3. Sodom and Gomorrah (1:7): When Sodom and Gomorrah became wicked fire burned their cities along with the neighbouring cities viz, Admah and Zeboim which are at the southern end of the Dead Sea. In due course they were engulfed by an earthquake. Dead Sea is shape is like the figure-8. The cities which were covered are slowly reappearing. Sodom and Gomorrah were punished because they went against God’s laws. Homosexual relationships became tolerated, just as today. Criticizing such union of same sex is regarded as politically incorrect and a sort of sex discrimination. Jude is warning Christians not to get associated with such people and their ideas. God is very much against such immorality and it is an abomination in the sight of God.
4. Cain: (1:11): Jude gives individual examples. Cain who killed his brother out of jealousy (Gen.4:8). False teachers are motivated in part by jealousy just like Cain. This will affect those who follow them. Cain rebelled against God’s way of Salvation. When Adam and Eve had sinned, God clothed them with the skin of the slain animals (Gen.3:21). This is a clear picture that the only way of forgiveness is by the shedding the blood. Instead of offering the best of animals to God, he brought the fruit of the soil (Gen.4:3). This again shows that Cain rejected God’s authority and takes it very casually.
5. Balaam: The prophet Balaam was very gifted that those he blesses are blessed and those he curses are cursed. He was offered money to prophesy against Israel (Num.22:1-6). Here he is trading his gift with the ambition to earn more and more money. We must be careful now that many preachers are trading their gifts viz, gift of miracles, gift of healing into money making and building their own empires. God did not call such Christians for trading their gifts but to pass on the Salvation message to build the body of Christ in this world.
6. Korah: Again Korah was a man of ambition who was jealous of Moses and wanted to set up his own show (Num.16:31-35). There are many such Korahs in this world. Some Churches are built for the wrong reasons. They are set up because man wanted his own show. Even in the Tribulation period after the ‘Rapture of the Church’ many such man made show churches would be set up. In Communist countries too such churches are being set up. In the end Korah was swallowed up in judgement with 250 others who perished because of their defiance of the authority that God had invested in Moses.
The above examples of 3-groups and 3- individuals are a clear warning to all the believers to be faithful till the end.
Learning from Michael: (1:8-10)
This is the most puzzling verse is the Satan disputing with Michael the archangel regarding the body of Moses. Moses died on Mount Nebo (Deu.34:1-6), but no one knows where his grave is to this day. So no one knows who buried him. The answer is that God sent the angel Michael to bury Moses. Here Satan may have wanted to use Moses’ body as an object of worship to lead Israel astray into idolatry or Satan wanted to desecrate the body of Moses, and claimed a right to it because Moses had murdered an Egyptian.
It is also quite possible that the devil anticipated a purpose that God had for Moses’ body, and he tried to defeat that plan because we know that after his death, Moses appeared in bodily form at the Transfiguration (Matt.17:1-3) with Elijah (whose body was caught up to heaven in 2 Kings 2). Perhaps also Moses and Elijah are the two witnesses of (Rev.11:3), and God needed Moses’ body for that future plan.
Angels are very practical people. They are good cooks (Elijah was fed with meals regularly). In (Heb.13:2) “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.” So this angel was sent with a spade to bury the body of Moses, but when he got there the devil was standing over the body and claimed the body belongs to him. Michael could have rebuked him and poured out curses upon for claiming the body, but simply said that “The Lord rebuke you” thereby submitting the entire matter into the Lord’s hand. Subsequently the archangel Michael buried Moses properly.