Speaking Evil of Dignitaries

"Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.  Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'"   But these speak evil of whatever they do not know..." 

The book of Jude, along with its companion book of 2 Peter, contains one of the sternest warnings against false teachers and apostates found in the Bible.  The fact that ours is an age in which many have departed from the Christian faith, in their actions if not in their words, suggests that this short but serious book should be read very carefully by all who seek to be faithful to the Lord till the end.  In verses 8 through 10, we find the following verses which have challenged the scholars for centuries: "Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.  Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'"   But these speak evil of whatever they do not know..." 

Several aspects of these verses are puzzling.  One is the meaning of "dignitaries" in v. 8.  The Greek word is doxas, which literally means "glories," and has been translated as everything from "rulers," "them that are in authority," to "angelic magesties," to "celestial beings."  But taken most literally, the word simply speaks of those to whom honor is due, and it condemns the sinners who refuse to confer that honor.

Verse 9, speaking of a dispute over the body of Moses, also raises some questions.  We do know from Scripture that Moses' body after his death was buried in the land of Moab, probably by the Lord Himself, for reasons known only to Him (Deut. 34:6).  Satan's dispute over the body may have had to do with its continuing secrecy, which the devil would oppose because he would desire that it would become an idol.  It has also been suggested that Satan, as the great accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10), opposed God's honoring of Moses' body on the basis that Moses was unworthy of honor because of his two notorious sins:  murdering the Egyptian (Ex. 2:11-12); and carelessly smiting the rock in the wilderness, instead of merely speaking to it (Num. 20:8-11).  Verse 9 is also the source of some disagreement regarding against whom the railing accusation is brought.  Many have supposed that Michael dared not bring a railing accusation against Satan, but, as others suggest, the text could be saying that Michael would not go along with Satan in bringing a railing accusation against Moses. 

Much ink has been expended in debating the above difficulties, but consider the clarity and unity of the passage if the following interpretation is intended by its sacred Author.  It is well known among God's people that they are often the target of accusations by the wicked.  This has been true in all ages:  "Marvel not if the world hate you," Jesus said.  It is also a fact of history that in times of spiritual decline, preaching in the church degenerates to the point that rather than the glorious message of Christ and the true gospel, a shallow moralizing takes its place.  In other words, rather than Christ's forgiveness and power to live a godly life, many audiences are treated to a spiritually bland diet of moral stories that tell them what they must do to curry God's favor.  This amounts to being a religion of works in disguise, and it is exactly the kind of preaching that predominated in the churches just prior to the outbreak of the Reformation. 

We believe this is the sad condition of the church today.  Rather than going to the word of God to find Christ there and to glory in His atoning work, His precepts and His Person (for Jesus Himself said the Scriptures "are they which testify of Me"), handlers of the Bible see the sacred pages more as source material for moral lessons, and this very naturally leads to tearing down the great heroes of the faith whom God has told us to honor, and using their sins to exhort us not to do as they did. 

Dr. Peter Masters, long-time pastor of Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, comments at length on this topic in his helpful little book Interpreting the Bible NOT Like Any Other Book.  Focusing his attention on modern interpretations of the judges, Masters points out that while moderns tend to regard most of them as sinful, irresponsible and worldly, those interpretations contradict the inspired opinion of Hebrews 11, the great "Hall of Fame of Faith," which confers spiritual honor on the most faithful Old Testament heroes, including, oddly enough, four of those oft-maligned judges, while telling us nothing of their sins.

Masters sees the new approach which downgrades the great heroes of the faith as follows:  "The only useful application of Samson's life suggested by a popular Bible dictionary is that God is showing us He is prepared to use some very unsatisfactory instruments in His service.  This kind of application could well be an encouragement to slack Christian living." Unfortunately, the results of that message are all around us.  The fact that we so readily think of David the adulterer, Elijah the self-absorbed complainer, or Jonah the believer who ran from God, rather than seeing these characters as great men who performed feats of faith most of us could not even imagine attempting, is an indication that we have all been influenced by this modern tendency.  We have been taught to find comfort (or worse yet, to excuse ourselves) in their sins, yet this is not how God presents them to us – in fact, the sins of the Old Testament saints, with the exception of Lot, are not even mentioned in the New Testament.  (Even in Lot's case, there is no suggestion that he participated in the evil deeds of Sodom – in fact, the context in 2 Peter 2:6-9 is that God delivered righteous Lot out of his temptations.)  As Masters points out, "The four named Judges (Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephtha) are severely criticized in modern evangelical books, but the verdict of God is that they were great stalwarts of faith." 

