Navigating social gatherings can be tricky, particularly if conversations veer towards negativity or gossip. Y’hudah’s call to assurance and hope provides a strong basis for being a light in dark places. Before heading into such environments, pray for clarity and determination to uphold your values. Look for opportunities to redirect conversations towards encouragement and hope, perhaps by sharing personal testimonies of God’s work in your life. Doing so strengthens your faith and inspires others to reflect positively on their journeys.

False Teachers

⁸ Likewise, these people, with their visions, defile their own flesh, despise godly authority, and insult angelic beings.

The false teachers’ sins were like verses 5-7 in our last post. They pursued empty dreams and arrogantly committed sexual immorality, rebelled against authority, and blasphemed angelic beings.

⁹ When Mikha’el, one of the ruling angels, took issue with the Adversary, arguing over the body of Moshe, he did not dare bring against him an insulting charge, but said, “May Adonai rebuke you.”

Y’hudah contrasted the heretics’ blasphemy of angels with the restraint that Mikha’el showed when he took issue with the Adversary, arguing over the body of Moshe. Scholars generally agree that this story was taken from the Assumption of Moses, an apocryphal book. In the story, Mikha’el sought to bury Moshe’s body. Satan opposed the burial with the claim that he was lord over matter and Moshe was a murderer. Rather than assuming the right to condemn Satan for his slander, Mikha’el called on the Lord to judge.

 ¹⁰ However, these people insult anything they don’t understand; and what they do understand naturally, without thinking, like animals—by these things they are destroyed!

Y’hudah described the false teachers as slandering what they did not understand. He compared them to animals.

¹¹ Woe to them, in that they have walked the road of Kayin, they have given themselves over for money to the error of Bil‘am, they have been destroyed in the rebellion of Korach.

The road of Kayin (Cain) took him “out from the presence of Adonai” (Genesis 4:16) because he refused to accept God’s advice and did not take advantage of any of the five or six opportunities God gave him to repent (Genesis 4:1–16). Kayin’s road led him to murder his brother Havel, but murder was not the road itself.

¹² These men are filthy spots at your festive gatherings meant to foster love; they share your meals without a qualm, while caring only for themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; trees without fruit even in autumn, and doubly dead because they have been uprooted; ¹³ savage sea-waves heaving forth their shameful deeds like foam; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Waterless clouds carried along by the winds. Compare Proverbs 25:14, “One who boasts of gifts that he fails to give is like clouds and wind without rain.” In Jewish culture, meals have always been festive gatherings meant to foster love; among Believers in Yeshua, this is seen at Acts 2:42 and 1 Corinthians 11:21.

Prophecy of Judgment

¹⁴ Moreover, Hanokh, in the seventh generation starting with Adam, also prophesied about these men, saying, “Look! Adonai came with his myriads of holy ones ¹⁵ to execute judgment against everyone, that is, to convict all the godless for their godless deeds which they have done in such a godless way, and for all the harsh words these godless sinners have spoken against him.”

Y’hudah quotes 1 Enoch 1:9. 1 Enoch, a compilation of writings by several authors who lived in the last two centuries BCE., is one of the Pseudepigrapha, Jewish books attributed to famous biblical figures, such as Hanoch (Enoch, Genesis 5:18–24), in the seventh generation starting with Adam (Genesis 5:1). Such attribution was not deceptive but either honorific or a means of identifying the message of the actual author with the character and activity of the supposed one; compare the writer of an historical novel or documentary who puts words in the mouth of George Washington.

Y’hudah’s quoting a non-canonical book does not make 1 Enoch inspired Scripture nor disqualify Y’hudah’s letter. Sha’ul quoted pagan authors at Acts 17:28-29 and Titus 1:12, and no one supposes that their works should be included in Holy Writ or that Sha’ul should be excluded.

¹⁶ These people are grumblers and complainers, they follow their evil passions, their mouths speak grandiosities, and they flatter others to gain advantage.

Admonition to be Faithful

¹⁷ But you, dear friends, keep in mind the words spoken in advance by the emissaries of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ¹⁸ They told you, “During the acharit-hayamim there will be scoffers following their own godless passions.”

Most scholars hold that 2 Kefa is an expansion of Y’hudah’s letter. Still, these verses suggest that Y’hudah drew on 2 Kefa, since Y’hudah not only excludes himself from the emissaries of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, but in reciting what they told you, he seems to be quoting 2 Kefa 3:3. A third possibility is that both books partly depend on a common source.

¹⁹ These are the people who cause divisions. They are controlled by their impulses because they don’t have the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and pray in union with the Ruach HaKodesh. ²¹ Thus keep yourselves in God’s love, as you wait for our Lord Yeshua the Messiah to give you the mercy that leads to eternal life.

Y’hudah contrasts “you, dear friends,” genuine Believers, with the ungodly libertines of vv. 4-19, and prescribes four things to do.

Obligations Toward the Erring

²² Rebuke some who are disputing; ²³ save others, snatching them out of the fire; and to yet others, show mercy, but with fear, hating even the clothes stained by their vices.

The Kehilah is called to show mercy to everyone, even its opponents.

Benediction

²⁴ Now, to the one who can keep you from falling and set you without defect and full of joy in the presence of his Sh’khinah— ²⁵ to God alone, our Deliverer, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord— be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. ^[1]

Y’hudah ended his letter with a doxology that reminded Believers of the divine power available to them as they contend against heretics. He praised God for protecting them from falling into the sinful practices of the false teachers and granting them entrance into His glorious presence.

Next, we will begin to explore Yonah (Jonah)

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^[1] Jude 8–25.