The Spirit World
ADDENDUM
An Interesting Suggestion‘’
IN REGARD to one item of “The So-Called Angel World,” I wish to offer a suggestion. Is not Jude, in writing to the Circumcision, recalling events which occurred in the history of Israel and during the wilderness journey, the accounts of which we have in the Old Testament writings? Three historical incidents suggest themselves as the “examples” which Jude had in mind.
First, Jude 5: “Now I am intending to remind you, you who once are aware of all, that the Lord, when saving the people out of the land of Egypt, secondly destroys those who believe not” (C.V.). Here the historical “example ” before Jude’s mind is found in Numbers 13:1-33, in the spies sent into the land of Canaan, who returned with an evil report of the land, which resulted in the death of these people as recorded in Numbers 14:22,23: “Because all those men which have seen My glory and My signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted Me these ten times and have not hearkened to My voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any that despised Me see it.” See also verses 36-38: “And the men which Moses sent to spy out the land . . . even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the Lord, but Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men that went up to spy out the land” (R.V.).
Second, Jude 6: “Besides, the messengers who keep not their own, sovereignty, but leave their own habitation, He has kept in imperceptible bonds under gloom for the judgment of the great day” (C.V.). Does not the historical case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram suggest itself as the most likely “example” before Jude’s mind? The account is found in Numbers 16:1-40. Princes of the congregation, that murmured against Moses and Aaron, leaving their own habitation, desired that habitation (or leadership), which God had given to His chosen men, Moses and Aaron. Numbers 16:1-3: “Now Korah, the son of lzhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown; and they assembled themselves against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, ‘Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them.’” Verses 8-10: “And Moses said unto Korah, ‘Hear now, ye sons of Levi: Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near unto Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them, and that He hath brought thee near, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee, and seek ye the priesthood also?’” Verses 28-40: “And Moses said, ‘Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own mind: If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing, and the ground open her mouth and swallow them up, and all that appertain unto them, and they go down alive into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have despised the Lord.’ And it came to pass as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods: so they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the assembly. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, ‘Lest the earth swallow us up.’ And fire came forth from the Lord, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense. And the Lord spake unto Moses . . . And Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers which they that were burnt had offered, and they beat them out before the Lord, for a covering of the altar, to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to burn incense before the Lord; that he be not as Korah, and as his company, as the Lord spake unto him by the hand of Moses.” (R.V.). Is not this the judgment of the messengers that sinned, in Jude 6?
Third, Jude 7: “As Sodom and Gomorrah (and the cities about them in like manner to these), committing ultra-prostitution, and coming away after other flesh, are lying before us, a specimen, experiencing the justice of eonian fire.” (C.V.) Here the historical “example” before Jude’s mind is found in Genesis 19:24,25: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground.” (R.V.).
Do not these three “examples” given us in Jude’s epistle all point to terrestrial messengers rather than celestial? And is not the similarity in their punishment also an evidence of their terrestrial origin, and destiny?
1. The spies. Death. 2. The messengers. Death by being swallowed up by the earth. “Went down alive into the pit [Tartarus?]” 3. Destruction by fire.Yet all these three examples are represented as being held in imperceptible bonds under gloom for the judgment of the great day.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
A. G. LUMBER
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