The problem Masters addresses has reached epidemic proportions today, and we believe Jude addresses it directly in this passage.  Consider Jude's words once again: "Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.  Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'"   But these speak evil of whatever they do not know..." 

It seems the individuals Jude refers to are speaking evil of God's honored saints, especially those like Moses who are honored in Hebrews 11.  Michael the archangel (whom a few older commentators – such as Matthew Poole and John Gill – believe may be no less than Christ Himself) undertakes to advocate for God's people, who are relentlessly persecuted by the devil and his people.   The passage is neatly brought together by the repetition of the words "speak evil" in v. 10, which indicate that all who persecute the people of God, like those who crucified the Savior, "know not what they do" – indeed, the wicked will never understand the righteous, and will always seek to defame them.

The interpretation presented here was more commonly suggested in days gone by, but has become less popular today, perhaps as the issue Jude is addressing has become more common practice.  The great commentator Matthew Henry, for example, says,

Satan would have represented Moses under disadvantageous colors... Now Michael, according to this account, stands up in defense of Moses, and, in the zeal of an upright and bold spirit, says to Satan, "The Lord rebuke thee." He would not stand disputing with the devil, nor enter into a particular debate about the merits of that special cause [of Moses' sin].  He knew Moses was his fellow-servant, a favorite of God, and he would not patiently allow him to be insulted, not even by the prince of devils; but in a just indignation cries out, "The Lord rebuke thee," like that of our Lord himself in Matthew 4:10, when He said, "Get thee hence, Satan." Moses was a dignity, a magistrate, one beloved and preferred by the great God; and the archangel thought it insufferable that such a one should be so treated by a vile apostate spirit...

Henry thus saw it as plausible that the objects of the "reviling" in v. 9 are NOT the devil but the people of God: 

"The people of God, truly and specially so, are the dignities here spoken of or referred to,  according to that of the psalmist, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm, Psalm 105:15.  Religion and its serious professors have been always and every where evil spoken of. Though there is nothing in religion but what is very good, and deserves our highest regards, both as it is perfects our natures and serves our truest and highest interests; yet this sect, as its enemies are pleased to call it, is every where spoken against, Acts 28:22.

Likewise, John Wesley believed those whom the devil railed against in verse 8 were, in a general sense,

those holy men, who for the purity of their lives, the soundness of their doctrine, and the greatness of their labors in the work of the ministry, were truly honorable before God and all good men; and who were grossly vilified by those who turned the grace of God into lasciviousness.

How, then, might we take heed to these inspired words of Jude?  It would be to pay close attention to those whom God honors and whom He condemns, and for what reasons.  While the sins of the Old Testament saints are indeed revealed, probably to keep us from worshipping them as if they were somehow superhuman (for James tells us they were individuals "of like passions as we are"), or from becoming discouraged because we, like all humanity, could never measure up to perfection, we must remember that they are those whom God has greatly honored, and He has done so in the New Testament without parading their sins before us.  While we may learn lessons from their failings, we must do so carefully, remembering that they are set before us not primarily as material for our moral sermons but as heroes of the faith and as examples of true believers who persevered.  We must be careful that we do not find comfort in tearing them down to make ourselves look better by comparison, for that could have dangerous consequences.  For comfort, the sinner and the sinning saint are pointed in Scripture to God's mercy and Christ's blood, not to the sins of other saints.  "And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?...  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye" (Matt. 7:3,5).  "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."  (2 Cor. 10:12)

Finally, we must not forget that, in fact, it is the sins of those who did NOT persevere in the faith, and who perished in the wilderness, which are set before us as warnings that we should NOT do as they did (1 Cor. 10:6-12).  Let us rather hold those sinners in low esteem, as God did, and not the heroes of the faith, yet considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted.