If we are honest with ourselves there are verses of the Bible we would rather not dwell on. We would like to move past or jump over difficult passages. Often the verses that describe Gods wrath and judgment are hard to apply to our own hearts. Maybe this is because of our unbelief or weak faith. I think it’s more carnal, that it is due to our own sinful and selfish nature. That we all long to be saved, and verses like these remind us of what we actually deserve more times than not: judgement.

We want to read about the blessings, promises and love of God. If we must discuss Gods wrath we want to think of the events isolated to the “god of the Old Testament”. A historical, vengeful god. We don’t want to think of Jesus this way. We like our Jesus as a peace loving hippy. Not as a destroyer. Of course, there is verse after verses about Jesus peace and and about how we the prince of peace. Maybe we put this other Jesus far in the distant future. We allow for this Jesus of destruction later, at judgement in the end when sin reaches a capacity the world of He himself can no longer bear, or when (again selfishly) enough souls have been saved.

At times of clarity we see how removed we are from a real biblical understanding, and how that impacts our teaching and application.

Every Sunday school kid can recall the story of the Exodus. How God called on Moses and he prophesied wrath and judgement. How God poured out his wrath on Egypt and the Pharaoh. How God saved His people. We won’t remember how or when God destroyed those who didn’t believe, and we won’t want to apply any of this to Jesus. But Jude does.

Jude 5 (NET): 5 Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts once for all) that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude is identifying his brother Jesus with the God who saved Israel from slavery (Exodus 3:6-8). Yet even though Jesus saved the Israelites, Jude also reminds us that most of them were later destroyed (Deut. 1:34-40 & Num. 14:29).

It would be unwise to think the Israelites were saved out of Egypt because of their own efforts, or faith. God saves them from Egyptian tyranny in an act of great mercy. Exodus 3:9 states that God heard their cry and saw what their oppressors were doing. As an important note, God was not in this instance surprised, but rather in covenant favor according to his sovereignty, He “listens and sees” and responds in judgement and mercy accordingly.

God besets judgement on pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. Destruction is rampant and although we likely won’t know the full extent of casualties, we can glean a few clues. Exodus 7:21 depicts “blood everywhere” as the Egyptians suffered from a lack of food (fish) and water. 8:24 describes the land as ruined. 9:6 states all of the Egyptian livestock was killed. 9:25 depicts destruction from hail that killed every human and animal left in the fields. Pharaohs own servants cry out acknowledging Egypt’s destruction (10:7) Even still, no such calamity came like the killing of every firstborn son.

Exodus 11:6 (NET): There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again

Not one is spared.

If you are like me, these are hard truths to swallow. How can an all loving God pour out wrath and judgement like this? Weren’t the animals and slaves that perished innocent of Egypts sin? Did they all have to pay for pharaohs pride? Certainly, the firstborn sons were innocent, or at least the young ones? We don’t understand these difficult truths, but they are still true.

Roman’s 9 frames this thought:

17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Again, we see how inclined we are to have a low view of God and a high view of ourselves.

God could have judged Egypt fiercely for the Pharoahs sin and the people’s cooperation. He was an evil man, and the Egyptians worshiped him and their pantheon of gods! They ruled in physical and spiritual bondage over their captives. No wonder the first law of Moses to Israele would be “have no other God before me”!

Yet still, according to His purposes, some received His mercy. He in fact saved some.

Now as Jude, recalling this testimony doesn’t make mention of Egypts suffering and judgement- he does attribute Israel’s salvation to Jesus. Now fully illuminated by the gift of faith, he has the spiritual eyes to see (not understand) that it was Jesus himself who saved the Israelites. He saved them from their captors. He freed them from spiritual and physical oppression.

That part is nice.

But then He destroyed others for their unbelief, and for their complaints to return to Egypt.

Deuteronomy 1:17-23

So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared: 18‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.” 20“I have pardoned them as you requested,” the LORD replied. 21“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD, 22not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times— 23not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

They were pardoned, but still had to face judgement, and perish in the wilderness. This shouldn’t shock us, even their great leader Moses was dealt the same punishment for his earlier disobedience. Yet again, as Romans 9 puts it “God has mercy on who He wants to have mercy”.

So why does Jude feel it important to remind us of this? Well, like Jude initially, and at times in our lives, we forget or fail to realize that Jesus is…well God. That He alone has the power to save and destroy. That He alone can pardon and punish in a way that is perfectly just, because He was judged for us! The judge already paid the crime, and did so willingly!

Like some of the Israelites, let us not forget our previous captivity. Continue to run from it, do not return to it. Remain obedient to the gospel that we have received! You did not receive salvation because you are worth it.

We should receive judgement, yet we receive salvation because we are for Jesus, we are His!

Don’t try and avoid difficult passages. Get in and dig through them. Learn from them. It will help raise our view of God to His rightful place, and return us to ours. His to a place of worship, and ours to a place of humility. His to be praised, ours to be forever thankful.