It
was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold,
the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all
their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and
of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
THE STUDY:
Jude
concludes his criticism of the false teachers with two prophecies against them
(Vs 14 & 16). We will be looking at the first prophecy, found in verse 14, which
is a quote from 1 En. 1:9. “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of
his holy ones, ….” Enoch, is an
extremely popular apocryphal book during this time period. The prophecy is
introduced as from Enoch, the seventh
from Adam. When Adam is counted first, Enoch represents the seventh
generation (Gen 5:3–18; 1 Chr 1:1–3). Enoch
stands out among OT characters because the Bible says he “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away”
(Gen 5:24; Heb 11:5).
This prophecy
fits Jude’s denunciation of the false teachers extraordinarily well. Like Jude,
1 Enoch speaks about the ungodly (v 4), the insults of the
ungodly against the Lord and his “holy ones” or angels (vv 8–10), the Lord’s
coming (v 21), God’s judgment (v 6), and the punishment of sinners (vv 7, 10,
11, 13). The relevance of this prophecy to his own struggle against the false
teachers undoubtedly explains Jude’s quotation of this apocryphal writing.
According to the prophecy, the
purpose of the Lord’s coming is to execute
judgment on all. But the punishing of the ungodly was Jude’s main point. This is almost awkwardly
overemphasized with the threefold repetition of ungodly in the last clause of the prophecy (deeds of ungodliness acts, ungodly way, ungodly sinners).[1]
WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY
WITH ….
- We walk away this morning with the understanding that judgment for all is coming, but even more so, the punishment of the ungodly is inevitable.
CONCLUSION:
I have to admit, I have wondered why some people
who are mean, nasty, and/or hateful seem to be the ones who accumulate wealth
and fortune hear on Earth. It just didn’t seem right! Then I started this
personal walk with Jesus and found something interesting in scripture.
My personal goal in life was to obtain
wealth, fame, and fortune. But in Luke 6:24 it reads, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
I interpreted this to mean that if my ambition is to obtain all that the world
has to offer then my focus was not on the right things.
The Bible tells us, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
(Exodus 20:3) If we make God first in our life the reward is eternity with Him,
but if we don’t our punishment is eternity without Him. Today, let our focus be
on what Christ has to offer us opposed to what the world has. Either way the
result will be eternal: with or without God!
Blessings my friends
Pastor Rod
[1]
Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2
Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible
Commentary (284–285). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.
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