Sun.’s Devo - Hey Jude!

Read: Jude 1
Merry Christmas!!! I pray you are enjoying your family and having a blessed day full of joy and fun. I decided to cut our reading short since we had an extra day due to this being a leap year so we will wait till tomorrow to start Revelation.
Jude is a small book packed with a hodge-podge of mature revelation. It was written by one of Jesus’s brothers, Jude. Once again, we are warned of people who have penetrated the church with heresy. He is talking about the Nicolatians which will be mentioned in Revelation. The word “Nicolatians means “to overthrow the laity”. They practiced sensuality by completely separating their spiritual and physical nature which gave them a license to sin. They eventually established an ecclesiastical order setting up bishops, arch-bishops, cardinals, and popes. God illustrates his anger towards these people giving the examples of his judgement over the angels that rebelled and are in a prison in chains, the children of Israel who rebelled in the wilderness and God killed and didn’t allow them to enter into the land he had promised them, and the people in Sodom and Gomorrha that were given over to sexual perversion. For people who don’t believe in God’s judgement, it would do them good to read Jude.
Then Jude talks about Michael the archangel contending with the devil over Moses’s body. What??? You can look all through the story of Moses and not find any record of this, but if you look in the Book of Enoch you will find the account. Why would God want Moses’ body so bad. I don’t know, but I know that Moses showed up in bodily form at the Transfiguration and so did Elijah - two men whose body was taken and preserved by God. God’s ways are so much higher than mine so that is simply my assumption. Back to the Book of Enoch… there were many historical books that are quoted in the Bible. Jesus, himself quoted the Book of Enoch many times. Other books are mentioned in the Bible like the Book of the Wars, the Book of Histories, the Assumption of Moses, just to name a few. These books held truth, but were not canonized as totally true. The Book of Enoch holds the writings of many people.
After much warning of the deception that was and is in the church, Jude admonishes us to keep ourselves in the love of God. To some people, we are to have compassion and pull them out of the fire to others we are to have distinction.
Lord, thank you that you are able to keep us from stumbling and you will present us faultless. You alone are wise and all glory and majesty, power and dominion are yours.