Bible Speaks Today commentary draws out the warning: privilege offers no security. To be among the delivered is no guarantee of arriving.
The second example is angels who left their proper dwelling, drawn from the tradition about Genesis 6. The third is Sodom and Gomorrah, which 7"serve as an example." Jewish writers before Jude often listed these three together. He uses a familiar set of cautionary tales, and the point is continuity. What God did to rebels in the past previews what he will do to those who repeat their pattern.
Then Jude applies it, and the next verse has troubled readers most, since it refers to a story not found in our Old Testament. 9"Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" One careful reading, advanced by Richard Bauckham and Gene Green, sees a parallel with Zechariah 3, where the LORD himself rebukes Satan. Michael, despite his rank, hands the matter back to God. If the archangel will not presume, people who slander what they do not understand are far more presumptuous. Jude's use of a source outside the Old Testament does not make it Scripture, any more than Paul's quotations of pagan poets do.
The second sermon begins with a woe. 11"They walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion." The three persons stand for three sins. Cain is murderous envy, Balaam is the love of gain, and Korah is rebellion against the leaders God appointed.
The closing images are vivid. The Greek for hidden reefs, *spilades*, names rocks in the sea, the kind that wreck ships when the water covers them. The love feasts were the shared meals of the early church, and the danger sat at the table. Then the images multiply, waterless clouds, fruitless trees, wild waves that leave only foam, and wandering stars. Three of the five belong to the sea. Hidden reefs, wild waves, and wandering stars describe a voyage gone wrong, since sailors steered by the fixed stars and a wandering one is useless to a navigator.
Each picture shows a promise that fails, refreshment that does not come and guidance that does not guide. The defense is to know what is true.
Ask what in your own life looks like a steady star but wanders.
Prayer
Father, keep your church from the hazards that hide beneath the surface. Remind us of what we once knew, that privilege gives no security and that you judge unbelief. Keep us from envy like Cain, from greed like Balaam, and from rebellion like Korah. Keep us steering by your fixed and faithful light. In Jesus' name, amen.