Jude 1:12-13

METAPHORES FROM NATURE THAT ILLUSTRATE APOSTASY

Jude 1:12-13

Text

12.

These are they who are hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without roots;

13.

wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever.

Queries

61.

Jude compares these apostates with five different things from nature. What are they?

62.

What does the King James translation call these hidden rocks?

63.

In what way would a hidden rock in a feast cause trouble? (Imagine a rock in a dish of dried beans).

64.

What is implied by the expression: A shepherd that feeds himself without fear?

65.

What does Proverbs 25:14 compare to a cloud without water?

66.

Can you see any significance in the fact that the clouds are carried along by winds? If so, what?

67.

Why do you think he specifically mentions autumn trees?

68.

In what way are these trees twice dead?

69.

In what way are these apostates twice dead?

The manuscripts seem to differ as to whether the reading is rocks or hidden rocks. In either case, the reading should be rocks rather than the spots of King James.

Shepherds they are called. The word means those who tend the flock. A secondary meaning of feed themselves (shepherds) is to furnish pasture, or nourishment, to one's body; thus to serve the body. This last meaning seems to be in keeping with the textual context, for they feed themselves without fear. They do not look for nor dread any possible correction, expulsion from the brotherhood, nor punishment from God. Absorbed in the satisfaction of their own sensuous desires they have no thought for feeding their souls.

The waterless clouds, that raise men's hopes but are always a disappointment, are also referred to in 2 Peter 2:14; 2 Peter 2:17. They are clouds that blot out the light of God and bring no moisture for growth. Ever visible they are, as well as ever fruitless. Unstable, at the mercy of every wind of false doctrine, they are carried with the tempest. They are strangers to the faithful word, and have no fixed direction in their own course.

While the stars in heaven keep a fixed course in relation to the rotation of the earth, there are planets that appear as stars, but wander off the fixed course. They are not in the same orbit as the other stars, and their relative wanderings appear aimless and unrelated. So are these libertines as they hold not to the faith that had been delivered to the saints once for all. Their lives are a departure from the Christ-like witness that is normal for the Christian. Their witness appears aimless and unrelated to Jesus Christ.

Their sensuous passions are beaten constantly into a filthy, roaring foam. Their shameful deeds (shames) are the only fruits of their agitations. The hidden things of shame (2 Corinthians 4:2) are not renounced by them, but rather from the depths of their rotten lives are the seaweeds and dirt, mire and unclean scum, that are laid bare as the foam of their agitation bursts forth upon the sands of time.

Their destiny is also shown forth by the aimless stars of heaven. With no fixed course but wandering aimlessly about the blackness of space, they have both all expanse and all eternity without any hope of a resting place with God.
Such sensuality among the brethren within the living church of God is not an impossibility. The libertines of that day had their places for feeding the desires of the flesh and promoting sensuality. Today, however, the very home itself has become a spawning area for all kinds of filth. Magazines that contain all kinds and all amounts of sex are often carried, even through the mails, into the home. The television set has become a living fixture in the home that carries death through sensuality as many as twenty or more hours in every day. Spirituality is lost in the sensual desire for the sensuous programs. Wednesday night prayer services, and even the Sunday evening church services have been overwhelmed by the avalanche of fleshly carnality via the TV. Entire churches have dismissed these services, admitting defeat. Time for prayer and devotions within the home is no more. There are too many programs that might be missed. There are too many games to be played and too many parties to be attended. Besides all this, if there were regular devotions within the home, where would one find time to cook, eat, sleep, and cook again? The appetites of the flesh are many, and they cry out as demanding in this day as the day in which the epistle of Jude was written. May God help us to heed the warning.