First example of Divine vengeance.
Jude then proceeds to give three instances of this sort—the first being that of the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness.
I. THE NECESSITY OF REMINDING SAINTS OF FAMILIAR SCRIPTURE FACTS. "Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, how that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not."
1. Every private Christian ought to be well acquainted with the Scriptures. Jude concedes that those he addressed were so. The Bible is a book for the people as well as for ministers. Knowledge is highly commendable in a Christian (Romans 15:14), as well as goodness.
2. The best of people need to have their pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance; for memory is too often "like the sieve which holds the bran and lets the flour go."
II. THE SAINTS REMINDED OF A FAMOUS DELIVERANCE. "I removed his shoulder from the burden, and his hands were delivered from the pots" (Psalms 81:6).
1. No difficulties could hinder Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
2. Israel went down to Egypt a family, and emerged out of it a nation.
3. This nation curried the destinies of the world in its bosom.
III. THE SAINTS REMINDED OF A GREAT DESTRUCTION. The Lord dealt first in mercy, then afterward in judgment.
1. Destruction overtook the Israelites from plague, fire, serpents, earthquake, sword. The wilderness was strewn besides with the carcasses of all except those of twenty years old and under, who alone were privileged to enter the land of Canaan.
2. This destruction was a disappointment of high hopes as well as a fall from a high position of privilege.
3. Yet it was but partial. The stock of Israel was spared. And the doom was long deferred, so as to give more than a generation of time for repentance.
4. The Lord's judgment in this case proves that punishment cannot be averted by privileges abused.
IV. THE SAINTS REMINDED OF THE CAUSE OF THIS DESTRUCTION. It was unbelief. "They could not enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 4:6).
1. Difficulties soon discover the untrustful heart.
2. Unbelievers forsake their own mercies, and are their own worst enemies.
3. There is no folly like unbelief. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
4. The end of unbelief is utter and absolute destructions.—T.C.