JUDGMENT REMINDERS (PART 1)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude 1:5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

God brings judgment on those who choose to blatantly sin against Him and others, those who the scriptures would call the ungodly. This is a truth that is very prevalent in the scriptures, showing us that God doesn’t hide His disdain for transgressors and will take action in His own perfect time and in His own perfect way.

As Jude writes to his Christian audience, believers who we can assume were converted from Judaism, we find him embark on a series of judgment reminders, drawing from the history of the Israelite people. We will look at these in a series beginning with today’s message. Let’s take a look at verse 5 of Jude, chapter 1:

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Note here how Jude immediately uses words to let his readers know that he’s not telling them anything new, making it clear that they already are aware of the examples that he will be using, examples that included the exodus of the Israelites people from their Egyptian captivity to the land God had promised them, the land of Canaan.

This rescue of the Israelite people was completely an act of God’s love and goodness. With intent, he appointed Moses to lead them out and then put His unmatched power to work, unleashing ten plagues on the obstinate Pharaoh and his nation, each more severe than the one preceding. Eventually, after the angel of death swept through Egypt and killed all the firstborn, Pharaoh conceded, at least for a moment, and allowed the Israelite people to leave. Then, after the Egyptian leader reconsidered, he and his forces met their demise, eradicated when God brought the walls of the Red Sea crashing down on them. Indeed, He had saved and delivered His people out of Egypt.

Now, you would have thought that after this had happened, the Israelites would have been faithful, humble, obedient servants of their God. But that didn’t happen. For we read in the scriptures about how they grumbled and complained across their forty day trek to Canaan, seemingly never satisfied with what God provided whether it was manna or quail or water. In fact, they even went as far as turning their loyalty and worship towards a golden calf as God was giving His ten commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai. As a result, 3,000 people had their lives taken that day, a part of God’s judgment on them but then we read at the end of Exodus, chapter 32 that the Lord was far from done bringing punishment on the ungodly.

The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of My book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and My angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for Me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. Vv. 33-35

Fast forward then to when the Israelites finally reached the Promised Land. All they had to do was take custody of it, trusting that God would give them the victory. But they heard reports from the scouts who were sent into the land to assess things and made the choice to not enter out of fear over what would happen if they did, like God would lead them there just to kill them.

What happened as a result of their lack of faith?

God sent them back into the wilderness, this time for forty years, one year for each day of their original journey. The end result was an elimination of an entire generation “who did not believe”, a generation who wouldn’t get a second chance to enter Canaan.

Friends, God reveals His nature throughout His Holy Word and today, we are reminded of how He brings judgment on those who choose to be ungodly. Tomorrow, we’ll find Jude drawing from another Old Testament example in the second message of this series.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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