Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Aug 20 2019 - Jeremiah 25:1-27 – Seventy years of captivity

Jeremiah had begun his ministry in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah. At that time the threatening power to the north was that of Assyria. Now, some 23 years later during the reign of Jehoiakim, the even more powerful empire of the Babylonians had defeated the Assyrians and the Egyptians. Babylon, with its king Nebuchadnezzar, was now the threatening power to the north. Over all of these 23 years of his ministry, Jeremiah had warned the people that God would come in judgment upon them for their unfaithfulness, unless they genuinely turned back to the Lord in repentance. But the people had not listened (vv.1-3). So now Jeremiah tells the people:

Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon … and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years." (vv.8-11).

What a terrible message of judgment. But again, beyond judgment there is also a message of hope. After these 70 years of exile God will come to rescue his people. The Lord "will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt… They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands" (vv.12,14). The mighty Babylonian empire will in its turn fall to another power – to that of the Medes and Persians. Then the captive Israelites will begin to return to their own land.

The Lord used Nebuchadnezzar, his unwitting servant, to bring his judgment on the whole of the known world of his day: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.’" (vv.15-16). The following verses list these nations, some of which we cannot identify: Egypt, Uz, Philistia, Edom, Moab, Amon, Tyre and Sidon, Dedan, Tema, Buz, Arabia, Zimri, Elam and Media. The Lord, the God of Israel, is God over all the earth and will bring all nations and people to account.

We know that the whole world is still in rebellion against God to its own hurt and destruction. But Jesus came into this world to redeem and save it. There in the Garden of Gethsemane he faced the torment that lay before him and prayed that, if it were possible, this cup might be taken from him. But, in accordance with the Father's will, he was ready to take "this cup filled with the wine of [a holy God's] wrath" against sin and to drain it on our behalf.

O Christ, what burdens bow’d Thy head! Our load was laid on thee;
Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead, Didst bear all ill for me.
A victim led; Thy blood was shed; Now there’s no load for me.

Death and the curse were in our cup, O Christ, ’twas full for thee!
But thou hast drained the last dark drop – ’Tis empty now for me.
That bitter cup – love drank it up; Now blessings’ draught for me.

Lord Jesus, we cannot fully understand the agonies you bore there at Calvary: not just the physical agonies of crucifixion, but the agony of spirit as you took our sins upon yourself and felt the rejection and wrath of God. Thank you that you fully drained that cup for us and we are now freed from condemnation and embraced by your love. Help us by your Spirit to tell a condemned world of the way in which they too may be reconciled to God.

Aug 20 2020 - Jude – Kept from stumbling

The letter of Jude, like that of 2 Peter, is quite dark. Much of it is devoted to the subject of judgment. But I want to pick up a couple of bright notes from this letter; one from the beginning of the letter and the other from the end.

Jude begins by addressing his letter, "To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:1). Christians are the possession of the Triune God: The Father has loved us and planned our salvation; the Son gave himself to make us his possession and will not let us go; the Spirit has drawn us to Jesus Christ and continues to call us on in following him. We are blessed beyond measure; mercy, peace and love are ours in abundance (1:2). It is good to have this lovely picture of all that God had done and is doing for us before the dark portrait of judgment that is reserved for those who turn back from following Christ.

Against the background of that dark portrait, Jude exhorts his readers to keep themselves in the love of God by building themselves up in faith and through prayer empowered by the Holy Spirit (1:20-21). We need constantly to encourage and pray for one another that we will go on following Christ. But will we manage to keep ourselves?

Jude provides great encouragement in the doxology with which he closes the letter. God calls us to be serious and consistent in our discipleship, but he also promises that he is the one who has the power to keep us. Our triune God has planned and accomplished our salvation. Christ who died for us is now risen for us and has gone to glory to prepare a place for us. Having laid hold of us by his grace, he will never let us go.

