Destroyed And Imprisoned

Jude 5-7

Now Jude is going to compare these false teachers to others in the past who also followed wrong paths and faulty thinking processes, and their end. 

(5) Now I desire to remind you, though you once knew all this, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. 

First he mentions the children of Israel that God performed many great miracles for, in delivering them out of slavery and providing for all their needs in the desert; how they refused to trust Him and follow Him, and all died in the desert, never seeing the land that was promised to them. 

(6) And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great Day, 

We don't know a lot about these angels, but some scholars have linked this passage with Genesis 6 that tells of "sons of God" who "saw the daughters of men" and produced children who were "men of renown," and "giants" (Genesis 6: 1-4). So these could have been angelic beings who left their heavenly domain to come to the Earth instead, and diluted the human DNA, to change the purity of what God designed. 

Then God called out Noah, because he was "a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (Genesis 6: 9). So Noah worshipped God, and his lineage was not polluted with the mixture that was spreading. 

And these angels are imprisoned in darkness, held by eternal chains. They are not the demons who follow our adversary, who roams the Earth "seeking someone to devour" (I Peter 5: 8). 

(7) just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. 

This story is in Genesis 19: 18-29. Jude says that these false teachers that have wormed their way into the church are just like those men of Sodom and Gomorrah who indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh. 

The gross immorality was their lifestyle of sensuality, seeking physical relationships with anything other than God's design, including everything imaginable. And when the angels came, they wanted this new experience, too. So they went after strange flesh. 

This is so twisted that it turns God's stomach, and He destroyed that whole plain so that these evil ideas would not spread. They are given to us as an example of the righteousness of God in justly dealing with all evil. 

Jude is very serious with his readers, that they understand that the false teachers that are sneaking into the congregations of the church need to be recognized for what they are doing, and dealt with, to not pollute the purity of the gospel of Christ. 

God is very serious about His message, and He will not fail to punish everyone who rejects Him and lives ungodly lives, teaching others to do the same evil that they indulge in. 

We also need to be serious about examining our leaders and teachers, to make sure that they don't deviate from God's Truth. To be able to do that, we need to know God's Truth. Then we will recognize whatever doesn't conform to it as counterfeit. 

We can't just listen to a sermon and assume it's all right. We as members of the congregation must look at the Scriptures, and see that our pastors and teachers are not taking them out of context. 

We need to do our own studies, also, so we will be able to see what conforms and what does not conform to the whole story God gives us there. This is our personal responsibility as children of God. 

God loves us, and wants us to know Him. Our enemy doesn't want us to know God, so he sends in his lackeys to disguise themselves as "ministers of righteousness" to draw people away from God (see II Corinthians 11: 14-15). 

O my Father, You are so good to give us Your written Word to study and research and understand and know; and to know that we can trust You for what we don't understand. 

Teach us, Father; lead us into Your Truth, guide us all into a more complete understanding of what You want us to know. We want to know You, Father, and to know Your ways. 

We want to follow Your ways, and to not be turned away to the right or to the left, to not wander away or fall into a ditch, to not run ahead of You or lag behind. Keep our hand in Yours to follow in Your footsteps, until we reach the end of the road, into Your eternal Day! 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King of all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!