Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jude 1:5 - 1:7

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jude 1:5 - 1:7


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Examples of the judgment of God:

v. 5. I will, therefore, put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

v. 6. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day.

v. 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

The apostle offers a number of illustrations from the Old Testament to show that the Judgment will finally come upon all deceivers: But I desire to remind you, since you are perfectly aware of it all, that the Lord, having delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those that did not believe. The examples of God's wrath and punishment which Jude intended to refer to had, of course, been included in the instruction which the readers had received in the doctrine of Scriptures. Therefore Jude feels that it is but necessary for him to remind them of a few in order to bring out his point; it was not necessary to write at length. There was, first of all, the illustration from the history of the children of Israel. God had indeed delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh, brought them out of the land of Egypt with great might and with an outstretched arm. But when they were afterwards disobedient and refused to believe the words which He spoke to them through His servant Moses, He kept them in the wilderness for forty years until all those had been destroyed and perished that had left Egypt as adults.

A further example of God's wrath and punishment is that of the evil angels: And angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He has reserved for the Judgment of the great day, with everlasting bonds under darkness. In the beginning God made all His creatures good, including the angels, Gen_1:31. But certain of His angels were not satisfied with their position, with their office, with their dignity. They rose up in rebellion against the Lord and left the habitation which the Lord had given them. The punishment of the Lord, therefore, came upon them with almighty force: they are being reserved, or kept, in everlasting chains under darkness, in a state of confinement from which they cannot escape. With God's permission they may move around in the world, but they are still under the doom from which there is no escape; they have been cut off forever from true fellowship with God, from the hope of salvation, 2Pe_2:4.

A third illustration is taken from the book of Genesis: Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having glutted themselves in fornication in like manner as these men and gone after other flesh, are set forth for an example, sentenced to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. So unspeakably filthy were the transgressions of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah that they have become synonyms for all that is unmentionably debased in human nature. And the cities nearby, Adamah and Zeboim, Deu_29:23; Hos_11:8, followed their example and became guilty of like excesses in unnatural fornication, not even hesitating to cohabit with beasts. The curse of the Lord, therefore, Deu_27:21; Lev_18:23; Lev_20:15-16, descended upon these cities and their inhabitants. Fire from heaven fell down and destroyed their possessions even to the last stone, and to this day the Dead Sea is a warning sign of the fierceness of God's vengeance, just as the transgressors are suffering the pains of everlasting fire in hell.