We are called to keep ourselves in God’s love, not in the sense that we can stray beyond the reach of God’s love, but rather that we are to live in and from the knowledge of his great love for us. We are to live as secure and much loved children, revelling in all that he has done for us and seeking to discover more of the riches of his grace. We are to live in conscious dependence upon him – a life marked by prayer prompted by the Spirit within us through whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ This is how we build ourselves up in the holy faith once for all entrusted to God’s Holy people. This is how we build ourselves up in Christ and resist the enticements of the evil one who would seek to draw us away from him.

Paradoxically, we keep ourselves in the love of God in the recognition that we have no power in ourselves, the power is to be found entirely in him. It's not about us, it's all about him.

Father God, we thank you for your great love for us, set upon us before the world began. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you loved us so much that you left your place in glory to come into this world to save us. We thank you that you have made us your own through your death for us and have given us life through your resurrection from the dead. We thank you for the gift of your Spirit, assuring us that we are much loved children and giving us the desire and the power to go on following you. We praise you, our Triune God, using the words with which Jude concludes his letter; "To him who is able to keep [us] from stumbling and to present [us] before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore! Amen" (1:24-25).

Aug 20 2020 - Introduction to Jude

Jude is a true letter in form: it begins with the traditional opening formulae and was evidently written to a specific group of people and to deal with specific circumstances. The body of the work, however, is in the form of a lose exposition based on a series of scriptural references and texts. Richard Bauckham characterises it as an 'epistolary sermon,' i.e. a sermon that Jude would have preached to those he addresses but which, due to them being at a distance, he sends in the form of a letter.  

It consists of: the opening address of the letter (vv 1-2); a statement of its theme (vv 3-4); the exposition showing that the false teachers are people whose behaviour is condemned and whose judgment is prophesied in OT types and in prophecy from the time of Enoch to that of the apostles (vv 5-19); the appeal, though far shorter than the preceding midrash, forms the main part of the message (vv 20-23).

The letter is a careful composition written in a lively and vigorous style. Bauckham comments, "Despite his competence in Greek, the author's real intellectual background is the literature of Palestinian Judaism." Not only is he familiar with the Hebrew Old Testament, he also knew and used at least two apocryphal writings, the Assumption of Moses and the Book of Enoch. Jude uses such material where it is useful to his argument.

Jude's Opponents

Jude clearly wrote to deal with an outbreak of false teaching (see vv. 3,4). Itinerant teachers, claiming special spiritual insight, seem recently to have arrived in the church(es) to which Jude writes. They reject all moral authority: "Evidently they understand the grace of God in Christ (v 4) as a deliverance from all external moral constraint, so that the man who possesses the Spirit (v 19) becomes the only judge of his own actions (cf. v 9), subject to no other authority" (Bauckham). They seem to have indulged in immoral behaviour, especially sexual misconduct (vv 6-8, 10), maybe claiming the authority of their own visions for the way they behaved (v 8). Their real motive was greed for they looked for material support from their disciples (vv 11-12).

Date and Authorship

Clement of Alexandria stated that the letter was written by Jude, the brother of James who was leader of the church in Jerusalem and also the Lord's brother (on James, cf. Jas 1:1; Gal 1:19; 2:9; 1 Cor 15:7). Jude is therefore one of the brothers of Jesus, the third named in Mark 6:3, the fourth in Matthew 13:55. Michael Green comments, "Otherwise we know nothing about this Jude."

Bauckham similarly concludes, "The general character of the letter, its Jewishness, its debt to Palestinian Jewish literature and haggadic tradition, its apocalyptic perspective and exegetical methods, its concern for ethical practice more than for doctrinal belief, are all entirely consistent with authorship by Jude the brother of Jesus." He thinks Jude may have been written as late as 90 AD to predominantly Jewish church(es) situated in a Gentile society – perhaps Syria or Egypt.

For the literary relationship between 2 Peter and Jude see the introductory notes to 2 Peter.

Peter Misselbrook